RuneScape: Living or Dying?
fter the recent updates of RuneScape (trade and drop effects and the Wilderness) many players have decided to quit. This week's article will take a look into responsible RuneScape players and RuneScape cheaters' point of view.
Since November 26th 2007, JaGeX had changed RuneScape dramatically. Their first major change was the Grand Exchange, allowing players to trade items easily without standing in world 1 or world 2 saying "Selling item X" over and over again. This allowed JaGeX to control part of the economy, but RuneScapers still sold items at their own prices. No doubt this was one of the biggest and yet best updates of the game since membership.
With the addition of the Grand Exchange, JaGeX was on a roll. On December 10th 2007, they gave free players the ability to access and use the Duel Arena. They also gave more bank space to free players. However, with these updates, came the change of the Wilderness, instantly disallowing Player Killing outside of their mini-game entitled "Bounty Hunter". They also notified RuneScapers of a change to dropping items within a 3k limit and trading items with a 3k limit, which would take place on January 2nd 2008. RuneScapers were not happy about this, as the rant forums post count went up faster than the suggestions forum.
On December 13th 2007, JaGeX released a statement telling all RuneScapers that the changes would NOT be reversed, and to get prepared for the trade changes. The RuneScape cheating communities decided to get together to hold one last massive protest which made absolutely no difference towards the trade and drop changes.
On January 2nd 2008, the trade changes were made, and JaGeX had made modifications to them. By getting more quest points, the trade cap is raised to a maximum of 30k.
Because of this, a lot of RuneScape cheating sites have become unhealthy. There have even been reports of RuneScape cheating sites members killing themselves because of the updates. In RuneScape cheating sites, there are plenty of people Middle-Manning item and account trades. A Middle-Man is the person who accepts the pay and the account. They change the password on the account and get rid of the recoveries to make a secure trade. These people, of course now have nothing to do anymore but play the game as it was intended, without cheating. Often misunderstood, people who cheat in RuneScape aren't necessarily bad people, they just do something that the company doesn't agree with. It's not wrong, because nobody can definitively define right and wrong.
On the other hand, a majority of hard working and honest RuneScape players appreciate the new updates and play as usual. With such updates as the Grand Exchange and the Free to Play Duel Arena, many RuneScape players actually find the game more enjoyable. What RuneScape cheating communities don't realize is that JaGeX is trying to save something that those people were ruining. When you go to cut Willows in Draynor Village, you don't see any macroers there anymore because there is no use for them, as JaGeX have updated the game correctly and disallowed a trade gap of 3k for free players, and at maximum 30k for members. Thus making things like woodcutting more enjoyable.
JaGeX have strived to keep RuneScape running fairly for so long, have finally found a way to do so and they still stand strong despite what players think about the updates. In time, people should realize the importance of playing fairly, and working hard for your money, because that is the lesson that JaGeX is trying to teach.
