Runescape is Dying
The Decline of the Runescape Empire
It all started on November, 26 2007 with the release of the Grand Exchange. At first it seemed like a great way to let players trade without having to hassle with finding the right World or city. But that was quickly erased when people realized what the Grand Exchange actually did, It limited the amount of money you can spend or gain, in other words, merchanting wasn't possible using it. But people persevered, going back to traditional methods to merchant items, they traveled to trading worlds and cities and did it the old fashioned way. The Runescape community was teetering, but this minor inconvenience was only a precursor for the days to come.
December, 10 2007 "Runescape's Great Depression", this is when Runescape became inches away from death. Two major updates were released on that day, both equally devastating and upsetting to the Runescape community. The first, the wilderness was eliminated, there was no more PvP in the wilderness. They tried to make a couple mini-games to make up for that loss, which feature an unsafe PvP system, but neither are anywhere near the thrill that you get from running around in the wilderness and killing people. The second update was the "removal" of "unbalanced trade". This made it simply impossible to gain any significant amount of money when trying to merchant. Each item has a set price range, (which isn't a very wide range at that) and you cant buy or sell anything out of that range.
These three updates had people all over Runescape threatening to leave their membership and quit altogether. Many did leave, and every day the amount of players playing was being reduced dramatically. Jagex tried to send out apologies, and reasons but words of sympathy didn't fix the game. Jagex needed to act fast or they were going completely under.
The long-awaited and requested Summoning skill was released on the 15th of January 2008 to try and bring some of its members back. Jagex was trying to get the skill hyped-up with "development diaries", discussing the steps needed to make the skill and how long its taken to make. Those diaries showed me that Jagex rushed this update out prematurely because there were gaping holes in the skill, but that is another story in itself. The skill did seem to revitalize the community a little bit, (It brought me back) but it definitely didn't restore Runescape to its former glory.
Jagex is really in a panic mode and must quickly come up with ways to bring the community back or Runescape could be a thing of the past in a matter of a year.
Published by Garbloom
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32 Comments
Post a CommentI really liked the G/E, i didn't feel that it killed merchanting, it simply allowed me to kill someone in the wildy, then run to the G/E to instantly sell my loot and buy more arrows ect. I felt THIS was the very height of runescape.
if your a newb or a complete noob you wont want unfair trade on or wilderness because there either ganna get killed and loose there precious bronze armour lol or get scammed because of other noobs thinking thay can just dothat but im doing it 2 insnt that great!
wow look at the rs main menu the wild vote and free trade vote and this is sad you write about this ..../
I do agree with you about the wildy and free trade, and if you'll drag your stupid @ss to the RS site, then you'll find that Jagex has offered a vote for the players to bring back the wildy and free trade, on the 2nd or 3rd day we had over 1.5 mil votes
It really is sad, all of my memories as a kid are locked up in this game, and when they changed it...i feel as if my childhood has been erased...
I say they just change it back! Why did jagex have to change it anyways? what is the big deal with drop-trading and the wilderness?!! it made the game popular!!! did they think they would get MORE people by GETTING RID of the things that attracted people?? what a bunch of idiots
I feel bad that I gave my view to this article, when its such a bad piece of writing ;'(
yea the trade thing helped people from getting spammed but still sum member who was a level112 was trying to give me free full rune armour but the trade block didnt let him!that kinda sucks but the grand exchange wasnt that bad it gives many people who dont have money advantages and whoever thinks they dont deserve it then you need help cause if you was those lvl20 noobs who have black armour you would have loved the grand exchange and their updates!anyways like the other comment i agree that runescape is awesome and will always will be!
With the Grand Exchange people get LOADS of GP, which is half good. The reason it is bad is because the value of gold isn't as much and I don't think Noobs deserve all that good armor. Before the GE I only had Black armor at level 34, and i got that from scrambling around the General Stores and shops, it took some skill. The GE makes it where you need very little if any skill to get anything you want.
I TOTALLY agree. Mainly with the Grand Exchange, not the other parts so much. The GE totally ruined RuneScape's economy, basically making it where NOOBS could get virtually ANY weapons, armor, or any items they want! The value of a GP has dropped 10 fold. In the GE, BONES are worth over 100 GP. Since when should they be worth THAT much? Nuf' Said.
It was never "inches from death". Never was Runescape an unprofitable buisness, and it s making tens of millions a year. This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen written anywhere.