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Deltaslug

Deltaslug

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@Annie,
I'm quite serious on this one.
I've developed a mix of apathy and disillusionment with Jagex of late.
The threads I'm referring to are in the New Game and Ninja suggestion forums, not this one.
While I initially posted more as a creative outlet than anything else, it has felt like for ages that Jagex doesn't pay attention to the Forums.
A part of me had continued to hope to see some sign, but for the most part, the developers only focus on their own threads they create, or on Reddit.

Yes, I know someone is going to say "ofc that's true", but I had been in denial about it for far too long.
To prevent gravebumps (as well as my own relapses), I'm being pro-active and just going to the Community forum where they have a thread up (run by the Fmods) to do this sort of thing.

As I was mentioning before, while I do agree that this subforum is quite inactive, the difference between here and subforums that are dedicated to suggestions is that this forum is for the forum users' entertainment. The Suggestion forums are intended to suggest ways to actually improve the game.

This forum can continue to exist in some fashion or another.
However, a developer company that seems to ignore their own suggestions forum may as well just take it down.

22-Jul-2018 03:36:58

Deltaslug

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
And as I've stated before, you guys can always go back over some of your own old threads and request that they be locked as well.

If you truly believe that the forum is dead and you don't like gravebumping, then go ahead and lock the threads.

People can't randomly attempt to revive it (or just spam it) if that ability is taken away from them.

22-Jul-2018 03:38:13

Westenev

Westenev

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I'd argue the suggestion forums are a form of entertainment too - we all enjoy being experts at something, after all.

As for the disillusionment at Jagex, I'd say that's warrented... but for other reasons. Ever since Jagex started looking for sponsors back in 2007-2008, the game has steadily been going into downhill spiral to the point where Jagex are nowadays leaning towards psudo-korean mmo pay2win models to try and keep the game afloat. Or, at least, that's the wider perception spread by ex-runescape players I meet in other games.

My personal gripe is that Jagex tends to start cool projects (Funorb, Transformers Universe, Runescape: Chronicles, Roblox or whatever the block shooter was), but appariantly dump them near launch because they don't have Runescape's popularity.

HOWEVER, I don't think it's entirely warrented to blame Jagex for ignoring the forums - from what I gather, this occurs in a lot of MMO games because game developers can't log in offsite (though, I'm not sure if that's the case here). So they use their personal twitter and reddit accounts to do Q and A's, which can be accessed from anywhere.
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22-Jul-2018 04:12:00 - Last edited on 22-Jul-2018 04:17:24 by Westenev

Deltaslug

Deltaslug

Posts: 32,671 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Jagex's problem back in 2007 was their initial plan to combat Real World Trading.
Their plan alienated a chunk of the playerbase (primarily the player killers) and they didn't institute any replacement content for them soon enough.
The combat system change back in 2012, along with them finally introducing MTX (the announcement of the combat change coincided with the start of MTX) each gave another group of players a reason to leave.
And in 2013, they released their Old School offshoot.
Tack on the general decline of MMO's ... and you have a pretty handy recipe for a gradual decline in player base for a game that's 17 years old.

I think Transformers Universe flopped for a different reason (likely issues stemming from the agreement with the Transformers parent company).
But you would be correct on the others. Though the Block and Load game is still going on decently it seems.
Funorb and Chronicle are getting their plug pulled soon, along with Runescape Classic.

I do agree with the forums themselves with Jagex being limited on response vs existing social media platforms.
But it still circles back to the main point: if they aren't going to use it, why have it (or at least why have it as "diverse" as they do atm)

22-Jul-2018 04:21:55

Westenev

Westenev

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I'm going to miss arcinists. And the weird green goblins from classic.

As for why they keep the forums, perhaps it gives a players a place to rally and vent away from public eyes? Well, at least, that's what I'd say if the Runescape Reddit weren't chokka full of mtx shitposts.

After the Jessica Price incident from Guild Wars 2, however, I do think there's a risk to using social media as your main Q and A platform - namely, that social justice warriors and trolls who don't even play the game will jump on a hate bandwaggon against the company given half a reason. At least in the forums, you know people have at least PLAYED the game at some point.
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22-Jul-2018 04:35:20

Gunslinger Z

Gunslinger Z

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I mean, from what I see on the subreddit, it appears that RS3 is deteriorating quickly. Sure there are plenty of maxed players and other high-levels, people who just log on out of habit and what-not but I very highly doubt they're getting very many new players and even fewer paid subscriptions. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that gaming has developed. Grinding isn't as popular as it used to be and let's be honest, that's always been RuneScape's primary thing. Grinding, PKing and bossing. That sort of alienates any new players from the start. Plus you can draw similarities now between RS3 and WoW. I played RuneScape originally because it wasn't WoW. I didn't like WoW. Ontop of that the new UI [while nice and shiny] is a clusterfuck to behold in my personal opinion. When you couple that with the fact that the nostalgia junkies and old-time players are either going to OSRS or they simply don't have the time for grinding anymore [school, work, kids, etc.] and you've got a recipe for failure on a spectacular scale.

I really think 11 dollars a month is far too much. Then ontop of that, there's a lot of paid cosmetic content and if you want to advance at any pace beyond that of a sloth, well, it's going to cost you more. Personally I think there are FAR better options when it comes to spending such an amount of money. Both in terms of videogames and other hobbies. Some games you can drop 30 bucks on or less on Steam and have 400-600 hours of entertainment on demand and not have to grind or pay a monthly fee and you can do so at your leisure.

Now I said back in 2012 that RS would likely be dead inside of 4 years and I was wrong. I could definitely be wrong again. But honestly what Jagex is doing nowadays seems like a quick cash-grab before they finally hang it up for good. I don't doubt the skills of the developers working on it but I do think they have their hands tied in this situation and they can't do much to mitigate the current trend.

22-Jul-2018 06:26:46

Gunslinger Z

Gunslinger Z

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It all started to become clear when the Gowers left and other parties got their hands in the pot. Ever since it's been a game of trying to balance middling player satisfaction with maximum profit. Trying to see just how far they can push the envelope before people start complaining. Apparently that's pretty far actually. On the subreddit, I always see people bitching back and forth about MTX and P2W and the ludicrous subscription fee. Sure, they're vocal. But do they actually do anything about it? Not really. They continue paying the fee and continue to perhaps even indulge in MTX. Honestly, I think if they really gave a shit, they'd probably have some kind of 'blackout' so to speak. A period of days where a large group would band together and not log in or cancel their memberships just like back when [in my opinion] the original RuneScape as we knew it died. The whole RWT update, the removal of PKing, etc. But most people seem content to just vent their frustrations somewhere and continue to give the company money.

I personally haven't paid Jagex a cent since 2012. I'm interested in OSRS somewhat but ultimately I don't have time to grind. I play for free on private servers whenever I do get the urge for a hit of nostalgia where I can actually progress in a matter of weeks rather than months and years. Certainly private servers aren't perfect and they don't replicate the nostalgia perfectly, but it's close enough to suffice. Most of RuneScape's original audience has grown up now. They've got work, school, families and a whole wealth of other activities. In order for them to get back into RS, it'd have to be less grindy, less costly and closer to the original with some good, well thought-out updates every now and then. Sure, when I was 14 I had plenty of time to sit around all day and click on pixelated trees, sometimes for 12 hours or more a day. Nowadays? Shit, man, I've got work and shit that needs doing around the house. I think that's ultimately the failure.

22-Jul-2018 06:34:15

Gunslinger Z

Gunslinger Z

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The forums have been massively neglected since, I dunno, 2015 I'd say? Sure they merged this and that and they still do moderate it, but by the time they updated the forum to have other modern functions other boards/forums have had since the 90s, nobody was using the damn thing. Seems to me that rather than seeking out input on their own forums, they mostly use the RS subreddit as their primary form of communication and means of feedback.

I really think that the roleplaying forums suffered primarily for a few reasons.

A) The amount of control Jagex had over what should and needs to be an open and creative space. Getting perm banned for the slightest of mishaps isn't conducive to creativity.

B) People splintered off to other groups and gradually fell out of the hobby, either moving on to more serious and profitable writing, or to other hobbies and activities entirely.

C) I hate to say it, but a lot of the 'easy mode' threads like Alpha Base and the Inn threads and etc. were probably driving a lot of the traffic here. Not everybody has time to sit down and write a novella for a thread every day. Especially when very few people will ever even glance at it. That much said, those threads were still a blight.

Anyway, I digress. I think the forums being shut down or gradually deactivated will be the 'Gabriel's Trumpet' so to speak of the overall failure of RuneScape. I don't know when. But I've seen it before. I roleplayed in Yahoo Chatrooms for many, many years. When they removed user-created and private lobbies, that was all she wrote. People mimed the motions and tried to keep it going for a long time but gradually it just fell off. Yahoo then used this as an excuse to discontinue chatrooms altogether, later they deactivated Messenger in it's entirety. Well, no shit you're not getting the traffic you need to continue running/hosting the chatrooms, you took away all incentive for people to use them.

So yeah, I think that's what will ultimately happen here.

22-Jul-2018 06:41:46

Gunslinger Z

Gunslinger Z

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With the RS subreddits going strong and communication also heavy on things like Facebook and Twitter, Jagex has essentially made their forums completely pointless. They've taken away all incentive for most people to use the forums and as such, with less overall traffic, less people will take a gander at the roleplaying forum and decide to join in or try it out. Why post a suggestion, a comment, a rant or feedback here? You could post it on the subreddit and get many more views, upvotes, comments and the possibility of a J-Mod responding directly to you. Likewise, you could comment on Facebook or tweet at individual J-Mods too. I imagine hosting these forums isn't cheap and since they've taken away all incentive for people to use them and since they've lost great swaths of their player base, I imagine the forums will be the first to go as it begins to collapse. It'll be the canary in the coal mine.

I think social media in most applications is complete dog shit. Especially for business related things. Sure, it's basically a free and widescale platform to advertise on. But at the same time, you've got your garden variety morons and keyboard warriors also diligently watching.

But yeah, it doesn't help when people within the community [cough] report others and get them banned. Anyway, I reckon that's what'll happen in the future. Ultimately, roleplaying will live on anyhow. Pen and paper roleplaying is still popular. And really, all you need to roleplay is a document on Google Drive that can be edited by anyone with the link. You don't even need to build your own forum or nest somewhere anymore. In my experience, RPing on Google Docs is far preferable. No character limit, no gaudy avatars, no randoms popping in to dump some stupid shit on you and most importantly, no rules or restrictions or [cough] tattle-tales. You can write whatever the hell you want at any length and any time you want.

22-Jul-2018 06:46:34 - Last edited on 22-Jul-2018 06:50:24 by Gunslinger Z

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