Some players have adopted a home world where they play with their select group of friends. They see other players who come chasing or mining "their" shooting stars as intruders.

To them "spirit of the game" is for one of their group to scope star crash and then at appointed time squat at all potential landing sites. One of them will have the star land at their feet and reap the lucky "first to find" reward then message rest of their clique to join in repetitive animation of characters swing pick at rock while they harvest stardust and XP for up to two hours.

Evidently this style completely ruins competitive fun for others who like racing round trying to be first to find the star. IT also defeats adventure trecking out to find stars in remote and dangerous places. Yet hypocritically these home turf gangs accuse outsiders of ruining their fun, stealing their stars, being selfish and greedy... Time and again on forums and in game players are subjected to their petty-minded morals lectures.

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Runescape is role playing game in which players can choose to be thieves, robbers, bounty hunters, honorable duelists, noble heroes, adventurers and so on, all without real life repercussions. It is however a sad inditement of the whole game when we find those deficient in competitive gaming spirit have maxed stats and silver moderator crowns

No doubt casual reader wonders wtf was all that about.... Well Runescape having forums for players to post on and there is thread discussing sociology of clans, groups and team work that I was joining in, butI not like posting on the Forums that much because it mostly gets misinterreted, flamed, or otherwise trashed and that's before it drops off the bottom on page 51 to be lost in cyber space null device.

Somehow the conversation had got round to understand "Pecking Order" from what it means to be a chicken...

1957 USSR launches Sputnik igniting Great Space Race.

1962 President John F Kennedy rises to challenge his rivals stating
commitment by United States of America to win that race for first man on the moon.
"not because these things easy but because they are hard". (Note: there never was intention of staying to mine) .

1969 Apollo 12 we have lift off...
Go get that tag boys!

In Runescape today this bold spirit survives in sporting competition to be first to tag shooting stars.
"Star tagging" is when you go for "first to find", reward on crashed star but not desire staying to mine.

In true keeping with Distraction & Diversion mini games, typically you having other activities to get back to.

Runescape shooting stars come in waves and every world gets only one star per wave. Syncro star tagging is when you time world hopping to target more than one star in the same wave.

Two techniques for tagging are:

Camping

Wait at possible mine and hope the star lands at you feet

• This is best in areas where there are few mines so chance is higher you pick the right one.


• It also is best where stars are busy, because you only have to click to be first

Racing

Teleport and run between all possible mines until you find it

• This is best when there are many possible mines because you are sure to find it eventually


• It also is best when it is not busy because less chance campers be on site

These two styles can be combined in syncro tagging, like race in one world then hop and camp in another.

... more to come on the Shooting Star D&D some other time