Is Jagex being unfair to F2P players?

By Anonymous

The topic that anyone can often hear being discussed in the F2P (Free to Play) version of RuneScape is whether or not Jagex is being unfair by giving advantages to people who pay to play the members version of the game, that they should just make the whole game F2P. Should anything be done about it and will anything ever be done? That brings us to today's article, "Is Jagex being unfair to F2P players?" with the nameless temporary editor.

Ever since the members version of RuneScape was released on 27th February 2002, it offered a huge advantage over the free version. Members had easier ways to earn GP, level up their skills and a huge area to roam around in. For example, players can go to Seer's Village and pick flax if they're desperate for a small amount of GP, go questing whenever they're bored (unless they have spent weeks in trying to finish all the quests) and they always have a hope of being able to shout "EUREKA!!!" while hunting monsters as the ones as weak as a dwarf have a slim, but nevertheless possible chance of dropping a Shield Left Half, which is worth 550K as of now. Clues are also dropped by quite a lot of monsters, and can give a player over 50 million GP in a matter of hours.

In contrast to the above, the F2P version is a completely different game (as said by a few people) despite the fact that it shares the same name, "RuneScape" with the members version. A yew tree is never left alone with all the macroners, no-one can train combat in popular spots at peak times without being insulted or KSed and it's nearly impossible to earn large sums of money even with medium level skills. The drops are better than ever, with the Greater Demons (Level 92, the strongest F2P monsters) dropping rune full helmets, which is a little bit over 20k; surely not worth the risk of venturing into the wilderness with the danger of getting PKed anytime.

As for me, I live on new updates. I nearly always try them out when they come out to liven up and give a break to whatever I was doing, but in F2P there only has been 2 major updates (massive scale make-up, new areas/mini games) in my entire RS life (a little bit over a year) – what's more, they're nowhere near as good as the updates P2P players get every single week. Take the table below for example:

 F2PP2P
Last major updateOver a month5 days
Last major update before the last1 yearUnder a month

What I've written so far should make Jagex sound like fat and greedy blokes who don't put in much effort to make money and therefore not deserving it, but that's not exactly the truth. They're putting in much effort even now, not to mention the head of Jagex, Andrew Gower who has been working like hell for nearly 10 years now, ever since he made the game DeviousMUD (and even before that on other games with his two brothers) while in Cambridge University to produce the very game, the great RuneScape that we play today. If anyone deserves the income he's getting right now, it's him.

People who complain about Jagex unfair are often aggressive people, who drag you into noob fights when you have a different opinion. More and more people will think that Jagex is unfair, as these aggressive people keep on telling others (because they want to complain), while the ones who say they're fair will keep quiet – only a mindless idiot goes around saying that something fair to random people for no reason.

Some people might say, "Why should we listen to you? It's only your opinion." So for you, I have been running around F2P RuneScape asking players ranging from level 34 to 115 what their opinions are. Believe me, I've been told to "F*** off, don't scam me," "Shut up noob" and have been called a "Scammer b****." Here it is:

They pay for it, they deserve it16
They have to make money somehow21
No idea2
It's unfair9
It's totally unfair and makes me mad8

I'll leave the deciding up to you, the reader. If you would like to share your opinion, please post in the forum thread for this article found here.

Last update: 07-Jul-2007
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