Runescape: players may have successfully united to defend Gielinor against the evil forces of microtransactions

Runescape, the still significantly popular MMO, harbored a widely unpopular microtransaction shop called Treasure Hunter a while ago. Players have been airing their not-so-subtle opinions about the system for a long time, often very vocally on social media since its advent over a decade ago. The developers, Jagex, have heard them during this period of time and have finally decided to address the issue. They have responded by leaving the mechanism's fate entirely to their player base, allowing them to vote on it, but that’s not all.

The post the developers made about the proposal to the players is a relatively straightforward one titled ‘Vote On The Future of Treasure Hunter, MTX & RuneScape’. It details the changes that players should expect if the vote was to pass. “If we receive 100,000 votes or more, we’ll confirm our proposal as the future direction of the game!” the post read. They vowed to remove the Treasure Hunter system: “no more Paid Keys, Free Daily Keys, Quest Keys, or Daily Challenge Keys. It’s gone, forever,” the update states.

Apart from this, they also promised to reveal “A Year Long Integrity Roadmap” that would address the core issues that affect the game and the players. “from UI, to onboarding, to Dailyscape, revisiting the combat status quo and beyond.” - the post explained. It looks like more than just a simple removal of a system; it's an overhaul of the game's features and mechanics to bring it back to something players can enjoy.

Although microtransactions aren’t entirely gone, players who can only fit in a certain amount of time for Runescape will still be able to purchase “Bonus XP in the store as the only purchasable means to support progression.” This will allow them to keep up with the rest of the players who may be able to spend more time in-game.

Cosmetics will also still play a part in the game; these are purchasable visual-only changes that don’t affect skill or progression. However, they will focus more on the art style to match the theme of the world, and be less about overly flashy visual effects that take you out of the game’s immersive world.

The vote ends on the 12th of November, even though it hit the mark of 100k much earlier than the developers may have intended, the studio will still release the detailed ‘ patch notes’ at the end of the poll date. The changes, although not immediate, will take a few months to implement, but gamers can assume that work on them will begin in the near future and be pushed in a series of patches to users worldwide. 

Whether this crowd-sourced approach to deciding the future of both the direction of the game and its monetization results in it being a profitable play or not remains to be seen, but it has garnered fresh interest and generated goodwill, both of which should prove to be interesting to other industry players looking to revive their player bases or simply revamp their storefronts.

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