New MMORPG.com Reviewer Lori May writes this re-review of the classic MMORPG, Runescape.

For many gamers, the mention of Runescape conjures an image low graphics, tedious skill leveling, and a young community (IE: immature players). However, for those of us who have remained loyal to Runescape over the years, the game represents much more: a community which influences new features through content polls and feedback. Seasonal events which are humorous and novel, reliable, quality updates to both the mechanics of the game and the world in which we play.

Runescape is one of the few games on the market which has gone through a complete overhaul, essentially creating a sequel with which players could transfer current characters without starting over. The transition of moving everyone from Runescape (now referred to as Runescape Classic) to this new version of the game allowed for many improvements; graphic upgrades, changes to interface, and the elimination of certain in-game requirements (such as sleeping). The original version of Runescape is still accessible, for any players seeking a nostalgic escape.

Read the Runescape Re-Review.

RS had the PvP licked in 2000/2001 was a more ideal system then and a lot of the reason why it became popular so fast. Shame they destroyed and alienated a large portion of their playerbase.

If you can get pass the graphics the game is acctually pretty amazing content wize. There is no other game that I am aware of that has soooo much stuff to do. And it has REAL quests that require thinking and planning (wich is a huge break from those cookie-cutter ones). They did really turn me away with the whole money limit thing (since I was a very wealthy merchant back in the day... :P) and the pvp aspect being ruined. But all in all, the game is really great for anyone wanting casual play, or a game between games. Unfortunetly for me, it was my first MMO and kind of ruined all other MMO's for me as they just can't compete with the content that runescape offers.

Now imagine this, runescape with WASD movement with great graphics, decent PvP system, no trade limit and polished just as well as WoW = dream game..

I have to say even though the game is limited by its graphics, it does offer a lot of different things to do, and some of the various features it has I find really appealing and wish more MMOs out there would use them.  I only play at work though, because of the stuff it doesn't have like graphics, and some of the more common functionality in the newer MMOs out there.

The changes to combat RWT turned a very social and interactive MMO into a single player RPG with a chatbox.

I personally would welcome the RWT back if it meant turning the game into an MMO again, complete with giving stuff to friends and newbies, as well as that old full loot PvP.

It's a totally different game nowadays. Still a good value at $6 per month, but just not the same as it once was and could have been.

Had the folks at Jagex taken the tens of millions they threw away on the failed "Mechscape" and had put it into dealing with the RWT in a non-game-breaking fashion, the game would probably have two million paying subscribers now instead of the sub one million they have now.

Originally posted by dragon1613

If you can get pass the graphics the game is acctually pretty amazing content wize. There is no other game that I am aware of that has soooo much stuff to do. And it has REAL quests that require thinking and planning (wich is a huge break from those cookie-cutter ones). They did really turn me away with the whole money limit thing (since I was a very wealthy merchant back in the day... :P) and the pvp aspect being ruined. But all in all, the game is really great for anyone wanting casual play, or a game between games. Unfortunetly for me, it was my first MMO and kind of ruined all other MMO's for me as they just can't compete with the content that runescape offers.

 

Now imagine this, runescape with WASD movement with great graphics, decent PvP system, no trade limit and polished just as well as WoW = dream game..

My thoughts and feelings exactly.

Pros
Community-Driven Events
Frequest Updates
Good Value
Seasonal Events
Skill Based Play



Cons
No Group Play
Poor PvP System
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Seasonal events are a positive major enough to be mentioned, now? And why was the hours upon hours of thrombosis inducing click and click gameplay not put in the Cons section? Or the controlled economy which means you can't help your friends? Nevermind that the "Frequest Updates" are coming less and less frequently and often with far less content, nowadays? Or any of the other HUNDREDS of flaws with the game? It's sad that MMORPG.com is so unwilling to review an MMO adequately, for what I assume is fear of internet backlash. Really, you do not do your readers justice when you let people not post the negatives in your "official" reviews.

Originally posted by Devour

Pros
Community-Driven Events
Frequest Updates
Good Value
Seasonal Events
Skill Based Play



Cons
No Group Play
Poor PvP System
------------

Seasonal events are a positive major enough to be mentioned, now? And why was the hours upon hours of thrombosis inducing click and click gameplay not put in the Cons section? Or the controlled economy which means you can't help your friends? Nevermind that the "Frequest Updates" are coming less and less frequently and often with far less content, nowadays? Or any of the other HUNDREDS of flaws with the game? It's sad that MMORPG.com is so unwilling to review an MMO adequately, for what I assume is fear of internet backlash. Really, you do not do your readers justice when you let people not post the negatives in your "official" reviews.

You need to hover over the icons, too - monotony is included in the "Cons" section.

I can still help my friends, but honestly, they're too busy making their own money (since it's pretty easy to do so in RuneScape with just a couple of good skills).

Frequent updates coming less and less? Excuse me, they just released another Grandmaster Quest and did a nearly complete overhaul of Barbarian Assault. Perhaps they should only update once every couple of months like other MMOs.

HUNDREDS of flaws? Now you sound like Al Gore saying the world will melt unless we all stop breathing. List them. There are certainly negatives, which the article's author kept mentioning, but there are also positives which you seem to ignore.

Originally posted by Devour

Pros
Community-Driven Events
Frequest Updates
Good Value
Seasonal Events
Skill Based Play



Cons
No Group Play
Poor PvP System
------------

Seasonal events are a positive major enough to be mentioned, now? And why was the hours upon hours of thrombosis inducing click and click gameplay not put in the Cons section? Or the controlled economy which means you can't help your friends? Nevermind that the "Frequest Updates" are coming less and less frequently and often with far less content, nowadays? Or any of the other HUNDREDS of flaws with the game? It's sad that MMORPG.com is so unwilling to review an MMO adequately, for what I assume is fear of internet backlash. Really, you do not do your readers justice when you let people not post the negatives in your "official" reviews.

You kinda have to take what was written with a grain of salt.

Community-driven events is code for "players have to make up ways to keep the thousands of hours of grinding bearable".

"Frequent updates" code for "releases 1 hour of content every month, as opposed to hours of repeatable challenging content you get in real MMOs"

"Skill based play" code for for "the game has 24 skills that largely require no actual skill and can be-done AFK. There is no skill at all required in playing the game."

Id like to know what kind of graphics are expected from a java mmorpg??

Originally posted by Comnitus

You need to hover over the icons, too - monotony is included in the "Cons" section.

I can still help my friends, but honestly, they're too busy making their own money (since it's pretty easy to do so in RuneScape with just a couple of good skills).

Frequent updates coming less and less? Excuse me, they just released another Grandmaster Quest and did a nearly complete overhaul of Barbarian Assault. Perhaps they should only update once every couple of months like other MMOs.

HUNDREDS of flaws? Now you sound like Al Gore saying the world will melt unless we all stop breathing. List them. There are certainly negatives, which the article's author kept mentioning, but there are also positives which you seem to ignore.

It's more than monotonous. And the fact it's actually handwaved in the review...

Not to any real extent. When you're able to trade things that matter to a newbie to a newbie, they're often at the same level as you or better and don't need it.

lol. "Another grandmaster quest and overhauled the loot for a minigame that was already there." Let's see how far apart the content updates for Runescape have been, and how much they have contributed:

Game Updates Barbarian Assault Improvements 19-Jan-2010 - Very little added, really, some new WEAPON COLOURS to an old weapon. OMFGWTFBBQSOCOOL
Game Updates Agility Benefits for Fishing, Hunter and Thieving 19-Jan-2010 - Why was this seperated from the other post? They're a single update.
Game Updates Nomad’s Requiem 11-Jan-2010 - Reward is crap, can't be bothered looking at the quest. Probably another "fetch this, kill high level mob, fetch that, do puzzle as planned out on tip.it".
Game Updates Kuradal's Dungeon 08-Dec-2009 - First off, a month between these two updates? Wow. Especially since this update is just a cavern with mobs that Jagex couldn't even be bothered to reskin put in.
Game Updates The Temple at Senntisten 03-Dec-2009 - Appears to be an awful quest.
Game Updates Potions, Spells and Runes 17-Nov-2009 - Over three weeks between this content update and the one above, looks like Jagex is making a habit of it. Enormously disappointing update, again. A few more potions, four extra spells and a few rune changes. YAWN.

I prefer even WoW's "updates every few months that entertain you for a few months" compared to this "Big quest every month with crap updates inbetween!"

And, yes, it has hundreds of problems. It is PLAGUED with problems.

EDIT: I'd go so far as to say one of the few, if not the only, decent things about Runescape is the artstyle of it's artists. Those pictures are pretty bad arse.

Hate it or not, its by far the best Browser MMORPG out right now. Nothing comes close.

Sure you can complain about the "small" updates, but atleast they are always working on it, thats more to say than other Free MMOs.

I applaud Jagex for staying so strong for so long and making such a huge BROWSER mmo.

RS is the greatest Sandbox MMO of all time!!! And it happen to be F2P for crying out Loud

IMO the game turned into a theme-park with all these RWT updates.

Runescape was a very fun sandbox with full-loot, a lot of players content & interactions, you was able to do whatever you wanted, creating your own "activity".

It still a extremly rich world, but all these restrictions removed the freedome keeping all thier veteran away from the game.

Now I play another sandbox called  Darkfall, but i miss this rich world and these good old days <3,  sometimes I connect for 5 minutes just for nostalgy.

Runescape Classic is not open at all they locked in back in 2004-2005 so that new characters couldnt be created which resulted in the downfall of the game.

Originally posted by Sup3rnova

Runescape Classic is not open at all they locked in back in 2004-2005 so that new characters couldnt be created which resulted in the downfall of the game.

They recently re-opened Runescape Classic for new players in November for a two week period. They plan to re-open Classic to new entries for two weeks every six months from now on.

Originally posted by tro44_1

RS is the greatest Sandbox MMO of all time!!! And it happen to be F2P for crying out Loud

Have you ever played a sandbox that isn't Runescape?

-----------------------
Originally posted by Djfusion

Hate it or not, its by far the best Browser MMORPG out right now. Nothing comes close.

Sure you can complain about the "small" updates, but atleast they are always working on it, thats more to say than other Free MMOs.

I applaud Jagex for staying so strong for so long and making such a huge BROWSER mmo.
-----------------------

Therein lies the problem. It USED to be one of the best browser MMOs, but now - to many people - the "fixes" that Jagex inflicted on the game have ruined it beyond all repair. It is now called, even by Jagex themselves, a transition MMO for kids.

I think Runescape is a fantastic game. The quests in Runescape are far more immersive and entertaining than any other MMORPG on the market. I also like their skill-based system. However, I didn't last long in Runescape, because their death penalty is rather severe for my tastes.

 I loved Runescape. Yeah, it was a grind, but what MMO isn't in one way or another? I only quit because all my friends quit. If they had more gritty graphics, I think it would appeal to more people. They kinda went with the whimsical fantasy look.

Either way, I'll jump back in from time to time. There's always something to do. Playing/competing with friends is a must to really enjoy this game. I was a member for 4 years, before I finally quit. (and I still haven't quit entirely).

Also, you forgot to mention that they have PvP worlds.

Runescape is one of the best MMORPG's there are. Instead of just trying to be funny, it is. The quests in WoW players can only be jealous about  the quests in RS as they are much more complex and intricate than "go kill 20 kobolds" -type of quests. RS beats WoW in many other categories too. Go RS!!

P.S. It's not "Guild Wars" , it's "Castle Wars"  >_<