[Informer Article] When Old Gets New, It's No Longer Old

When Old School RS was released (re-released?) earlier in this year, I was conflicted about how things would be handled. The debate continues to go on as we get the numbers of players and subscriptions for both the old school and modern game about what kind of impact the two games have on each other. I really don't want to focus on that. I want to go a little deeper, specifically about the size of the team and support the game would receive. While I really don't want to write articles about Old School, I feel this has an impact on the modern game, but not for the reasons a lot of people make. Just stick with me for a minute and we'll get there.

When the vote was released, there were different levels of support that the game would receive based on how many votes they received. Based on these tiers, Old School was to receive a small team for development. I'm not sure what everyone else expected, but getting brand new content certainly wasn't something that crossed my mind. When Mod Mark devoted a section of discussion about Old School's updates during Runefest, I was left scratching my head. I was under the impression that people liked things how it was and didn't want to have anything change - to be frozen in time at a great point of Runescape history so they can live in their nostalgic world and live through being a noob with nothing to leveling and scraping their way back to good standing and beyond. That's the target for 07scape - that's the niche market. That's what these people wanted... right?

Apparently I was wrong. In a series of polls, we saw the player base vote for a resupply of rares, god wars dungeon released (again, re-released is probably the better term), and various other more minor updates. Okay. I mean, I guess rares make sense, that's cool. But... God Wars? That was a major turning point in RS history - part of which, at least I believe, led to a decline in valuing skills and a hostile takeover of boss hunting taking as the main purpose of the game. As I wrote in my article last month that possibly led to the economic catastrophe that the modern game still struggles with due to the massive influx of free top tier gear worth millions - which is a heck of a lot in Old School. I understand this added a lot of fun and GWD is nostalgic with the gear of the time, but let's be real - if we continue down this path of releasing newer and newer content, won't we just keep getting to a point where we have TWO constantly updating games that are really just 5 years apart? As the player base ages, those who wanted to play like how 2008 was, and 2009, and 2010 was will just continue. It's silly, but you know what? Okay, I'm still alright with this. You can't exist in a frozen span of the game's life and expect to retain players indefinitely.

But the scale is being tipped. It's going too far. Back to Mod Mark at Runefest - they are getting brand new exclusive content to the old school game. Buh, uh, what?!

Hold up. Hooold on. Old School RS is getting new updates. OLD School is getting NEW updates. Old. New. OLD. NEW. This, heh, this really miffs me - so much, that it's making me write differently than my typical writing style! ...Let me start over.

Rooftop agility was just released and storylines presumably in the form of quests of famous NPCs are coming soon to 07scape. When I first heard this, I loved the concept, but it wasn't until I listened to the youtube post again that I realized this was going to ONLY be in Old School. Why? WHY! Sorry - almost lost it again...

This makes no sense. These are great ideas. Among my favourite quests are the story of the Wise Old Man and the Drunken Dwarf's cameo in the Red Axe series (minus the finale. I'm still upset over that!). I would love to see these in the modern game. The agility roof running featured in the Ozan quests was great and is just begging to be made into an agility course. But Old School, who doesn't even have the Ozan quests, gets 9 new agility courses and the modern game gets... Coin share changes and a functioning map that should have happened years ago. Cool.

I understand the voting for Old School. That's great. That allows the players to mould the game and take the best of the updates that they want and reject the ones they don't. It's actually kind of interesting to see how different the game could have turned out. But to give a game that is supposed to cater to the nostalgic feelings of players some brand new content, it corrodes that. It breaks that feeling down. It takes that away as new areas or updates would to added. It's counter intuitive to what the goal of Old School is.

When you look at Old School, a lot of benefits were passed along that the original vote didn't guarantee. A supposed 5 dollars extra a month was meant to maintain the servers and cover the small staff looking after it. This has been waived indefinitely. And where under 500,000 votes old promised "basic" maintenance, they are being given brand new content. If Jagex wants to make these games independent and two different dimensions, that's fine, but the Old School players should have to pay for it, it doesn't have to be 5 bucks. Whatever the cost is that's fair, whether it's another dollar or two is reasonable. Or just give access to one game or the other. But I'd say Jagex has been more than generous to Old Schoolers, and I don't know if Old School players even want this stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong!

When you add new things to an old version of something it's not old anymore. It's something new. You can have old graphics and have a new game. You can use an old engine to make a new game. Being based on something old doesn't make it old. Jagex is making a new game with Old School RS. If this is what players want, that's fine, but they should have to pay for it. But I know that there's people out there that just want to play the nostalgic, vanilla version. Jagex is ultimately going to do what makes them the most money (as they should), but if you ruin the nostalgia of the old version and only do patch level updates to your modern version, nobody will be happy.

This was originally posted as an Informer Runescape article.

Good article, Rickles.

One point I want to make first: OSRSr's ARE paying for it. They pay $8 for their game, just like you pay $8 for your game. OSRS plays their game, with EOC as a small perk they rarely use. EOC plays their game, with OSRS as a small perk they rarely use(mind you, OSRS doesn't get daily spins, yet).

They are running two games, which is fine. How they went about it and are going about it is not fine, however.

RS07 is being destroyed by these updates you mention. It's fine for certain modern updates to be added (little things like bank improvements, etc) but to actually add NEW content like quests and the like, even adding GWD, is NOT good.
RS07 should've been frozen in time around 2007 - this was considered by most as the 'Golden Age' of Runescape, and it's fine to have a time period devoted to this. Many people enjoyed playing during this time. There is SO MUCH content in this era, namely due to the fact that skills require work, unlike today. You couldn't get a 99 overnight. RS07 might not seem like it has much content compared to EOC, but it has TONS of playability. It took a LONG time to reach anything considered 'end game'. Being from this era you know this of course.
As an example: When I first started playing in 2004 I played hours every day. My first 99 was in 06 I believe, with another in 07. My hours per day lessened over the next few years. In 2012 I finally got my third 99. This year I've gotten... 3 or 4 already. By playing less time than previously I can still make more levels. That shows the stark difference in game play.

OSRS, however, is quickly being 'aldulterated' into something the original voters did not intend. It has been taken over by new players that, surprisingly to some, actually enjoy that type of game(further proving you don't need 'new/awesome' graphics nor a 'new & exciting' combat system to get an maintain players).

At any given time over the past few months, OSRS has accounted for 30-40% of all Runescape players, consistently. When you consider the fact that all OSRS players are members but only around 60-80% of EOC players are members, it's easy to see how OSRS is a significant portion of Jagex's income.

Now let me say this: I love that they added RS07 and totally support that because I truly feel that was Jagex's Golden day, their prime. However I do NOT approve of nor favor how they are handling it now.

I think Jagex knows they made some pretty bad blunders with EOC(not just the EOC update, but various things since the 07 Era). They are trying to fix this by building OSRS instead of admitting their faults in EOC.

I agree with you, Rickles. Old School Runescape should NOT be receiving New Updates. They should receive useful tweaks and such(not EasyWin button updates, but simple obvious changes such as Bank changes, deposit/withdraw X, etc), server maintenance, and bot control updates(that don't screw players or playability!). Actual new content should be EOC only.

Now, if Jagex really wants to run two games(as they are implying from their actions) then it needs to be labeled as such. It's fine to have RS2 and RS3, but don't label one as 'Old School' when it is clearly not.

I had written an article draft relating to this subject, might be a good month to finish it because I think it goes along well with yours.

For clarification:
'EOC' = Current RuneScape
'OSRS' = Current Old School RuneScape
'RS07' = Old School RuneScape initially and the Era of 2007 RuneScape in history.

I kinda figured everyone knew you must be a Runescape Member to play OSRS. Didn't seem like it was something that had to be noted each time the subject was discussed.
But to please you...
You must be a Runescape Member($8 per month) to access and play Old School RuneScape.
You don't have to be a Member to play normal Runescape, however to play more than a small demo you must be a Runescape Member($8 per month).
If you wish to just play Old School Runescape, you must pay for access to Member content for normal Runescape as well.
If you wish to just play normal Runescape, you can either do so for free or pay and become a Member, receiving the benefit of being able to play Old School Runescape as well.

I don't understand your argument, Pyrn. Please elaborate if my reply did not answer you.


Hardly
You see, Jagex is sneaky. They have to be, having only a fraction of their former players. The 'Players Online' on the main page is Current RS players AND Old School players. How do I know this? Well I, as well as most of the RS population active in this discussion, figured it out within the first week of Old School. But to prove the point I double checked the figures today.

There were 45k 'Players Online' according to the main page.
There were 13k players on the Old School servers.
I logged into RS and looked at the world select and added the player counts for all the English worlds - 24k(Members and F2P worlds).
45k 'Players Online' - 24k Normal RS players = 21k
Where's that other 24k?
If we assume the two 'Players Online' counters are NOT linked, then how do we explain the missing 21k players playing normal RS? Are 21k people really playing on the German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish servers? I did not check but I highly doubt.
If we assume the two 'Players Online' counters ARE linked;
24k Normal RS + 13k OSRS = 37k total RS Players online
45k 'Players Online' - 37k total RS Players = 8k
Where's that other 8k?
It is in the German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, which is much more reasonable than 21k.

The math just makes sense, plain and simple.
'Players Online' - Players on OSRS = Players on Normal RS.

BTW, when did Jagex say what the percents were, other then the 'Players online' counters?


Agreed. They definitely need to be treated as separate games, though the fees could be somewhat linked. Pay for one, add the other for a few bucks. It's rather rude that you have to pay for both, even if you only want to play one.

I agree with you Rickles on the oddity of it. It is strange that they would bring back OSRS and then update it with new stuff...even with stuff than not even EoC has. But as was mentioned, people do pay to play OSRS, and the updates they get are not as numerous as EoC. EoC is still the main game and we see lots of updates. I don't think the fact that OSRS receives updates is a huge cause for upset or unrest.

I think if they were going to bring have OSRS, they should have left it as was. Untouched. Bring back rares, sure, but don't bring back anything that doesn't belong or introduce anything new. People wanted it back for a reason. They didn't necessarily want it to develop like the main game. But hey, give the people what they want, right Jagex? If they want new old, give them new old!

Will we get a re-release of Old School a few years from now with all the content they added removed if players ask for it? It's that kind of level of hilarity where catering to players can go too far.

You're right, but I know there's a broader range of players there and I like it as a measuring stick, if only for differing opinions. And yes, I'm surprised of the nature of comments as well - it helps to be positive and constructive yourself, which I tried to do!