Runescape – Page 42 – MMO Fallout

Old School RuneScape's First Content Poll Coming

Over the past couple of weeks, Old School RuneScape has seen a number of patches to bring the game back into a fully functioning state. This past week’s patch reintroduced the Construction skill, and with it player owned housing. Next week’s patch is set to bring back the mini-game Barbarian Assault. Alongside next week’s update will also introduce the first in a regular series of content polls, where Jagex picks ideas from the community forums and puts them up to a vote.

According to the poll rules, each feature will be run through a simple yes/no vote, and each poll runs over the course of a week and requires at least 75% approval in order to be passed. Only players with at least 100 total level in Old School will be able to vote. The first set of polls, listed below, will be simple content updates:

Easter event – the 2007 Easter holiday event is re-activated to coincide with Easter this year.
Herb naming – unidentified herbs become grimy <herb name>.
Remove roof – a command to toggle the visibility all roofs on and off.
‘Enter’ to login – the enter key submits login information, rather than only the login button.
Bank booths – left click bank booths to instantly open the bank interface.
F2P worlds – still members only, but allows PKers to fight with F2P gear restrictions

You can find the entire announcement below.

(Source: RuneScape)

OldScape Poll Ends, Jagex Alters Conditions

Here at MMO Fallout, I’ve often said that Jagex’s polls are really little more than exaggerated PR stunts. Players are given the option of voting yes, or not voting at all, and the tally ultimately follows the rules of Who’s Line is it Anyway, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Following the tiered system Jagex laid out, and subsequently altered to allow more benefits with less votes, Old School RuneScape will now be available for an additional $5 membership fee with a small team dedicated to continued maintenance, and “possible” anti-bot updates.

In a news article posted today, CEO Mark Gerhard has detailed what players should expect with the full release of Old School RuneScape. Players will be able to vote on future changes, and will be happy to see the implementation of Botwatch to keep nasty cheaters and gold farmers away. In addition, the membership fee on top of the standard member cost has been waived, at least for now.

As a gesture of our own goodwill and an aspiration for this newly established community to flourish and hopefully grow I’ve decided that we will NOT be charging the additional $5 membership fee for at least the next 6 months!

The news article notes that the member fee will continue to be waived so long as population levels are healthy. So even without five hundred thousand votes, Old School players will still enjoy most of the benefits of the tier. The Old School RuneScape server is currently available in the form of early access to members who voted in the poll, and is still considered a work in progress as several features have not yet been fully implemented.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Opens (Limited) Members Skills To Free Players

In 2012, Jagex opened up a 14-day free trial for free to play players. The account is limited in regards to trading and acquiring items, and once the 14-day free trial ends, any items that are members only are unable to be used until that player purchases a subscription. With today’s release of the March developer blog, Jagex has announced some upcoming changes to the way free players are able to experience membership without the need to actually pay. Instead of a 14-day trial, free players will have access to a limited amount of the members world, as well as very limited access to members skills.

Talking of free players, we’re changing the trial system so that new players once again start off as a free player. To do this, we’re making Burthorpe and Taverley part of the free game, as well as the associated quests and training areas within it. We are also allowing free players to train members’ skills up to a maximum of level 5, giving them a taster of the kind of content there is on offer for players who subscribe.

The blog post also details Jagex’s continued fight against player-run gambling outfits.

Other alterations we intend to make this month are changes centred around the flower games and associated ‘risk’ gameplay that currently dominates the Grand Exchange. Exactly what these changes are and what form they take is going to be up to you – we’ve built a variety of solutions from rules changes, content changes and even our own versions of the games – and we’re planning on chatting to you to work out what solution works best for the community. Keep an eye on the news for details.

You can find the full list of scheduled updates for March at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Bans 20,000 In Botwatch Update

Last year RuneScape saw the first stages of Botwatch, a new system designed to end the constant game of cat and mouse between Jagex and gold farmers, and put an end to the rampant cheating, spam, and gold sales once and for all. Instead of altering the game’s code, Botwatch was designed to learn over time how bots behave, and learn the difference between human behavior and those dictated by machine. Botwatch is capable of banning on its own volition, and thus must be tuned to ensure no false positives are detected.

In a recent update to Botwatch, the program banned over twenty thousand accounts accused of gold farming:

We recently introduced the next phase of our anti-bot technology Botwatch, and it’s already showing its teeth in the battle against botting activity in RuneScape. Last night alone, we conducted a mass ban of no less than 20,000 gold farming accounts. This is a huge blow against gold farming, and you should see the difference in game right away. These new anti-bot systems aren’t limited to gold farmers, however – users of 3rd party clients and botting software are also being aggressively targeted by the newly updated Botwatch.

Last year Jagex introduced Botany Bay, where players can watch first hand as bots are executed and banned.

(Source: RuneScape)

MMOrning Shots: Does Preserving Nostalgia Trump Preventing Scams?

RuneScape’s Old School server has been running for four days now and while the game is looking pretty stable, it isn’t completely up and running. Construction and player owned housing needed to be overhauled and are not currently available, and neither is the Barbarian Assault mini-game or one or two quests. The small team currently assigned to the game is still working on a method to accurately gauge player interest in further updates, with the community divided on whether to implement new updates or keep the game as it was.

Among the changes first implemented, Jagex altered the way herbs work to be less friendly to scams. At the time in which the server existed (August 2007), all herbs looked alike and were simply called “herb” until identified. This confusion generated a specific scam in which players would advertise unidentified herbs as being higher quality than they actually were. In an update in September 2007, Jagex changed herbs to “grimy” versions, allowing players to see what the herb was before actually cleaning it. When old school RuneScape launched last week, it came with the grimy herbs instead of the unidentified versions, prompting a backlash from the community. On Monday, Jagex updated the game to revert the system back to its more scam-friendly version in response to player demand.

Players who argue for unidentified herbs do so on the grounds that players voted for RuneScape as it was in August 2007, and that includes all of its features both good and bad. The players who argued to keep grimy herbs generally do so on the grounds that preventing players from scamming each other is more important than preserving nostalgia. Neither side is wrong, really, the question comes down to priorities. Is it more important for Jagex to preserve the nostalgia of RuneScape as it was on August 10th, 2007, or is it a higher priority to implement updates geared toward preventing unruly behavior, even if that means changing the game? The question then becomes about where the line gets drawn as to what is off limits.

So where do you draw the line? Keep everything as it was, or let the community vote on newer features?

OldScape Vote Passes 250 Thousand, Membership Fee Lowered

Jagex recently launched a poll to gauge interest in the return of classic RuneScape servers, bringing back the old school feel of August 2007. The poll, however, had a catch. Because bringing the servers back and maintaining them costs money, Jagex wanted to get a feeling as to how many people would actually participate in the servers should they launch. So for two weeks, subscribers are asked to vote yes or abstain from voting, with each vote contributing to a number of tiers, which will determine exactly how the service is supported post-launch.

At a minimum, the servers needed fifty thousand votes to launch at all, which the community easily blew through. At fifty thousand, the servers would be brought online with no updates, only critical maintenance, and would cost $15 a month. Luckily, however, the community recently struck through the two hundred fifty thousand vote mark, bringing the membership cost down to $5 with basic maintenance, anti-bot updates, and a small team for ongoing development. That $5 membership is on top of the

Should the community hit five hundred thousand, membership will be free and there will be a dedicated team for ongoing development. The poll runs until March 1st, however you can get on the servers starting today providing you are a RuneScape member and vote in the poll.

(Source: RuneScape Official Website)

OldScape: RuneScape 2007 Server Details

Jagex has run a live Q&A today, focusing on the upcoming 2007 Old School servers.

The servers launch this Friday, the 22nd.
The first month will be free for all of those who voted.
The February 22nd launch is an early access phase and is expected to have bugs.
Free players will only have access if the poll exceeds 500,000.
At the current 213,000, free players don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.
Rares (tradeable discontinued) will not be available.*
Gambling will not be removed*
Chat between the two versions (Current and OldScape) will be compatible.
Holiday events will not be added*
Characters will be separate, however accounts will not be able to log into both simultaneously.

*Barring 500,000 votes which is highly unlikely.

Currently, there are only 214,000 votes for the 2007 Classic servers. If the poll hits 250,000 by the end of the week, players can expect the following perks:

$5 a month subscription
A small team for development.
Basic maintenance.
Possible anti-gold farming updates.

If they do not hit 250,000, players will be expected to shell out $15 a month to access the game, with zero possibilities of updates or anti-gold farming systems.

Jagex Allows Vote For OldScape: Revive RuneScape From Aug '07

Would you pay $15 a month for access to classic RuneScape? No not that far back, we’re talking 2007’ish, before the original trade restrictions were put into place. Well do I have news for you. In a blog post on the RuneScape official website today, Jagex has outlined plans to release a snapshot version of RuneScape dated back to August 2007. Before, well, a whole lot. Just imagine, a RuneScape where Jagex never restricted trade (or nuked bots), where Dungeoneering doesn’t exist, no God Wars or top tier equipment, no grand exchange (auction house), etc. No evolution of combat and no microtransactions.

Want to go back to the nostalgic days? All you have to do is vote.

So, just like the poll for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4 million votes , we will be running a similar poll and letting you – our valued members – decide the fate of ‘Old School RuneScape’, given that you directly fund the game’s ongoing development and supporting services. This decision – along with the level of service, investment and potentially any additional fee for the service – is truly up to you to determine.

The blog post highlights several stages of development depending on how many votes the poll gets, from the bare minimum (50 thousand) where the service comes back as a $15 a month subscription (yikes) and only receives critical maintenance.

At 250,000 votes, the membership fee comes down to $5 and will support a small development team to fix bugs and (hopefully) implement the modern anti-bot technology as best they can.
At half a million votes, the game will have a full development team and no additional costs, as well as some content development and anti-bot technology.
At 750,000 votes, the game will have all of the above plus the free portion available to non-members.

These servers, at any of the above levels, would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores, log-in, are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micropayment updates.

The poll will be live on February 15th and run for two weeks. Your options are yes, or don’t vote.

(Source: RuneScape Website)

Jagex Allows Vote For OldScape: Revive RuneScape From Aug ’07

scapemas

Want to go back to the nostalgic days? All you have to do is vote.

So, just like the poll for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4 million votes , we will be running a similar poll and letting you – our valued members – decide the fate of ‘Old School RuneScape’, given that you directly fund the game’s ongoing development and supporting services. This decision – along with the level of service, investment and potentially any additional fee for the service – is truly up to you to determine.

At 250,000 votes, the membership fee comes down to $5 and will support a small development team to fix bugs and (hopefully) implement the modern anti-bot technology as best they can.
At half a million votes, the game will have a full development team and no additional costs, as well as some content development and anti-bot technology.
At 750,000 votes, the game will have all of the above plus the free portion available to non-members.

These servers, at any of the above levels, would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores, log-in, are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micropayment updates.

The poll will be live on February 15th and run for two weeks. Your options are yes, or don’t vote.

(Source: RuneScape Website)

MMOrning Shots: Waiting On A Sinkhole

Today’s MMOrning shot comes from RuneScape. Last week Jagex released sinkholes, where every half hour players are able to join up in random groups of five and explore dungeons with the goal of working together to complete the tasks at hand, while at the same time competing with your team to see who can gain the most points. The NPC in charge of the event will freely teleport players to the location of the sinkhole.

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