It's been a busy two weeks for developer Jagex. On Oct. 6, the studio announced that it was adding a way for new players to get into the game, called RuneScape Reignited. Days later, it was forced to respond to the playerbase's loud complaints about the project. And by Thursday, Jagex canceled RuneScape Reignited entirely.
When someone mentions RuneScape, the response is often, "That's still a thing?" Once a robust massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, RuneScape (technically RuneScape 3) had a 30-day average of 16,774 players over the past month, according to a community tracker. (It's not to be confused with Old School RuneScape, which is based off a 2007 version of the original RuneScape. That has a much higher playerbase, averaging in the hundreds of thousands.)
Reignited was announced as a way to make RuneScape more friendly to newcomers and bring more people into the game. It's hard to start an MMORPG for a 25-year-old game with such a deep history; it can leave new players feeling isolated and overwhelmed, since there's a huge amount of "catching up" to legacy players. RuneScape Reignited, as Jagex wrote in the announcement, "is an opportunity to experience 25 years of RuneScape, from a new shared starting point and as a community, almost as if the game were released for the first time today." Jagex described RuneScape Reignited as adding a new "character type," which is just a way that the studio classifies a player and not a class or race, like in World of Warcraft. As an example, RuneScape has another character type besides the original. It's called Ironman, and puts some "hardcore mode" restrictions on a player. It means there's a separate economy, so they can't trade with regular players, but they can play among each other in the world.
Jagex wrote: "For existing players, this character-based approach means we can deliver what we promised: to see your worlds thriving again and helping the community grow in all directions. Just as how Ironman players live among existing players today, Reignited characters will be part of your experience inside Gielinor every day."
RuneScape's existing community totally revolted. People hated it, and Jagex responded immediately. Existing players were worried they were getting left behind in favor of new players, and worried that "veteran worlds will atrophy if the playerbase shifts to Reignited worlds," according to Jagex's list of complaints published on its blog. They didn't want a split community, which was a risk, players said, because RuneScape Reignited players would have access to their own servers and the legacy ones. The risk is that they'd stay on their new servers, siloing off veteran players. There were some restrictions on how these two groups could interact, too. The full list of complaints, collated by Jagex, is listed on the Oct. 6 blog.
Jagex said, at that time, that it was reviewing some tweaks to RuneScape Reignited to bring in new players and help veteran players feel important. It promised a new proposal by the end of the week.
On Oct. 9, Jagex indeed posted that update. It laid out the complaints with their response. For instance, for the veteran characters no longer mattering, Jagex said:
The achievements you have made should be celebrated and recognised. We want to champion all the amazing things you’ve done, well before any new Reignited players even started.
The word “veteran” should forever be a status symbol that cannot be earned in the future. You’ll be able to showcase this through an exclusive suite of rewards to distinguish your accomplishments in the first 25 years. For example, a special cosmetic version of a Max Cape that no-one else can have.
Every veteran account will have access to these rewards, and if you choose to Reignite, these rewards will come with you.
To the veteran worlds flailing, Jagex said it's discussing removing the separate worlds thing, or making it time-based. Jagex said it'd continue the "conversation" the following week.
And that update, which came on Oct. 15, was RuneScape Reignited's cancellation. Jagex moderator Ryan posted a video and blog about the decision. "It is clear that we missed the mark on this, and so we are not moving forward with it," Jagex wrote. "Our goal is to see Runescape grow again, with returning players coming back and new players joining, but never at the expense of our existing community."
Jagex apologized to the new players looking forward to Reignited, but said newcomers are still welcome with a 10 day free trial for new and returning players.
Lots of players celebrated the announcement, but the joy is not universal on social media and Reddit. There were plenty of people who were excited for the change for a less friction-filled way to get into or return to RuneScape. "Making a level 1 character in a 25-year-old MMO is not the same experience, no matter how many times you insist that it is," one person wrote on Reddit. "And now that Reignited is cancelled, suddenly we're being told how welcoming the community is and how we should all give the existing game a chance."
Certainly, Jagex is taking itself back to the drawing board to figure out a new way to reignite (heh) the community, but for now, new players should get ready for the grind.
