Tag: Old School

Jagex Disqualifies Deadman Winner Over Cheating


The Autumn Deadman tournament survivor has been disqualified after it was discovered that they were cheating. In a post on the official website, Jagex discussed criticism surrounding the latest Deadman final regarding certain disqualifications. What isn’t in question, however, is that the latest winner was cheating by using a bot farm to boost their account.

The last survivor of the final has been disqualified. A standard subsequent investigation into the winner of the tournament took place and the winner was responsible for the creation of a bot farm. Naturally all accounts linked to this botting activity have now been banned. This then raises the question of what to do with the prize money. At the moment we’re discussing what to do with it. A few ideas we have at the moment are another charitable donation, dispersing the money among the finalists, or carrying it over to the next season (or a combination of all of these).

In the same post, Jagex has promised to provide guides for players to avoid DDoS attacks which have become more common in Deadman mode, as well as tackling issues of cheating that naturally crop up in an event where $10,000+ of real money is on the line.

Deadman is a hardcore mode for Old School RuneScape that trades higher experience rates for open pvp and higher loot risk on death. Deadman Seasonal is a time-limited event where players race to level their accounts, with the 2,000 highest level players going on to a last man standing tournament, with the winner taking home $10,000 in prizes. The latest Deadman Seasonal tournament ended at Runefest 2017 this month.

(Source: RuneScape)

Fossil Island Comes To Old School RuneScape


Old School RuneScape this week saw the launch of Fossil Island, a new batch of content for the retro RuneScape. Fossil Island opens up a ton of new content, including the much awaited launch of skeletal wyverns. You can collect fossils, take part in one of several new skilling locations, and uncover new artifacts to fill the expanded Varrok museum.

“Fossil Island has been something of a myth in RuneScape and the community for a long time,” said Mathew Kemp, senior product manager, Old School RuneScape. “The first design documents were drafted more than a decade ago, so we were really pleased the Old School RuneScape community voted so overwhelmingly and backed its development and release into the game.”

More on the update can be found at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Announces RuneScape For Mobile Devices


Jagex has officially announced the death of productivity today, as the company revealed plans to bring its two editions of RuneScape to mobile platforms, allowing millions of players to mine coal from the comfort of wherever they feel like. In a press release sent out today, the RuneScape developer revealed that both Old School and standard RuneScape will hit iOS and Android platforms, with Old School coming first during the winter months and RuneScape to follow later on.

Both versions will be cross platform, allowing you to continue where you left off on the PC. COO Phil Mansell commented that Jagex is quite excited to bring a much requested feature to the community.

“We believe in taking our games to wherever our players want them; recent player surveys showed an overwhelming 90% of active players and 64% of former players telling us of their very high intent-to-play on mobile. Our innovative approach to mobile is also evidence of our ambitions in the mobile sector, and a further indication of our investment in extending the RuneScape franchise to additional devices and territories.”

Players can head over to the official website and sign up to beta test the release.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

Old School RuneScape Launches The Inferno


RuneScape just got more challenging, as Jagex today launched The Inferno, the most difficult PvE content to date. Deep in the depths of  Mor Ul Rek, players will be tasked with taking on waves of monsters and challenges, fighting their way through increasingly powerful enemies for the golden ticket: The infernal cape. The cape is so difficult that Jagex has put up a special reward: The first person to beat final boss TzKal- Zuk will win an all expense paid trip to Runefest, as well as lifetime membership and a real life version of the infernal cape.

“Every piece of content that goes into Old School RuneScape is voted on by the players. Back in March we polled the Inferno to our loyal player base, and they clearly were not afraid of a challenge, with 84% deciding they wanted to have it as part of our game. Our goal for this content is to make even the veterans of Old School RuneScape quake with fear” said Mathew Kemp, Senior Product Manager, Old School RuneScape.

You won’t be able to just pop in and start fighting toward that cape. The infernal cape requires that players beat the Fight Caves and have already won the fire cape.

(Source: RuneScape press release)

Old School RuneScape Celebrates Four Year Anniversary


It’s been four years since Jagex unveiled Old School RuneScape, the retro spinoff of the popular MMORPG that brought gamers back to the days of 2007, complete with graphics, combat system, and all. Since then, the game has seen countless updates, all dictated and voted on by a majority of the community. The mode itself has spun off into the hardcore Deadman Mode which plowed head first into the eSports scene with successful tournaments, rewarding thousands of dollars in real cash to its winners.

“This year is a double anniversary for Old School RuneScape; not only does the game celebrate its fourth birthday, but it’s also the 10th anniversary of the ‘snapshot’ server we used to bring Old School to life,” said Mathew Kemp, producer, Old School RuneScape. “Old School’s growing player base and its impact in the competitive sector is an impressive testament to the remarkable appeal of the game and shows it’s come a long way in the last decade. But however far Old School has come, it’ll always be rooted in 2007 for us.”

To celebrate, Jagex is rolling out presents in the form of new servers and a birthday bash with exclusive items. Other updates rolled out with the festivities include 12 new servers and several quality of life improvements (see link below).

(Source: RuneScape)

Snapshots: Unsurprising Racism Edition


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If you caught our coverage of RuneScape’s latest ban controversy, you probably made a mental note of Jagex’s statement that a player was permanently banned for dressing up as a KKK member. Some of you may have wondered how it is possible to dress up like a klan member on RuneScape. Well, here’s your answer.

The outfit is apparently a combination of desert robes, a gnome hat, and a noose wand. Why does RuneScape have an equippable noose? For catching Kebbits, a part of the game’s hunter skill. Jagex, for their part, are generally quick to ban players for wearing such attire.

Less surprising is that players actively seek out these outfits, look in any corner of the internet and you’ll find a legion of desperate attention-seekers acting out and being as edgy as possible to get their fifteen minutes, with the genuinely racist members sprinkled somewhere in the crowd. Even less so the people who brazenly, and unconvincingly, attempt to play the ignorant card like they don’t understand why such conduct is looked down on.

(Credit for the image: NPC_2006 on Reddit)

Jagex Releases Chat Logs Of Banned Players


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Yesterday we reported a backlash forming on the Old School RuneScape subreddit by players angry over multiple account bans that been instated over the previous night. Several accounts were allegedly banned for harassing a streamer, with players brigading the subreddit demanding proof in the form of chat logs that the players were legitimately punished.

While Jagex initially refused to release the chat logs, product manager Matthew Kemp has posted several redacted chat logs of the guilty parties.

The harassing streamers/players comment was used as that was why these accounts were initially looked into. The bug abuse rule was used as it was an appropriate length of punishment for the offence. Our systems do not work by applying a mute or ban and then deciding the time, but by choosing a rule which has been broken and applying a predetermined punishement. This system is not the best for all circumstances but we have to work with what we have.

Unsurprisingly, people who break rules and act toxic in games still lie and pass the blame when they are eventually punished. Even less surprising is that other toxic players on the subreddit have moved the goal posts as an excuse to ignore the proof that they demanded just yesterday.

(Source: Reddit)

Jagex Responds To Old School Ban Controversy


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Old School RuneScape’s Community Manager took to the game’s subreddit today to address a controversy that sparked up over a number of accounts getting banned overnight for alleged harassment of a popular streamer. According to player allegations, people were banned for the simple act of standing near the streamer while playing emotes.

The story Jagex is telling is very different from the one being passed around between members of the community. According to Jagex, the players were banned for a string of racist and abusive messages, and that only one person was permanently banned which was for dressing up as a KKK member.

Recently, several players were banned for repeatedly harassing a number of people within the community. We want to make one thing clear in this post: the actions of these players were completely unacceptable and we will not tolerate racism or harassment in Old School RuneScape.

The post goes on to state that Jagex took action on players who “spent their time spreading racism hatred, and abuse throughout the game.” Later on in the same Reddit thread, Kemp explains that the reason players were banned for “bug abuse” was because of the length that the ban carries.

Jagex has refused to publish the transcript evidence of players banned for abuse, due to not wanting to publicize the activity and out of fear that it would create a precedent obligating the company to release the transcripts every time someone demands it.

MMO Fallout will update if we get any more details.

 

(Source: Reddit)

Jagex Details Less Punishing Deadman Mode


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A new blog post up on Old School RuneScape’s forums offers new details into new changes coming to Deadman Mode in this season and next. The ideas change how players will lose experience, items, changes to the end-game tournament, and more.

Foremost, this season will bring changes to how much players lose upon death. The number of items lost on death will be reduced from 28 bank items down to 10, rewarding player killers while also not completely wiping out a player’s stash if they die a couple of times. Death to a much higher leveled player will incur less of an experience loss than someone closer to your own level, while new players will receive a six hour immunity and increased experience gain during that period. The teleport delay will be removed for unskulled players, while un-noting items at a bank will be made a bit more time consuming.

Next season will see the Grand Exchange being added to Deadman seasonal to reduce the time spent buying and selling items that could be better spent murdering your fellow players. The experience multiplier will also change to give a better boost at lower levels. Deadman Invitation #2 will make changes to the killer fog that ushers players into tighter spaces, while the winner will be declared based off of kills rather than total level in case of a tie.

As always, Jagex is soliciting feedback on the forums. You can read the entire developer blog at the link below.

(Source: Deadman)

Jagex Product Manager Weighs In On Classic Servers


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The recent shuttering of Nostalrius, one of World of Warcraft’s biggest private servers, has been rippling throughout the gaming news and leaking into the regular press. Part of the discussion has turned to both the feasibility and potential that legacy servers can offer MMO developers.

Here at MMO Fallout, we’ve pretty heavily covered the ongoing successes of Old School RuneScape, a service that began as a snapshot of the game as it was in 2007 and has gradually expanded thanks to community feedback. The game has even incorporated Deadman Mode, a hardcore spinoff that itself spun off into a seasonal eSport event. We even had a chance to talk to Jagex about Deadman mode in its earlier stages.

You can read the entire piece at Kemp’s Linkedin here or below.

Building on the past: How RuneScape’s official legacy server avoided cannibalism and became an eSport

It’s more than three years since we had our first discussion about releasing legacy servers for RuneScape. However, we can now say that releasing Old School RuneScape was one of the best decisions we ever made. Since Old School RuneScape’s launch in February 2013 we have seen just short of seven million players log in with over two and a half million becoming members.

During that time Old School has of course faced a number of challenges, but here’s how we overcame them and how we took a version of RuneScape from 10 years ago and made it relevant for todays’ gamers.

The legacy risk

During the early discussions there were of course many concerns such as: Was it even possible? How long it would take? And, whether there was the potential for cannibalisation of the existing RuneScape player base? We knew our players wanted legacy servers, as with most MMORPG communities they were not shy in telling us what they wanted. Even though we were quite certain about the initial surge of interest these servers would get, we wanted to test this so we asked our players via a poll if they would play. When half a million of our customers said they want to play it… we kind of had to do it.

Another big question mark was whether the legacy servers would have any longevity. To manage this risk a small team of three people was put together to manage the servers and community until the initial interest had died down, at which time resources could be reallocated.

The risk seemed low, allocated resources could all be temporary, and with half a million players saying they would like to try it, the risk of cannibalisation was outweighed by the potential for new customers. At the very least, Old School RuneScape would be a quick nostalgia hit for disenfranchised players.
With legacy servers comes legacy technical debt

Once Old School RuneScape had launched it quickly became apparent that the community wanted game updates. However, initially we were very limited in what we could deliver. Since RuneScape as a game had progressed during the intervening years, so had all the tools we used to develop it. We were in the unenviable position of having to recreate all the tools we used to develop the game back in 2007 so we could update it. At no point had anyone thought, “We ought to keep all these old versions of the development tools just in case.” I mean why would they?

The lack of development tools was not our only technical debt, we had to rework anti-cheating software, optimise areas of the code, and fix some pretty major bugs for a second time.

Community tribalism

Something which should not really surprise anyone is that there was a rivalry between the communities of the Old School RuneScape and RuneScape. Over time this rivalry increased with the Old School community taking the stance of being purist, and the RuneScape community positioning themselves as progressive.

Although the Old School community saw themselves as purists they still wanted change, so to ensure the rate of change was acceptable to those players we allowed them to vote on every update that happens to the game. If 75% of those voting did not agree, the update didn’t happen. This gave a very strong sense of ownership of the game to the community; they were in control.

What was a surprise was that the tribalism shown by the community started to manifest itself among the development teams. As the small team was left to get on with things they developed their own ways of making things happen without relying on other teams. Although this self-sufficiency might be much sought over by many people, it has a hampering effect when it has to fit into companywide objectives and strategic planning across products.

It came to a point where the Old School RuneScape team needed more integration into the wider RuneScape studio. This was achieved by creating stronger relationships between staff and line managers that traversed different teams, as well as including the Old School team in more of the studio level decisions.

Game positioning

After about six months we started to see player numbers settle and we could see that very few players migrated between Old School RuneScape and RuneScape. What we were not seeing was one game cannibalising the other, so we wanted to understand why a player would play one game and not the other.

Through a series of surveys and data gathering from the game servers we saw there were some distinct reasons why people played Old School RuneScape. The three key reasons were the old combat system (which was changed in the main game in 2012) the grinding of levels, and the straightforward membership monetisation model. This made it very easy to position Old School RuneScape as complementarily to RuneScape and give us a very clear direction of where the game could go. More importantly, it identified areas we could branch into much more effectively than we could have done with
RuneScape on its own.

For example, the old combat system leant itself well to PvP combat, which in turn allowed us to take our first steps into the eSports market last month with considerable success.

When legacy becomes THE legacy

Although the initial impact of legacy servers on RuneScape was expected to be short and sweet, it has grown into a major part of Jagex’s business. The Old School team is now five times the size it was when it started and has more members than the launch period, showing it can reach out to a wider market than the initial audience.

The modernisation of RuneScape meant tensions increased between the traditionalist and progressive RuneScape player base. However, Old School RuneScape gave the traditionalists a safe home and allowed for the continued modernisation of RuneScape without alienating a key part of our player base.
There have been challenges in overcoming the technical debt that suddenly appeared, as well as, ensuring that the product sits well within a wider business. However, it offered something our existing games did not offer and has allowed us to start expanding the RuneScape franchise into new areas such as eSports and streaming.

By keeping the risk of legacy servers low and being focused on how they can grow the franchise, this adventure has just started.

Mathew Kemp is product manager for Old School RuneScape at Jagex Games Studio.

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