Since F2P Runescape no longer competes...

[Lizi 0]

...will they be updating it?

 

NOTE:

I realize EoC was a significant update to F2p. However compared to many other f2p games today, Runescape is severely lacking in updates, maintenance, and support that other games have.

 

This has been a subject on my mind the last few days. Runescape f2p used to outclass pretty much any game you could think of. When I first joined Runescape in 2003, there was not another game that I could find with so many features and things to do. Very little has changed since then, and I am quite surprised by this. Sure, it was a great F2p game 10 years ago, but can you honestly say that F2p Runescape is competing today?

 

I think it's extremely foolish of Jagex to completely ignore the reason their game grew so large in the first place. What are your thoughts? Do you think Jagex will wake up and realize how they've neglected such an important aspect in the success of Runescape? With the release of RS3 it would only make sense to take a look at the entire game, and not just the p2p parts.

 

 

Some f2p games that compete with/outclass Runescape's f2p:

• Combat Arms
  
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
  
• Perfect World
  
• Vindictus
  
• Free Realms
  
• Rift
  
• Tera
  
• League of Legends
  

Some facts about F2p Runescape:

• The strongest monster in F2p has been the Revenant dark beast for the last 4 ½ years! Before that update, Greater Demons were the highest monster for another 4 ½ years^.1
  
• Pre-EoC- the weapon of choice for F2p'ers training melee was the Rune Scimitar which was introduced on July 26th, 2001 and had not seen an update since the release of RS2.
  
• Will add more later.
  

Sources:

 

^{1 -} http://runescape.wik...rongest_monster

^{2 -} http://runescape.wik...i/Rune_scimitar

[Urza285 514]

Tera for the adult themed models... right?

[Saradomin_Mage 3562]

Rune Scimitar only became the best training weapon when RS2 was launched in early 2004, before that the Rune 2h was the best.

[chenw 451]

I know of 1 thats even more adult themed than Tera, but apparently it's only selling point was that (it only recently introduced the male gender in the game)

[Zaaps1 234]

That's cute, you think League of Legends is free...

[Lizi 0]

Tera for the adult themed models... right?

Ha, yes. I don't actually play any of these save for LoL, so they are not exactly personal opinion.

 

Rune Scimitar only became the best training weapon when RS2 was launched in early 2004, before that the Rune 2h was the best.

Actually, Rune Longsword was preferred over scimitar in early RS2. I never said scimitar was the best item starting in 2001, I just said it was untouched.(By this I meant they didn't update the item itself. I'm thinking of a better way to word this fact so it doesn't cause confusion)

 

That's cute, you think League of Legends is free...

Haha, cute comic. I personally have spent around $300...

 

That's beside the point though...that's $300 on skins. League can be played and fully enjoyed without spending a dime as long as you aren't vain like me.

[Kaida23 769]

Don't forget, F2P is for all intents and purposes meant to entice people to buy membership (yes, yes...I know what they've said in the past but this is the reality now) and everything it has is basically the lower levels of everything P2P has.

 

Also, several areas in the free game have received more graphical reworks than areas of members' worlds (Lumbridge and Draynor in particular). So they aren't ignoring it entirely.

[mousepad 18]

I agree that F2P was responsible for runescapes past success. I played F2P and lusted for a membership for about a year. I'm not really sure how they can change it without just turning old unused p2p content over to f2p. Like give them kq, kbd, and barrows.

[Ammako 1770]

I agree that F2P was responsible for runescapes past success. I played F2P and lusted for a membership for about a year. I'm not really sure how they can change it without just turning old unused p2p content over to f2p. Like give them kq, kbd, and barrows.

I *could* agree with giving them KBD, but definitely not KQ nor Barrows.

[kamil1210 108]

What are your thoughts? Do you think Jagex will wake up and realize how they've neglected such an important aspect in the success of Runescape?

 

Free Runescape is now very bad but jagex will do nothing to improve it. And this might be problem for RuneScape future

[Viv 31]

That is accually true especcially if they are so upfront about their microtransactions..

 

Of those I didn't like perfect world but played Vindictus a bit :D. The f2p in Runscape was always lacking still its meant to entice you to subscribe but yea when it started there was much less mmos and much less f2p mmos. It depends on what type of game you want..but yea.

 

I Played f2p about 5 months before buying members I was like 15 or so then decided one day i'd buy it haha.

[Kimberly 1129]

I find it harder in good conscious to tell people I see on like, reddit, to try the f2p version first to see if they like the game. Remember when that used to be the go-to advice for new players?

 

F2P is cool if you know what you're getting into, don't get me wrong...but it really can't hold a candle to P2P. So much of F2P's content is old and it shows. Now, everything seems old to us; we've seen and done all there is to do on F2P. But when I say old, I mean stiffly animated characters, bland dialogue, and only brief glimpses of lore. Instead of, "try these quests and see if you like them" it's become 'try the tutorial and buy membership if you like it.'

 

I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing. In some ways, who wants to be told they need to sink dozens of hours into the f2p version to see if they should keep playing or buy p2p? In other ways, if people try something like Black Knight's Fortress and then play the Ariane quest on f2p, will they be too startled by the difference in quality to continue? Worse, if I tell them that monotonous style isn't entirely extinguished from p2p yet? What then?

 

It's a tough call. There's still SO MUCH that needs to be addressed that I don't want to be the one who has to pick and choose what gets updated and what has to wait due to budget limitations...

[ACK 13]

But Runescape membership/P2P is cheap among other online games with more benefits.

i've tried some other online games couldn't find better than Runescape to be honest.

[Viv 31]

But Runescape membership/P2P is cheap among other online games with more benefits.

i've tried some other online games couldn't find better than Runescape to be honest.

Some bias in this cause you've played so much runescape. However I will say that Runescape is definately my cheapest in terms of hours....Playing other games u'll def spend more than 8 a month or 5 if your legacy the gold was 6.20 with some solomon coins...Free games usually have that feeling that you're missing some content.

 

The rs tutorial is awful now ....you do an awesome jagex style quest then the next quest is "use the sof." you get 15 spins and can't open 80% of them!

 

2007 f2p vs members was still a huge deal starting off the bat as a member in old school vs being f2p in terms of the vast amount of members content but It didn't have the "demoy feel" of current f2p. You could unlock the skills as a member but you didn't have them constantly glow yellow til you pay "demo like" idk much about being f2p now vs then cept that.

 

I probably wouldn't be recommending random people to start Runescape anyway but yea try one month of members is good advice its only 2 bucks for first month if you use paypal and that's cheaper than even games on a Steam Sale.

 

I can say though Runescape gets point for being active as does WoW even though I don't play that that's cheap to try now too 20 bucks for a month + first 3 games and free til lvl 20 instead of 10 days free trial.

 

You put league of legends but that"s a moba and not an mmo. Lets mention some cool f2p shooters tf2 and planetside 2 are those competing with runescape ? Somewhat but not necessarily as different game play genres and styles.

 

Runescape is still unique I dunno if Jagex has numbers on avg stay in f2p before converting to members. For them a short time would be better while for a player they might be wanting to play longer. Like I said Runescape is still mainly subscriber not f2p model alot of the games can't compete in a subscriber model so they go f2p and have microtransactions or just no subscription. MMos are a tricky genre though because they require much more time investment and community investment than other games so another game that was just like runescape but a clone less likely to be successful. "noone buys an mmo to play for a weekend"

[Saru Inc 515]

In my current job, I interact daily with executive management (Senior VPs/CEOs, whatever) of a very large and expansive business.

 

So I say this with some experience, those in charge of making decisions, tend not to make the best ones. The heads of Jagex simply see the lack of dollar signs, and that's all they will ever see. F2P won't be changed. After all, I pay, I say.

 

If you don't pay, can you say?

[PolarBearBlue 294]

The problem is, in a world where F2P gaming style of MMO's are becoming more apparent, the gaming company that basically spearheaded this has yet to see it. I've always had a long standing belief that older content of P2P, especially that which is already located in F2P locations, should be integrated into F2P as Jagex release new P2P content. Everyone who plays Runescape knows F2P is demo for P2P, even Jagex themselves knows, otherwise they wouldn't have made Burthope and Traverly F2P and allowed them to train P2P skills to level 5.

 

As Kim said there are too many thing that need to be fixed and update which have yet to happen that we should have long had. But in the same way OSRS has a small team for it's game, why can't F2P. After all, Jagex considers it a totally separate game.

 

I am pleased with what they have done so far by allowing a taste of F2P without being a member, and rework of F2P quest to fit the themes, and making F2P areas look better, but I'm afraid with the 6th age here Jagex will leave F2P in the 5th. Afterall, how am I to expect a F2P player to understand the lore with going to a wikia? not to mention the tutorial for all players is still lacking. There are a lot of things Jagex has yet to give player. Long standing quest lines that have yet to be finished are one, and promised areas. With the 6th age Jagex has mentioned they'll rework a lot of skills and finish the quest but given the time it has taken for Jagex to even mention that they would do this, I have little hope for F2P. I know the entire if you don't pay, you don't say is strong but the lack of a better F2P is very disappointing when a F2P model is becoming a thing for MMO's subbed by microtransactions...

[constrictor 165]

Would be interesting if they made P2P free and just required nearly every high-level monster/obtainable item have to be purchased through microtransactions ( e.g. have to pay 5$ to buy The Kalphite Hive map - which upon being read allows the player to navigate through the Kalphite Hive to the King and thus obtain the chance at getting drygores) - also if these items were tradeable hello brand new market - buy a 100 stock of Kalphite Hive Maps and resell to other players who don't want to spend IRL money (dat rwt).

 

Talk about a money market - JAGeX would make bank.

[Ammako 1770]

Would be interesting if they made P2P free and just required nearly every high-level monster/obtainable item have to be purchased through microtransactions ( e.g. have to pay 5$ to buy The Kalphite Hive map - which upon being read allows the player to navigate through the Kalphite Hive to the King and thus obtain the chance at getting drygores) - also if these items were tradeable hello brand new market - buy a 100 stock of Kalphite Hive Maps and resell to other players who don't want to spend IRL money (dat rwt).

 

Talk about a money market - JAGeX would make bank.

Yeah and then everyone would stop playing.

[Hedgehog 2501]

It doesn't really make sense for there to be such a divide between members and f2p when membership makes up such a small percentage of Jagex's income. I think they could totally eliminate the need to pay in order to access the entire game.

[Fallstar 614]

If they were concerned purely with increasing the monetization of their product, they would make the entire game F2P then go really hard on the microtransaction side of things, as that model has proven time and time again to be the most profitable for an MMO with as small a subscriber base as Runescape has these days.

 

Obviously this would completely remove any enjoyment I and many other players would derive from the game, but high level management that doesn't really understand the way the game works might not understand that.

[Platinum_Myr 349]

I wouldn't mind seeing some old content slowly phase into f2p over time..

[Ts_Stormrage 66]

You mean like 2 towns?

 

Honestly; While they once claimed F2P being the actual game with P2P being an expansion, and considering it at the time lived up to its self-proclaimed title of largest free-to-play game out there, it isn't the case anymore...

 

P2P is the real game, and F2P has become little more than a trial version; evident by the ability to level members-only skills to level 5...

[kamil1210 108]

How much money does jagex get from

- memberships

- adverts

-sof

-solomon store

?

[Platinum_Myr 349]

I mean like old minigames which don't get much play for members, early members quests.. basically slowly expand f2p by taking p2p stuff and making it f2p. Over time the f2p map would slowly expand as new areas open up for them.

[jayc3399 197]

How much money does jagex get from

- memberships

- adverts

-sof

-solomon store

?

 

My guess is SoF and SGS outclass the rest by a huge margin. The number of people that go "Oh its only $20 in spins" or "Oh I really like that outfit, I'll buy the $50 pack of coins" is staggering. Not saying that cosmetics are a bad thing, and not wanting to go into the issues on spins, but those two easily dwarf the income from membership.