If you’re a fan of Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOs to the hardcore among us), then chances are you will have been one of the over 250 million registered Runescape accounts and played the game in it’s fifteen year existence.
This summer, the classic game has announced that for the very first time it will make the jump from desktop computers to phones and tablets, allowing players to use it on all devices.
In Winter 2017, Old School Runescape (a 2007 version of the game released and available to play for all accounts) will go fully mobile with the most updated Runescape game following suit in 2018.
Old School Runescape (OSRS) has been a hugely popular release for Jagex, with many players coming back to visit Gielinor as it was in 2007. But how does an older game version manage to keep its fanbase motivated to play?
The EDIT spoke to Mathew Kemp, the Product Manager for Old School Runescape, about the Old School game fandom.
The premise behind OSRS was simple, release a classic version of the game that fans could enjoy and relive a classic Runescape experience.
“The one motivation was the players. Because Runescape had been around for 12 years and it was modernising. Because of that Runescape was changing and a whole load of players were saying ‘it’s great and all but we want to play the old one.’”
A vote was called on the Runescape website about the idea of releasing a 2007 version of the game with around 500,000 players voting. The widespread popularity of the concept led to Jagex assigning an entire development team to the Old School game.
Much of the success of OSRS is about speaking to and understanding the playing community. All new content additions to this game’s version are approved by player polls and Kemp believes that it is “undoubtedly true” that this form of engagement has added to the success and playing numbers of Old School Runescape.
“It’s created a huge amount of trust between us and the players and because we needed to communicate effectively with them the ideas and thoughts we were trying to get across it’s created this relationship with us.”
To introduce a new flavor to the older game version, OSRS has also seen the introduction of Deadman mode – a new game type where the whole playable world is player vs player (pvp) instead of just a few specific zones.
Deadman mode has the added twist of massive experience bonuses as well gaining almost all of the loot from players that you kill in the game. High rewards are available then in this game, but the price of being killed is very risky and this experience offers something truly unique to other MMOs.
“You think of an MMO as something where you level up and you continue levelling and you get your xp, you get your items and it just increases and increases – you’re constantly building. So I thought, what if we take that away so that if any point you get killed you lose all your xp, you lose all your items. It creates this massive feeling of fear.”
This different mentality has proved popular and has also seen the introduction of ‘Deadman Seasons’, with cash prizes for the best players.
Watch out for Runescape Mobile, coming soon to a phone near you – remember fans of the classic game get it that little earlier around Christmas time. What better present for a Runescape fanboy like myself! To read the full interview, be sure to check out The EDIT website.
Featured image credit – Jagex
