25 September 2013 - An Important Message from Mod MMG

Watch the video to hear Mod MMG explain the inconvenient truth about gold farmers and why Bonds are essential for the future of RuneScape.

Hi everyone,

From today, your gameplay investment can work in your favour with Bonds: a new in-game item - purchased on our website and tradeable in-game - which can be redeemed for RuneScape membership, spins, RuneCoins and more.

RuneScape is your game, and Bonds give you more freedom and choice than ever before: pay for your membership with your in-game wealth; securely gift membership to a friend or fellow clan member anywhere in the world; access all premium content by trading Bonds in-game any item, resources or gold; and enjoy the full RuneScape experience, free of bots and gold farmers. Read on for more information!



What are Bonds?

Bonds are new in-game items, allowing you to pay for selected account-related and out-of-game benefits with in-game resources. Bonds are initially purchased just as you would purchase membership, but they can then be freely gifted or traded with other players. They can be redeemed in-game for membership, spins or RuneCoins. Soon afterwards we plan for them to be usable for charitable donations and - in the future - perhaps even the Jagex Merchandise Store. We’ve even set up a way to use Bonds to buy RuneFest tickets this year - see our FAQ for details.

Bonds may be purchased via our website's Billing Page. They cost $5/£3/€4.25 per Bond and can be redeemed in exchange for 14 days membership, 8 spins or 160 RuneCoins.

You'll be able to freely determine how you exchange your Bonds - be it on the Grand Exchange or in player-to-player trades - and how much in-game wealth you wish to buy and sell them for. Just like any other item on the Grand Exchange, the community will determine how much Bonds are worth in relation to other items.

How Does It Work?

• Purchase: Player A purchases a Bond from the Billing Page with their credit card or PayPal account for real money. The bond can then be gifted, traded, or consumed.
• Gift/Trade: Player A and Player B agree a trade for the Bond - either as a gift, or in return for in-game resource or currency of any agreed value.
• Consume: Player B can then use that Bond for themselves and receive membership, spins or RuneCoins. Alternatively, they could re-trade it.

The value that players determine for a Bond trade is entirely up to them.

A Bond is purchased in a tradeable state. Once gifted or traded in-game, the Bond becomes untradeable. Players who want to re-trade their Bond to another player will need to pay a trade tax, which will be 10% of its Grand Exchange value. We’ve added this tax on secondary trading to act as a gold sink and to prevent excessive merchanting of Bonds.

Why are you adding Bonds?

With this update, our aim is to unlock your investment in your account: giving hardcore players a way to get more than ever for their time and dedication, and more freedom for everyone in how they trade. On top of that, we hope to see this open up the full members' game for many more free players, those who can no longer afford subscription and - crucially - to deal a death blow to the long-standing issues with gold farming.

Bonds are a critical part of our war against gold farmers and of fixing the damage they have caused to the game economy. By allowing real players to meet the demand, gold farmers can no longer exploit it and are cut out of the system, preventing the injection of billions of additional GP per day into the economy, remedying the massive inflation caused, and thereby stabilising the economy overall.

The key to Bonds is that there are now two paths for players to access and enjoy every piece of premium content the game as has to offer. No player need ever feel excluded, since they can access everything the game has to offer, by whichever method they choose – through play or traditional payment. To see how Bonds might benefit you personally, take a look at these various player perspectives:

Everybody benefits from Bonds…except gold farmers!

RuneScape veterans can use their in game achievement to fund their membership.

Hi, my name is Simon and I have been playing RuneScape for 8 years. I have a completionist cape and my levels are all maxed! I have worked very hard over my years of playing, and now I sit on a small fortune of resources, items and gold. Rather than keep spending my own money, I can now trade some of my game wealth for Bonds, redeeming them for many months of unbroken RuneScape membership without having to spend another dollar myself! ☺

Gives a helping hand to new players wanting to progress.

Hi, my name is Sam and I have been playing RuneScape for 6 months now. I love training combat, but some better equipment and armour would really help me. I want to buy Bonds and swap them for some ganodermic armour. I might finally be able to join my friends on a Nex run!

The ability to gift your friends.

Hi, my name is Jessica and I have been playing RuneScape for three years. My free friends would really like to play with me but they can’t always afford membership and I don’t like playing on the free world. I’m going to give my friends Bonds as gifts, which they can redeem for membership so we can hang out together.

Give a helping hand to your clan members.

Hi, my name is Lisa and I have been a dedicated clan leader before you even launched citadels back in 2011! I run a clan of over 100, but many don't have regular membership which fragments our group and means some of the clan get left out. We are a tight group and very much look after each other - our clan will work together using the new Bonds system to help our clan members who cannot afford membership. Our clan is going to be the best in the world!

Bonds help stabilise the game economy.

Hi, my name is Kevin and I’m a long-time member. I’m happy with how I currently pay for RuneScape membership and I probably won’t use Bonds. However, I see the improvements this will make to the game economy, such as cutting out the rampant inflation caused by gold farmers injecting billions of GP into the game daily. I welcome the gold sink the bonds system introduces and the protection it provides against merchanting.

Helps protect players from real world fraud

Hi, I am Katie and I’m embarrassed to admit it but I bought gold from a gold farming site. The website re-used my parent’s credit card details and racked up thousands of dollars in fraudulent online purchases. They contacted the police but were told there was nothing they could do to help as the website is based in China and the bloody website is still running!

If Bonds had existed a few months ago I would never have tried anything like this.

Helps prevent hijacking and DDoS attacks

Hi, I am t0m_thumb and I searched the web for ways to make gold. I downloaded Powerbot and it installed a malware on my computer. My RuneScape account, Facebook, Twitter and email were all hacked and my bank account has been completely wiped out.

Kick gold farmers right where it really hurts!

I am a8jk13tjkp and I am a corrupt gold farmer. I’ve scammed, hijacked, DDoSed and defrauded millions of RuneScape players over the years.

Now that players can trade Bonds with each other in exchange for any in-game resources, my business is completely screwed!

If you would like to find out more about why Bonds are so crucial to the continued fight against gold farmers, please check out the recent dev blog from Mod Jacmob, who talks about the inconvenient truth of gold farming and botting, and the detrimental impact it has on your game.

To find out more about Bonds - including more information on how they benefit the game, the decision to introduce them, and how they work to prevent gold farming - please visit the new Bonds information page or the FAQ.

Personally, I think this is a great solution which directly benefits all players. In combination with existing efforts like BotWatch, and your help, we will wipe out gold farmers for good and ensure the long-term health of the game and community.

Mark Gerhard
CEO - Jagex Games Studio

In Other News

It's the final week of the Battle of Lumbridge! It's time to stand up and fight as this epic god vs god conflict draws to its conclusion!

• Metal fragments and titles have had their drop rates further increased.
• Metal fragments now drop in even larger quantities than before.
• The daily cap on divine tears has been increased to 4500.
• After this week, it will no longer be possible to unlock titles or weapons. Renown rewards will remain buyable for a time after the event.
• Solomon's got a grand sale on this week, with up to 40% off all RuneCoin prices, and up to 50% off Loyalty Point prices. Visit Solomon's General Store now!

The patch notes archive can be viewed here.

Meh, only time will tell how effective this update turns out to be. When I first read the news post this morning, and promptly changed my pants, I thought "the premise sounds good, with crippling gold farmers and the like, but something just seems wrong about it".

The ability to sell the bonds for GP is of little attraction to me, so I was more drawn to MMG's banter of its effect on the economy. I seriously doubt the ability of this update to "stabilize the economy" as MMG says. How many people will actually choose to pay 10% to change the state of the bond from untradeable to tradeable? If they wanted to lower the GP supply, they should have just added a tax on Grand Exchange transactions.

Until I can logic my way through this update, or see some effects of it, it will sit in my mind as a giant "Meh".

The scenarios they used to justify the update were hilarious.

Thus ends my incoherent rambling, PoisonNova

Was kind of hoping something like this new "Bonds" system would happen despite my strong stance against RWT. Their previous stance was very hypocritical and just ***** me off. They have a similar system in EVE Online and from what I've heard it works fairly well.