The answer can be found in today's Development Diary:

 

 

 

To sum up the article: Gold farmers have been using stolen Credit Cards to pay for bots membership. Instead of making money from Credit Cards, Jagex was actually LOSING money overall from CC sales. Their industrial bank told them to either fix the problem, or the bank would stop cancel their account.

 

 

 

So in other words, Jagex was forced to use a heavy hand to stop Real World Trading immediately, else Runescape would be shut down in 2008.

 

 

 

Basically, they were forced to lay down this extreme update and then fix it later.

 

 

 

Here's the article, for those interested:

 

 

 

 

 

 

RuneScape vs. Real-world Trading

 

A number of updates have been released in 2007 ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ Assist System, LootShare, Duel Arena changes; read the 'Trade and Drop Changes' news post on the front page to see them all ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ specifically targeted at ending real-world trading within RuneScape. The majority of you are aware of the problems that real-world trading causes and every player is negatively affected by it in some way ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ even if it's simply that we've had to spend time combatting this rather than creating the content you want. We're sure you're all aware of bots (also known as autoers or gold-farmers). You may not, however, be fully aware of just how serious an issue it is for RuneScape, its players and the massively multiplayer online gaming (MMOG) industry as a whole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The RWT of all evil

 

 

 

Real-world trading (RWT) is the term we apply to the sale of RuneScape gold and items for real money (be that $US, ÃÆââ¬Å¡ÃâãGBP, ÃÆââââ¬Ã¡Ãâìeuros or ÃÆââ¬Å¡ÃâÃÂ¥yuan). Some players choose to buy RuneScape gold as they do not wish to spend the time or effort earning it themselves, for whatever reason ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ the gold-sellers do all of the work for them.

 

 

 

"There has been a significant increase in the amount of real-world trading this year. If we don't find a solution to RWT now, it will ruin RuneScape."

 

 

 

Andrew Gower

 

Lead Developer

 

Of course, gold-sellers have to earn this RuneScape gold somehow. They overcrowd in-game resources with their bots, exploit bugs and scam legitimate players out of items and their accounts. They are the cause of the majority of rule-breaking in RuneScape, and they must be stopped. RuneScape's creator, Andrew Gower, sums it up perfectly: "There has been a significant increase in the amount of real-world trading this year. If we don't find a solution to RWT now, it will ruin RuneScape."

 

 

 

Real-world trading leads to all sorts of problems. We see the negatives falling into two categories: those that affect the game and those that affect our business. On the game side, the legitimate players who don't buy gold feel their efforts are going to waste - why take the time to level skills the proper way if you can just buy some gold? It cheapens the game. Also, the players who do buy gold find it becomes so easy for them to get ahead, they get bored and leave. Mod Hobagoly, Head of RuneScape Content, says, "That's the case with all cheating, whether it's buying gold or cheating your way through a console game - it's fun for a while, but the challenge goes and things quickly get boring."

 

 

 

On the business side, real-world trading is just part of an even bigger problem. Mod Hobagoly says, "Real-world traders believe they are running legitimate businesses. In some cases, though, it's essentially organised crime." There is a whole industry built up around it exploiting cheap labour and involving illegal activities. The majority of bots that we ban from members have been paid for with stolen credit card numbers.

 

 

 

Such accounts don't earn us money, they cost us money in bank refund charges - money that could be better spent on creating new content for our players; money that could help us increase the level of support our players receive. Also, in the longer-term, if we had continued to experience these problems with account fraud, then it could have led to us no longer being able to accept credit card payments from legitimate players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ÃÆýÃâñ bot

 

 

 

Real-world trading is a problem for every MMOG. "The first bots in RuneScape were identified by us within a few months of the game's release," says Andrew. "We dealt with them the best way we could at that time: by changing the game so they were no longer able to function." The game engine, its code, has been altered many times to break macro programs. In game, the first Random Event ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ we call them anti-macro events (AME) ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ was added to the game one month after the March 2004 release of RuneScape 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The majority of bots use the default character look to save time when creating new accounts - not everyone who looks like this is a bot, however.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the game has grown, the demand for gold has grown with it, so it is worth gold-sellers' time to make smarter bots. "We keep developing technologies to combat bots, but it's like an arms race ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ we stop bots, they improve their macros, we stop them, they improve again," says Andrew. The longer we keep doing this, the harder it's going to be to keep stopping bots. "If we don't break that vicious cycle now, it would just keep getting worse and worse. It could reach a point where macro software becomes undetectable."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who ya gonna call?

 

 

 

We have various Customer Support units set up to deal with the problem. Two of these are the Snapshot and Ban Appeal Team (SBAT), which investigates player-submitted Abuse Reports, and the Community Management team. Community Management's Jagex Moderators regularly root out and instantly ban as many bots as they can find - we call this bot-busting. The Player Moderators and Forum Moderators help us to identify bots in game and on the Forums, respectively.

 

 

 

Another is the Investigations into the Community Unit (ICU), which looks into account theft, macros, bugs and exploits, takes down gold-selling websites and more. ICU's Mod Chris81 says, "All Customer Support teams combined, we're banning tens of thousands of accounts each month that belong to real-world traders. Most of these are bots, but we also secure many accounts that real-world traders have stolen, and return them to their rightful owners." Every plausible idea mentioned on our Forums on how to remove bots, we have considered, tried or already use ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ for instance, we do ban IPs. We've also involved our lawyers and even talked to certain governments!

 

 

 

During 2006, we banned bot and real-world trader accounts carrying RuneScape gold and items worth over 200 billion gp. During 2007, so far, we've banned over 525 billion, which has a real-world value of over $2.6 million US - that's an increase of over 250%. At that rate of growth, we'd be looking at banning over 8 trillion gp in 2010 - that's 8,000 billion gp - which has a real-world value of over $40 million US. It's an almost unbelievably high number, but it hammers home the sheer size of the problem we are facing and why we have to take action against it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finish the fight

 

 

 

"The Player and Forum Moderators, and other legitimate players, have put in a lot of effort and deserve recognition."

 

 

 

Mod Paul M

 

Community Management - Player Moderator Unit

 

Community Management's Mod Paul M says, "For a long time, players have thought we're not doing anything, as they don't see everything we do. We've been working on this problem every single day." Bot-busting is our most visible method, but not the most effective. If we ban one bot, it's easy to create a new account to take its place. It's better to take the time to track that account and find every other account it's linked to, then ban all of them at once. Mod Rob, Customer Support Operations Manager, adds, "We still regularly go bot-busting, though, so players can see we are doing something."

 

 

 

Mod Rob continues: "We have automatic and manual systems in place to identify bots, but limited resources to deal with them. It isn't possible to find and ban every single one." Mod Paul M follows with, "The Player and Forum Moderators, and other legitimate players, have put in a lot of effort and deserve recognition. They see more than we ever could, so we follow up on as many Abuse Reports as possible."

 

 

 

Unfortunately, these methods are reactive ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ find a problem then solve it ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ and if we just react, we'll always be chipping away at a larger problem. Even if we spent every penny we earn on staff and systems to ban bots ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ which would mean no game updates ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ gold-sellers would still massively outnumber us. Mod Hobagoly says, "Every time we double our efforts, gold-sellers quadruple theirs. We can't continue only using our current methods, throwing more and more resources at it." The only way we can win is to be proactive and take the fight to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Removing unbalanced trade

 

 

 

Taking into account how serious this issue is and knowing that reactive methods could never completely stop real-world trading, what are the proactive solutions? Well, considering how much money is involved, one solution would have been to allow real-world trading. Why not just let players sell their RuneScape gold and items and take a small cut of the profits ourselves? "We've seen other MMOGs take that route and it works, but only to a limited extent. Some players would sell gold through their own website to avoid paying the developer a cut. Worse than that, the demand for gold was still mostly being met by players using bots and scams, ruining the experience for legitimate players," says Mod Chris81.

 

 

 

Mod Hobagoly says, "It would be very difficult to find a way of allowing players to buy RuneScape items for real money that doesn't cheapen the game." There might be some way of doing this, and without all the negatives, but it wasn't the right solution for ridding RuneScape of real-world traders and bots. Andrew follows with, "We looked at any number of different possible solutions. We've read independent studies and spoken with other people in the MMOG industry. Ultimately, the consensus is that the only way to remove the real-world trading market is to develop your game so you cannot make unbalanced trades."

 

 

 

An unbalanced trade is where one player trades something of value to another player, but does not receive something back of roughly equal value. Real-world traders have used this method to trade millions of gold pieces in exchange for nothing in game, as they will already have been paid in real money. Removing unbalanced trade will mean real-world traders can't do this, so there is no way for them to deliver gold to buyers - and if you can't sell gold, why bother farming it in the first place?

 

 

 

These gold-sellers are businessmen. They're in it for the money and are going to be looking at the bottom line: their profits. Mod Mark says, "The key phrase is 'not profitable'. We're changing our game in a way that doesn't negatively affect its gameplay, but which makes real-world trading not worth the effort." It's a bold move to make, and one that no other MMO developer has attempted. We are fully aware of how the RuneScape community will react to such a change, which is why we been worked hard to find the best way to implement it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lost and found

 

 

 

Mod Hobagoly says, "Deciding to remove unbalanced trade was not an overnight decision ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ we started working on it in 2006." The difficult part was not the removal of unbalanced trade, but the creation of new content to replace what would be lost. Andrew says, "I could have removed unbalanced trade at any time, it's just a few lines of code."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will your clan be victorious in the new Clan Wars minigame?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mod Mark says, "The easy thing would have been to say: 'Right, let's leave the Wilderness as it is, you just can't pick up other players' drops.' Instead of just removing things, we've looked to replace them with something equivalent or, indeed, better." For instance, with the way the Wilderness used to be, there was no way we could implement a reliable scoreboard ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ we've been able to now, with Bounty Hunter. Mod Mark continues: "I think Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars are actually going to be enjoyed by more players."

 

 

 

Mod Hobagoly agrees, saying, "We've felt for a long time that some of this content needed changing anyway ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ especially the Wilderness ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ so this was a good opportunity for us to make it work better, more fun for our players and closer to our original intentions." We are also planning additional new content to replace and improve upon anything that is lost along with unbalanced trade.

 

 

 

"We know it's going to be a bumpy ride, but in the long term, RuneScape is going to be better for it."

 

 

 

Mod Hobagoly

 

RuneScape Content

 

Our ability to update RuneScape so regularly puts us in a unique position within the MMOG industry: we're able to respond to our players' feedback very quickly. We always welcome constructive feedback from our players and the Forums are the ideal place for this. We will be watching them, as always, for valid suggestions on how we can tweak things or iron out any kinks, as we did with the Assist System. We can't always respond to Forum threads, as we're busy working on the game, but we are reading them.

 

 

 

We realise removing unbalanced trade is a big deal, but we want to assure you that this change has not been taken lightly, that we've exhausted all the alternatives. We've tried countless ways to defeat real-world trading and considered many other options to end this problem ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ this change was the only definite way to do so. Unbalanced trade is going from RuneScape; if anything gets lost alongside it we can find it again, new and improved, with the help and support of our players. Mod Hobagoly says, "We know it's going to be a bumpy ride, but RuneScape is going to be better for it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The future starts now

 

 

 

There will always be a handful of people who feel it's worth their time harassing our legitimate players to make real money, but the presence of such players in RuneScape will be significantly lessened, along with their associated rule-breaking. With the systems we've developed to deal with real-world traders, combined with the vigilance of our players, this handful will not pose a threat to RuneScape's future.

 

 

 

Removing unbalanced trade will lead to a massive reduction in trade scams and account theft, meaning our Customer Support teams can spend more time on helping our players than dealing with Abuse Reports. Also, our development teams can expend more energy on creating new game content ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ new skills, expanding on existing skills, continuing quest storylines - rather than developing content to stop bots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some character concept art for a piece of content we're aiming to release in 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Above all, we're a games company. We don't want to spend all our time and energy fighting gold-sellers and bots, we want to get on with making the game," says Andrew. Despite having to make this change, 2007 has seen some awesome updates ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ Impetuous Impulses, dark bow, dragonfire shield, God Wars Dungeon, Clan Chat, Grand Exchange ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ but now we're able to focus more on new content, 2008 is shaping up to be our best year yet! We're not waiting long to kick it all off, either, with the release of the Summoning skill in January. And wait until you see some of the other things we've got planned ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ it's far too early to reveal anything, but we're very, very excited about them.

 

Gerald Ratner wrote;

 

 

 

"Above all, we're a games company. We don't want to spend all our time and energy fighting gold-sellers and bots, we want to get on with making the game," says Andrew. Despite having to make this change, 2007 has seen some awesome updates ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ Impetuous Impulses, dark bow, dragonfire shield, God Wars Dungeon, Clan Chat, Grand Exchange ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ but now we're able to focus more on new content, 2008 is shaping up to be our best year yet! We're not waiting long to kick it all off, either, with the release of the Summoning skill in January. And wait until you see some of the other things we've got planned ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Ãâ it's far too early to reveal anything, but we're very, very excited about them. "

 

 

 

But Andrew, it's no good getting on with a game that no-one wants to play, i want to come back to RS but you are kicking your loyal fans in the nuts, Runescape was different, what made it different was the things you have just removed.

*sigh*

 

 

 

READ THE ARTICLE!

 

 

 

They are going to rework a lot of yesterday's updates. Yesterday was a desperate measure to keep from losing the game!

 

 

 

READ!

people just read the title of the thread and rant about that........

 

 

 

they dont read the whole article because theres no clifnotes....

they receive $5 for membership and lose $5 later, big loss

 

charge backs don't cost anything

they receive $5 for membership and lose $5 later, big loss

 

charge backs don't cost anything

 

 

 

What u smoking ?

 

 

 

They recieve $5, take them, pay their workers, pay for the servers, pay for the development of the game, pay for advertising.

 

Now how many dollars are left, do you think?

*sigh*

 

 

 

READ THE ARTICLE!

 

 

 

They are going to rework a lot of yesterday's updates. Yesterday was a desperate measure to keep from losing the game!

 

 

 

READ!

 

 

 

+1000 words

 

 

 

Maybe if everyone read the DD's intead of looking at the update and trying to find out from other people who are as ignorant as themselves they would know what Jagex is planning on doing. I have never been this stressed any two days of my life because of illiterate, ignorant newbies.

they receive $5 for membership and lose $5 later, big loss

 

charge backs don't cost anything

 

 

 

This is not true. The credit card companies, don't like chargebacks (since it costs THEM money) and will fine the companies who allow it to happen. These fines are big money (millions).

they receive $5 for membership and lose $5 later, big loss

 

charge backs don't cost anything

 

 

 

What u smoking ?

 

 

 

They recieve $5, take them, pay their workers, pay for the servers, pay for the development of the game, pay for advertising.

 

Now how many dollars are left, do you think?

 

 

 

weed

 

 

 

@cy200

 

i've charged back a few people and have been charged back on. we get the equal amount back

 

even if they do charge companies

 

where did you get millions worth of charge backs?

 

there's maybe up to 10k P2P bots/gold farmers that might chargeback

 

where do you get that high of a number?

So, youre saying, that when stupid people gives away their credit card numbers and the stealer uses it to get bots to members, they are blaming runescape?

 

Am I the onyl one who sees this as a excuse?

they receive $5 for membership and lose $5 later, big loss

 

charge backs don't cost anything

 

 

 

This is not true. The credit card companies, don't like chargebacks (since it costs THEM money) and will fine the companies who allow it to happen. These fines are big money (millions).

 

 

 

However since it is done by a computer, and automatically at that, it is not Jagex's fault, they don't know if a credit card has been stolen.

Aha! The cat gets out of the bag!

 

 

 

So, Jagex didn't stop RWT because the players wanted it done, they've done it because they were losing money. Of course, I doubted that. They are as selfish as usual.

Aha! The cat gets out of the bag!

 

 

 

So, Jagex didn't stop RWT because the players wanted it done, they've done it because they were losing money. Of course, I doubted that. They are as selfish as usual.

 

 

 

obviously you didnt READ the article.

 

 

 

jagex didn't sttop RWT because they were losing money, they stopped them because they were going to lose the whole GAME. as in, the game you and so many other people take for granted, just because you pay your measly 5 bucks a month.

 

 

 

who's being selfish now?

Oh god... now I feel so bad for bashing Jagex and their "Incompetence" #-o

 

 

 

Hmm, maybe I'll stay at least until my membership expires to see what they'll do with this.

Damn, No more freebies for me :boohoo:

 

 

 

But anyhoo, I'm proably the only one here who either Likes/Dosen't give a *%^* About the new updates :)

Aha! The cat gets out of the bag!

 

 

 

So, Jagex didn't stop RWT because the players wanted it done, they've done it because they were losing money. Of course, I doubted that. They are as selfish as usual.

 

 

 

obviously you didnt READ the article.

 

 

 

jagex didn't sttop RWT because they were losing money, they stopped them because they were going to lose the whole GAME. as in, the game you and so many other people take for granted, just because you pay your measly 5 bucks a month.

 

 

 

who's being selfish now?

 

Completely agree. Ranters don't think that inaction could have completely castrated the company and brought RS to a premature ending. At least they only lose a smaller percentage of players, and not the whole game.

 

 

 

They could always just take away credit card subscriptions and then reverse the update. Not sure which one people would complain more about. In fact, they could make it so that payments could only be made in person at the Jagex offices, and take people's blood to validate that they are the owner of the account.

Aha! The cat gets out of the bag!

 

 

 

So, Jagex didn't stop RWT because the players wanted it done, they've done it because they were losing money. Of course, I doubted that. They are as selfish as usual.

 

 

 

obviously you didnt READ the article.

 

 

 

jagex didn't sttop RWT because they were losing money, they stopped them because they were going to lose the whole GAME. as in, the game you and so many other people take for granted, just because you pay your measly 5 bucks a month.

 

 

 

who's being selfish now?

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew: I'm saving my company! Don't be silly - I didn't save it because I have countless hours and millions of dollars put in it. Nope! I'm saving it because I don't want my little customers to cry if I'm gone.

 

 

 

:lol:

A bit off topic:

 

In the article they're talking about the alfa-bots (I don't know how to make Greece letters). Do Beta and Gamma bots exist too? If so, what are those?

Maybe Jagex should have talked about this in the updates, instead of acting like they're the best thing that ever happened to Runescape.

 

A lot of people don't read the diaries.

 

 

 

Jagex would have gotten a lot less flames if they had said this sort of thing in the updates, instead of... I don't know what the heck they were trying to do. Appealing to kids, I suppose.

i've charged back a few people and have been charged back on. we get the equal amount back

 

even if they do charge companies

 

where did you get millions worth of charge backs?

 

there's maybe up to 10k P2P bots/gold farmers that might chargeback

 

where do you get that high of a number?

 

 

 

Lets see... It's not 1=1, you forgot that those botters (and legit players) actually cause expenses to Jagex too. They need to hire more people, more servers, bigger offices (within few years Jagex has gotten 2 new offices from good places) and so on. 1 Member doesn't give them 5$ profit as it gets them expenses too, however they must repay the 5$ despite the expenses.

 

 

 

Personally I don't know should I laugh or cry for that 10k estimate. Jagex has banned more p2p accounts than that in few months and if we look at the whole year, the number of banned p2p accounts is by far greater.

Well that definitely clears a bit up, but I personally think that they should have communicated that to us, told us that these drastic changes would be temporary(?), and been a bit less blunt.

 

 

 

 

 

But meh, its Jagex. :wall:

Aha! The cat gets out of the bag!

 

 

 

So, Jagex didn't stop RWT because the players wanted it done, they've done it because they were losing money. Of course, I doubted that. They are as selfish as usual.

 

 

 

obviously you didnt READ the article.

 

 

 

jagex didn't sttop RWT because they were losing money, they stopped them because they were going to lose the whole GAME. as in, the game you and so many other people take for granted, just because you pay your measly 5 bucks a month.

 

 

 

who's being selfish now?

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew: I'm saving my company! Don't be silly - I didn't save it because I have countless hours and millions of dollars put in it. Nope! I'm saving it because I don't want my little customers to cry if I'm gone.

 

 

 

:lol:

 

 

 

Go away, make an MMORPG that is incredibly popular and then do everything you can (regardless of money made, in fact it would be better if you lost money) to make everyone happy then come back and mock this man, until then you are a cretin.

 

 

 

Edit: nowhere in that article does it say Runescape would of been forced to be shut down because of credit refunds, it just says it costs them money and in the long term would mean they couldn't accept credit cards(unlikely cause if this is the case then why are NO other MMORPGs faced with this problem?).

 

I'd imagine the people whos credit card details were 'stolen' were on fake RS gold sites trying to buy gold anyway.

Go away, make an MMORPG that is incredibly popular and then do everything you can (regardless of money made, in fact it would be better if you lost money) to make everyone happy then come back and mock this man, until then you are a cretin.

 

Lol, you don't even know what you're talking about. We were debating what was the prime motivation of Jagex when they made these updates: to save their butt, or to save their players. Your post is full of hatred, personal attacks, stupidity, and general off-topicness. Do us all a favor, and stop delaying your ban on tip.it. Take off the cap of your bottle of trolliness, go berserk, get banned, and find another forum to annoy.

 

 

 

That being said.

 

 

 

LetÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s be real here: When your company is in big trouble, you focus on saving your butt before trying to save the butt of someone else. After all, what use are you to other people if you canÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t save your butt first? Jagex has much more to lose if Runescape were to close than we do. Most of us would just switch game and thatÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s it. They, on the other hand, lost their lifetimeÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s work, and millions of dollars, aswell as endangering their future game projects. I think I can indeed safely say that when Jagex made those decisions, they were caring more about their survival, than our happiness.

Go away, make an MMORPG that is incredibly popular and then do everything you can (regardless of money made, in fact it would be better if you lost money) to make everyone happy then come back and mock this man, until then you are a cretin.

 

Lol, you don't even know what you're talking about. We were debating what was the prime motivation of Jagex when they made these updates: to save their butt, or to save their players. Your post is full of hatred, personal attacks, stupidity, and general off-topicness. Do us all a favor, and stop delaying your ban on tip.it. Take off the cap of your bottle of trolliness, go berserk, get banned, and find another forum to annoy.

 

 

 

 

I apologize for being rude to you. I was just trying to say that saying 'Jagex only changed things to save themselves money' is 1)redundant (every company on earth looks to cut costs) 2) a simplification of a complex issue.

 

 

 

A key concern to Jagex will be how their company is viewed, they don't want to be seen as out of touch or heavy handed but they also don't want to be seen as impotent in the face of problems. The changes they made were drastic and unpopular and they expected that.

 

 

 

They could of adopted many different attitudes and the primary motivating factor behind any of these strategies would be fiscal in nature. They could of 1) Refused credit cards from certain countries/areas 2)acted as a market place for the sale of gold and items 3)just straight sold gold and items 4) Increase the amount of bannings by increasing their staff and increasing the cost of membership etc... they chose the more direct 'WAR ON RWT' stance which they knew would be unpopular and thus deserve credit. Its not as easy as 'they are selfish'.

They just need to stop using cc's then. They are too heavily dependent on it if CC fraud could bring down a multimillion dollar company. If Maplestory can sell $5 and $10 cards in Walmart, why can't Jagex?

 

 

 

More people would also subscribe if they didn't need a cc and could just go to a local store to buy a card for $5.