Runescape Announcement: Bringing back the 2007 Game

[Zeglo]

With enough votes, Jagex will bring back the 2007 version of Runescape for free.

Make sure to vote if you want to see this happen! Voting opens on February 15.

Full article: http://services.runescape.com/m=news...scape-you-vote

[Wilian]

You have to be a paying member to vote, to make sure they can financially actually make it.

[expectwar]

That would be sweet! I quit in 2008 lol

[Treeskee]

Would love to be able to vote, but yeah I quit a long time ago.. Also seems like more and more publishers are asking people to vote to get certain things made now adays lol, kinda makes me think of those Facebook pictures - "If we get 1000000000000000000 likes our mom will take us to Disney Land to get puppies".

[Bonteqq]

I'm glad to see Jagex do this but sadly I don't see this going through. Just like the Runescape Classic re-opening they attempted. People cry and cry about nostalgic gameplay until they actually get it and realize how boring it truly is. QoL changes such as the GE and new teleports, quests, weapons, prayers, etc. have really made Runescape a decent game. I'd really like to see this work out (would love to make an obby maul pure that doesn't get dominated by new styles/SW Prods), but I have my doubts. But who knows....only time will tell I guess.

[Erolian]

I will actually pay for this. I enjoyed it for what it was once upon a time but really now its a cheap imitation of current mmo games that I really wouldn't have any reason to pay for since I can get better from other developers

[lopk]

It's really an awful idea. Runescape during 2006/7 was possibly the most fun in any game I've ever had. But a) nostalgia and b) it holds NOTHING to the games out now. It's just not feasible that a six year old game can hold up, especially for the $15 a month they're asking for if the support isn't high enough.

Also, there's no option to vote "no." I understand that they want to see who's all willing to participate, but seeing the number who oppose it is also necessary.

Oh well, I'll just never understand Jagex's decisions. I personally don't understand why they'd want two meh games instead of one decent one. Maybe they just haven't yet learned that quality trumps quantity.

[Orange Joe]

It's really an awful idea. Runescape during 2006/7 was possibly the most fun in any game I've ever had. But a) nostalgia and b) it holds NOTHING to the games out now. It's just not feasible that a six year old game can hold up, especially for the $15 a month they're asking for if the support isn't high enough.

Also, there's no option to vote "no." I understand that they want to see who's all willing to participate, but seeing the number who oppose it is also necessary.

Oh well, I'll just never understand Jagex's decisions. I personally don't understand why they'd want two meh games instead of one decent one. Maybe they just haven't yet learned that quality trumps quantity.

If you oppose it don't use it. It really has no effect on you if you don't want to play it.

[Revocation]

I started playing RuneScape during its Classic period back in '02ish, and I've played off and on ever since. It's only been recently that I've enjoyed the game more so than ever before. It's interesting to see how many people actually want 2007scape back, although I have this unshakable notion that the majority of those players started playing the game around that time.

Personally, I'd rather not have it return. I still have access to Classic and if I ever want to play it for nostalgia purposes I can, but even then I don't often. As someone mentioned in this thread, it's really a rose tinted glasses scenario. There were alot of bugs and general flops in 2007scape [Falador massacre anyone?] that I (and I'm sure many others) couldn't stand going back to now. The Evolution of Combat has really given RuneScape a chance against other big name MMOs out there, and this is coming from a guy who has played atleast 10 different MMOs over the past 20 years.

That being said, it's likely that Jagex will bring it back, at the rate the poll is going, but it just feels like they're taking a monumental leap backwards with it. The resources put into this version could easily be used elsewhere to improve the real game.

Looking forward to HTML5 in the near future as well as the so-called "RS3" in development though.

[torterra275]

Read into its a huge cash grab

50K to bring it back AND you still need to pay $15, screw that.
500K is needed for it to be free, which runescape doesn't even have.

Don't waste your time with this stupid stuff.

[Deleted]

I fail to see how people can enjoy a game with half the community using bots...it's not even funny how many bots were in that game.

[Nukkabovice]

Read into its a huge cash grab

50K to bring it back AND you still need to pay $15, screw that.
500K is needed for it to be free, which runescape doesn't even have.

Don't waste your time with this stupid stuff.

I haven't played runescape in a long time, and I'm sure it doesn't have the amount of players it used too, but you have to be pretty stupid to think there aren't 500k people with active accounts.

[Vampyrr]

I haven't played runescape in a long time, and I'm sure it doesn't have the amount of players it used too, but you have to be pretty stupid to think there aren't 500k people with active accounts.

500k active paying accounts not free ones

[imtehrogue]

Already voted, going to be great, played rs back in 2006

[Wilian]

500k active paying accounts not free ones

I don't know where this number spawns from but 2010 Runescape hit 200 million registered accounts and going by 2009 interview they had 8.5 million active subscribers.

[Deleted]

And what exactly is that 2007 version of the game?

I played it in 2002 or so but I was 10 then and don't remember much about the game other than it being the first online game I played. So I guess it's not the old version.. I have no idea what changed about it in 2007 though.

[Meatboll]

If this goes well for Runescape, and I hope it does, maybe WoW will steal this feature from them.

[Wilian]

If this goes well for Runescape, and I hope it does, maybe WoW will steal this feature from them.

Doesn't have any chances at all. Many games already offer "classic" servers without it affecting WoW.

[Larynx]

And what exactly is that 2007 version of the game?

I played it in 2002 or so but I was 10 then and don't remember much about the game other than it being the first online game I played. So I guess it's not the old version.. I have no idea what changed about it in 2007 though.

Before the GE, trade restrictions, and Wilderness changes. It was probably the most controversial update in the history of the game. . From the wiki:

The removal of real-world-traders

Jagex's initial response
On the 'RuneScape' December 'Behind the Scenes', Jagex informed everyone that they would be taking EXTREME measures in order to finally be rid of RWT. A quote from the article:
"On a more serious note, many of you will be aware of our efforts to stop real-world trading and how some of our recent updates have been part of that. You may have questions about it: What does it mean? How does it affect the game? How big a problem is it? What are the ways of dealing with it? To answer these questions and more, we'll be releasing a very important Development Diary on the subject."

Jagex's actions
On 10 December 2007, Jagex created a Development Diary to explain what they've done with Real-World Trading. They found nearly every way possible to keep it from happening, including removing unbalanced trading and making a limit on how much people can stake in the Duel Arena, changing the way dropped items act, modifying the Party room and getting rid of player killing in the Wilderness, which was a favourite activity of some players.
To replace PKing, Jagex added a new an activity called Bounty Hunter. In this, you are assigned a single player in the arena to kill, although you are still free to attack (or be attacked by) anyone, albeit with some penalties. They also released Clan Wars, a game where you and your clan go up against another clan in a war of up to two-hundred fighters. To compensate for the loss of player-killers, Jagex also added very dangerous and powerful monsters called revenants in the wilderness, in order to make the wilderness dangerous, even without actual players to attack you. Much later, Jagex also made player V.S. player worlds where players can attack each other anywhere in the world except in some banks and guilds.

Players' reactions
Due to these updates, riots broke out all across RuneScape, most notably in Falador on World 66. There were also many smaller riots going on around, and thousands of players reportedly quit the game. There was a common misconception that players that quit the game would cost Jagex money, however, the loss of tens of thousands of member RWT's far outweighed the loss of a few thousand quitting players.
Jagex revealed that Real World Trading had been much more devastating to RuneScape than anyone had thought. Not only had there been illegal trades of money for items and gold, but it caused many larger problems. Jagex stated that many RWT's committed credit card fraud, using stolen credit card numbers to pay for their P2P gold-farming accounts, costing Jagex a large amount of money.

Real-world traders' reactions
Since the updates, most of the various real-world trading companies have begun requesting the customer's account, password, and bank PIN, and then farm the gold on the customer's account, similar to power-levelling, as this is one of the only few options left for real world trading. Another method was transferring the items between accounts via Bounty Hunter (which is no longer possible). Today, due to the free trade and wilderness update, most companies do not require your password for gold orders and will meet face to face at a certain time to transfer your gold.

Here's another: http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Afte..._Hunter_update

And here's the actual patch notes of sorts: http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Upda...d_Drop_Changes
http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Upda...and_Clan_Wars!
http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Upda...re_Bank_Space!

It will be the subject of scholarly debate for generations to come.

[Erolian]

The 07 server basically is RS2. Of course you can say that the current RS technically is RS2 but they've changed just about everything about it with updates rather than a completely new game like they did from classic -> RS2. Whats out right now is basically RS3. Basically you take the post above mine and also remove all of the microtransactions a whole bunch of quests and the entire combat system which is basically a really crappy action bar/spell book sort of like wow. Remove any skills summoning and beyond. Send the graphics back nearly 6 years and you have it. It really was a different game the only thing they share is the name of a bunch of items and similar layouts at this point. I preferred it because it was just different from everything else. Now it feels more like every other MMO for me and really why would I pay for that when I can get something better in that fashion of gameplay