Believe it or not, It's popular because It's actually a decent MMO.

I've stopped playing Runescape in favor of other MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Everquest II, Eve Online, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, etc. but I always find myself coming back to Runescape. Here are some of the reasons why I like Runescape:

1. You can play it in a browser - I like being able to play Runescape on virtually any machine out there without having to install anything (besides Java, but the majority of machines already have it). Back in '02 - '03, I saw some classmates playing Runescape; that's how I got hooked.
2. You're not 'bound' to a server - I like being able to switch servers, without having to pay a fee or start from scratch, to play with friends or avoid people I don't like.
3.  "Sandbox feeling"- I like being able to do it all with one character. Not having to start from scratch every time I want to try something different is a huge plus for me.
4. PvP - I like risk vs reward. When I kill someone, I can expect him to lose all his items. PvP is actually a viable method of making money in, which I really enjoy doing. Of course, there's also the drama that comes with PvP which is absolutely hilarious.
5. Mini-games - There's tons of other things to do in Runescape besides mindlessly grinding XP. It keeps the game fresh and enjoyable. God Wars, Fight Caves/Pits, Soul Wars are good examples. Great alternative to earning XP and money.
6. It's not too casual (WoW) & not too hardcore (Korean grindfest) - It actually takes time and effort to level a skill to max level, which is worth it in the end. Spent months leveling up your combat skills? Well now you go have fun facerolling people in PvP or mini-games. It actually feels rewarding to finally get a skill to 99.
7. Cheap subscription - It's only $5 a month for P2P. Compared to the average $15 of other MMOs.

1. Customer support - It seems there's no way to contact Jagex directly ,without having to submit a "password recovery form", but even then, it seems like you only get automated responses. Have a specific account issue? Good luck trying to get a response.
2. Community - Unfortunately, Runescape has a bad reputation because of It's community; However, what online community doesn't have It's fairshare of tards? I'll tell you, a online community that's on life support.
3. Too RNG based combat - Though I like PvP, damage is too random. Basically all you do in Runescape PvP is drink potions, turn on prayer, and eat food when you get hit. At least in a game like WoW, you have to counter attacks and such, which isn't much.
4. Trade limits - Sometimes It's annoying. Also ruined staking.

• Wilderness & Bounty Hunter - The old Wilderness is back ... sort of. You can go into a Bounty Hunter world and roam the Wildernerss and kill people like the good ol' days. Only difference are the drops, but they are better in a way (instead of recieving 1m worth of loot between 7 items, you now get a statuette that can be sold to a vendor for the same amount).

I, too, think Runescape is actually pretty good game, for a MMORPG anyway. At least was, last time I played old Wilderness was still there. There are quite a lot of activities, different minigames and the world is actually fun to explore. My favorite was treasure hunting, had to solve those puzzles and all. Not to mention the quests, the quests are top notch, they are as good as in singleplayer RPG's. I also like the fact, that very few people actually tried to max everything or even reach the max combat level, that wasn't average player's goal. I do think though, that Wilderness was kind of the soul of the game and removing or whatever they did to it, was a big mistake.

I just started playing Runescape about 3 days ago. Im having fun; more fun than I thought Id have. There are a few things that bother me because I guess othe rmmos have spoiled me. lol 

-I dont like that most thing dont stack in my inventory.

-I dont like that I have so far found no way to make the chat font bigger.(<<nearly blind)

-I dont like that Ive found no way to remap the camera controls. right hand for mouse, left hand on the  arrow keys to move the camera. wish i could remap the camera to wsad or something.. but then that would screw up chat I guess.

+I do like advisor. wish every game had this.

+I do like that there are many things to learn and do.

+i do like the look of the world. its very nice for what it is.

I became a member so i could get the full effect of the game. I havent decided yet if Ill stay a member but for the price I just might.

Originally posted by Kharum

I, too, think Runescape is actually pretty good game, for a MMORPG anyway. At least was, last time I played old Wilderness was still there. There are quite a lot of activities, different minigames and the world is actually fun to explore. My favorite was treasure hunting, had to solve those puzzles and all. Not to mention the quests, the quests are top notch, they are as good as in singleplayer RPG's. I also like the fact, that very few people actually tried to max everything or even reach the max combat level, that wasn't average player's goal. I do think though, that Wilderness was kind of the soul of the game and removing or whatever they did to it, was a big mistake.

I stopped playing Runescape as my 'main game' when they removed the wilderness. I started playing Runescape again because an old friend told me that the new bounty hunter worlds brought back the old wilderness feeling; he was right, but it just isn't the same.

I have been playing Runescape for about 5 years and came up to a conclusion that this is a good game. Not like Call of Duty or WoW good but it has qualitys that no other game has. Like its browser settings,(And you can also download the client)the forum is active,fun with friends and randoms. Now there may be downs to it like its failed customer support and sucky PvP I think this game deserves the fame it has and should keep on rolling.

If I would review this I would give it 8.5/10.

One of the biggest reasons I love RuneScape is because of the skill system.  Ive played the game for about 5 years now off and on.  I mostly play WoW now, but when WoW is down, or I just dont feel like playing, I crawl back to RuneScape.  But anyways, the skill system.  I just love how a lot of the game revolves around the non-combat skills.  A lot of mmos these days focus on combat, and leveling up your character through fighting, rather than improving your character through skills such as woodcutting, mining, crafting, etc.  Sure, some MMOs have really good skill systems, but in my opinion (please no flaming) I believe RuneScape has the best hands down.

OP forgot to mention quests.  

Runescape's are probably he best in any MMO.  They are actually like mini-games in themselves.

(Lord of the Rings Online, for example, has instanced "epic" quests the advance the storyline, but they are all about combat.  Runescape's involve so many different things).

the game is great because you choose what you want to do. games like WoW force you to quest, with runescape you can do anything, lvls don't matter at all. it's a casual/hardcore/social MMORPG. i mean i know people that play just because of the social feature. i  seriously believe that 50% of the people that down the game actually like it and are just afraid to admit it, because talking crap about the game is the cool thing to do. if the game's that bad, why does everybody know about it?

the fact it doesnt take a lot of ressource and can be played with firefox 64,java 64 is a huge + i just wish runescape would change

java setting from buffer:image to buffer:strategy.

check the difference here:

http://soupgames.net/guimark2/

the fast one (when you clic on the last right icon)is optimised the slow one is what everybody use today!

ya java is way faster then flash ,webgl etc .but it would mean they have to hire programmer that know how to program ecmascript5 since most of the employe in all of those major firm dont want to be obsolete ,they keep the fact that ecmascript is better then all langage hidden(since it was supposed to die with netscape,nobody bothered to learn it with the bad going on today:young guns and old pro prooving the the popular firm that they were wrong and have to send their programer to school.

(employe in those place dont want that (and since they dont know 20% of the trick in ecmacript5 it isnt exactly a lie saying

that the program is bad.if the boss asked a pro tho he wouldnt like what he would hear ecmascript5 is the futr its the building block of javascript of actionscript etc etc .so in the end they loose anyway everybody else is learning the full potential of the langage

yes it will take probably 5 years to have program that map all those trick and another 5 to learn them before that but

if big firm dont want to miss the boat they dont have the choice progress isnt waiting for no one not even intel!

Originally posted by Molo2366

Believe it or not, It's popular because It's actually a decent MMO.

It wasn't compared to the original MMOs. Now that standards have dropped much lower, and they've had time to flesh it out, it looks better by comparison. I remember back when you couldn't even have 2 people hitting the same mob. But it was still popular then. Simply because its free, and browser based, so Jr High kids would play it in computer lab. 

This game died in my eyes with the introduction of the wilderness zone, this was many years ago and really the peak of this games popularity with the people I knew was when we were just entering high school.  I remember it was so bad that the school had to literally call out that playing the game at school wasn't allowed.

It's not a bad game, but when they restricted the pvp because so many people were bitching about it nearly all my friends and I stopped playing.  The last nail in the coffin to me was the fact it became a partial P2P game, I think Runescape should have stayed F2P because that's what it started out as.

Originally posted by GidSlack

OP forgot to mention quests.  

Runescape's are probably he best in any MMO.  They are actually like mini-games in themselves.

(Lord of the Rings Online, for example, has instanced "epic" quests the advance the storyline, but they are all about combat.  Runescape's involve so many different things).

Most old MMORPG quests were this way before WoW lobotomized the industry and all other MMOs followed suite. Also, Runescape CHARGES for those quests.