25-September-2013 - Runescape Bonds

[Leik]

I was expecting tiny fixes and perhaps Divination to unlock, but instead I get legal RWT? ;-;

[Golvellius]

The fake testimonials by the slack jawed characters are almost priceless.

As a wallet warrior, I fully support this. $$$

I will be able to play far less runescape and accomplish just as much as the youtube allstars.

[Steph]

For everyone discussing the lack of removing gp from the economy, they never mentioned that as a goal beyond the tax imposed on retrading a bond.

[Blake]

Since you're now able to buy spins with GP (about 1m per spin if bonds are 8m each), does that make it more effective to train any skill with bonds=>spins?

[Aiel]

Since you're now able to buy spins with GP (about 1m per spin if bonds are 8m each), does that make it more effective to train any skill with bonds=>spins?

no, if you assume .5 small lamps per spin (generous), you're looking at 200 gp/xp, whcih is ridiculously high. Div, rc, and agil might be effective if you value your time really high (stakers/voragoers/merchers) or your irl time high.

[Slayer_Jesse]

for a microtransaction hater... im surprisingly ok with this. i'm taking a "Wait and see" approach to it. still fail how its a money sink, as anyone with half a brain wont trade them with tax more than once.

[Aiel]

I'm pretty sure this acts as the opposite of a money sink, it takes money from high level, high wealth players who have the extra gp just sitting around to buy bonds for membs/spins/solomons etc. and puts it in the hands of the low level players who then have money to spend on skilling resources, bandos, drygores, etc. causing a rise in demand for those objects. Since it's not really a money sink (there's no reason to trade them twice), it's just moving GP from high wealth players (who create little demand for 'everyday' items, as they're maxed/have all the equipment they need), to low wealth players who put this wealth back into circulation in the market, causing inflation.

[Hedgehog]

This is a remarkably good solution. I mean, I hate microtransactions and all, but this is a pretty good alternative to seeing people buy gp or trade gp for membership pins.

 

Though if someone I know buys bonds with real money, I'll probably delete them.

[ilovecuttingyews]

8 spins or 14 days of membership is really silly considering 14 days of membership includes 14 extra spins. That's always baffled me how Jagex could offer me 35 days of membership or 30 days + 5 spins for a $10 card. It's the same number of spins but without 5 days of membership!

 

I do think this will work in the long term. Natural supply and demand will push the price of goldfarmer and Jagex RWT closer in price, and any price difference will be covered by reduced risk of being banned for RWT, which Jagex seems very good at detecting now.

[Sy_Accursed]

8 spins or 14 days of membership is really silly considering 14 days of membership includes 14 extra spins. That's always baffled me how Jagex could offer me 35 days of membership or 30 days + 5 spins for a $10 card. It's the same number of spins but without 5 days of membership!

 

I do think this will work in the long term. Natural supply and demand will push the price of goldfarmer and Jagex RWT closer in price, and any price difference will be covered by reduced risk of being banned for RWT, which Jagex seems very good at detecting now.

Because people want spins NOW not at the end of their membership over the course of 14 days.

If there is a promo on or they want a specific item set they want spins to try for it right here right now, not using 14 days of daily spins at some point in the future that could be months from now.

[Demoli]

This is very, VERY smart. It will stop many people, particulary young players who cannot afford a credit card from being scammed on "gimme money and i'll buy you members". This will fully prevent that, and it does not give anyone any real in game advantage over what the Squeal already does, so this really seems like a golden solution.

 

Very well played jagex.

[ilovecuttingyews]

 

8 spins or 14 days of membership is really silly considering 14 days of membership includes 14 extra spins. That's always baffled me how Jagex could offer me 35 days of membership or 30 days + 5 spins for a $10 card. It's the same number of spins but without 5 days of membership!

I do think this will work in the long term. Natural supply and demand will push the price of goldfarmer and Jagex RWT closer in price, and any price difference will be covered by reduced risk of being banned for RWT, which Jagex seems very good at detecting now.

Because people want spins NOW not at the end of their membership over the course of 14 days.

If there is a promo on or they want a specific item set they want spins to try for it right here right now, not using 14 days of daily spins at some point in the future that could be months from now.

I suppose you're right. Never really occurred to me that people would want a SoF item and only buy 8 spins considering the rarity of most promos.

[michel555555]

How is this going to work? bonds basically have a fixed price based on rs membership or however many spins/coins you can get per bond. All gold sellers have to do is just drop their prices.

 

new gold farming model

 

1. buy ingame cash for cheaper then the price compared to a bond

2. buy more bonds with rwting gold then you would with buying straight off jagex

3. trade in bond

4????

5 profit.

[Blyaunte]

When I first saw the Runescape Bonds thing, my first thought was that it would involve an in-game investment scheme wherein you could “invest” your RS Gold by buying bonds through the Bank of Runescape and have it earn interest over time …

 

Then I read the explanation and checked my calendar to see if I had entered some kind of worm hole and come out on April 1st. :unsure:

[Maximusa]

Meh idk. We all knew this was ganna happen, it was simply time. I felt prepared for it. That said - This isnt so bad as simply buying gp, .. Its buying a token that allows you to trade it with existing gold from another player. Obviously its greed at the cost of the integrity of the game on jagex part, beyond just making profits. (Killing their cash cow/flag ship game) - But again we knew it was coming. Being linked to membership gives some positives to the players that I dont mind. I dont expect to see the declining player base to begin increasing with this update, it will probably follow a similiar path compared to the previous rwt updates.

 

How this effects me.. If I can buy 1b gp for whatever a token costs then maybe.. but that really is a sad thing. On the otherhand I see positives in using gp to get membership if it was cheap enough.

 

As for jagex talking about goldfarming and such.. Yes it might effect them.. But its just PR. Results is what matters. Im skeptical that besides lowering their prices that goldfarming will be as hurt as bad as they say. The people I see who get most effected is jagex themselves with the profit they would make from this. A legit way to buy gp with real cash..from other players safely. Doesnt change fact that its legit rwting though - A pay to win game.

 

On a related note. This morning when I went to the front page and saw that ugly mug I laughed and told my gf that we could probably buy gp for cash now. (Or rather I had a quick groan as I knew it must be controversial news to see his face lol. Probably something bad.) Then I watched the video... Initially completely confused.. but once I got my head around it I realise I was correct. >.< It had to be something money related to see that face again. >.<

 

Ah well.. lol.

[Sy_Accursed]

Is it just me or was the original set up of the past month or two meant to soften this?

 

Starting with Divination and the loyalty makeover to give us something we'd wanted for ages.

Then dg task set which we knew was coming for a while and mostly came from player suggested tasks.

They combat timers we've all been wanting.

The climax of the world event.

Super september

And this happening in tandem with the finale of a big quest line.

 

Seems, in hindsight, like a roster set up to distract, thought it kinda fell apart.

Divination was a bit of a meh and the lack of bonus xp has done more to annoy than please.

Loyalty was annoyance due to delay, coupled with ongoing bugs on loyalty payouts AND a resounding meh at the lack of things buyable with points, the fact the customise pallet made the costumes kinda fulgy and no nice new look for boring old auras.

Combat timers kinda slipped under the radar as a small thing that should've been there from day 1

Dg task set just compounded div bonus xp annoyance.

Super september was a bit of a wet blanket further annoying div waiters and proving to have kinda ugly rewards that ppl lost interest in.

World event got boring to most weeks agoand is just a grind fest leaving little major hype in the community for the end beyond a 'finally, wonder what cutscene we'll get'

And then the big show hat dwarf quest designed to come with this got postponed.

The grand summation being the big fanfare of good updates to distract becoming a unadulterated field of meh landmarked by only 1 real update in the past 3 weeks-ish.

[Mylez]

Very, very, very interesting. Good move Jagex.

[Flyingjj]

I was wondering why mods on the forums and twitter were so silent this week besides "there will be an update this week." No one had anything to say about what it was, or even that they couldn't say. They were keeping it pretty tight to their chest, so I expected something surprising.

[SwreeTak]

A great plan, actually. It may not be that much of a money sink in the real game as Jagex states though. At least I don't believe so. There are simply too many people with too much cash, and this won't help much. Someone else earlier mentioned introducing taxes; That would be a much better plan. Still though, this will help, if even so just by a little bit.
Then, as stated above, we all knew this money making trick from Jagex was coming. It's sad. But I still think it will help the game more than it will hurt it.

[Blofeld]

Haha , a question by God of Lego just got read out on the Twitch Stream :)

[Maxingmck]

WOW JAGEX. Way to give up and just start your own RWTing

[Fallstar]

I'm not so sure that the price of bonds will stay high enough in terms of RSGP to make it very difficult for the standard RWT'rs to compete. Let's say the price of gp is around $.35/M at the moment. That means a bond can't drop below 14.3M each for them to be worth it.

 

IMO this will probably just further compromise Jagex's stance against RWT without really affecting RWT blackmarkets in the slightest.

[Hedgehog]

Is it just me or was the original set up of the past month or two meant to soften this?

 

Starting with Divination and the loyalty makeover to give us something we'd wanted for ages.

Then dg task set which we knew was coming for a while and mostly came from player suggested tasks.

They combat timers we've all been wanting.

The climax of the world event.

Super september

And this happening in tandem with the finale of a big quest line.

 

Seems, in hindsight, like a roster set up to distract, thought it kinda fell apart.

Divination was a bit of a meh and the lack of bonus xp has done more to annoy than please.

Loyalty was annoyance due to delay, coupled with ongoing bugs on loyalty payouts AND a resounding meh at the lack of things buyable with points, the fact the customise pallet made the costumes kinda fulgy and no nice new look for boring old auras.

Combat timers kinda slipped under the radar as a small thing that should've been there from day 1

Dg task set just compounded div bonus xp annoyance.

Super september was a bit of a wet blanket further annoying div waiters and proving to have kinda ugly rewards that ppl lost interest in.

World event got boring to most weeks agoand is just a grind fest leaving little major hype in the community for the end beyond a 'finally, wonder what cutscene we'll get'

And then the big show hat dwarf quest designed to come with this got postponed.

The grand summation being the big fanfare of good updates to distract becoming a unadulterated field of meh landmarked by only 1 real update in the past 3 weeks-ish.

I think you've gotten pessimistic to the point where you're drawing connections that aren't there.

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm not at all pessimistic, I just wonder if the line up of 'what the players' want updates and big ticket items surrounding this were intentionally placed to try and butter us up to be less angry about more RWT after what happened with sof and sgs release.

 

At the very least is seems likely being in tandem with Birthright of the Dwarves, prior to its delay, was supposed to be mildly diversionary.

[brunokiller]

I'm not so sure that the price of bonds will stay high enough in terms of RSGP to make it very difficult for the standard RWT'rs to compete. Let's say the price of gp is around $.35/M at the moment. That means a bond can't drop below 14.3M each for them to be worth it.

Considering convenience and safety, bonds can go much lower.