With the decline in player numbers, Jagex obviously couldn't afford to ban half the playerbase, but they should have done something to these players.
E.g.: Remove 95% of gp from moneypouch and bank account of gold buyer, remove access to player to player trading, put 500k daily limit on GE transactions, maintain status indefinitely unless player appeals.
Instead they've introduced something that is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of the game. The value of gameplay and status irrespective of your rl bank account has been central to runescape from the beginning (and don't group membership in with this - membership pays for access to the game, not for status).
Bonds will probably strengthen the economy - I concede that - but I'm skeptical that it can curb gold farming. According to other posters, gold farmers sell 4-5m gp/USD. This means you could use a gold farmer to buy a month's membership via bonds for half the Jagex price. Now I know the price is supposed to fluctuate at first until it reaches a stable, competitive rate, that will render gold farmers redundant, but this assumes the market is perfect and rational - and it is not. Just look how many items are selling for far below high alch. As long as gold farmers can produce a bond's worth for less than the cost of a bond (and they can), they will not only remain viable, but become more attractive. Bonds won't replace gold farming sites for gold buyers. The people who've bought from sites before know how much gp their real money is worth, and will most likely stick with the system they're already familiar with if it gives them a better deal. Rather, bonds LEGITIMIZE RWT for the thousands of players who would otherwise never even consider buying gold. This means that, no matter how real $-gp conversion rates change, there will be a constant supply of legit players flooding the market with bonds to get fast gp, and a steady stream of farmed gold being used by that (bogus?) 40% to buy them.
26-Sep-2013 23:11:10
