Why play a game when you're not going to pay attention to it? Do you enter a game of COD and sit there holding your finger on the trigger while watching TV hoping someone would run into your line of fire? No. You actively participate in the game. Same concept should apply here. People are no longer "playing" the game, they are simply rewarded with exp for logging on the Runescape. Unlike firemaking, playing COD is what some people might classify as "fun", and people can play it whenever they feel like it without paying a cent. Runescape has a subscription fee, and for that people force themselves to make their money's worth in gametime, even when it means they are merely performing boring, repetitive tasks.