Over the last few years RS has really exploded in popularity. However, there have also been a large number of more experienced players quitting or becoming unsatisfied with the game. Some people say that it is because the game has got "boring" and the wilderness as we knew it is gone. While it is obvious that the loss of "old wilderness" has accounted for the loss of many a veteran I feel that there is another reason while some players are left feeling empty while they play the game.

 

 

 

Runescape now is not like the game I used to play 2-3 years ago. I feel that Jagex has let itself become a business. Obviously in the literal sense it was before as well but what I mean is that Jagex has distanced itself from players. Instead of trying to interact with them I feel that they view players as statistics. What they really need is a small team of people dedicated to providing a solid link between Jagex and the player-base. The forums are an absolute joke and everybody knows that. Jagex deny that responses to ban appeals are entirely automated, but mostly all the ban appeals sent in are met with an automated response which shows relatively little correlation with the ban appeal itself. Any person in control would be able to make a logical assumption. I remember years ago it was almost every day I saw a J mod hanging around somewhere who was right at the top of the proceedings. Around when I quit in December I hadn't seen one in months (although it could be coincidence).

 

 

 

As well as the lack of interaction between players and staff, player-player interaction has been shredded. But everyone knows about this already it's been mentioned so much so I won't go into it.

 

 

 

Above all I feel that the content coming into the game is aimed at a less mature audience and that the aging veteran players feel patronized and long for a decent storyline or some sort of mental challenge.

 

 

 

Feedback appreciated that's just how I feel you might feel completely different. I can't wait for the new graphics I might even renew membership just to see how everything looks. Hopefully might see some interesting story lines as well as suggested by viewtopic.php?f=30&t=747700 this topic.

I know what you mean. Jagex has gone all corporate because nowadays its a multimillion dollar business. It's just not like before when Andrew was running it out of his garage. They have hundreds of employees now so they have to be more responsible so they are really careful not to mess up. So when they make decisions it's really geared towards making more money.

i dont agree with the above post..because a while ago i saw there was still rwt...and how?ask them,the facts i know is that theres some kinda of junk trading now?so why doing that big change in runescape if they messed up? :roll:

I've played since the beta of RSC and all this comes across to me as is whining. Of course they're more distant now. They have 5,000,000 players now instead of 50, it's impossible to keep a close link with all of them. Faulting them for being a business is just idiotic. They have to make money to keep runescape running and updated. And don't even try to say they are greedy, Jagex gives massive amounts of money to charity and spends a lot on improving the work life of their employees. What's the last company you ever saw that provided fresh fruit every day to their workers.

 

 

 

So what if the link between Jagex and the players is getting bigger. Are you playing Runescape for Runescape, or to be buddies with the gowers?

i dont agree with the above post..because a while ago i saw there was still rwt...and how?ask them,the facts i know is that theres some kinda of junk trading now?so why doing that big change in runescape if they messed up? :roll:

 

There isn't likely to ever be a way to completely remove RWT. The goal of those anti-RWT updates was to stop as much of it as possible and end all the credit card fraud that was, in the end, costing Jagex money.

 

 

 

As for my opinion on the lack of direct communication between Jagex and players, it's very easy to see that it is much worse than before (I even remember when Andrew himslef would right the update bulletin things). The RSOF seems to only be used to get a general feel for what the players think about certain things and customer support (for random questions) got removed months ago (probably because of all the stupid questions they were getting, but even that could be blamed on Jagex because of their targetting younger players).

 

 

 

I would like for Jagex to reopen direct communication with players, but I understand why they do not. I mean, why would they when they when they're making plenty of money without it? Were youin charge, would you go for the money or for the interaction with the community? I can tell you right now that, whether anyone will admit it or not, most people would go for the money, myself included.

[Were you in charge, would you go for the money or for the interaction with the community? I can tell you right now that, whether anyone will admit it or not, most people would go for the money, myself included.

 

 

 

If I were running a business (which the game is), I would go for the money. That's the goal of a business, something most people here don't seem to understand.

This is a natural part of the gameing cycle. At first you have a small community and the developer(s) can be chums with the players. As the game grows, this becomes unfesible because of sheer numbers, but there are also acusations of favoritisem and the like. To avoid appering biased, all frendships/relations (like between tipit and Jagex) must be kept out of sight and out of mind. There are still interactions, but all behind the scenes out of nesccesity.

 

 

 

And to some degree, because of the loss of relationship between the average player and the developers, there will be a noticible effect of teh developers being out of tuch with the players. RuneScape hit that point years ago, part of the reasonthat the game needs a succesor.

 

 

 

Even if the succesor is instantly as succesful in terms of player base, there will be noticible differences between how 'in touch' the developers are with players in the new game vs the old. RS is an old game, and has started to die. Once support goes and assuming the game still exists (like RSC), there could be a noticible rise in comunity quality as only the people truly interested in the game will stay.

 

 

 

Its not a problem that will improve, the solution unfortunatly is to restart with a different game. That game will probably be MechScape which will be a separate entity instead of a sequal. This is also the reason there will never be a RS3.

Although I agree with you, I don't blame Jagex for distancing themselves.

 

 

 

If I were Jagex staff, I most certainly wouldn't be the first to volunteer to go into P2p (never mind F2p) to create this staff->player link. Whenever a mod pops up it's mass chaos, spam, and annoyances. If everyone treated them like they were a regular player then maybe they wouldn't have disapeared off the face of the map.

Admittedly the number of players in the last two years has grown a considerable amount. However, this should be compensated for. If the business increases then so should the manpower behind it. We're not talking about money here. We're talking about quality of time and how it is spent. I understand that there is a lot to do but making the players feel like they have some power is priceless.

Anyone visit Bungie.net regularly?

 

 

 

thats what id love from jagex, some fansite contributions, more discussion on future updates and a more human approach to their players

 

 

 

i dislike critising jagex, as running runescape is not as simple and people seem to think, but it would be nice to see a little more interaction with there users but i cant help but feel that the less mature audience jagex (apparently) is aiming towards are the major stumbling block for this

The thing about jagex (may have been mentioned before) is that they really do actively talk to the players. I've played other games, and not once has a staff member/moderator contacted me, and nor have I seen weekly/bi weekly updates.

 

 

 

Jagex seem to be alot closer to their players than most other game businesses, this, of course, being my opinion.

 

 

 

Lately they seem to be distancing themself from us, and it's really affecting the welfare of the game.

Jagex are closer to their players than 99% of games out there - not just MMORPGs.

 

 

 

I personally speak to a few mods in game one of which being Paul Gower. And let me tell you this - he still cares what players thinks, he's constantly asking me what I think of an update and my opinion on things. Also speak to Mod Mark who is "Senior Game Designer" of Runescape - He's constantly asking me for my opinion on things, for example with Rocking Out he asked me to rate the quest out of 10 when compared to other quests and that they were "Very proud" of the quest.

 

 

 

So no - Jagex aren't distancing themselves, they're as close to their players as ever before, however this is not shown to 90% of the community, the mods DO read the RSOF even if they don't reply, with the release of the forums they don't have as much reason to go into the game to look for people's opinions there when they can see them on the forums.

 

 

 

I'm sure they have plenty of statistics about who's doing what in game - They can see if a certain activity isn't popular, or if a new quest doesn't seem to appeal to many. Times have changed - Jagex have changed - their interactivity hasn't.

Don't get me wrong dark I respect you and your opinion immensely and while I agree with some parts of your post you have to agree that your preferences do not generalize to all of the veteran players. What I would really love is a more in depth analysis of RS itself. The opinion polls that they do are not common enough and so much could be changed if there was an entire team dedicated to existing improvement. I'm sure that a lot of players would prefer one less new piece of content a month and a change to an older piece.

 

 

 

Thanks for feedback so far everyone

i make jokes but really i prefered it when it was just his mothers basement

Jagex are closer to their players than 99% of games out there - not just MMORPGs.

 

 

 

I personally speak to a few mods in game one of which being Paul Gower. And let me tell you this - he still cares what players thinks, he's constantly asking me what I think of an update and my opinion on things. Also speak to Mod Mark who is "Senior Game Designer" of Runescape - He's constantly asking me for my opinion on things, for example with Rocking Out he asked me to rate the quest out of 10 when compared to other quests and that they were "Very proud" of the quest.

 

 

 

So no - Jagex aren't distancing themselves, they're as close to their players as ever before, however this is not shown to 90% of the community, the mods DO read the RSOF even if they don't reply, with the release of the forums they don't have as much reason to go into the game to look for people's opinions there when they can see them on the forums.

 

 

 

I'm sure they have plenty of statistics about who's doing what in game - They can see if a certain activity isn't popular, or if a new quest doesn't seem to appeal to many. Times have changed - Jagex have changed - their interactivity hasn't.

 

 

 

I think it's great that Jagex mods talk to you, but I wish they'd talk to more of the veteran players.

 

 

 

I've been playing for 6 years now, and Jagex staff ignore 90% of my comments/ignore me when I PM them when they rarely sign in on my friends list.

 

 

 

Now if you could enlighten me with your secrets of how you get them to talk to you, I may not be so negative. But most players don't, and my opinion goes unchanged.

I think it's great that Jagex mods talk to you, but I wish they'd talk to more of the veteran players.

 

 

 

I've been playing for 6 years now, and Jagex staff ignore 90% of my comments/ignore me when I PM them when they rarely sign in on my friends list.

 

 

 

Now if you could enlighten me with your secrets of how you get them to talk to you, I may not be so negative. But most players don't, and my opinion goes unchanged.

 

 

 

So they listen to 10%. What about the other people they listen to? Thats still putting you in a 10 to 1 ratio. If Jagex has like 5000 employees... that puts you within 50000 people. Congrats.

 

 

 

I'm confused at your feelings of entitlement.

I think it's great that Jagex mods talk to you, but I wish they'd talk to more of the veteran players.

 

 

 

I've been playing for 6 years now, and Jagex staff ignore 90% of my comments/ignore me when I PM them when they rarely sign in on my friends list.

 

 

 

Now if you could enlighten me with your secrets of how you get them to talk to you, I may not be so negative. But most players don't, and my opinion goes unchanged.

 

 

 

So they listen to 10%. What about the other people they listen to? Thats still putting you in a 10 to 1 ratio. If Jagex has like 5000 employees... that puts you within 50000 people. Congrats.

 

 

 

I'm confused at your feelings of entitlement.

 

 

 

That was a made up statstistic, I'll be honest. But the replies I do receive were all through customer support, which of course is not the place I should be using to contact Jagex.

 

 

 

If I had a mod that asked me questions, or would answer any question I had, and treated me like a player rather then a customer, because Im treating them like a player rather then a staff person, I wouldn't have anything to gripe about. (Im speaking of in game, because this is where the player - staff interaction should take place, not via customer support queries)

Above all I feel that the content coming into the game is aimed at a less mature audience and that the aging veteran players feel patronized and long for a decent storyline or some sort of mental challenge.

 

 

 

Exactly how I feel. Nothing in RS is challenging anymore :|

If you *really* think that Jagex is being distant on purpose, consider this:

 

 

 

1) Jagex has about 300 full-time employees. Found this on Wikipedia.

 

2) RuneScape has about 4 million or more accounts active, 1.25M of which are members.

 

3) Simple math dictates that if they were talking to only members, there's 4,166(2/3) of us for every one of them. Take that stat to include talking to freeplayers, and there is about 13,333(1/3) of us for every one of them.

 

4) Real math would also indicate that given an average of about 195,000 players on at any given weekend, that's 650 of us for every one of them.

 

5) When a Jagex Moderator logs in, it ain't to chew the fat; they're out doing their job.

 

6) Not every Jagex Moderator deals with Customer Support, nor do all of them interact with any set group of players at any given time of the day.

 

7) The amount of UK RuneScape players pales in comparison to the amount of US players, which is the main crowd seeking attention from the mods.

 

 

 

Besides that, companies grow, things get less personal. It's a fact of life. Not really much you can do to change it except to post on their forums.

there was a time in the past when i logged in 30 .40 ppl would chat at once i coul;d only reply to 1 or 2.importaint chat comes first. as time passes with the volume of players i seem to have melted into the background. i now can chat without spam

 

now a top player /jmod must be getting spamed 24/7 when online. so only the best qwestions will be awnsered so choose them well.

 

 

 

jagex does care about players but cant really show any favortisim.

 

heres my story of my first contact with a jmod after playing 7 years

 

 

 

at the height of rwt last april may it was fast becoming a trend with alot off players that if you cant beat them join them.i shared this info on msn with a top page player who inturn informed. paul gower who hacked into my chat (guess hes allowed)i wont divulge the ins and outs of the convo.i think i just confirmed his take on the situ as it stood. next day main page carried a rwt statment /update. that allowed us to descuss and deal wt rwt on jagex fourums(unheard of before) point being jagex does listen.

 

a year on and i needed to talk again as a top page player was muted for tellin ppl in his cc(helpful page 1 player)the official swiss uro cup site, after 7 years play he was given black mark and muted.he was very upset and i could see another trend forming.

 

 

 

"i know ur buzy but if u find time paul plz enter your cc" i asked then logged off chat."mite be a while but i will"was the repy.

 

eventuly we spoke for a full hour covering many ingame topics and future possibilitys and of course my reason for wanting the chat. i was told "we cant show favortism" i replyed." look who he is.. look at the impact hes had on the game.try to imagin how many times hes been reported yet still continues to help lesser pixels in the game".

 

 

 

lol he made such a impact im sure jagex would have liked to see his char dissaper from the game.

 

end result being he was instantly unmuted. so jagex do care

 

 

 

at one time there was a ingame magic a close community that has since fragmented into 100s if not 1000s of smaller comunitys even down to personol situations that have either been erazed or effected by what was considered at the time negitive updates

 

due to the ge theres no need to interact with players to buy or sell its been 5 months since i was asked ."have you a job for me". this inturn turns players into playerbots no chat just lvl up.

 

were has the magic gone. where has the ingame office unruly players used to be teleported to gone. or was that just a rumour.

 

where have the rumour makers gone?.

 

jagex do support comunitys ingame fact theres so many what little contact we have seems very watered down.

 

 

 

i have my own set of rules re contact wt jmods never copy/paste or divulge anything.but i will say pauls a proud man at the moment having writen some new content that will be added to the game around september /october

 

jagex do care.so lets hope intime they will reinstall the magic

Interesting read tameelf and Makoto.

I can agree with both sides, admittedly there are millions more players coming into the game making it hard for Jagex to keep in touch with us all, however they do try, for example we're now given guaranteed content polls, allowing us to chose on what becomes implemented in the game, it would be hard for the company to conact millions of players and read/give detailed responses to each, however things like this give players an oppertunity to communicate if they wish.

 

 

 

The main fault is the player to player relations, years back everyone would know everyone and respect each other, however nowadays the game is full of immature flamers, within my time spent in god wars, i've met countless highlevels who don't respect you, not only do they "crash" your area making the game un fun for lower levels who can't afford trendy god swords, they feel the need to cuss you with immature comments such as "smd" as well as the usual commonly abused "noob" this leads me to thinking, the new generation of players are extremely immature.

 

 

 

I remember a while back, on my old account, i was a low level at the time, however met several top players, they took me under their wing and helped me become the respectful player today, however now nobody is willing to give way, and help each other!

 

 

 

As for updates, what can we do? the wilderness is gone, i miss it, most people do but all we can do is get over it, we complained for years about autoers, Jagex did a good job and stopped it all, and now we compalin about our own actions leading Jagex to their concluding update. Furthermore the trade rule has made players a lot more dependant which is extrememly helpful, it means players have to fully play their own game instead of constantly relying on others.

 

 

 

We all blame things like this on Jagex, however in the end it's us, they do listen to us, they stopped autoers, found a way to prevent scams and begging...we asked for these updates and we got them, so give Jagex a break! All we can do is enjoy the game, and get along!

 

 

We may not be able to get the old times back, however if people show each other more respect then we wont have to rely on Jagex to make the game a better place as we will be doing it ourselves!

there was a time in the past when i logged in 30 .40 ppl would chat at once i coul;d only reply to 1 or 2.importaint chat comes first. as time passes with the volume of players i seem to have melted into the background. i now can chat without spam

 

now a top player /jmod must be getting spamed 24/7 when online. so only the best qwestions will be awnsered so choose them well.

 

 

 

jagex does care about players but cant really show any favortisim.

 

heres my story of my first contact with a jmod after playing 7 years

 

 

 

at the height of rwt last april may it was fast becoming a trend with alot off players that if you cant beat them join them.i shared this info on msn with a top page player who inturn informed. paul gower who hacked into my chat (guess hes allowed)i wont divulge the ins and outs of the convo.i think i just confirmed his take on the situ as it stood. next day main page carried a rwt statment /update. that allowed us to descuss and deal wt rwt on jagex fourums(unheard of before) point being jagex does listen.

 

a year on and i needed to talk again as a top page player was muted for tellin ppl in his cc(helpful page 1 player)the official swiss uro cup site, after 7 years play he was given black mark and muted.he was very upset and i could see another trend forming.

 

 

 

"i know ur buzy but if u find time paul plz enter your cc" i asked then logged off chat."mite be a while but i will"was the repy.

 

eventuly we spoke for a full hour covering many ingame topics and future possibilitys and of course my reason for wanting the chat. i was told "we cant show favortism" i replyed." look who he is.. look at the impact hes had on the game.try to imagin how many times hes been reported yet still continues to help lesser pixels in the game".

 

 

 

lol he made such a impact im sure jagex would have liked to see his char dissaper from the game.

 

end result being he was instantly unmuted. so jagex do care

 

 

 

at one time there was a ingame magic a close community that has since fragmented into 100s if not 1000s of smaller comunitys even down to personol situations that have either been erazed or effected by what was considered at the time negitive updates

 

due to the ge theres no need to interact with players to buy or sell its been 5 months since i was asked ."have you a job for me". this inturn turns players into playerbots no chat just lvl up.

 

were has the magic gone. where has the ingame office unruly players used to be teleported to gone. or was that just a rumour.

 

where have the rumour makers gone?.

 

jagex do support comunitys ingame fact theres so many what little contact we have seems very watered down.

 

 

 

i have my own set of rules re contact wt jmods never copy/paste or divulge anything.but i will say pauls a proud man at the moment having writen some new content that will be added to the game around september /october

 

jagex do care.so lets hope intime they will reinstall the magic

 

 

 

The only thing that I took out of that story was that Jagex only cares about their high level players. In both of your stories Jagex caring revolved around people on the top page of the highscores.

 

 

 

Once again, this generally doesn't happen to the lesser folk (as myself) that play the game.

your wrong made, they give us polls, as a way to communicate, it would be hastle to talk to millions, furthermore they contact mods as far as i know... and not all mods are high ;)

The only thing that I took out of that story was that Jagex only cares about their high level players. In both of your stories Jagex caring revolved around people on the top page of the highscores.

 

 

 

i guess i should off lied and reduced the lvl of the player on the top page for you to get(or agree to ) my point. but then to some readers i would be missing the point. point being i am a lesser folk than the top page guy yet i have link and he does not.

 

 

 

Once again, this generally doesn't happen to the lesser folk (as myself) that play the game

 

 

 

i know some lvl 3 player mods lesser folk i guess that probibly have jmod contact. its a big pond m8 fish the right places you may hook a contact.but remember its all down to the bait you use