After an honorable mention by Jagex on its official Twitter page, my Wavingg campaign has accumulated a noteworthy following. As of yet, nobody has labeled it a "horribly stupid, idiotic, and time-wasting activity". However, the count remains zero only if one does not consider the verbal attacks received in-game.
Two days ago after posting my first blog, I logged back into RuneScape in order to wave a bit more. I walked away from my original post by the dwarven mine and traveled east to the village of barbarians and makeshift households.
When picking a location to wave at, I do not merely consider the foot traffic. I stand in such a way that traffic usually moves in front of me on a compressed path. The eastern border of Barbarian Village features a tight covered bridge that forces traffic onto it. By standing adjacent to the bridge, I am confident that as long as the passerby is paying attention to their surroundings that I will be seen.
Why is it important to be seen? Well, it would be pointless only to wave to air and shrubbery. However, at a later date, I may position myself in unusual locations. In such a case, a passerby would undoubtedly be confused as to why there is a purple-clad individual waving at them.
Standing near the bridge, I waved for about forty-five minutes. Only a single person waved back to me in that duration, which stabbed my esteem and motivation concerning this project. However, that one individual stuck around for a while. He stood across the path from me and quietly waved in a continuous fashion à la me. The second image above depicts the two of us. . . well. . . waving.I logged into World 1 today and ventured back to my initial location: north of Falador, south of the Dwarven Mine.
Today's report is the following:
- Within minutes of arriving at my spot, an experienced and armored adventurer strode up to me and waved back. My first 'waver' of the day! Then he said, "Hi, Steve." My mind instantly raced to figure out if I knew the individual who was addressing me. It did not. The next logical step was taken in the critical thinking process: credit card fraud. No, no. I'm joking. I didn't even sign up for a credit card yet. The next thing that came to mind was, "Twitter recognition!". . . and I was correct. Mithril Tide (Fork1 on Twitter) joined me for the rest of the Wavingg session. He stated that he found me easily, but I bet that if I were to stay in Barbarian Village that I would have foiled him!
- The two of us were called (please excuse the word choice I am about to use; I do not promote it whatsoever) "fags".
- Two individuals at separate times walked past us, stopped, and then came over and stood on either Mithril Tide or me. Without a word, they would walk away about thirty seconds to a minute later. We joked that standing on people must be a new greeting.
- Another fellow approached us and stated, or if I were to be a bit more accurate, exclaimed, "!". Then he walked away.
- Yet another fellow approached us, said random gibberish, and walked away. Maybe it was code. If anybody can decipher the following, I'll give them my rune ax: $dgjaksgadks
- We were called "noobs" and "sad noobs".
- Another individual, wearing full runite armor but with a H5 helmet, had to prove to Mithril Tide that it was in fact an H5 helmet after incorrectly complimenting his 'H3 helm' by showing it to him in the trade window. Mithril Tide commented that he believed that it was an H5 and that proof was unnecessary.
- While on the subject of having to prove things that were believed anyway, another individual approached us and said to me, "I have a level 101, too!" I complimented him, and he logged off. A few minutes later, a level 101 strolls over to us. He exclaims, "See! I told you!" I then stated that I believed him originally and that, yet again, proof was unnecessary.
- One girl ran up to us, did a dramatic point, and ran away.
- Three individuals at separate times thought that we were filming a YouTube video. They ran back and forth yelling, "Hi, YouTube!"
- A black knight waved at us (another 'waver'!), shrugged, and ran back and forth across the path multiple times before disappearing down it.
- "I'm better than you all!" shouts one.
- Here's a strange encounter that made me run for my tinfoil hat. A fellow approached us and said, "I'm making you guys wave." I doubted him, but then I realized that I could not stop waving! Eventually he left, and I was able to take a temporary break until a batch of peasants came by.
- Two 'trains' passed us. They were too into beach parties to take note of us.
- "wtf????????" asked one confused passerby. At this time, there were more members of the Wavingg group than just Mithril Tide and me. I would like to make the note that everybody besides Mithril Tide was unaware of the Wavingg campaign, and merely joined us to wave and do other actions. This individual said that we were scaring him. Mithril Tide joked that we were getting full runite armor for doing this, but he quickly told the now-excited chum that it was merely a joke.
- I got a 5212 gold piece donation! I'm not going to state from who, though.
- Counting all of us, we had a max of six individuals in the group at one time (as shown in the first image above). Sometimes these fellows would leave, walk by at a later time, and stop for a few seconds in order to say hello. In groups this large, we had a lot of casual conversations.
At the end of the day, I have concluded:
- When there's two people or more waving instead of one, it draws more attention.
- People are more liable to do actions other than waving. Mithril Tide and I persistently wave while others dance, bang their heads against stone walls, and pretend that they're mimes, zombies, and snowmen.
- There's more negative reactions than positive reactions. Most do not merely wave back (be a 'waver') or say 'hello', they must interrogate us as to why we are waving and what entity could be possessing us to do so.
- Waving must mean that we are taking a screen capture and uploading it to YouTube. Of course. Why else would we be waving? Maybe we're just trying to be friendly? No, of course not. That's silly.
- In the end, more than half of the people who walk by blatantly ignore us.
Unfortunately for this project, I am not going to be able to proceed with it for a few days. I have to volunteer, spend the weekend with my girlfriend since she's home from college, and then, starting this coming Monday, I begin my spring semester of college. With classes such as Italian II, Computer Science II, ethics, and Calculus I, I'm not going to have much time at all.
However, if you want to do some Wavingg yourself, then just take a break from your busy schedule, go to a populated area in-game, and wave at everybody! If you want to report reactions like I do, please do so and send them to me or comment here. Even though I won't be on the game, I'll still be online (and highly distracted from my studies) and can feature your reports with its own blog post. Or if you already have a blog, post on it and I'll affiliate with you or link to it.
The mission is simple: just wave. Hopefully we can encourage people to smile in reality and wave back in-game besides verbally abusing us and asking us why we're acting so strange and being friendly. The RuneScape community is known for being hostile and aggressive. Maybe a little Wavingg can begin to put a dent in turning that around.
Have a good one!
