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Old School RuneScape Anyone?

Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard brings you a big announcement: we're considering opening up a version of RuneScape from 2007. The poll will open on Friday 15th Feb - we just need to know...who's interested?

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Hi everyone,

Last week, Mod Mark posted a thread on our forums highlighting some of the nostalgic and often passionate discussions within the community around a desired return of an ‘old school’ version of RuneScape. Specifically, the fine vintages of 2006 & 2007 appeared to be the high point of collective interest. Our team then set out to see if we had a backup that went that far back; if restoring the backup was even technically possible; and what specific content these potential old RuneScape backups might contain.

The team has spent many late nights and the past weekend digging through dusty old backups and restoring them, in the hope of finding more than just the old IT manager's MP3 collection of 80s rock power ballads! ☺

Finally, I’m very happy to report that we have indeed managed to recover a full RuneScape backup from August 2007 . This is a complete snapshot of the game, which we have been able to verify would work, with some time and effort invested in it. Ironically, in October 2007 we actually changed our backup systems, so we have no complete content versions from August onwards that are viable for this purpose.

As I said at the start of the year, we’re all very focused on making this year fun, memorable and special to you, and a significant part of realising this mission is giving you a big say in what we focus on. That said, a huge amount has either changed or been improved since the heady days of 2007. The game has evolved, as have our tech, systems, and infrastructure. There will be a substantial amount of work involved to get these ‘old school’ servers back up and running again. However, if enough people support this project, this will be neither unachievable, nor a hindrance to the main game.

So, just like the poll for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4 million votes , we will be running a similar poll and letting you - our valued members - decide the fate of ‘Old School RuneScape', given that you directly fund the game's ongoing development and supporting services. This decision - along with the level of service, investment and potentially any additional fee for the service - is truly up to you to determine.

However, before we invest any further resource into this project, we need to accurately gauge your level of support by understanding how many of you are really behind ‘Old School RuneScape’ as it was in August 2007. As such, we will set up a poll this week for players to show their interest in the 2007 service.

But before I get into the specifics, there is one thing that is very important to note. If this idea gathers sufficient support, then we will not need to take our current talent away from all of the exciting updates to be implemented into the current version of the game, as we will be able to hire a new dedicated team to work specifically on this project.

By giving you the choice to play either version of the game, we are demonstrating our commitment to listen and - wherever possible - incorporate your feedback. In the long term, we hope that this project will bring back many veteran players, as well as possibly encourage new players to join. They will be able to relive their old game experience to their heart's content, and - if they so choose - perhaps even join the main game. Over the next couple of months and subsequent years, we have an ever-growing plethora of exciting content waiting to be deployed into the Evolution of Combat, regardless of the reinstatement of old servers.

That being said, we have set out the following targets to help us figure out how much focus and resource we should put into this project:

Level 1 - 50,000 or more votes:

2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the current Runescape game, with an additional membership fee of around $15. These servers will receive no content updates and only critical maintenance.

Level 2 - 250,000 or more votes:

2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the main Runescape game, supported by a small development team , with a smaller additional membership fee of around $5 extra. These servers will receive basic maintenance for bug fixes and little improvements, with the possibility of integrating our modern anti-bot technology over time, if it becomes necessary.

Level 3 - 500,000 or more votes:

2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the main RuneScape game, with a dedicated development team, with no extra membership fee . These servers will receive regular maintenance, some content updates and integration of anti-bot technology if necessary.

Level 4 - 750,000 or more votes:

2007 Servers will come back as a separate entity to the main RuneScape game, with a larger dedicated development team with no extra membership fee and the free portion of the game available to all . These servers will receive continuous maintenance, modern anti-bot technology if necessary and - crucially - regular members' polls to determine which updates you want to see prioritised.

These servers, at any of the above levels, would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores, log-in, are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micropayment updates.

This will be a members-only vote. While all types of players have invested time in the game, it is our members that ultimately fund the initiatives and therefore get to set the priorities. Your support allows us to continue to evolve this amazing game that we all care deeply about. Making the vote members-only has the benefit of ensuring the votes cannot be rigged, and is a reliable, secure way to calibrate interest from dedicated players.

If you are against the idea, then you should - naturally - abstain from voting. However,if you are supportive, or would simply like to do a cool thing for your fellow Runescape friends (both retired and active) by making it a no-charge service as well as a benefit for free players (which is very much our aspiration), then please do register your vote and encourage all your friends to do the same!

If you choose to abstain from voting, before you do so, please understand: the Evolution of Combat will not be removed from the main game in any event. Although some of our resources and time would be reallocated initially to the reinstatement of the 2007 servers, the main game would still continue to receive its regular updates, as well as the massive updates promised for 2013.

The poll will be live on the website this Friday 15th February for two weeks . We will also be uploading a video on YouTube expressing these ideas, and opening a thread on the members-only forums to discuss this topic. In light of the poll, we will be moving our next Q&A session - Around the Campfire with Mark Ogilvie - to next week, where we will be focusing on discussions around the ongoing poll.

On a side note, I want to remark that we truly appreciate how passionate and devoted our players are to the future success of the game. I’ve never seen any other community as active and passionate about shaping the future of their game experience. It’s truly an honour to be part of this community and I very much hope this initiative positively engages the current - as well as the lapsed - community.

Thanks for reading, the team and I are really looking forward to seeing what you decide!

Have (old school?) fun! ☺

Cheers,

Mark Gerhard
CEO

13-Feb-2013 16:54:58 - Last edited on 13-Feb-2013 17:40:22 by Mod William

FAQ

Can you clarify what the 2007 service will consist of?

We are looking at fully restoring our backup of the August 10th 2007 version of the game and running it on dedicated servers, so that it functions exactly as it did back in the day. We’ll try to fix any critical bugs from this version, and to have the hiscores system too. We’ll work to make this compatible with our modern infrastructure, so it will use the current account database and you'll be able to use your existing account to log in, if you wish.

Does this mean I can play my character from back in 2007?

No, everyone will start fresh.

Can I still play on the “main” game with my account?

Yes, you’d have a unique ‘save game’ on each version of the game, but access with the same account credentials, so you only need to remember one username and password.

Why members only? Members don’t represent all interested potential players...

Our current members are the ones we know for sure are committed to RuneScape and have the biggest stake in our future. If a member votes, we have a high confidence they’ll follow through, as they actively play and pay for RuneScape already. Another reason is that a members' poll run using our own systems is something we can do securely, completely trusting the validity of the result.

Are there enough members to hit targets?

As a private business, we don’t publish our membership numbers, but RuneScape is still one of the largest MMORPGs in the world and we have set targets for this poll that we know to be credible. The top target is a stretch goal, as it would need overwhelming support from the community to attain.

I’m a free player. Why doesn’t my vote count?

Jagex is a business, and when launching an additional service we need to be confident that it will generate enough revenue to be commercially viable. This is why we’re gauging interest only from paying players. As you’ll see in the poll targets, if there are enough poll votes from members, we will open the 2007 service to free players too. Please be aware that only proper members, and not trialists, can vote.

If successful, when will these 2007 servers go live?

We’re waiting on the result of the poll before we invest significant development time in bringing you the 2007 service. However we think that we can make it ready inside 1 or 2 months – we’ll give more detail on this after the poll when we’ve planned in more detail, should it be successful.

How many 2007 worlds will there be?

This will depend on the vote and (if successful) continued demand once live. We’ll provide enough servers to support the demand.

Why are you charging additional fees for the lower targets?

Any service we provide needs to be commercially viable for us. There will be a big investment for us to bring you RuneScape 2007 servers, and then on-going costs to maintain and support these over time. If there are not many players interested in this service, we effectively need to spread the costs over a smaller number of users.

Will there be micro-payments like Squeal of Fortune on the 2007 server?

No. It will only contain content that was present at the time.

Why have you released the 2007 version of RuneScape when we have been asking for a 2006 version?

We don’t have many full backups, and don’t have any from 2006 at all, unfortunately. This version from August 2007 is the most complete (most technically viable). It also sits in a sweetspot in time which has most of the features players have asked for, but is still before the release of the Grand Exchange, which is the cut off point we’ve seen mentioned the most.

If this is successful, will you spend less time updating the main game?

No. The future of RuneScape remains the “main” game, and we’ve got an incredibly exciting year ahead; new client technology in HTML5, improved graphics, an epic campaign of episodic content, two new skills, and much more.

Are the games connected in any way?

We are working to get the chat system (friends and private messages) working between the services. Apart from this, though, the games will be totally separate – one will not affect the other. A 2007 service would have a separate economy, started from scratch. This means items could not be traded or transferred across the services.

Will this split the community?

We hope not! By hosting the service ourselves and by supporting cross-version chat, we hope to keep the community together and playing actively.

What if I don’t want this service?

Then there is no need to participate in the poll and you will not be charged to play the 2007 version of the game should it be released.

Will there be translated versions of the 2007 game?

No, just English.

Does voting for the 2007 service lock me in to paying for it?

No. You will simply be expressing your interest and contributing towards the targets.

Are you considering a pre-EoC server, like a 2011 version?

No. We strongly believe that the changes we’ve made to the main game are the right ones, representing the future of RuneScape. The 2007 server vote is for players who want to experience the old days and don’t mind the differences in gameplay and visuals from over 5 years ago.

Will there be any JMod/Community support for the 2007 version of the game?

We will provide basic support services, such as the report tool for reporting disruptive or abusive players. JMods and PMods will also be present. The amount of active community support, such as events , will depend on the level of demand.


Will you be publishing the results?

The vote system will be like the Wildy poll, with live results being shown on the voting page.


Will under 13's be able to play on the 2007 servers?

No, the service will just be for those 13 and over, as it was in 2007.

13-Feb-2013 16:55:28 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2013 11:02:32 by Mod Pips

There seems to be a lot of conjecture around the actual size of the playing community with a lot of people incorrectly assuming that the ‘concurrent player count’ on the RuneScape website represents the total number of active players.
To clear up any confusion on this matter I want to confirm that our Unique Active Player stats for the proceeding 14 Days from Monday the 11th Feb was actually 8,229,459!
So as to the pockets of cynicism that this vote is somehow setup to fail due to barely enough members to hit the first level of viability, you really could not be more wrong.
The reality is that if members really got behind this then they would easily blow through the various tiers and that’s not even counting the mass of existing free players that have clearly stated in the hundreds of ensuing pages of this forum thread that they intend to subscribe to register their support too.
The big question is will the members actually get behind this and register their support, abstain or will people simply hope that someone else will carry a positive vote for them?
I hope that voter apathy wont undermine player democracy, nevertheless the one thing we know for sure is that you will be able to participate from tomorrow onwards and everyone will see the results in real time.

Consider this, the more members that vote the cheaper it would ultimately be for everyone and hopefully reach the point where it doesn’t cost you a penny more and could simply be offered as part of your existing membership - Even if you don't intend to use it I think that's a nice thing to do for your friends.

Lastly, I want to add members that do indeed vote for the reinstatement of the service will all get their first month of 'Old School' RuneScape for free regardless of the eventual level achieved therefore those signing up just to vote you will not need to pay twice

13-Feb-2013 16:56:26 - Last edited on 14-Feb-2013 10:30:23 by Mod Mmg

13-Feb-2013 16:58:27 - Last edited on 15-Feb-2013 21:00:49 by Mod Seven

AMDfan64

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This is cool, I just hope that it wont cause the quality of both games to drop. just run it like RSC, and continue with EoC.

This is the plan. We will continue to develop and support the current version of RuneScape as we head towards the release of RuneScape 3 and beyond!

13-Feb-2013 17:05:51 - Last edited on 13-Feb-2013 17:19:03 by Mod Mike