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Another Perspective: Hero Pass

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H 1 L D A
Apr Member 2020

H 1 L D A

Posts: 1,666 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I've got a few hot takes the community at large may not like here, and some that the traditional dissenters to my opinions will continue to object to.

Firstly - A battlepass change that restructures rewarding players for generally engaging with the game at all does qualify as a "major game update" even if you yourself personally don't believe it is.

Now, does that mean it should have been sharing a space on the roadmap with actual CONTENT updates? Probably not. Mod Doom even alluded to such a sentiment within the mod ranks. Given how Jagex had done markedly well in communication this year up until Hero Pass, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Those of you who have read my posts before should know that isn't a usual courtesy I give them.

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Secondly, the worst part of this update is that Jagex fell short on on backing away from instilling the fear of missing out that they had marketed would be less of an issue with these types of promotional gameplay rewards. FOMO is still very much in play with Hero Pass - particular as challenges will disappear if you ignore them, making the grind on the pass more excruciating each time it happens.

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Thirdly, Color Swaps of the same three outfits are not "lots of new customization options." Jagex oversold this one.

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Fourthly, the livestream had Mod Jack talk about why dailies would no longer reward TH keys, and he mentioned a rather interesting reason that didn't pass the smell test in action, but should make the consumer outraged.

Jack essentially said that people hoarded the rewards from Treasure Hunter in their banks and encouraged players to wait for specific times to play the game in order to take advantage of a massive stockpile of these items - and then went out of his way to say that Jagex does not want to encouraged players to play this way.

This is a farce - because the easiest way to remove damaging effects from the game here - is to remove Treasure Hunter.

(co)
Quest Cape Owner since 2021

Maxed
- July 31st, 2022

05-Sep-2023 06:01:04

H 1 L D A
Apr Member 2020

H 1 L D A

Posts: 1,666 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Now, for the -obvious- reasons they haven't done so already for years - that isn't ever going to be the route they will take with TH Keys.

So who's going to be the ones who suffer instead? The people that aren't buying the keys outright. Jagex has even done something like this in the past, reducing the amount of keys you can buy from the oddments store.

Now you have dailies no longer providing keys.

I would NOT be surprised if the next things to go are Premier Club keys, those for logging in, and even key rewards from quests.

The problem that message sends though - is that Jagex is

1. Aware that Treasure Hunter poses a significant problem to the game's health and player habits.

2. Has no actual desire to fix it because it would impact their bottom line

and 3. Expects the player to feel like this is okay and acceptable business practice.

I've always had a mantra that Jagex's RS3 approach has strongly respected the player's TIME (except when it doesn't - like introducing time gated D&D content that forces players to log in at specific times or abandon their actual goals to maximize efficiency - something Hero Pass itself was never going to solve despite Jagex advertising a reduction in Dailyscape...)

... at the expense of insulting their intelligence.

Jagex doesn't care if you can spot the glaring issues with their game. Apparently they can too. What they mostly care about is if you engage with it anyway, and more importantly, that you are willing to pay for it to make the game easier while others who choose not to are left holding the bag.

Whether you have always hated the Squeal of Fortune or have warmed to incorporating the Free TH keys as a part of your gameplay, this update and the chatter around it should have you incensed. The only winners here are those who pull out their wallets.

Outside of that, you have controversial things that I don't have much of an opinion on (PvM buffs.)
Quest Cape Owner since 2021

Maxed
- July 31st, 2022

05-Sep-2023 06:11:15 - Last edited on 05-Sep-2023 07:02:51 by H 1 L D A

H 1 L D A
Apr Member 2020

H 1 L D A

Posts: 1,666 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
So, is this the worst update of 2023? Objectively yes.

I waited until the update actually dropped to start this thread because I wanted to see for myself a little and gauge the communities' reaction more. I had actually been willing to applaud Jagex for caring about players playing RuneScape on their own terms and trying to reduce tasks the were highly irrelevant to the way most players were playing the game - and I thought initial reactions to the news were somewhat misguided and stuck in the echo chamber.

This is an update that got worse when it was actually released.
Quest Cape Owner since 2021

Maxed
- July 31st, 2022

05-Sep-2023 06:15:21

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