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Is Jagex trying to kill runescape?


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No. Next question.

 

While I agree with you, they're probably not thinking very far-sighted with their recent decisions.

Jagex is like a dying animal: they try out multiple things, causing them to be hurt even more.

So they're not trying to kill runescape, they're just causing runescape to be killed.

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I don't really have much to offer in terms of speculation or comments, but I will say that your post was well thought out and well written, Y_guy. Should I come up with anything to say in response to the topic I will edit appropriately.

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all bad activity increased alot after free trade...scamming, hacking, botting...because they made it profitable.

in example go to w1 ge to see how many gold sellers there is...

 

now they only rollback botters gained exp if got caught...they dont want botters to quit because they are now like major income to them.

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Well obviously leaving the bots does help their bottom line - enabling them to make more money from the game like you said. And yes, it is quite the conspiracy theory aha. It's odd, usually I'm not one for conspiracies...

 

Except the reason they got rid of them in the first place is still there. The gold farmers most likely don't bring jagex any money at all and cost them money and these are the main ones they're unable to handle as there's just far too many of them. The "legit" players who bot are the ones they make money off and ones that'll come back after being rolled back and buying their account back hence why that option is there so they can continue to make money off those people. They have absolutely no reason to leave gold farmers in the game as they do more harm than good to both the community and to Jagex themselves and I honestly don't believe Jagex would purposely leave them in the game they're just unable to handle the volume of them.

 

Pray tell, as long as the gold farmers are paying their $5 a month, how are they costing the game anything? Also, forget the community, or long-term health or anything, when I say "costing the game anything" I mean in terms of dollars.

 

They aren't. When Jagex was originally forced to remove wilde/FT it was because many of these gold farmers were paying for RS with stolen credit cards. People would eventually notice someone using their credit card for Jagex, the card companies would talk to Jagex and Jagex (at the very least) would be forced to compensate monetarily, I'd imagine. Possibly other legal fees or something too, idk. Eventually, the credit card companies told Jagex to deal with this problem or they'd boycott Jagex. That would mean no one would be able to use credit cards to pay for RS membership, thus severely cutting into their profit margin.

 

Now? As far as I know, gold-farming is illegal in China. This isn't random - this means that a significant amount of the people who would have gold-farmed for money via stolen credit cards are no longer doing so. (Or possibly for other reasons.) This group has to be gone, otherwise Jagex wouldn't be able to profitably run Jagex due to the reasons mentioned in my previous paragraph.

 

To summarize: the reason they got rid of them in the first place isn't there or Jagex wouldn't have been able to bring back free trade.

 

The gold farmers will still be using illegitimate means to pay for membership, be it stolen cards or whatever. I just imagine Jagex are better equipped now to handle with such problems as much it doesn't cost them as much as it did before and hence why they were able to bring free trade back to the game. However because the methods of payments are not legit Jagex make nothing from it which is why there's no reason to keep them around.

 

You don't know this. I think all the evidence suggests that gold farmers illegitimately paying for RuneScape is no longer a problem for Jagex, and that many of the gold farmers are actually profitable FOR Jagex. I admit it is possible that they actually are still a burden to them and that Jagex is simply able to deal with them in a fashion that doesn't threaten RuneScape, and that as a whole RS is now more profitable with them then without them (otherwise ft/wilde likely wouldn't have come back/stayed back) but I consider that the more unlikely of the two alternatives.

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Well if it bothers you that the game is more fun now, then you can go cry in a corner. :shame:

your article was the equivalent of a circumcized porcupine

The only thing wrong with it is the lack of a percentage for when you need to stroke it.

 


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The only reason to bring back the "original [child-safe] wildy" and free-trade was to get more traffic on the game itself with the hope that it would bring in more memberships and thereby greater income.

 

Whether or not that move has made Runescape more profitable remains to be determined ...

 

I can guarantee you that it has. I'm 99% positive that the average number of players playing RS at any given time has gone up since then. In the short run, Jagex has gotten many more members out of the deal. In the long run, this attitude is likely to kill RS.

 

There are a lot of other things that affect a specific corporation's profit margins. Sure the number of players "on-line" at any given time is higher than it may have been, from time to time, but one has to wonder if those numbers actually translate into memberships, and if those memberships actually translate into revenue.

 

I'd be suspicious of just how many "more members" there are today than there were as of, say, this time last year. I'd be surprised if there has actually be a massive growth in those numbers.

 

Keep in mind, as well, that as a result of the "botting" and "gold farming" issues, Jagex has, once again, to resort to employing more lawyers for legal services connected with these same issues -- such as taking legal action against those entities which have infringed upon their trade-marks, etc. -- and legal fees for civil procedures aren't cheap by any means.

 

Not to mention that, I also find it difficult to believe that the issue of people using "stolen credit cards" to buy Jagex "products" has resolved itself to any extent at this point in time. What could possibly be in place now that wasn't there prior to 2007? :unsure:

 

Also, what do you mean by "original [child-safe] wilde"? The most child safe one was the one with all those revs.

 

LOL! I am, of course, referring to the "don't hurt me" aspect of the current Wilderness where those players with the skills and equipment are forced to encounter and combat lesser players with both hands tied behind their back ... <_<

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Not to mention that, I also find it difficult to believe that the issue of people using "stolen credit cards" to buy Jagex "products" has resolved itself to any extent at this point in time. What could possibly be in place now that wasn't there prior to 2007? :unsure:

Yeah, I agree with this. I don't see how all of a sudden this could have changed - as it was probably their #1 reason for taking out free trade originally. It makes me think there's something we're not being told - hence the conspiracy theory.

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RuneScape is dying.

 

rstrends.png

 

If you see that chart, it's not too hard to see where everything is coming from.

The return of Free Trade/Wilderness is an attempt (failed maybe) for good PR and bringing back old 'scapers.

Loyalty programme is to keep existing players playing.

Refer a friend is to bring in new players.

 

What I think is that Jagex is doing everything it can to keep RS relevant and alive.

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It's pretty amusing how everyone says jagex are idiots for letting botting continue. Business wise, they're making a fortune from botters paying membership, a lot more than they would just from the few legitimate players. It annoys the current players to wits end, but very few actually quit, and stop paying jagex, over it. Whereas if they get rid of bots they automatically lose the MAJORITY of their playerbase. They'd be idiots to remove bots, business wise.

 

Honestly though, i bet a lot of bot users wouldn't mind a bot free runescape, i can see the 'can't beat em, join em' attitude behind it all, i just hope jagex sees this one day and if it ever deals with the bots, a lot of them come back as legitimate, paying, players into a much nicer and fairer enviroment.

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Not to mention that, I also find it difficult to believe that the issue of people using "stolen credit cards" to buy Jagex "products" has resolved itself to any extent at this point in time. What could possibly be in place now that wasn't there prior to 2007? :unsure:

Yeah, I agree with this. I don't see how all of a sudden this could have changed - as it was probably their #1 reason for taking out free trade originally. It makes me think there's something we're not being told - hence the conspiracy theory.

Well the world of finance has certainly changed since 07, maybe the banks aren't as actively pursuing low-profile stolen credit cards as they were 4 years ago. Buying off national governments does take a lot of effort after all.

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There was a rumour once that China had banned gold-farming resulting in wilde/FT coming back. If true, then it played a large role.

 

Really tho, the idea that Jagex is purposely [bleep]ing up RS is completely ludicrous.

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my difinition of noob is i dont like u, either u are better then me or u are worst them me

Buying spins make you a bad person...don't do it. It's like buying nukes for North Korea.

Well if it bothers you that the game is more fun now, then you can go cry in a corner. :shame:

your article was the equivalent of a circumcized porcupine

The only thing wrong with it is the lack of a percentage for when you need to stroke it.

 


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On the 3rd of December 2010 Andrew, Paul and Constant Tedder were replaced by four people from new investors, Spectrum Equity Investors and the Raine Group on the JAGEx board of directors. On the 21st there was a Wilderness and Free Trade Vote update on the front page. Also, Spectrum, Raine and Insight Venture Partners now own over 85% of JAGEx, while Andrew owns 0% of JAGEx and has a new company called Fen Research. It's not difficult to see what happened: new owners wanted new direction.

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RuneScape is dying.

 

rstrends.png

 

If you see that chart, it's not too hard to see where everything is coming from.

The return of Free Trade/Wilderness is an attempt (failed maybe) for good PR and bringing back old 'scapers.

Loyalty programme is to keep existing players playing.

Refer a friend is to bring in new players.

 

What I think is that Jagex is doing everything it can to keep RS relevant and alive.

 

I have a message for anyone looking to post the above chart in the future. Don't, because you make yourself look like an idiot as you don't know what you're quoting. That simply measures the number of times "Runescape" is looked up via Google search versus the total number of searches made. It says nothing towards the active strength of the game (and doesn't take into account people searching Runescape via other search engines or looking up Runescape related information without typing in 'Runescape'). Just so you know, even started at the 'purported' decline from late 2006/early 2007, the number of active Runescape subscribers has gone up. In fact, Runescape has more subscribers than just about any other MMO out there.

 

subscribers.png

 

(You can go here to look at MMO's by subscription.)

 

Granted, that's a bit old, and the current membership now may be a bit lower than it was two years ago, but that's a far cry from the "Runescape is dying!" doomsayers that like to come out every now and then.

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In fact, Runescape has more subscribers than just about any other MMO out there.

 

What an erroneous statement. Look at your own graph.

 

WoW has more subscribers than just about any other MMO out there.

 

And don't forget the other games released the past two years or so that are now competing in Jagex's niche as free-to-play. League of Legends comes to mind, and then there's that veritable host of free-to-play Valve games. And don't forget about Maple Story.

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In fact, Runescape has more subscribers than just about any other MMO out there.

 

What an erroneous statement. Look at your own graph.

 

WoW has more subscribers than just about any other MMO out there.

 

And don't forget the other games released the past two years or so that are now competing in Jagex's niche as free-to-play. League of Legends comes to mind, and then there's that veritable host of free-to-play Valve games. And don't forget about Maple Story.

 

It's not an erroneous statement.

 

1.) The graph provided details MMO's by subscription in the 1M - 12M range. If you would have clicked on the provided link just below the graph, you would see a further breakdown of MMO's by paying subscribers between the 0 and 1M range. There are over 40 of them listed with lower subscription numbers than Runescape. And, for the record, WoW does have the most subscribers of any other MMO.

 

2.) F2P =/= P2P

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Should've stated Runescape has the most subscribers of an F2P model. Your previous statement is still wrong, but at least you corrected it.

 

Still no question other F2P games are cutting into Jagex's pie, even if they are following the microtransactions route.

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From what I understood, you stated that Runescape had more subscribers than any other MMO, a genre which also includes WoW.

 

Question was, "Is Runescape dying?"

 

Because of Runescape's nature of being F2P and P2P at once, you can't just consider only P2P.

 

I'm bringing up F2P because if they can't attract people's attention into considering to try out the free game because they've other, better games to play that are also free, then that'll cut into their numbers of getting new members. It's pretty obvious from the renewed marketing blitz and goodies Jagex is throwing out there.

 

• The return of Free Trade/Wilderness is an attempt (failed maybe) for good PR and bringing back old 'scapers.

• Loyalty programme is to keep existing players playing.

• Refer a friend is to bring in new players.

Prepare to Die! Path of Exile RPG

 

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The fact is Jagex have always measured RuneScape's overall success by the popularity and ease of access to its F2P model. Not even they would agree that subscription numbers alone are an adequate measure of RuneScape's success right now compared to its traditional past.

 

Or does this not matter to your apparent denial that RuneScape is at least in some sort of stagnation, probably even decline?

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The fact that they dropped the three random guys fighting trolls in Falador seem to suggest that people are still coming here. I am not sure what Jagex advertises with, since I have adblock on, but I assume with the prevalence of facebook and other social networking sites it isn't difficult to get your average 13 yr old to try out something new.

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I don't think so either, as said before the logical approach is to keep updates churning out until the cost to maintain starts to catch up to the profits made.

 

When that happens you scale back, less updates, distribute the teams to other games and cutback servers as the player count falls, there really is no reason to kill it makes no sense.

 

The game should grow and shrink with demand.

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Meh, glados is just a weak thing. I'll take HAL over glados anytime.

 

At least HAL knows how to open and close doors.

First they came to fishing

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't fishing

 

Then they came to the yews

and I didn't speak out because I didn't cut yews

 

Then they came for the ores

and I didn't speak out because I didn't collect ores

 

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

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