Jagex Games Studio is to host a 24-hour long marathon in support of the games charity SpecialEffect’s inaugural GameBlast weekend. The challenge, to be held at Jagex’s Cambridge headquarters, will take place from 1pm GMT [8am ET] on Friday, February 21st and will see staff and selected members of the RuneScape community play RuneScape and Ace of Spades throughout the 24-hour period. The event will also be live-streamed throughout via the official RuneScape and Ace of Spades twitch.tv channels, which will also include interviews with the RuneScape development team.

As the dawn rises on another new year, RuneScape celebrates its 13th birthday! Not one to rest of their laurels, the developers have already turned their attentions to the year ahead with this video.

Outlining their plans for the future, the video details how RuneScape will give power to its players in 2014 like never before by allowing them to fully decide on what content they will develop and when. Starting in mid-January with the launch of a new in-game voting system, players will first decide on whether they want the new Invention skill or a new Elf City.

Late last week, Jagex has introduced a new form of currency in RuneScape called Bonds. Similar to PLEX in EVE Online, Bonds allow players to extend their membership by spending in-game currency. Members can redeem bonds for either (a) 14 days of membership, (b) 160 RuneCoins or (c) eight spins on the Squeal of Fortune. Bonds are currently going for about 6 to 7 million gold from other players, or $5 directly from Jagex.

RuneScape's month of challenges continue this weekend in their exciting Super September event. Go schmooze, do some soul searching, or much more as you work toward earning bonus XP (x2 XP or x1.25 XP for Dungeoneering) and milestone rewards. The first reward is available for those that have completed a mere five daily challenges!

Each super challenge is only available on its given day and cannot be made up later. The event is only available to members, so make sure you subscribe if you haven't yet.

Super September concludes on Monday, September 30th at 23:59 GMT. Remember to login every day to prove your mettle!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor

Follow me on Twitter: @Cyliena

Things are about to get dicey for the dwellers of Gielinor.

It was only last month that RuneScape 3 launched and Jagex has wasted no time in adding new content. As of today, players of every level can participate in the major quest The Death of Chivalry—high level players need not worry, the quest scales so it won't be a cakewalk.

It still feels like yesterday that I was playing RuneScape Classic (actually it was!), the younger days when I had time to sink into skilling. RuneScape is all grown up now though, with a big 3 next to its name.

Don't let that you fool you, this fella is nearly in his teenage years at 12 years old, a big boy now. That's right, the RuneScape 3 beta has ended and Jagex has rolled out the new version, with improved graphics and interface! 

One of the things that most players probably remember from Runescape is the range of catchy midi songs that the game featured. Now, in Runescape 3, players can look forward to hearing all of their favourite tunes and more reimagined and remastered. Mod Lord explains that the audio team are using new technology to vastly improve the quality of their music.  They're also adding dedicated servers to deliver CD-quality music.

I was quite late getting into this whole MMORPG thing. RuneScape was one of the first games I got really, really addicted to and certainly the first MMORPG I loved. Despite not playing it for many years now I keep a loving eye on it, fondly remembering the good times. With the increasing capabilities of browser technology Jagex has constantly been reitterating the graphics engine of RuneScape to a point where you'd be hard-pressed to tell somebody it was the same game 10 years ago. It is now that Jagex has announced the next evolution with Runescape 3 set for Summer 2013. 

RuneScape is old. Like, super old. There are alt.binaries sites that are younger than RuneScape. But some people who are hardcore for it still prefer that old school 2007-era gameplay rather than the upgraded one we have today. 440,000, specifically.

Almost half a million players jumped to the site to vote to instate old school servers for RS, and the voting was clear - Jagex will keep the servers up, keep basic server maintenance, there will be no additional subscription required for the first 6 months of the server's use, and a slew of new anti-cheating and anti-bot tools will be added. And as players request it, features will be added or deleted.

If you want to play Old School Runescape, it's live and running. Best of luck to you all.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Are you ready to watch Jagex developers stand up in front of a cheap boat-like cardboard setup and sing pirate songs? Well too bad, cause you get it anyway! To celebrate the newly launched player-owned ports in Runescape, they have released this little tune. It isn't an Irish Drinking Song, but it'll do nicely. 

The new player-owned ports brings more content in the Eastern Lands too. And because of your new port, players will undoubtedly turn it from a silly little dilapidated harbor to a bustling commercial hot zone. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams