Runescape skills and their applicability to real life

To start off, I just checked the skills present in Runescape, having unconsciously drifted away from the game for quite some time. As it turns out, the f2p (free to play) world has recently gotten access to p2p (pay to play, aka members) skills up to level 5. This isn't a very significant level, but it is a significant step in the expansion of f2p, since updates to the f2p world are as rare as my blog posts. It turns out there are 25 skills, namely *draws deep breath* Attack, Defence, Strength, Constitution, Ranged, Prayer, Magic, Cooking, Woodcutting, Fletching, Fishing, Firemaking, Crafting, Smithing, Mining, Hebrlore, Agility, Thieving, Slayer, Farming, Runecrafting, Hunter, Construction, Summoning and Dungeoneering.

That's a lot to process.

Firstly, I will begin with a few observations on those skills which will eventually save me time.

Observation 1: Dungeoneering and slayer are very forced skills, i.e. skills for the sake of having more skills.

Observation 2: There are a few almost exclusively combat skills, which can be lumped together to save discussion. These are Attack, Defence, Strength, Constitution and Ranged (as well as the combative part of Magic, but hey, Magic is a dual-purpose beast).

Observation 3: Runecrafting is... specific. Let's disregard this for the sake of a glimmer of hope at conciseness.

So we shall begin with the resource gathering skill. Ah... still uncomfortably many: woodcutting, fishing, mining. Out of these, woodcutting and mining are ridiculously industrialised, and are unlikely to be useful unless you happen to work in one of aforementioned industries. Fishing, on the other hand, is an incredibly useful skill, as I have found out personally. It is one of the most effective ways of countering boredom I know, boasting one of the highest used time to productivity ratio. And unlike staring at chess puzzles, people actually pretend to understand why you're doing it.

Next up, resource processing, the monstrous group of skills. This includes: Cooking, Fletching, Crafting, Smithing, Herblore and Construction. We shall do this in a list form, as any prose will result in an unwieldy paragraph that I have learned to shun.

Cooking: One of the useful skills in life, with applications starting from preparing instant noodles, which can save precious seconds and snag you the unbuyable you never wanted! (See: Neopets restocking) This obviously extends to more complex procedures such as barbeques when you happen to be stranded in a forest! (This has been happening surprisingly often to me; sadly I have yet to acquire such mighty levels of this skill)

Fletching: Another important form of entertainment in abovementioned stranded-in-forest situation. Note: Suitable arrows may actually be tougher to find, would do good to prepare those before getting stranded.

Crafting: The rings I know best are tend to exhibit resonance. I shall pass upon detailed discussion.

Smithing: Despite the apparently relation to fletching, smithing is not a viable option due to the disappointing lack of workable metals in forests. Tools may also be disgustingly unimprovisable.

Herblore: Definitely a useful skill, from forest survival to staying awake mugging the dynamics of Neopets using the power of ginseng (anecdotally proven to work).

Construction: Useful insofar as it relates to making a DIY computer. Speaking of which, it might be time to borrow skills from certain friends to improve on this artefact of a computer (a.k.a. mine). Further uses of this include the design of fantastic physical contraptions to do work such as strategically hold down a specific key on your keyboard for various sneaky purposes ranging from games such as Anti-Idle: The Game to Guitar Hero III (TTFAF intro anyone?)

Next up: combat. As somebody who is low in attack, strength and defence (and ranged too, unless it's badminton), I must say I do prefer agility.

This leaves a mere handful of skills that I have left out, probably by accident: Firemaking, Thieving, Farming, Summoning and Prayer, and last but not least, Magic.

Firemaking: This blog does not advocate arson.

Thieving: This blog does not advocate theft of any physical sort, but *borrowing* puzzles, ideas and questions are always encouraged. After all, information is a public good, defined as one which is non-rivalrous and (to a large extent) non-excludable.

Summoning and Prayer: Prayer can be useful in a wide variety of situations, ranging from international chess to chinese chess to shogi to RJT chess to even unexpected niches such as reversi, Go, Connect Five, Transfer Chess and even crazy things like double board RJT chess! (Do try: you'd probably be too befuddled to regret it!). Also, in a last-ditch attempt to make this post remotely relevant, we shall offer a last-minute prayer and invoke the spirit of U+3374 to offer us insights on the uses of magic.

Magic: Coming next^x *next* Thursday, where 1<=x<=3 is a positive integer.