monte

That's pretty clever! You think of it all by yourself? I am a software developer so I treat them like I like my end-users to treat me - with God-like authority and never question me.

Good stuff....very timely :D

It definitely affects this segment of the population the most and for those that have been brought to the brink of quitting, it's a shame. Unfortunately, the overall success of the game and the rwt opportunities that arose from that success is what has us in the position we are in today. Moreover, it's fruitless at this point to say what jagex could have done in the past or should have done differently in the present to bring a different outcome. Someone, somewhere along the way would have felt wronged. Still, the death of runescape isn't even on the horizon. I mean, for anyone that quits, it's the end but no matter what the outrage or the numbers involved, I see minimal impact. A plague could strike dead half the rs users in the world tomorrow and we are still talking about one of the largest MMOs out there. I'll eat my hard drive if 3 million people quit because of this update. So, I guess that was the point of my original post. I also feel bad for those affected that play a good, honest game and I hope the system will be tweaked to appease most of them. But, the game is too big right now to really feel the effects and in fact, may be better off by a mass exodus anyway.

It's been interesting to say the least reading posts on TIF and RSOF today. If I had 3k (like that amount?) from every player who claims to have either already quit or plans on quitting, I wouldn't have to work as much in this game anymore. Does it really matter though if everyone of these people follow through on their threat? Does jagex really lose? Or maybe more importantly, who wins? According this this recent BBC article, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7090490.stm , there are 9 million registered rs users and 6 million had played within a 2 week span. To say that 1 million dedicated PKers (and other disgruntled players) are walking out the door is still represents a small percentage of the overall population. On top of that, the game has seen its population grow by almost 35% (according to the article) each year. Even if that rate slows, it won't take long for the game to match current levels. Jagex takes a hit on the bottom line by losing subscribers but the effect isn't as severe as some would think. It takes *very* little to run a MMORPG once the game itself is written. Case in point, I was a long time player of Anarchy Online. Released in 2001, the game never had more than 60,000 subscribers ( http://www.mmogchart.com/ ) and still lives on today despite a subscriber base of around 10,000 people. What does a smaller population mean? It means a smaller, tighter community. Players who stick around to play care about the game and are more involved in the storyline. It means better input from more knowledgeable players that can be more easily addressed by developers and it means developers who are more easily able to interact with the players. RS is just too big. It's too hard to make changes and create content that keep everyone happy. Part of me hopes that we see widespread withdrawals from the game because I'm not going anywhere and the game will benefit at this point with fewer people. I hope it gets down to 500K people overall....what do I care if Jagex nets 1 million or 30 million over the course of a year?

Wow...the magnitude of the new changes is pretty staggering. The GE already had me adjusting the way I did certain things, now it's time to re-evaluate again. It's Jagex's world....we just choose (or choose not) to play in it. But with one million paying members and six million non-paying, the reports of Runescape's death are pretty exaggerated. Believe me, it doesn't take much to run a MMORPG and the company is on very stable ground. (according to a recent BBC article, they are a $300 mil company) People will come and go and the game will go on. The changes may cause some long time players to leave but over time they will be replaced by new long time players and players who start tomorrow will never even know what RS used to be like. For me, there's still to much to do in the game to drive me away. The amount of varied content is still pretty impressive. Recently, just re-discovering some of the mini-games I haven't played in a while has added to my overall enjoyment. It's still a fun, relaxing way to kill time. For anyone who thinks their enjoyment of the game is going to be diminished or gone entirely, it's probably a good time to move on. No amount of ranting is going to change things. Either adjust or quietly pack up your things and head out the door.

I feel like at this point I am just reading the same posts from you over and over. Can you give me a timeframe as to when you expect your doom and gloom GE posts to stop? I really wish you'd go back to focusing your efforts on writing cool articles like your in-depth analysis of the barrows. 'Fiasco'....talk about hyperbole! Drama Queen

Think of it as a slow, cushy ride down (or up) in prices. :P It's exactly what Jagex intended and exactly what this economy needed IMO. I don't believe that the large majority of the rs population (read: too young) would have been able to understand the initial and perhaps inevitable wild prices swings that would have accompanied an open-market GE. Forums would have been littered with comments about an item was bought at price one day and it was selling for amount less the next, followed by a series of rants about the GE that would likely have rivaled the staker rants. It probably would have been pretty chaotic Prices wouldn't be where they should be in one day. In fact, it's entirely possible that it would have taken just as much time for things to settle into stable market prices as it will now. So I think the way the GE was implemented is good for rs as a whole even if it doesn't get to where it needs to be in a day (or a week).

This market should be allowed to set prices? Seriously? The same market that is over-saturated with gp and items to begin with? With the bulk of that wealth being concentrated in a small percentage? If the GE opened yesterday without restrictions, I don't even want to think about where prices for alot of items would be today. ...and half-baked guesses? I mean they missed the initial mark on a few items but overall given that there are, what, 7000+ items in the db I think they did OK. I like you writings over on your site but I think in your 'open market' crusade, you are missing the reasons that it wouldn't work in rs.... atleast not initially.

The intention was never to be an unhindered market and probably shouldn't have been. The intention was to stabilize prices for all items across the board and while it's going to take longer for some items then others (some poor initial pricing but overall I think they did OK), they will all get there. I have a hard time believing an open market could have worked in rs at this point. There's too much money out there right now and too many legitimate items that would just be thrown into the GE for ridiculously low prices and would create too much price instability. I mean would a player with a few hundred million gp really care if he cleaned up his bank and threw everything onto the GE for 10gp each? Probably not.

What's even more interesting to note about this is the potential impact on nats considering this change makes the noted ess runs useless. Might make a difference, might not. Guess we'll find out which method is producing the most amount of nats out there