This outcome was fairly easy to predict. Its the result of years of continuous community splitting.
2011 was the official "Year of Clans", and marked the end of Jagex's largescale efforts to support the clan community.
Clans really began to be affected with EoC's introduction on November 20, 2012 where many players were driven from the game due to problems with the EoC system itself as well as Jagex's rather arrogant response to criticism and lack of timely responses.
A mere 3 months later their response was not to make common sense changes to EoC, but instead they held a vote to decide the price of OSRS. More people voting in favor of OSRS servers would lower the cost for everyone. (Not hard at all to spot the flaw in this type of "poll".) OSRS servers opened on February 23, 2013.
Some players that left RS did return to play OSRS, but because that has no interaction with clans (and even if it did, xp rates etc would be horribly skewed) overall OSRS only served to hurt clans further. For those of us that were clan leaders during this time, it really was a Knock Out blow to many clans, and those that survived did so only be intensive restructuring and rebuilding over the years.
Many clans not only lost people due to EoC's release, but then lost more players to OSRS about 3 months later. Since 2013, clans have really not had any special focus or attention from Jagex. Infact, the most major update to clans since 2013 was the implementation of the 7 day wait which was eventually repealed and replaced. There are some positive updates to speak of, but nothing major.
If we take a look at the updates to the overall game as many of you have already discussed - few are actually beneficial to clans. Minigames are dead except during Spotlight. There is very little in RS that helps clans.
Meanwhile, development resources have shifted away from RS3 to OSRS instead. Not to mention distractions to established clans like Ironmen, HCIM, DarkScape (RIP), etc.
Seer of War
Founder |
The Order of War
2600+ Total Level International Tier 7 Citadel, PvM, and Skilling Clan Community
