The Decline Of RS?

I personally class myself as a newcomer to the industry with only 3 or so years working in the RS community.

During this time I am very thankful for the friends new and old I have made along the way.

Recently, and for the first time, I have many (well a few) of these friends and some colleagues in some way as such, that have recently commented on the lack of players, the slow yet certain decline in general of our beloved game.

There are many recent causes that have contributed to this, just a few I can think of right now are:

- Targeted staking account bans. (Those who know, know, this was swift and effective).
- More Pmod bans and Pmod activity. (A fairly new one in particular has been very active I can personally say.)
- Recent ban waves in general.
- Player base decline. (Worth mentioning that of course a huge contributing factor was Covid. Boom time when covid first hit for many of us, and now many around the world going back to work No more stims! No more working in the garden drink in hand!
- Many groups banned. Mainly discord was targeted however Facebook and I am sure others have been targeted too. I personally know of at least 20 or so... some well over 1K members.
- The recent Jagex recovery of a HUGE amount, probably almost all, top names for sale. I do feel for the top name sellers on this one.

Also worth mentioning I heard from a good friend today that he had information that Microsoft were looking to buy Discord and was linked with the recent groups on various platforms being banned. Then, found this: Microsoft's $10 billion bid to buy Discord could close as early as next month | GamesRadar+ Apparently the offer was declined by Discord. (Good on you Discord, it's Bill Gates here, ask for at least double the cash, a personal jet, mansions in every continent and most importantly free computers for friends and family.)

Personally? I see Jagex adverting which is great, the additions to Steam, constant updates etc are keeping a steady (even of not the numbers we all would like) stream of new and returning players to the game.

What I would like from any of you that have taken the time to read this is simple... your opinion! I look forward to reading them.

Cheeky plug:
P.S. Hope you all had a great weekend and if you need anything at all related to OSRS please pm me on Discord! MrNastyDJ#9999 - UID - 533399582680285190

 

[VincePhD]

I think the facade around OSRS is finally starting to drop, people are realizing that it
a) isnt the same game they played as kids,
b) is populated by bots / gold farmers / etc
and the magic is wearing off for people. I've seen a bit of an uptick in RS3 orders around the same time that I've seen a drop in 07, and there have been a lot more people who are curious about RS3 in general. i think that people are finally starting to see OSRS for what it is ... a shit game lol. Look at how much it crumbles because jagex takes a stance against rule breaking activity. Not like my hands are clean myself but you'd expect the rule breakers to be the minority, not the majority.

 

[gambling_babz]

I'm interested in hearing why you would consider this the decline of RS and not the decline of the RS Blackmarket. Have you played runescape for longer than 3 years? If not, this game has been around since 2001-ish. I've been playing on and off since 2006 and I know many that have done the same. I've been playing the game itself - no black market trading involved - for the past year and have had a blast. With that said, I haven't been active on the black market side of things since I got banned on an account with 800m (worth $800 at the time).

 

Personally? I see Jagex adverting which is great, the additions to Steam, constant updates etc are keeping a steady (even of not the numbers we all would like) stream of new and returning players to the game.

Man, I have no idea where you're getting the concept of "constant updates" - sure, they change things, and tempoross finally came out; but if they want to invigorate the playerbase (and economy) they need to be working on PVM and PVP updates that are intriguing enough to keep bringing people back in.
Runescape is essentially an addiction for most people that play the game, and lack of new content for extended periods of time is what's allowing people to get bored and get away from the game. If they continue to push new content, that boredom won't approach so quickly.

I think the facade around OSRS is finally starting to drop, people are realizing that it
a) isnt the same game they played as kids,
b) is populated by bots / gold farmers / etc
and the magic is wearing off for people. I've seen a bit of an uptick in RS3 orders around the same time that I've seen a drop in 07, and there have been a lot more people who are curious about RS3 in general. i think that people are finally starting to see OSRS for what it is ... a shit game lol. Look at how much it crumbles because jagex takes a stance against rule breaking activity. Not like my hands are clean myself but you'd expect the rule breakers to be the minority, not the majority.

You're welcome to your opinion, but that's really what this is, an opinion. An uptick in RS3 orders (which I've noticed too) stems from some of the bigger OSRS players deciding to stream it and give it a try.
Nothing wrong with that, it's not like anyone has to choose one or the other. Both games can thrive. Not since 2015 has RS3 even remotely compared to OSRS in playerbase numbers, and that still holds true today.

 

[CodecFitly]

Definitely noticed a decline as well & an influx in botting. I think people don't realize just how many bots are in OSRS, & how many people specifically use it to make a living. It's definitely not going in a good direction I don't think.

The amount of people in discords, buying gold, services, accounts, botting plugins, scripts, proxies is just crazy. I know jagex knows the numbers & I wish I could see them. It would not surprise me at all if OSRS player base is 70% blackmarket users.

Their current bot detection is garbage imo. I'm able to run zulrah bots for 100+ hours at a time without any breaks & they last weeks if not months. So I'll be here until they do something about bots q:

 

[lazerlyss]

bots and rwt, farmers are in a way a necessary evil as they support players demands and create a market, keep certain prices low, and make aspects of the game more enjoyable, though they need to be kept in check as a game completely full of them starts to become a problem, alot of players hate bots and theres alot of them now, it isn’t healthy for long term of game. that said, i dont think the game is dying otherwise the market wouldnt exist. runescape has been around long enough, its a small game playerbase wise as theres 2 versions of the game and alot of old players have moved on, but many come back and theres some new as well.

 

bots and rwt, farmers are in a way a necessary evil as they support players demands and create a market, keep certain prices low, and make aspects of the game more enjoyable, though they need to be kept in check as a game completely full of them starts to become a problem, alot of players hate bots and theres alot of them now, it isn’t healthy for long term of game. that said, i dont think the game is dying otherwise the market wouldnt exist. runescape has been around long enough, its a small game playerbase wise as theres 2 versions of the game and alot of old players have moved on, but many come back and theres some new as well.

I've been saying for a long time how necessary bots are to the game. They do need to be kept in check, but I think Jagex realizes they're also a necessity to keep the economy from bursting.

 

[barragepls]

Personally i think Osrs is on the decline, it needs some really important updates to save it.. unfortunately i think there is only a select few employees that are up for the job.. in my opinion they need to start employing more players that have first hand experience with the game.

 

I think there's a combination of factors at play here. First of all, as you mentioned, COVID lockdowns played a huge role in RS population increasing from March 2020. Most developed countries had some form of lockdowns right up until Q1-Q2 2021.

Now we're seeing the opposite, everyone is trying to get more outdoor time, trying to see friends, travel domestically, whatever they can do to evade the monotony of lockdowns. A lot of the new players from COVID lockdowns probably overwhelmed themselves with gametime, and are now sick of playing.

Couple this with the fact that RS is becoming more and more dated as time marches on. New major titles are released every quarter. Older games are receiving big updates. RS2007 is a bit restricted in what can be added, since it's a "classic" game. It means the game does not really evolve through time. Especially not at the pace of more contemporary titles like League of Legends, Fortnite, etc.

So RS2007 is in a pretty steep decline since its peak in May 2020. It's possible with the new Delta variant causing a rise in COVID cases across the developed world that some more lockdowns could follow. Longer term though, the downtrend will likely continue, since RS2007 will feel increasingly dated compared to other games on the market.

 

[lazerlyss]

I think there's a combination of factors at play here. First of all, as you mentioned, COVID lockdowns played a huge role in RS population increasing from March 2020. Most developed countries had some form of lockdowns right up until Q1-Q2 2021.

Now we're seeing the opposite, everyone is trying to get more outdoor time, trying to see friends, travel domestically, whatever they can do to evade the monotony of lockdowns. A lot of the new players from COVID lockdowns probably overwhelmed themselves with gametime, and are now sick of playing.

Couple this with the fact that RS is becoming more and more dated as time marches on. New major titles are released every quarter. Older games are receiving big updates. RS2007 is a bit restricted in what can be added, since it's a "classic" game. It means the game does not really evolve through time. Especially not at the pace of more contemporary titles like League of Legends, Fortnite, etc.

So RS2007 is in a pretty steep decline since its peak in May 2020. It's possible with the new Delta variant causing a rise in COVID cases across the developed world that some more lockdowns could follow. Longer term though, the downtrend will likely continue, since RS2007 will feel increasingly dated compared to other games on the market.

its a classic now for sure.

it wont die, but you can certainly expect a smaller player base that will be around for a while

 

[deadmou5e]

it won't die but slowly overtime the loyal fanbase will get older and have to focus on responsibilities over XP

 

[lucasG]

i agree with a lot of these takes. i played for a decade and recently lost my account.. Honestly at the point where I feel like grinding a new account because it gets boring solo. I don’t feel like the game has the longevity for me to even attempt a new account