remington

And the bots were ruining even MORE thousands of players enjoyment of runescape. And the pures made using drop trading ruined a large portion of the game for even MORE players of the game. JAgex had to do something, they choose the lesser of 2 evils. How MUCH lesser is the only question.

Whatever is causing it, those numbers DO seem rather low.

I would think they won't be able to sell gold right up to the last day, nor would they want to keep making new toons knowing they might NOT be able to cover any loses if Jagex goes on a banning spree over the next few weeks. If it were me, (and it's NOT) I would sell the items/gold I had and go to the next game.

It could also be from thousands of RWT cutting their losses and not wasting anymore time with Runescape. I imagine that would cause a good deal of player "loss" in and of itself.

I'm level 123, with 1918 skill total. I've played since Sep, 2001. And still enjoy playing RSC. I know I'll miss giving out gifts to my friends. And I'll miss doing random "99" parties. But quite honestly all those bots were ruining runescape. I'll miss all those things, but I miss selling resources at levels that make getting them WORTH it even more.

Good point, why use the largest and best encyclopedia in the world when we can just follow ReapMe's unsupported opinions instead... Exactly when did "largest" suddenly become "the best"?

But they WILL change how loot drops in the wild.

Think of RWT as a hall. It has direct player to player trading as it's center pillar. Not to mention the MAJORITY of players all use this method to play. Around this pillar are smaller ones, not as important, but given the need they can support the weight of the hall. These smaller pillars are: dueling arena, Party Pete's, dropping items from inventory, PKing drops, and dying to an NPC and looting the pile. All these are also used very rarely, or by a SMALL MINORITY of runescape players. Most RWT do not use those "smaller pillars" but if Jagex yanks the "main pillar" they will quickly use them. So what is Jagex to do? They yank the smaller, less "used" pillars first. They KNOW they are going to anger a few players, but they NEED to control the RWT and their bots or the game will not last. As they pull the smaller pillars they "redirect" those not directly affected by giving us NEW UPDATES.... We're seeing this now. Jagex is collapsing the RWT "hall". As they do this they have given us the GE, and as a bonus they suddenly decided to give us Development Diaries about the new skill. Once the last few small pillars are removed Jagex will ALSO pull the "main pillar". All trades will be done through the GE ONLY. Direct player to player trading will be GONE. I suspect that within 10 days of summoning coming out, direct player to player trading will be removed. Presto, no RWT anymore in runescape.

Quite honestly I used to believe Jagex had a handle on the bots in this game. Then I took a walk through F2P. Then I hopped the ditch and saw how many "pures" now exist. I used to hate the thought that Jagex is going to remove all direct player to player trades. But now, after seeing all these "players" breaking the rules I welcome it. If removing RWT and all their bots means I have to put up with only trading on the GE with it's 5 percent market controls then so be it. Jagex has dropped the ball, and instead of taking the "expensive" route and hiring mods to do bot sweeps every hour of every day they are just going to remove the "source" of the problem. We know Jagex is incapable of banning bots without "accidentally" removing honest players. With player trading/dropping removed RWT will be gone. There will then be no need for their item bots. Once THAT flood is gone the only bots left will be small, AND [hopefully] easier for Jagex to find/remove. And this also removes the ability for mains to trade items to their pures, or to use mule accounts in F2P. Two decidedly evil birds killed with one stone.

Jagex is in the process of removing all player to player trading except for the anonymous trading in the GE. Once this is done ALL the RWT will be gone, and their bots with them. So no need to close RS to new accounts.

The REFERENCE posted was in "PAST TENSE". Meaning it WAS going to be tied to Hunting, but then they decided to scrap that idea and try something else......

Probably just maintinance. Or a giant world crushing asteroid......