Something you don't see everyday, two teens get 360 hours of community service for theft of Runescape itamz (sorry). Eurogamer have the story.

The 15 and 14-year-old culprits forced a 13-year-old boy into a transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" to their accounts in RuneScape.

The Yahoo report is light on detail, but we understand from our friends at Eurogamer.nl, who read about it in the paper this morning, that the errant teens beat up and kicked the victim, and threatened him with a knife.

Julian Murdoch previews the, in beta, graphic update for RS.

In updating the engine, the challenge for Jagex was to keep the game as accessible as possible. Despite the "HD" moniker, the system specifications are still so ridiculously minimal that most cell phones could hit the mark. Think specs like "1.5GHz processor or higher", or "256MB RAM or more", or a GeForce3 level (and higher, of course) graphics card with just 64MB of RAM. Modern computers are on Java 6, while Runescape merely requires Java 1.4.

While these specifications might seem laughably low, they ensure that the game can be run on the aging Windows 98 machines that have been sitting in school libraries since the turn of the century, devoid of driver updates, or even Java upgrades. While the client uses OpenGL to drive the new graphics, the code is just Java, and takes less than 10 seconds to load on a fast connection. Considering these specifications, the engine itself is surprisingly pretty. The most notable changes are the use of real, discernable textures for all surfaces and a rudimentary lighting model which brings dynamic shadows to the game for the first time. All of the changes are subtle but positive -- a flag that now looks like cloth waves in the breeze, casting a hazy shadow on water which now actually looks like water, and ripples with transparency. It's not Age of Conan, but to be blunt, it's not half-bad either.

Develop take a look at the commercial success of RS: Jagex - a 'poster boy' for a world without publishers?

The article, written by analyst Nick Gibson adds: "As an online games business, Jagex’s business model is very dissimilar to traditional computer and video games developers.

Its principal business partners are not games publishers but hosting and bandwidth companies, payment service providers, advertisers and distribution companies. Jagex operates with the sort of creative and commercial autonomy that most other developers could only dream of. It remains one of the quietest and least publicised developers in the UK (a stance taken deliberately by its management team).

"In addition to being one of the most profitable, Jagex is also the UK’s largest independent developer by staff level, and one of the biggest employers. Its commercial model should make it a poster boy for the disintermediation of publishers and the ‘direct to consumer’ distribution channel in which so many developers place their hopes."

Read the full profile here.

Jagex's popular MMO to get graphical rework within a few months.

In last week's Image of the Future newspost, we revealed our secret plan for RuneScape: a complete graphical rework. We were sneaky and held back a little information, however: namely, when you can expect these updates.

Drum-roll, please... You will have access to all of these updates within a couple of months! There really isn't much time to wait. If you can't wait for more details on the update, a new Development Diary is coming later this month.

We plan to keep improving RuneScape's graphics in the future, so we would encourage you to 'Send us your Specs', if you have not already.

Finally, we can reveal another image of the future...

Gamasutra talks to Andrew Gower about RuneScape and the recent announcement that its subscriber base has surpassed 1 million.

What do you feel has been the biggest differentiating factor behind RuneScape's popularity in making it to the one million subscriber milestone?

AG: I think one of the biggest things is the game's continual updates. We're constantly adding to the game, bringing new stuff in and improving it. It's interesting, but with each addition, we see surges of growth.

We saw a huge surge with our recent addition of player houses, and again with our recent graphics update. The fact that we keep updating it, adding more to the experience, I think is key. Plus, people like having things to look forward to.

readingeagle.com has just published a short article about RuneScape by Nick Wingfield of The Wallstreet Journal. The article centers on the game's considerable popularity and financial success, despite its simplicity and being free to play.

RuneScape isn’t the most sophisticated or original online game, and its graphics pale in comparison with those in better-known titles like Vivendi Universal SA’s World of Warcraft.

But because the game is free and easy to download, it has become a big hit, especially among teenagers, for whom the game is something like a three-dimensional version of the social-networking Web site MySpace.com. This week, for example, “RuneScape” is the fourth most searched-for term on the Lycos search engine, after “poker,” “Pamela Anderson” and “Paris Hilton.”

A new gameplay element to RuneScape has been added called Treasure Trails which involves gathering clues to find treasures in the form of new items:

 RuneScape players, dust off your spades, gather up your items and practice your emotes: new treasure trails are here! Emote-based treasure trails have been added to the types of trail available by the shifty-looking Uri and his team of agents. These will be dropped from now on amongst the existing clues you have grown to know and love. Uri's clues will tell you where to go, what to wear and which emote he wants to see you perform in order to advance the treasure trail.

If you're lucky, your reward may include some of the new items, such as elegant clothing, new versions of old amulets, shirts featuring Bob the cat, full helmets bearing the heraldry that adorns the kiteshields already available and composite bows. The luckiest players will be given items from the 3rd Age sets, which cover all combat styles and consist of level 65 armors whose stats justify the rarity of their appearance.

This week sees the release of our biggest and most anticipated update this year: player-owned houses. No longer must RuneScape members wander the world endlessly, never being able to sit down or have a place to call their own. Members can build their houses and make furniture using the new Construction skill. Start by building a cottage with a few chairs around a fire, and add rooms and gain levels until you have your own palace. Some pieces of furniture will unlock new abilities, magic spell tablets, and even chairs you can sit down in.

This incredible update features over 20 rooms, 330 pieces of furniture, 11 new NPCs, 12 dungeon monsters, craftable toys, new armour and shields, trophy rooms, tool racks, different architectural styles, butlers and a whole host of new games to play with your house guests!