XP weekend around the corner

And in all honesty I truly don't know what to expect. Well, I do expect a few things; apart from the odd level or two, for Simple, Gwala will try to reach somewhere around herblore 45. But that is not exactly why I am somewhat bothered by the whole thing.

You see, I think there will be loads of trouble. I haven't read anything about how Jagex is going to cope with the influx of players. Think about it for a moment: There are 84 member worlds and each hold at maximum 2000 players. Now we calculate, 84 times 2000 equals 168,400, and so a maximum of about 168k players can be on-line for the duration of the weekend. Sure, not all will no-life for the total period, but there will be players around who will do their best to maximize their investment in prepared items. And rightly so, it is after all the sole reason for the xp weekend: Try to get your levels up as fast as you can. So we prepared.

Gwala got her grubby hands on enough tarromin, viles and ashes to get that 45 herb. Simple only prepared by planting as many trees as possible and enough d-bones to ecto her to the next prayer level (even if double xp doesn't work with the ectofunctus enough bonemeals/buckets of slime are around to get it), and enough "unf potions" to get one herb level. For the rest I will just play as I always do: For the fun of it, not focussing on anything else but on 'am I having a good time'.

But I cannot help but wonder if I will have the opportunity to play. Will I or won't I be squeezed out by those who really prepared... Those who invested millions upon millions to get to 99 summoning or prayer, or herblore, or crafting or any other of the skills we have. 168,400 players at maximum... will it be enough? Or will there be a lot of disgruntled players after this weekend because they couldn't get enough playing time in to reach their goals.

One more thing that worries me: Lag. With that number of players around it stands to reason the amount of data sent all over the world could result in Lag... Ah well, we will see...

Good luck to all who really prepared...