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RuneScape is increasing their membership price by 50%, and Reddit is trying to censor it

Runescape is jacking up their subscription prices next month, going from like 12 bucks to 14 bucks a month. The increases range from 20% to 56% in price depending on currency. Players are PISSED about it especially since the company got bought out by some investment firm earlier this year, and they see it as a shameless cash grab.

Here’s a mega thread about the price increase on Reddit. Overwhelmingly negative feedback on the price increase

www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/s/samPRjFSCn

So I decided to make a post on Reddit basically asking in a neutral way if it would deter people from playing… And I was met with the most hostile, toxic keyboard warriors basically telling me “maybe stop working at McDonalds and you can afford it” and defending the company for the price increase. After an hour, my post was removed, and I was banned for a year without any explanation.

I’m honestly in shock that I would get banned just for asking a question, like they are that angry about people talking about the price increase?

OsrsNeedsF2P ,

Shout out to the open source Runescape remakes

rsc.vet - 2003 era remake

2009scape.org - 2009 era remake

darkan.org - 2012 era remake

There are other open source remakes (2004, 2006) but they’re not as popular. I’ve actually contributed upstream to all 3 of the above, it’s a very nice community!

jecht360 ,
@jecht360@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you for this, I’m going to set up my own Open RSC server tonight.

Meltrax ,

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, and I preface this by saying I do not fully understand the ins and outs of game development, though I am a software engineer (just not a game dev).

OSRS has made some absolutely amazing improvements in the last couple years. Almost every single update has hit perfectly with nothing but minor errors or complaints. New expansions and regions, new quests, new raid, weapon and damage rebalances, new bosses, new community events and special game modes, new updates to their clients both mobile and desktop, and most importantly a significantly better bot-busting system over the last few months.

This shit isn’t cheap. That’s a LOT of parallel systems and work, and OSRS continues to have 0 micro transactions outside of membership. True, RS3 and its cesspool of mtx helps fund OSRS, but I don’t know how far that goes.

I’m OK with OSRS costing $2 more per month if it means that this current cadence of content of QOL updates marches on. Jagex has been absolutely nailing it and I’m very happy with them, and that’s worth money to me.

OsrsNeedsF2P ,

I used to be a game dev. Busy so can’t reply atm but Jagex and OSRS make a LOT of money compared to everyone else already. Their subscription stats are insane

vortexal ,
@vortexal@sopuli.xyz avatar

The Reddit community is part of the reason I stopped playing RuneScape a few years ago. The in-game community was fine for the most part, as players would mostly keep to themselves or just talk with their own groups. But the subreddit would get super offended/aggressive towards each other for the stupidest things and the mods always seemed to make things worse.

I’ve always been of the believe that all online games with subscription services should always be $60 a year at most. If you do the math, $60 a year per player is way more than what single-player games make and maintaining/updating online games doesn’t require as much work either.

And yes, I’m aware of the whole thing with the bonds and how they technically allow you to play the game for free but, at least compared to the old prices, they aren’t as efficient as just buying a member and Jagex makes more money off of them. So, I still think that Jagex shouldn’t change the membership prices.

peopleproblems ,

I was literally looking at playing again with the Sailing announcement

Now it’s… No. I remember $5 back in the day and that was awesome.

Rhaedas ,

It's not a popular opinion, and I'm sure I'll get downvoted for the reminder, but what is $5 then in 2024 dollars? Just to keep a perspective that inflation does happen, and $5 is not a lot of money now.

However, if you're getting less of a product with a lot of eye candy to hide that fact, then get the pitchforks back out. In the end it's a matter of if it's worth the cost, no matter what the amount is.

yeldarb12 ,

I looked up an inflation calculator and it said $8.33 Cumulative inflation from 2004 to now is 66.5%

Rhaedas ,

So with the enhancements since then $10 is probably a fair price. I just figure being okay to pay $12 but bailing for a few more dollars for a "luxury" product seems overblown, but again...it's up to the buyer on if they feel they are getting a good buy.

I never was a Runescape player, but I was hardcore Ultima Online in the early days. Looking at the newest versions out there, it's intriguing, but also so much more complex now that I think I'd enjoy watching gameplay more than playing it now. Age catches up to you.

Sanctus ,
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

“Invest Firms” are doing this all over. My company as well as several other prominent southwest construction companies just got bought out, too.

This is the end game of capitalism. Firms buying other firms to squeeze every dime out of them. Its about to get fucken bumpy.

Renacles ,

You should try the other subreddit, RS3 players are more than happy to pull out the pitchforks.

wizardbeard ,

OSRS players are too busy trying to optimize everything down to the game tick.

ThePowerOfGeek ,
@ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world avatar

Not a big surprise on the Huffman Shitshow. A lot of subs over there are insanely toxic. But yeah, a ban for that? That’s crazy.

I didn’t even know RuneScape had a subscription! I think I briefly played it about 15 years ago. Good game, I just don’t have the time to play it, unfortunately. I assume you play? What’s the community like over there?

I just looked up their pricing and it makes sense for them to have an optional subscription. $14 a month is in line with other similar games (e.g. wow). Would be nice if they had a couple of tiers of subscription. Maybe a $7 and a $14. But that might complicate things. How much can you do on the free mode?

ImplyingImplications ,

My brother has been playing for years and has a few paid accounts. Here’s how he explained it to me. All paid accounts had their prices locked in until you cancelled them. His first, and main, account had a price of $5 a month because he first bought it 15 years ago.

There are also “ironman” modes that exist in the main game. It’s an option at character creation that will restrict your account from trading with other players forcing you to obtain all items on your own instead of just buying them from the trade board. Since you need to make a new character, this is also another payment. My brother has two ironman accounts.

There are “leagues” which are new temporary servers where the rules are different and XP gain is incredibly fast. You’re given tasks to complete before the “league” ends and are awarded cosmetic items based on how much you complete. This requires its own paid account to play. My brother has one of these too.

In total he spent about $20 a month on the game for his various accounts. This change to the subscription will set every single one of his subscriptions to $14 a month raising his monthly payment to something like $56 a month which is ridiculous. He plans on ending all of his subscriptions since there is now no incentive to stay subscribed (the price is no longer locked in). So my brother, a long time and devoted customer, will play the game less and give less money because Jagex is hoping most people like him won’t go through the hassle of unsubscribing.

He, and lots of other long time players, are hoping that Jagex does what other MMOs do and allow multiple accounts for one subscription price.

pimento64 ,

You don’t need a separate account to play Leagues or any other temporary game modes. You are correct however that you do need to pay a separate membership for each character unless you’re okay with that character only being able to do F2P activities.

ThePowerOfGeek ,
@ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world avatar

Oh wow, that’s a huge monthly increase. Thanks for explaining the pricing system.

Omegamanthethird ,
@Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world avatar

20 years ago it was $5 and maybe like 10% of skills were locked behind it. I noticed very little impact from it. But I’m pretty sure end game stuff was locked. IIRC, dragon armor was locked and may have been the best armor.

I’d be surprised if that general model changed significantly.

wizardbeard ,

The model hasn’t changed, but as development of new content has continued, 95% of new content is subscription only.

That said, I can’t speak for Runescape “proper” aka Runescape 3, the current “main” version. I’ve heard a lot of concerning things about all sorts of mobile game style predatory shit going on there.

I’ve only played Runescape 2, now called “Old School Runescape”, which is a fork of the game from (I think) 2006.

Essentially, right around that time they completely overhauled combat, stat progression, and a bunch of other stuff, and called it Runescape 3. A lot of people didn’t like the changes and started hosting custom servers from before the changes.

Eventually they made an official version, called it Old School Runescape, and have been developing it side by side with “normal” Runescape since.

Old School isn’t predatory in my opinion. Outside of occasional “leagues” on special servers with specific challenges applied, there’s no FOMO. The f2p game has plenty of content enjoyable on its own. The subscription just unlocks a mountain of more content, including alternative ways to level up through early game. Technically you can advance faster with a subscription, but that’s due to having more options to turn into an over optimized plan, not some shit exp multiplier or something.

vodka ,

Look up YouTube videos on fastest max level on RS3. You can get all your levels to max level with micro transaction loot boxes in a very very short time for a very very large amount of money.

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