News

Changelog - 03/07/19:

Since the blog was published on Monday there's been a lot of feedback.

Some people felt that we were not explicit enough about how this content would be offered, and a few even interpreted this as an attempt to mislead players. This was certainly never our intention. We have at all times tried to be transparent, and these details were always going to be expressed clearly in the poll. However, to reassure you all we've edited the individual questions to include content that was previously only found elsewhere in the blog. You can find the questions in the Poll Questions section.

Many of you have stressed that cosmetics are an important way of demonstrating your in-game accomplishments. We get it, and we agree. A clear explanation of the choices we've made can be found in the Poll Questions section.

Old School RuneScape is resolutely a subscription-only game. This means we're committed to keeping you happy, to attracting new players and to doing everything we can to make new players enjoy themselves so much that they sign up for membership (we've previously discussed potential changes to the early game designed specifically to make the new player experience a bit friendlier).

We think it's worth taking a moment to explain how games in our position can go about attracting new players, alongside simply striving to make the game itself better and better. Typically, the options are to release on new platforms, to expand into new territories and languages, and to pursue partnerships with other communities and with brands. Examples of how we've done this include:

• The release of Old School on mobile - this massively expanded our community, and we're committed to improving the mobile experience by making regular content changes, just like on desktop.
• The translation of Old School into other languages (localisation) - this is something that we're actively assessing.
• Partners - as our game grows, so does the list of companies that want to work with us.

On the latter point, our partnerships with the likes of Twitch have been really successful. They benefit both us and our partners, but also benefit you by meaningfully contributing to the health of the game which allows us to invest in the changes that you prioritise.

Therefore, partnerships are something we would like to do more of. Last year with Twitch Prime we offered a whole month of free membership, and the chance for players to change their skin colour to purple. The purple skin was later made available to every player, regardless of whether or not they had Twitch Prime or had claimed it during the promotion.

We, of course, recognise that some people wondered why we offered cosmetics at all. We did it because the more we offer, the greater the encouragement for Twitch and other partners to promote the game, and the more incentive there is for new players to try it. And sometimes that's what it's all about - the tiny little things that get a partner that bit more excited or get people to go that extra step and click play.

Importantly, we are going to give you the choice as to how we proceed. We’ll be polling the content that we think fits, and you’ll get to decide on what gets added. We don't want any of you worrying that free cosmetics are in any way a step toward introducing MTX (microtransactions) into Old School – the rest of this blog will outline our commitment to you, and will show you the questions you can expect to see in the poll.

To be completely clear about this - everyone at Jagex, including the CEO himself, is in agreement that we will not add any MTX to Old School RuneScape. We understand that doing so would completely contradict the spirit of what has made Old School a success.

We can promise you that:

• Any additions offered through partnerships will not be exclusive, and will be available for all members at a later date.
• Any additions that we offer will be made according to the art style of Old School and will truly fit the game's theme.
• Any additions we offer will not impact your playing experience.
• You will be polled on what additions are offered.
• Any additions we offer will be purely cosmetic.

To give you a taste of what we're currently pondering, ideas include additional skin colours, new emotes, Player Owned House styles and alternative home teleport animations. You can see the full list of ideas we're polling below. Don't be alarmed by the length of the list - this doesn't mean we're suddenly going to flood the game with lots of things. We're simply hoping to build up a backlog of ideas that you are happy with and to ensure that you have complete visibility on anything we might add to the game. Both ourselves and our partners are really excited to see what ideas catch your imagination, and we're also really keen to hear about your original ideas that haven't occurred to us - so please do let us know!

We promise that you, our players, will all get to have your say. Later this week we'll open the poll booths with a number of these potential offerings, so you'll be able to tell us which ideas feel right for Old School and which do not.

Looking after you all is every bit as important as trying to attract new people into the Old School family. We owe every bit of our success to you, our players, and we can't wait to work with you on making Old School the very best it can be.

We want your feedback. We’ll be talking more about the blog and the poll on Wednesday’s Q&A (which you can watch at 5pm BST on the Old School Twitch channel). You can continue the discussion on Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #old-school channel.

Since the blog was made live on Monday there has been lots of feedback making it clear that some cosmetic items in-game are the pinnacle of displaying accomplishments and achievements. We agree entirely, and we'd like to explain why we've opted for the additions we're polling. You've been talking about the pride at the end of the grind for things like the Champion's cape or the Bloodhound. That's precisely why we aren't polling a pet or anything that's equip-able. Player-owned-house style decorations are seen only by yourself, and any others you might invite. Skin colours are hidden by weaponry and armours. Home teleport is available to all players from the beginning of their journey, and the animations we're offering are only slight visible changes to the original. We don't want to undermine anything that you've earned.

The following text and questions is representative of how the poll will appear once it's made live, pending your feedback.

Earlier this week we spoke about growing Old School RuneScape through working with key partners in the gaming world. In this poll you'll be able to vote on a number of cosmetic changes. In the dedicated blog we specified that all items will first be made available alongside a partnership, but will then be made available to all players once the partnership ends. Click here to read the blog.

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