The Difference Between Goals and Dreams

One thing I was surprised by was that people on my Friends list I rarely talked to were coming back with wishes for me to stay. I thought there'd be more of a "Okay, good luck out there." than a, "Why? Stay!" thing going on with people I don't speak to.

One that I paid more attention to was a response after I told them I'd achieved all of my dreams, "Just make new ones!"

That's mistaking a goal and a dream. Most of it is up to interpretation, but here's my gist:

Goals dominate.

Goals take up your time and effort. Making that last million to the stupidly overpriced Amulet of Fury. Making the last 12 million to the stupidly overpriced Amulet of Fury. 99 Cooking. 99 Runecrafing. Get it done, cheer, enjoy your reward and move onto the next. That's what goals are all about. If I want a new whip. Or a minigame reward because I need to make myself better, or look cooler. It's a goal. We set them every day. I remember when there was a Goals system in RuneScape just for that. Set a goal to complete a quest, or attain a level and it counted up progress in a percentage. We still have Set Exp Target and Set Level Target for that.

That's a goal. There's nothing wrong with goals. They keep us active.

Now, despite all of that jabber about working hard for your dreams and your dreams taking endless toil, I don't think it's true. I think dreams are a polar opposite of goals.


Dreams annoy.

That's the word. They piss you off about not getting something done. Dreams are always down the line and you inch closer every single day of your life. When you push it front and centre and turn it into your Next Big Thing, it becomes a goal.

Dreams are the things that sit there and slowly crawl toward an end. These happen most often in the beginning. I'd dreamed of a Godsword at one point. I dreamed of 10 million coins. I dreamed of a Third-age armour piece. My goal at the time was money and I fished for it. Then I turned 99 Fishing into a goal and made money on the side, but whenever someone passed me wielding my dreams, I'd do a mental tally of how much longer it would take to get me there and I'd realised it'd be a while and put it aside.

I achieved them all eventually and I was damned happy about it, too. Dreams have more sentimental value that way. Thinking of getting a nice house is not a dream. Sitting down and realising you have a nice house one day and remembering the moments leading up to it is achieving the dream. You'll see your achieved dreams in reflection when it's over. If you cheer in the moments leading up to it and the moment without looking back.

"Shit, that was a lot of work." is a goal.

"Wasn't I thinking of doing that thing 2 years ago? I finally got it down yesterday." is a dream fulfilled.

What I'm trying to say is, all of this is a load of sentimental, subjective bullshit. Goals can become dreams. When I was working my ass off for a whip, it was a goal. When I got that whip and looked back on how envious I was of people with whips back when I when I was a freeplayer, it became dream. The last couple of days have been extra dreamy!

Sure, I sold a lot of them, just to fulfill more. I got my Opulent table, Marble burners and altar in the chapel, full portal room, 7 or so pets. Owned Godswords, God Wars armour, whips, have fought with melee, range and mage at some point. Got ancients. At some point, I was always envious of people who had those things and I've passed them. I'm at Third-age (it's once piece, sure, but how many are there?), Armadyl armour. I strut around in 85 million gear and at one point, I was worth 110.

I earned it all.

That's why I'm retiring. I'm not quitting. When people quit, they do it because they're pissed. Tired of losing, tired of difficulties, challenges, gameplay. That's quitting. I'm retiring. I'm gonna leave this game happy and fulfilled.

The differences between goals and dreams are very, very few and those that exist are clear as South Africa's rivers.

The difference between quitting and retiring is much, much simpler.

Regards, IVIilitarus

RuneScape is Good

Playing RuneScape extremely hard for the last few days has shown me something that reading blogs or popping in once a week can never show me;

RuneScape is slightly better than when I left it.

Ambient sounds are my favourite effect. I always play with sound on. Some of the updates have been great. I see a bright future ahead of RuneScape, a tarnished one, but still bright.

I've gained far more levels than I expected. Originally, I would have thought it good to get a 1900 total.

I am now at 1912.

70 Crafting and 70 Herblore were done in half the time I thought they'd take. 70 Smithing took 2 days out of an expected 4. I took to Soul Wars and dominated the matches to obtain 4 levels of Magic in, incredibly, a single evening.



The beginning of this post mentions a bright, but tarnished future for RuneScape. Here's why:

In my previous post, I mentioned I sold my Godsword. Nothing special there. I found a way to spend that money I got, too. I split it between 3 of my best friends I've ever met on RuneScape. 2 million per person.

It was meaningful to me, because a Godsword was for a long time, a distant dream of mine. I have nothing against the fact that I paid 20 million for it and only got 6 million in return. That's fine. It was a dream, not an investment. And when I gave my friends the money, I didn't give money to them. One had 70+ in every skill. The other was a level 130 something on the way to 99 Herblore. The other marched around every day in Armadyl armour.



It wasn't charity, it was a sentiment. In essence, I had given them each a small part of my dreams and they were grateful. All of them asked if I was sure I wanted to do this. I hit 'Accept Trade' first every time and they waited to make sure it was okay. They're far better people than me, all of them, in that regard. 2 of them promised to, "never spend your dreams". I nudged them on. Told them to buy something in case of an emergency, or blow it off on a friend.

That's a pretty nice story, if you ask me.

Thing is, I'm typing this post in between waiting for my Fruit Bat's Special Move bar to recharge so I can use Fruitfall. Papayas = money.

Why would I need money anymore? I have a Third-age full helmet. I have Armadyl clothing. I got my Staff of Light and still have over 8 million to spare. It's like parking a Bugatti in front of a soup kitchen and telling the worker there you haven't eaten for 2 days.



It's because I have a dream. I have one last dream to fulfill before I can retire happily.



I don't have enough time.

I bought a Third-age helm, an Armadyl Chestplate. I have everything except one item to complete my final outfit. I need an Armadyl Chainskirt. Not cheap at 14 million, but considering the numbers I've been dropping in the last couple of days, it's pocket change. Problem is, after I gave my Godsword returns away, I only had 6 million left. I sold as much as possible and it's now up to 5.5 million. I have a week left before I consider RuneScape over. I doubt I can pull it off.

And that's why today, I feel like the worst person in the world when I asked the first of those friends to return 2 million. The other 2 aren't online. It's a sick metaphor. They've helped reach my dreams and I gave them a share of those dreams. Now I have to ask for it back, to achieve one final dream.



I'm up to 7.5 million, now. I can ask one more for 9.5, another for 11.5. The rest I'll do myself. I'm closing in, now. The papayas help.

Worst part is, if the damage to RuneScape's future had been stopped, I wouldn't be in this mess. I'd be well on my way to a happy retirement by now. Normally, I'd catch Rocktails for money. Fishing got me where I am today. Before sudden deflation, I was worth over 110 million at a certain point. It's dropped to little above 75, but it's a lot and fishing got me there. The problem is, 25 Rocktails into my planned 3500, I did a price check out of curiosity. Just to see if I would be pulling in 50k or 45k per 25 fish.

It turns out, it was closer to 35k.

I pay attention. Since playing more, I've seen the complaints about the Botstorm (I'm coining that phrase, bitch) that's overtaken RuneScape after free trade returns. I've seen them, too. Most of the time, I see players going, "Anyone who's not a botter wanna chat?" at resource areas. The bots are just water in a lake, now. They're part of life. In the strictest terms, they're not a problem for us. We don't starve. Sure, prices drop a bit, but we can just take the extra week or two to get our next partyhat.

I don't have an extra week or two.

Rocktails managed to drop over %25 in the time since Free Trade returned. There are so many bots out there, that they managed to push the price of a vital commodity down by 25% when it was once stable. Imagine if your fuel prices dropped %25 in the span of 5 months and continued dropping from there because of oversupply. Imagine how much more supply it must take.

And that's why I'm taking my chances with papayas, rather than go back to the caves for Rocktail. It might not be worth it. One of the best foods in RuneScape, that takes over 95 in a skill to catch, catches at less than 200 per hour and is situated in a cave of level 120 monsters isn't even worth catching anymore.

Fruit bat's gone. 180k in 45 minutes. Very, very slightly ahead of 170k in an hour at Rocktails.

One final dream.

I've been wearing my helmet non-stop. I deserve the ego-boost; the break. I'm effectively retired. I can walk around and show off. I've been drawing a lot of beggars, too. They can't be bothered to make money, but they can identify valuable equipment in a large crowd. One even came up to me and asked me for 100k in a Soul Wars match.

My response is the same, "Go work your ass off like I did. Maybe you'll get money that way."

I'm going to work my ass off, like I used to. Maybe I'll get money that way.

Years of work have culminated in this last week.

Botters are ruining it.

Shower.

Sleep.

Thought.

Regards, IVIilitarus

It Ends Here

That is cool.

Too bad I won't be around to see it.

I've got my last month of membership lined up. I'll last just long enough to test out Clan Citadels, maybe. The plan is to get the 1900 total (more), 70 Herblore and 70 Crafting. Both are already at 67 and I've brought the materials for the rest. Sold the Dragon Claws and Godsword. Will use the money somehow, eventually.

The only thing I really have to do before membership ends is Eagle's Peak and Observatory. Both were quests I started on the first day of my RuneScape membership and despite their ease, I've completed neither. It's a strange feeling, that I'll be doing the same thing on my last day as I did on my first day years ago.

It's been a good run, but there's just nothing left on RuneScape for me.

Regards, IVIilitarus

New Tag

It reads 'Jagex Rocks'.

Don't expect a lotta posts with that tag.

Saw the behind the scenes for July. Saw the Clan Citadel. I'm going to get one last month of membership on RuneScape. It died for a bit, but I'll come back to change my name back, check out the Citadels, build our own, get that 1900 Total and leave RuneScape. Forever. The 'About Me' column in my blog says I'm a bitter RuneScape veteran, and that implies I'm also retired, so I need to retire.


Also fun, I got some screenshots of a very, very productive strategy meeting between myself and another Combine member, we were planning out the Reform and rank structure, mostly.



Well, I think it was productive.

Regards, IVIilitarus