Microtransactions

[Arcley]

I don't support RWT necessarily, I'm just saying that it's not entirely discursive to only mention the people that quit because of SoF.

I've never ever seen anyone praise the game for RWT. It always goes like this:

 

RS is still alive? Cool, they even added some interesting updates to modernise it! Oh.. nevermind they have microtransactions, knew there was a catch.

 

Grinding on the other hand, and this links with the skillcapes, remains an incredibly unpopular feature of the game amongst people who don't play it.

This is true but increasing xp rates in non pay-to-win ways is a far superior way to improve the game.

[Ammako]

Solomon's General Store is something I had wanted them to release for a few years now.

[Alg]

I remember those posts. Whilst I don't remember the figure I'm pretty certain it wasn't much more than 300k.

Wasn't it 200k?

[InsaneChef]

I don't see how solomons is much different from add-ons in pc/console games except they add cosmetic changes to existing items instead of half the game.

[Jonanananas]

I remember those posts. Whilst I don't remember the figure I'm pretty certain it wasn't much more than 300k.

Wasn't it 200k?

 

I've seen player counts over 200k pretty often about two years ago or so...

[Arceus]

This is entirely Jagex's fault. Server and bandwidth fees decrease every year, and the number of shards possible per server increases every year. One or two solid updates a month like was done years and years ago could easily maintain the game. IVP is greedy, plain and simple.

Yeah... No.

 

If Jagex has done anything wrong, it's that they never really adapted to changes in the game landscape. They were a very successful freemium MMO back when there weren't really any other freemium MMOs, nowadays you can find hundreds of games using the same model, but with better technology and gameplay behind them, and multiplayer games are omnipresent. Bigger MMOs than Runescape are finding that the subscription model isn't sustainable anymore.

 

They got complacent with their status as the "number one free game" and the rest of the world overtook them.

 

Most certainly, remember this?

 

Reading the recently released FAQ, the answer does not seem to be in the affirmative. The response to one of the questions you pose regarding the remaining lifetime of the free game beings "We don’t need to recall all of the free benefits, do we?" [4]. While it is true that RuneScape has many free benefits, we urge you, Mr. Gerhard, not to be lulled into complacency. The Golden Joystick Awards and the Guinness World Record for the largest MMPORG, which is currently held by Jagex, are prestigious honors, and RuneScape is not the only competitor on the stage. Other games will begin to create more free content with the intent of earning those awards themselves, and if Jagex continues to cut free content, it is reasonable to assume at some point that the games will swap places. You have described the free to play community as "bustling" [5]; do you want it to remain this way?

[Blutters]

In every one of these threads related to SGS the element of the player base who played to earn high-profile [mostly] cosmetic outfits is under or mis represented. Me, namely. That's why I care so little these days about how XP is being devalued... My goal of gameplay has long since been torched.

[999134]

Might be slightly off topic, but related to what muggi said, I would argue the -lack- of high cost/level armor is now hurting the game, torva/divines etc are now so cheap and not that much better, that you have little to strive for. The new POP gear does not fix this like I hoped it would, just brings in another Pvp gear type armor, perhaps very expensive to regularly use, but out of nobodies price range.

Item goals are a big part of runescape, and aside from rares, there is nothing to aim for. So many people are now maxed also, and it takes little time compared to the past, that no 99s feel special to anyone, as everyone else already has them. I am really hoping the new skills are like 10k xp per hour...

Rather than rs being too grindy and chasing people away, I would say how common everything is that drives people away.

 

Also you may not like it, but rwt values on armour are also pathetic currently, how many people would rather spend 60$ to get full torva/best gear in the game, rather than weeks at one of the highest requirement bosses. This was less of a problem when the best armor was 1000$, as few people would/could spend that on a game, but 60$ is the price of a few SOF spins,and is well within children asking parents to spend on a game with little suspicion.... (used price from the ge spammer bots btw, so might be even less than 60$)

[muggiwhplar]

Might be slightly off topic, but related to what muggi said, I would argue the -lack- of high cost/level armor is now hurting the game, torva/divines etc are now so cheap and not that much better, that you have little to strive for. The new POP gear does not fix this like I hoped it would, just brings in another Pvp gear type armor, perhaps very expensive to regularly use, but out of nobodies price range.

Item goals are a big part of runescape, and aside from rares, there is nothing to aim for. So many people are now maxed also, and it takes little time compared to the past, that no 99s feel special to anyone, as everyone else already has them. I am really hoping the new skills are like 10k xp per hour...

Rather than rs being too grindy and chasing people away, I would say how common everything is that drives people away.

 

Also you may not like it, but rwt values on armour are also pathetic currently, how many people would rather spend 60$ to get full torva/best gear in the game, rather than weeks at one of the highest requirement bosses. This was less of a problem when the best armor was 1000$, as few people would/could spend that on a game, but 60$ is the price of a few SOF spins,and is well within children asking parents to spend on a game with little suspicion.... (used price from the ge spammer bots btw, so might be even less than 60$)

 

I think RS has sort of gone past the point of no return. The general "play style" towards the game has changed too much, in a negative direction IMO. There isn't much to do for "fun" anymore. It's not like you can get rich, get the best gear, and "retire" by playing Castle Wars all day like you could in the past. Like I said, regardless of how fun something is-- if it doesn't offer some sort of useful reward or if it's an "XP Waste," then it's instantly dead content.

 

A friend asked me, "What would you do if you got a comp cape?" I told him I'd probably quit. I think most people who max out suffer similar feelings-- they realize that all the "fun" is the journey towards the goals, and not the goals themselves. Which is the opposite of what it was in the past, or at least the goals were so vastly out of reach (read: maxing), that they never actually finished the journey and therefore either gave up out of boredom, or never quit having fun.

 

But we probably wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place if the game wasn't entirely based on grinding and the principle of "you can't have fun until you bore yourself to tears for X hours!"

[Ts_Stormrage]

Oi, Jagex... wan some customers back?

 

Give the Wilderness back to clans..!

[Kimberly]

Oi, Jagex... wan some customers back?

 

Give the Wilderness back to clans..!

 

Wilderness is still in the hands of clans if they wanted to take it despite the flaws of the combat system. Fact is it's a dying community filled with people who were just looking for reasons to quit. Negativity does not foster communities, it strangles them to death. That's what we all get for allowing DDoSing, hacking, etc to become all that really matters in the end. It's a sad day when the RSOF has a more bustling clan community than fansite clans do. They can balance the wildy all they want and completely perfect the combat system, and the fansite clan community will still kill itself inevitably.

 

I would've thought you'd see that already since you joined WG, given Lordship's constant endeavors to the community that fell on deaf ears. By the time anyone started to crusade against what we did to ourselves, it was already too late. There is no "winning back" the clan community at this point.

[Sylpheed]

Might be slightly off topic, but related to what muggi said, I would argue the -lack- of high cost/level armor is now hurting the game, torva/divines etc are now so cheap and not that much better, that you have little to strive for. The new POP gear does not fix this like I hoped it would, just brings in another Pvp gear type armor, perhaps very expensive to regularly use, but out of nobodies price range.

Item goals are a big part of runescape, and aside from rares, there is nothing to aim for. So many people are now maxed also, and it takes little time compared to the past, that no 99s feel special to anyone, as everyone else already has them. I am really hoping the new skills are like 10k xp per hour...

Rather than rs being too grindy and chasing people away, I would say how common everything is that drives people away.

 

Also you may not like it, but rwt values on armour are also pathetic currently, how many people would rather spend 60$ to get full torva/best gear in the game, rather than weeks at one of the highest requirement bosses. This was less of a problem when the best armor was 1000$, as few people would/could spend that on a game, but 60$ is the price of a few SOF spins,and is well within children asking parents to spend on a game with little suspicion.... (used price from the ge spammer bots btw, so might be even less than 60$)

 

Yeah! [bleep] progress, let's do the following:

 

- Remove RuneSpan

- Never release any Armour or weapons that are attainable by anyone other than the 1% of super rich players.

- Make the game harder and more grindy with each new update

- Remove all 'Make-X' options

- Remove all D&D's

- Have penalty exp weekends where you only get half the normal experience

- Randomly give a select few players a new Rare item worth billions

 

Ad infinitum

 

Seriously, Jagex will never win. Players hate the grind and some resort to bottling to achieve the levels they feel they need to have fun.

 

Then there are players who complain that everything is now too easy and achievable. To be honest all I see in your post is frustration that there is no longer anything left you can buy to show off.

[Fallstar]

Well the rare market is doing well at the moment, so if he wanted to show off there's always that, so showing off obviously isn't his concern...

 

IMO all high level (80+) gear should be untradeable. With gp being worth so little nowadays due to inflation, what used to be an obscene amount of wealth is now relatively common.

 

Whilst my sample is somewhat biased, I probably meet more billionaires in RS now than non billionaires. The value of a coin is at an all time low, yet armour is also incredibly low. It's created a situation where nearly everyone can buy nex gears and spirit shields without putting any effort in.

 

Jagex should have price limited them to keep it at 1b+ for a set, or made them untradeable, as elite armour should require effort to obtain; either through putting the hours in making money, or putting the hours in to obtain untradeable items. Luckily they've seen sense with the Eastern armours, but it's a shame they made the most challenging boss in RS (not that that is saying much) such a joke in terms of gp/hr.

[Estoc]

Jagex should have price limited them to keep it at 1b+ for a set, or made them untradeable, as elite armour should require effort to obtain;

1b for level 80 armor? People should be able to gear all the way up to 99 without grinding out thousands of hours for basic gear, if they want to make sets like third age which are mainly for showing off with passable stats then fine.

 

As for untradeable armor, I think having a set for levels 15,25,35 and so on would be a great idea, it would give incentive to level skills other than combat, and they could even have parts for the level 85 gear for example be dropped from nex so the gear we have wouldn't be devalued too much.

[Alg]

As for untradeable armor, I think having a set for levels 15,25,35 and so on would be a great idea, it would give incentive to level skills other than combat, and they could even have parts for the level 85 gear for example be dropped from nex so the gear we have wouldn't be devalued too much.

We've already got that sort of thing with black/white, third age and ganodermic, it might be cool to continue that trend.

[Lap]

Might be slightly off topic, but related to what muggi said, I would argue the -lack- of high cost/level armor is now hurting the game, torva/divines etc are now so cheap and not that much better, that you have little to strive for. The new POP gear does not fix this like I hoped it would, just brings in another Pvp gear type armor, perhaps very expensive to regularly use, but out of nobodies price range.

 

 

 

 

I have no idea where you're pulling this from, I think it's a lot more reasonable to argue that the majority of players cannot afford the highest tiered armours. Getting to the 100m+ GP thresh-hold isn't easy when you don't have great starting capital/skills. The people on these sorts of forums tend to be more dedicated RS fans, and would naturally have more money since they are heavily invested into the game compared to your regular player who may not play enough/have the knowledge to be "super efficient".

[Estoc]

Might be slightly off topic, but related to what muggi said, I would argue the -lack- of high cost/level armor is now hurting the game, torva/divines etc are now so cheap and not that much better, that you have little to strive for. The new POP gear does not fix this like I hoped it would, just brings in another Pvp gear type armor, perhaps very expensive to regularly use, but out of nobodies price range.

 

 

 

 

I have no idea where you're pulling this from, I think it's a lot more reasonable to argue that the majority of players cannot afford the highest tiered armours. Getting to the 100m+ GP thresh-hold isn't easy when you don't have great starting capital/skills. The people on these sorts of forums tend to be more dedicated RS fans, and would naturally have more money since they are heavily invested into the game compared to your regular player who may not play enough/have the knowledge to be "super efficient".

He's talking about pvp armor (statiues,vesta,zuriel,morrigan) being ridiculously expensive to use regularly but having a very low entry cost to start using it.

 

 

As for untradeable armor, I think having a set for levels 15,25,35 and so on would be a great idea, it would give incentive to level skills other than combat, and they could even have parts for the level 85 gear for example be dropped from nex so the gear we have wouldn't be devalued too much.

We've already got that sort of thing with black/white, third age and ganodermic, it might be cool to continue that trend.

 

Back during the restricted trade era third age melee was my goal for around a year. It got me bossing again and was very fun saving up for, all the way to waiting for ge to update and putting offer in to snipe it (the only way to buy it back then as it was rising for a while). I'd really enjoy having armor like that again. Expensive, but reasonably attainable sets for those who enjoy chasing the goal of relatively unique armor as much as I have.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Whilst my sample is somewhat biased, I probably meet more billionaires in RS now than non billionaires. The value of a coin is at an all time low, yet armour is also incredibly low. It's created a situation where nearly everyone can buy nex gears and spirit shields without putting any effort in.

I genuinely have no idea what observation lead to that concluding, final statement. On current GE prices, a full set of Pernix costs 210m, Virtus is 258m and Torva 332m.

 

How many millions do you think the average RuneScaper has in their bank, exactly?

[3tarluap]

pernix- 123m

torva-222m

virtus-102m

 

ge has always been horrendously flawed at giving correct prices.

[Estoc]

Whilst my sample is somewhat biased, I probably meet more billionaires in RS now than non billionaires. The value of a coin is at an all time low, yet armour is also incredibly low. It's created a situation where nearly everyone can buy nex gears and spirit shields without putting any effort in.

I genuinely have no idea what observation lead to that concluding, final statement. On current GE prices, a full set of Pernix costs 210m, Virtus is 258m and Torva 332m.

 

How many millions do you think the average RuneScaper has in their bank, exactly?

 

I think that today's prices, the correct ones not the ge ones, are comparable to 40m for a set of bandos back in 2008 when Godwar dungeon bossing was in full swing. I remember my cousin spending most of his bank for a Bandos chestplate, and I wasn't far behind him with 15-20m bank. Having expensive armor isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is achievable by people who are willing to work hard.

[Sylpheed]

Regardless of how wealthy the people are that use this forum, the average player doesn't have a few hundred mil to spend on a set of armour.

 

Nex armour should never have been worth the amount it was in the first place in my opinion. Not only did Jagex make Nex too difficult in relation to the armour tier she drops but level 80 gear isn't even close to being high level, not really.

 

If level 95+ armour is worth 1b a set then I'll understand entirely the price point because it is actually end game content.

 

On the topic of PvP armours, I really don't see the big deal. I think if players hadn't of complained about it becoming discontinued armour Jagex would have removed it along with the free trade limitations.

 

As it stands now I just see it as a hangover from the restricted trade period of the game that only exists because of legacy issues.

[Ginger_Warrior]

When you see Nex armour in the same tier as chaotic weaponry and shields, you can clearly see there's an obvious imbalance there. Two million dungeoneering experience compared to hunting Nex? It's not even comparable, there's a massive gulf in difficulty there. But at the same time, Barrows/Bandos/Armadyl at level 70 is good enough generally for most things, so it's not like there's a need for Nex armours to be so dumbed down at level 80 either.

 

The GE prices were the best information I had to go off, I know for a lot of things they are useless to go off. My point was more aimed at the "without putting any effort in" part. It's not like we earn tens of millions a week from MTK or something like that. People do still have to work for those armours, unless they get hundreds of millions donated to them from somewhere.

[n64jive]

Jagex introduced microtransactions because they could. I'm not sure if the majority just don't understand how business works, but let me try to explain with an example. Let's say a company specializes in making bread. The CEO of the company is informed that they can quadruple their profits by purchasing their wheat from a foreign country. It is an unpopular decision, but they suspect only half of their current customers have an issue with it.

 

Now translate that to Jagex. Even if half of the players quit because of the update (which I suspect is no where near the actual value), they can easily recoup those loses with SoF. The fact of the matter is that Jagex is a business and they had an opportunity to make more money. You don't ignore those opportunities.

 

As for balance within the game, I think this is kind of a moot point. If i'm going to be spending $200, I'd expect more than 800k xp. To 95% of the players, $200 is a good chunk of change. If there was some reason or other that I really wanted some content for this game, I'd much rather spend $50 then 8 hours straight doing the same thing over and over. But maybe that is why I quit this game. When it starts to feel more like a chore than a game, it's likely time to find a new hobby.

[muggiwhplar]

pernix- 123m

torva-222m

virtus-102m

 

ge has always been horrendously flawed at giving correct prices.

 

What components are included in that price? Just the helm/top/bottom? Or are the gloves and boots included now too?

[Fallstar]

Torva: 222M

Pernix: 123m

Virtus: 103m

 

You can buy all 3 sets for approximately 448M. Gano's are what, 1.5-2M/hr? I'm not sure what the gp/hr on grinding methods is anymore, but I guess they're around there. Mixed with farming torstols in between trips, and you're probably getting about 2.5M/hr in total.

 

That's not even 200 hours for what is still the best armour in the game, as PoP gear isn't in the game yet. Seems low to me. Anyway, it's a mute point as far as I'm concerned. If people wanted armor to show off, they'd buy druidic (about 6B a set). And IMO, Nex gear should have functioned similarly to the PoP gear: have a tradeable version so you can make money off it, but have a superior untradeable version. Insofar as showing off, I'd value something that I had to put the time in to obtain - like the PoP sets - over something that even in the 'worst case' scenario of spectacularly rare gear like druidic, takes me a few hours standing around in W2 to obtain at most.