RuneScape's monthly membership now costs as much as a World of Warcraft subscription as Jagex announces its second price hike in less than 2 years

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨commander@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/runescapes-monthly-membership-now-costs-as-much-as-a-world-of-warcraft-subscription-as-jagex-announces-its-second-price-hike-in-less-than-2-years/

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Just a gentle reminder that 2009Scape exists and you can play it offline with member benifits.

gitlab.com/2009scape/singleplayer/

source
- RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  There’s a scape for every major version of RS you could have nostalgia for. It’s beautiful.
  
  source
  - Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Nostalgia, then I remember all the grind involved and lose any interest in grindy MMOs…
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- CorvusCornix@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is amazing, thanks for sharing!
  
  source
  - malle_yeno@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Oh hey, I recognize your name! Did you also hop onto 2009 yesterday night? I think we were on Tutorial Island together haha
    
    source
- TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I can finally get some coal without 300 people on the same vein
  
  source
- wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Lets federate it (if it hasn’t already been done)
  
  source
- radiouser@crazypeople.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Very cool, thanks!
  
  source
SleepyPie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I also want to not that they’ve just:

Removed all pay to win elements Removed all loot box and fomo purchases Added the ability to toggle off other people’s cosmetics in the settings Removed all “dailies”, “hourlies” and any content that would pressure you to log in or not do the activity you’d rather do They overhauled the combat system last week to be more intuitive Are releasing a whole new continent on the 28th to give new players a taste of endgame activities like bossing

The price increase is on the annual subscription, and as a new player I’m letting my monthly sub roll another month. Not saying it doesn’t suck for long-time players but it’s what, another $40 for a game you intend to play for a whole year and will get hundreds of hours out of?

I just started playing RuneScape last month as part of a “group Ironman” and have been having a blast. I want to note this is the new RuneScape and not “Old School”. I honestly think it’s going to surpass OSRS at this rate.

source
- traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I highly doubt RS3 will outpace OSRS ever. The majority of the money Jagex pulls in is through OSRS, that’s why it gets so much more content. RS3 can be fun for the certain group of people but OSRS is just a behemoth.
  
  source
  - SleepyPie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s definitely not just about raw content. OSRS primarily exists because of the failings of RS3’s monetization and failed combat rework.
    
    Both have been improved now and finally the good of RS3 can shine, primarily the graphical fidelity, UI modernization, and combat that isn’t a pile of engine exploits discovered by players and embraced by devs who were happy to use bugs as features. RS3 has lots of unique content that OSRS doesn’t have, with better designed bosses (I’m told) and regions like Anachronia. Even OSRS was behind RS3 in content for a long time, so there isn’t a large gap here.
    
    I believe RS3 now has a better foundation than old school, and I suspect there will be a gradual increase in new players (and curious OSRS players) over time. As a new player that’s why I chose it over OSRS at least. I tried both and RS3 just feels way better to play.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- lechekaflan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  $40 seems a drop in the bucket compared to about 20 years ago when I was then toiling in a Korean F2P while watching the whales turbo-grind their way to lvl200.
  
  source
- Internet@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Still the second price hike and all of that occurred right after the first price hike. Players assumed the first hike was the trade-off to get rid of MTX since that was already the discussion at the time.
  
  RuneScape is definitely fun though, I’m not disputing that.
  
  source
- Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’m pretty sure the price increase is for OSRS also, but they just don’t get anything.
  
  Anyway, I somewhat agree with your argument. You get what you pay for, and if you want the game to not have MTX then you’re going to pay more (possibly, increased players could counteract this). I wouldn’t use an “hours played” metric to defend this though. I think it’s a bad metric even for regular games, but especially RS where it’s a “second monitor game” much of the time. Enjoyment/$ is the metric that matters. It’s harder to measure (as it should be, as it’s subjective), but it’s actually the reason we play games.
  
  source
  - SleepyPie@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Oh I’m not even arguing that the price increase has a justification.
    
    I just think the games are still worth it at the higher price and that RS3 might be underrated now.
    
    source
wildman@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Also worth noting that they fucked over their longest continuous supporters by rug-pulling their grandfather rates after promising they wouldn’t be touched. That is a huge slap in the face for anyone who considers supporting them going forward.

source
Widdershins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It comes as a surprise to me that they charge to play RuneScape and people ~~fall~~ pay for it

source
- boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s pretty fun these days actually, new endgame bosses come out every now and then, they’ve added a ton of new skills, and they removed their lootbox mechanic and have done a lot to get rid of the daily FOMO grind. Lifted daily caps on some activities, gotten rid of others.
  
  I haven’t played in half a year, but honestly, a lot of the changes they’ve been talking about are a huge positive for the game.
  
  source
- Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  “i dont like something and so no one else should” there are people who like the game. Its an mmo, so there are costs inherent in that, server, full time staff etc. It is not unreasonable to ask for some amount of money to keep the game going with updates. Is this price point unreasonable and greedy? Sure feels like it. Is your comment even more unreasonable? Definitely.
  
  source
x00z@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
And for that price WoW offers 65? character slots, while RS offers the whole 1.

source
- MBech@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Tbf to Jagex. An RS or OSRS character doesn’t need an alt in the same way you need to be able to have different builds in WOW.
  
  source
  - x00z@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Main, Ironman and a few different PvP builds? €50/month +
    
    The only thing that kind of saves it is being able to buy bonds, but you’ll need a constant flow of cash for that.
    
    source
  - PM_Me_Anime_Tiddies@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Ff14 also lets you play all classes in one character but they still let you make alts.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes, in RS your character is a jack of all trades.
    
    source
- Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Has WoW actually become alt friendly in the recent expansions?
  
  source
  - Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It wasn’t even main friendly back when I quit.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Recent expansions added some account wide progression. Rep is now account wide namely, along with the new delve season progression. There may be more, especially with the new expansion, but that’s what’s off the top of my head.
    
    source
- SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  And WoW offers an API for plugins like boss assistants.
  
  source
  - x00z@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Well OSRS has teamed up with RuneLite which also offers an API.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Does the game have a cash item shop? Will they be removing that? I can understand if they are removing a cash item shop or something, that is technically a trade of that tevenue for subscription revenue. A little late to the subscription party though, people are wisening up to the fact they end up paying more on subscriptions.

I am not unreasonable though. Nobody ever likes price increases but from the perspective of the business price increases are sometimes necessary to keep up with inflation and cover server costs, etc. I dont know Jagex’s business and financials enough to know if this is necessary for the game to stay online or if it is just greed.

source
- Wataba@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  They’ve done a massive purge of MTX throughout the game.
  
  source
  - Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    they removed 99% of it, including daily scape. alot of new players and returning ones depend on it to restart the game. Auras are totally obliterated
    
    source
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I tried to play this game and it’s fucking weird

click click, click click going around in a circle a thousand times. stupid fake retro sound effects

bro, this isn’t good. this isn’t a good game. you shouldn’t be playing it. this is bad

source
- Nikls94@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  To quote JoshStrifeHayes:
  
  This is a Chatroom first with a game slapped onto it.
  
  You won’t be able to fully enjoy it on your own.
  
  source
- ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I played the older rune scape growing up, like a lot, it was my first MMO.
  
  The draw of the game, at least for me, were two things.
  
  One: the punishment for dying was losing all but 3 of your items, do there were high stakes that made enemy encounters kinda exciting. It was pretty unique at the time, though maybe Ultima Online had that too, not sure.
  
  Two: the quests in run escape actually slapped. Unlike literally every other MMO on the market (which had simple fetch quests or kill X amount of things quests), Rune scape had really well written, funny, interesting quests that often played like an older point’n’click adventure, many of which gave really unique and odd rewards that you could practically use in other parts of the game.
  
  Those just blew my wee little mind back then, and I was absolutely hooked on it. I think in particular the quests would hold up, even against modern titles.
  
  The downside was to get to those quests, you had to grind like a motherfucker to get the required skill levels to start it. That padded out the play time by hundreds of hours, but doing it with friends or chatting while you did cooked some lobster for the 300th time made it bearable, sometimes even soothing to zone out to.
  
  I could never tolerate the grind today like 12 year old me could, it’s unbearable, but if I could play a version of runescspe that removed the grind, I’d be tempted just to play allthe quests I never got to.
  
  source
  - nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    yeah what you’re saying is what I’ve often heard about it. it’s a nostalgia thing. it’s the MMO that they played and that’s why they like it because they like remembering being a baby or something
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - lankydryness@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    In case you might be interested, there are a handful of private-servers for old school RuneScape. And they usually give you the ability to choose an XP multiplier. 2009scape for instance, gives you a 5x multiplier by default.
    
    They’re not 100% complete recreations, but they add more quests all the time and I believe they have most skills.
    
    Worth checking out imo. You can even download and run your own copy of their server (with some effort), and then you can tweak literally anything (again with effort and knowledge of Java)
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    oh yea the grindy is too much and too click intensive now that people are older and cant afford to destroy thier hands and waste thier time. thats why they played the newer one instead.
    
    source
- Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s machine that turns a monthly subscription into compressed nostalgia
  
  source
- LaserTurboShark69@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I just started like 3 months ago and I’m fucking obsessed. It’s so zen and grindy and full of content both old and fuck and super fresh.
  
  You can pay as much or as little attention as you want and still make progress in a million different interconnecting ways.
  
  source
Snowman_sir@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I wonder how active it’s monthly playercount is going to be after this. Of course they won’t make it public. Heck, even support doesn’t exist as far as I have played it.

source
- Akrenion@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I will be back for the next osrs league with my gf I bought at GE. I do not know what the price was for the last league but I was not appaled for the 3 months. I wonder if players like us will smooth out the long term players who have less or no membership after this.
  
  source
- Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  from what ive saw on the subreddit, orS has mostly bots in it, skewing the player count.
  
  source
West_of_West@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If people keep playing there is no reason to not increase prices.

source
- Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  its mostly bots in both games. they are sustaining the game by keeping in game items cost low, rs too grindy for irl people to play so its bots/alts are doing the dirty work.
  
  source
TwilitSky@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I sometimes wonder if stuff like this is why I lose my interest in games every couple of years and take years long breaks.

source
- winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The classics never had micro transactions and still hold up and have mods. I replayed fable recently and had a lot of fun and nostalgia
  
  source
  - TwilitSky@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I find myself replaying games 90% of the time.
    
    Just revisiting those wonderful places. I don’t see them in the games these days but waiting on next Fallout or Elder Scroll / Dark Soul / Zelda
    
    source
- SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The time demands of raiding in WoW made me drop the game cold turkey.
  
  source
LaserTurboShark69@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I just started playing Oldschool RS a couple months ago for the first time since like 2009. It’s incredibly fun and chill with an insane amount of content. The old content is super nostalgic and the new content is high quality stuff. It’s right up my alley.

I’m happy to have this game as one of my very few subscriptions.

source
Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Just play 2007scape. It was hardly worth 5 dollars in the heyday, its not worth fucken 3 times that now that its washed.

source
- Damarus@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Oh that got more expensive as well
  
  source
  - Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    they eliminated 6month membership , plus premiere privileges is rendered mostly moot.
    
    source
- traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  OSRS is a completely new game. They’ve added so much content, it’s absolutely worth it if you haven’t played in a while.
  
  source
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Runescape is kinda fun but it’s not worth nearly that much for a single character.

source
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
thats what they(ors) get for complaining about TH/MTX, runescape had to cut costs somewhere. most recently they removed alot of content dailyscape, and what not from the game. they have to earn that revenue back somehow.

source
melroy@kbin.melroy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Give me 1 month and I vibe code runescape for free if you wish.

source
Fizz@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Jagex profit margins are insane. It will never be enough as they’re completely owned by a VC capital firm.

source
Etterra@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I always laugh at people who play RuneScape. I laughed at them when it was new and I laugh at them now. It’s such trash.

source