Future of Old School RuneScape playerbase

[Toadee]

Sorry to make a new topic for this, but couldn't find the right place to post it.

 

Well the server opened up in late Feburary, and it's now May so I looked a few long term trends of the player base.

 

I shamelessly stole the player data from: http://crystalmathla...ker/players.php

 

 

The dark black line was a crude attempt to connect the peaks, and the thin line is my freehanding a weighted average.

 

Looking at the long term graph, it's a gradual decreasing but the one month graph paints a bleak image this week. Maybe it's just the end of the semester, but the average is falling below 30k for the first time.

 

Looks like without incoming players, Oldschool will quickly just turn into only high level players. Thoughts?

[Vinyl DjPon3]

Doesn't surprise me.

Nostalgia only lasts so long.

Entertainment value in gameplay as well.

There's little to do at a high level.

 

OS doesn't get new players without a f2p status

Most new players won't even care to try it, because by today's standard of game, EoC is a much better game than OS

[Sellador]

One of the reasons I moved back to EOC is that I'm skeptical of 07's future. Sure, the player base may hold somewhat steady for a while, but it's hard to imagine a brand new player choosing 07 over EOC. Especially with the impending release of RS3 and a new skill.

[demby123]

Can we at least wait until the end of the summer break to say oldschool is dead...?

[All_Is_Great]

I had a feeling this topic might be coming up....

 

The player base is slowly declining that's for sure, I really can't see it spiking back up unless there's f2p, but then there will be more problems with that.

[muggiwhplar]

What about the figures for EOC? Wouldn't be surprised if both are gradually declining.

 

Though I quit 07 mostly because I finished all the fun stuff (questing, minigames, etc.) and then reached the point where I had to grind to get to where I wanted to be. And I didn't want it badly enough to tolerate the grinding :P I don't think it's the nostalgia that wears off; it's just the variety and novelty that goes away after a while.

[Vigilant Foe]

One of the reasons I moved back to EOC is that I'm skeptical of 07's future. Sure, the player base may hold somewhat steady for a while, but it's hard to imagine a brand new player choosing 07 over EOC. Especially with the impending release of RS3 and a new skill.

Ha, it's hard for me to imagine a new player to RuneScape at all 8-)

[Toadee]

What about the figures for EOC? Wouldn't be surprised if both are gradually declining.

 

I just spent a while googling for that, couldn't find it, but I found old ones that aren't updated anymore. Any one have one that is still being updated? Just need it for the past month to now.

[miracleman58]

I imagine the trend down hill is due to it being summer soon and most countries are having exams in the may-june months, including universitys in England. Will prob peak back up with f2p and rares

[Powerfrog]

I'll play it as long as it has a few dharok pkers on at any given time, the fact noobs won't be playing doesn't really effect me besides making food a bit more expensive.

 

It was fairly predictable people would have a go of the new gimmick and then abandon it, i just hope Jagex foresaw that and won't do something silly like charge $15/month or even close the servers down.

 

I guess there's always Guild Wars 2 if OS dies... (Similar combat to RS3 but obviously much better)

[Rock Hard]

Fair enough tbh, it's been a lot of fun already and i'm sure the summer will be fun too - But if it does drop off after the summer then i'd say thanks jagex for the chance to re-live my teens for a few months eh.

 

I've no interest in EoC so when 07 dies that'l be bye bye RS once more... Thing is to enjoy it while you can and not get obsessed with the grinding and goals, then even if it dies off - your time investment was still worth it.

[crazycdcm]

I think it is easy for Jagex to become accustomed to extra money. So I think before things get really bad, they would start updating maniacly to try and bring in new playerbase and keep the old one.

 

I also think there is a diehard core of the playerbase, that won't be going anytime soon.

[Caj Revived]

This is to be expected, because Old School Runescape isn't getting many new players, if any. Most new accounts are simply bots and gold farmers.

 

F2P will only bring in more bots and gold farmers. So there's really not a whole lot Jagex can do at this point.

 

Save for a few hardcore players, I find it very likely that Old School will die out by next year. Such additions as GWD might be a possibility, but it's been deemed too controversial to even be considered adding into the game.

 

We're at a lose-lose situation.

[Toadee]

 

Good news, the Old School player base seems pretty stable now at around 25k at max.

 

Bad news, I don't think many new players are entering the game, making the game top heavy.

[Seismos]

 

Good news, the Old School player base seems pretty stable now at around 25k at max.

 

Bad news, I don't think many new players are entering the game, making the game top heavy.

The fact that few new players are coming in is not surprising, almost everyone who has interest in playing OSRS has already heard about it. Most new players who aren't bots would be people who just recently have been able to get membership.

[Don1231]

The servers in old school are more populated than eoc.

I think it has to do with the summer periods.

Indeed most of the new players will choose the eoc, but more runescapers from the old days will get back to the old school.

[Jeffwilson99]

Some good points raised here.

 

As an older player so only just realised that "oldscape" was available, I am considering making a new account. However n ow I am unsure how long the game will be around for. I would like to think as long as there are a small number of active players, they would be obliged to keep the service running.

 

I wish I could take my one and only Runescape account back, not sure I would like being a noob again... Plus the hundreds of hours spent questing and grinding, not sure I have it in me!

[Vault]

Here's a much better graph representation of player count:

 

http://www.07tracker.com/playertrack

 

It's a lot easier to use, see, and interact with.

 

At the moment, I think the player base will hover around what it's at now. Hopefully later F2P is introduced which would help out.

[999134]

I think eventually the max cash limit and no way of storing it is going to become a major problem.

The economy is going to see what a no rares and no spirit shards runescape economy looks like.

It won't be pretty, starting to see some of the effects already with dfs at over 36m.

[Don1231]

Jeff,

 

I dont think they can delete the 07 scape, Especially if the servers are still populated.

Maybe they will turn the servers open at extra costs if it wents wrong.

I thought the same about starting all over again..

But its definitly worth trying the old school!

And I would not worry about the decreasing numbers of players..

Because the stats shows enough players, even in the summer period.

[Artillery]

To me, '07 is how I really remember and loved RS. I'd hate for it to cease to exist just because they aren't making their profit off of it. Hoping for the best that it stays for a long time, but expecting the worse.

[jaklumen]

Consider where Classic (RS1) is now.

 

I know it's not an entirely fair comparison to the 2007 August snapshot-- after all, Classic was still in Jagex's fledgling days, and when the Gower brothers were still actively involved. So, granted, I don't think 07 will decline as quickly as Classic has. But if things stay the way they are-- it will probably go the same road.

 

The ONLY thing that I think would actively save 07 (and Classic too) is if Jagex retrofits them for HTML5 and whatever other tweaks are necessary to run on smartphones and tablets. RS2.5 (EOC) and the upcoming RS3 are far too complicated for such mobile technology, but 07 and possibly Classic could do VERY well there. Seriously. Think about what mobile game apps are out there, then consider the possibilities.

[Ammako]

I'm thinking that if they run out of funds to keep it running/don't wish to keep it running, they could sell part of the rights to OSRS to a group of people interested in keeping it running.

 

I'm sure there could be enough players with enough programming knowledge and/or skill who wouldn't mind dedicating part of their time to running OSRS.

[crazycdcm]

Yeah some form of open-source could be great. Limited open source.... somehow...

[Ammako]

Well, maybe not selling part of the rights to OSRS, but maybe "lending the rights under certain conditions", otherwise a select few of the community would be deciding which updates happen and which ones don't, even though there's meant to be polls deciding which content to add.