With the whirlwind that was 2014 behind us, we can now look forward to 2015 and see what that might bring for everyone.
2015 will be even more magnificent than 2014. We have plans to offer exciting new content, deliver outstanding content from last year’s polls and continue offering regular quality of life updates. Throughout all this though the principle of you, the community, coming first will be at the forefront of everything we do.
Content
We’re wasting no time at the beginning of this year as the snake boss makes an appearance in early January. You will be able to explore a new area of the map and pit yourselves against the hardest solo boss Old School has to offer. The rewards will see a new type of poison coming to Old School which will give you even more challenges to overcome.
Over Christmas we have been collecting all your feedback on the trading post and we’ll be polling numerous additional features to the trading post in January. We want to make the trading post exactly what you want it to be.
February sees one of the biggest updates to date hit Old School, achievement diaries. Of course, we don’t like to do things by half and want to give you want so we haven’t just got one or two achievement diaries for you… but 10!
Every area of Gielinor is included in the achievement diary update so whether you want to be a completionist or just want something a bit different to do, you will find mountains of content just for you.
March is tentatively when we would like to give you resizable mode. However, resizable mode is a very technically challenging project and there are likely to be numerous as yet unknown roadblocks we will need to overcome. So, although with our best intentions we will like to give you resizable mode in March, it may slip depending on the roadblocks.
The end result of resizable mode is going to be something we think you will love. You will no longer be tied to the small gaming screen (although you can if you like) and with a simple left click and drag you will be able to resize the game to any resolution that suits you.
Also, at some point near the start of the year, we will be offering you a slayer skill update. We will be looking at giving you more rewards for your slayer points, offering some slayer modes and balancing the slayer masters’ task lists to be more relevant. This will be a great update for the slayer fans out there.
Throughout the year you will also hear more and more about Zeah, the new continent. Zeah will allow you to experience that feeling of adventure and exploration you had when you first started playing Runescape. It will have multiple new areas such as a huge sprawling city, new multiplayer bosses and a new PvP arena. There will be something for everyone and we hope that this summer you will be able to visit it for the first time!
Later on in this year we will be looking at polling a new skill for you among many other really exciting things.
Community
Of course, Old School is not just about the new content, it is also about the community. We will be keeping all your favourite holiday events as well giving you something special for our second birthday… and who knows what will happen on April Fools’ Day.
We’ll be looking at ways to encourage more players to stream Old School and make more videos, two areas which have helped new players find Old School and old players rediscover their childhood.
We also want to focus on giving the players more opportunities to get involved in the community and more rewards for doing so. This year we want to start looking into introducing ‘community tokens’ which can be distributed through community events and via community leaders. These tokens can then be spent in a community shop for new cosmetic items and possible housing items.
Advertising & F2P
With the latest F2P trial finishing yesterday you will no doubt want to know the future of F2P. At the moment we do not know. We have plenty of information now and we need to look at that to decide on the next steps. This is likely to take some weeks. However, as soon as we have made a decision we will let you know.
While we are doing this, any new accounts or accounts which have not logged into Old School for at least 90 days will have 2 weeks access to the F2P servers.
Over the last 6 months we have been working on a branding project for Old School. This has included identifying its target audience, creating advertising and marketing strategies and creating and updating the logo. Making sure we are targeting the right people in the most effective way possible is something which will be key to the success of Old School in 2015 which is why we have put so much effort into this project in 2014. The one piece left in the jigsaw is what is happening with F2P. Once we know that then we can move forward with this.
How is Old School looking right now?
2014 has been a year of ‘question answering’. We wanted to answer the questions of bots, Grand Exchange and F2P.
We’re well on the way of answering the question of the Grand Exchange after we have introduced the Trading Post and with some updates you should have a trading system which really works for you. The same goes with F2P, hopefully we now have enough information to make a final decision.
Through various strategies, including the introduction of ‘bot worlds’, improvement of player watch and bringing Mod Weath into the team we have managed to reduce the amount of bots in game by 70%.
Despite the considerable reduction in bot numbers we have seen a growth in players of over 15% during 2014 hitting a peak of 115,000 players logging into Old School each day. With all the exciting things planned for 2015, we expect this year to be even more successful than 2015.
Mods Archie, Ash, Ghost, Ian, John C, Mat K, Reach, Ronan and Weath
The Old School team.
01-Jan-2015 10:22:12 - Last edited on 01-Jan-2015 18:47:38 by Mod John C
