Hi everyone,

As we near the end of another big year for Jagex, I feel very proud and truly amazed at what we’ve achieved together since RuneScape was conceived a decade ago. Together we’ve been part of the growth of one of the biggest free games in the world, not to mention the best, most vibrant online community in history. The Jagex family has grown to well over 400, we’ve picked up a number of Guinness World Records along the way (and counting), and for the second year running we’ve won the Golden Joystick Awards as best UK developer. This is all thanks to you, the players.

As you know, we try to keep our updates close to our chest, so that you will be pleasantly surprised; however, I can promise you that 2011 will be one of our most exciting update years ever.

When considering big game-changing decisions, it’s always with our players’ ultimate game experience firmly in mind; your feedback helps shape our decisions and, ultimately, the fun entertainment we produce. Creating content that you enjoy and appreciate is what drives our passionate teams. We regularly listen to you on the fan sites, our forums, in game and, for the first time ever, face to face at our live player celebration: RuneFest 2010. Your voice counts hugely, because we know you are as passionate about playing RuneScape as we are about making it.

It’s never lost on me what an incredible privilege it is to be able to serve such a wonderful community as well as the incredible team at Jagex. I’ve had an astonishing time over the past two years that I’ve been CEO of Jagex and, during that time, have had to make some rather difficult decisions. Today, however, I’d like to ask every one of our players, past and present, for your help in making one of the biggest decisions regarding the future of RuneScape...

I regularly hear from both the community and the Jagex team that we should reintroduce free trade and the excitement of the old Wilderness, warts and all. As you know, we removed free trade and the Wilderness in 2007 to combat botting, gold farming and item scamming. Since then, we have produced new content that provides comparable gameplay and mechanics to allow increased trade limits with long-term friends; however, we are still regularly being told that something is missing from the 'good old days' of RuneScape.

We’ve been shutting down bot-makers all around the world and prosecuting people for stealing accounts, and we’ve evolved our systems to quickly detect cheating; however, we will have to accept that we will never completely eradicate cheating so long as there is an incentive and method to do so. Bringing back free trade and the original Wilderness will certainly make this a bigger issue than it is today, though I can pledge that we will never stop trying to combat it.

So, the big question is, are the passionate voices we hear on this topic truly representative of the majority of the player community or just a rather vocal minority? Do you want to see a return of free trade and the original Wilderness? If the vast majority of our players vote in favour of it, then we will do exactly that.

Please tell us what you think by visiting this page and registering your vote. As ever, we’ll read your feedback and listen to your thoughts and opinions, so please do feel free to discuss and debate this on the forums.

In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday season and thank you for a fantastic 2010. I look forward to celebrating ten years of RuneScape with you in January.

Have fun!

Take care,
Mark Gerhard

http://www.runescape.com/wilderness

As you guys know by now, at least 1 million usernames have voted for the free trade and old wildy to return. But ask this: what makes you think Jagex WILL really bring back the old wildy and free trade? There are a few things to look out for before we get too excited over this piece of "good" news.

Firstly, notice that the vote page has an advert on it. With at least 1 million usernames submitted, Jagex has already earned a decent amount from the ads alone.

Secondly, realise that there is an option to remain anonymous. This part is suspicious: If Jagex wants genuine, real players to vote, why remain anonymous? And why is it only usernames are required and not pass? Thus anyone can create accounts now and mass-vote, and more importantly, people can use old accounts to vote. So much for the notion of fair vote?

So guys, do not be too happy yet. Jagex may just drop us another bombshell so don't be too optimistic

Free trade will instantly destroy the GE.

As much as I look forward to the return of old wildy, you should also be skeptical of Jagex's intentions

Personally, I know this is fake. In all it's years, Jagex has never removed an update no matter how horrible. This is all just a ploy to get the world record for most votes in 25 days on an online game. You know they just want as many votes as possible because you don't have to enter your pass to make a legit vote. You could enter zezima a thousand times. In fact I'm sure people are doing that right now.

Whether they will actually bring back trade or not, no one knows but jagex. These votes don't really count toward anything. On the 14th, there will either be a news update on the fron page that will say, "Jagex has won a world record! But unfortunately we thought that ten million votes wasn't enough to bring free trade back, We're sorry." or "Jagex has won a world record! Here's your free trade and Wildy. Have fun."

It all comes down to whether or not Jagex wants to. Right now they know whether or not they will bring trade and the wild back, regardless of the votes.

I voted yes, though it shall not matter.

Originally posted by Blissey

Personally, I know this is fake. In all it's years, Jagex has never removed an update no matter how horrible. This is all just a ploy to get the world record for most votes in 25 days on an online game. You know they just want as many votes as possible because you don't have to enter your pass to make a legit vote. You could enter zezima a thousand times. In fact I'm sure people are doing that right now.

Umm...

22+ random events removed.

Gnomecopter Tours removed.

Dropping items via the bank interface.

Bounty Hunter mini-game removed.

Romeo and Juliet quest removed.

Hitpoints removed and replaced with Constitution.

Achievement diary removed and replaced with the task system.

Hitpoints now reversed back to normal? Are you sure?

I agree Jagex can make any decision no matter how many people vote. They can say they need over 60 million votes since that is how many people are registered, or say what we have now is enough if we don't receive no more votes (which won't happen). I expect them return the wildy back though, since they will have huge backlash for tempting players who have been wanting this ever since 07.

I have a feeling they would implement it again, they wouldn't get it all hyped up just to have it not happen. Sure it could get them another world record. But does that get them back old players? No. Bringing back wilderness and free trade definately will though.

I live for DEMOCRACY!

What else can I say? Has OUR hard work finally paid off? We can only hope 4 the best in these times of disillusionment.

But if this pulls off  successfully, the unity of the 2 major groups in runescape will bring respect and firepower back to the runescape front lines.

What we fear is another CIVIL WAR; this time with the marxists being the protagonists , and us being the antagonists...but what can I say?

Enjoy the moment. Who knows? Next year might be another story!

Goodbye everyone, and good luck! It's time for me to TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN.

I'm waiting for phase 2, then I'll  begin my usual grind.

True, tho. What will happen to ge G.E? :l

I played Runescape back when I was in 7th and 8th grade, I was bout 12 then. I'm 19 now, and have never found the same fun that I did with any MMO then I did with runescape in the "old days". Yes, when the free market was there, and it would have been unheard of to have it any other way. I loved it then, and I think I would love it now if they do implement this again. The votes may not matter, but the decision they make does to me...even though I'm in college now and getting married soon. I would still play runescape....only if it were my runescape.. Lets hope this comes true.

The poll page has changed. GE will stay, but without the min/max prices. More like a normal AH than anything once it's changed. I can only see RS growing if they change it back.

Edit-Bad grammar

its about fucking time

i've read up on this idea and i remember it from back then. from my point of veiw i see no problem with wilderness coming bac, this means no more revanants but i see nuthing bad about that. now free trade thats a whole dif story. it would giv free rain of prices wich could make som players lots of money . no more trade limit so u could trade anything free so you could giv to freinds easier.thats all good but this also means that normally cheap stuff could go for way more causing more broke players . they say they also intend to keep the ge now that works all based on item value  so if u take away set item value wat will happen to it. it might all work out  but i dont really no ....

these are my thoughts on this..

Yes and that's what made it fun back then and I'm not debating that. The danger of having to clue and rc around pkers made it more rewarding and thrilling at times. But just as it's removal had a domino effect on? many other aspects of Runescape, it's return will also have a similar effect. The points I'm trying to make are that it won't be a case of "Oh lets bring back wildy and have a great old time". It's going to have a knock-on effect all around Runescape, and effect everyone.

The main reason I did not return to Runescape was because of this change. I'm trying it out again now, and it seems pretty fun, but it would be MUCH better with this update. When I played awhile ago it was soo much fun going with my clan into the wilderness. It was one of the best MMO experience I've had. It was actually exciting...I think it was completely ignorant of them to get rid of it. They had the decision to either destroy the game to kill botting. Or allow botting a bit more, and keep the game alive. They decided to shoot themselves in the head..smart.

Im excited they're considering bringing it back, but i would like to remind everyone that being just post Christmas time it would be a terrific marketing tool for them to hint at the bringing back of the wildy.  It is completely possible though that they have completely honest intentions about this. 

ya im with blissy its porbly a scam. but i bet they'll bring back wildy other wise it will leave other players mad and most likly bring the # of player down dramaticly.

but jagex does often do dumb things......

These days it's all about the oldschool. What's wrong with the new? Can't this ship sail already? I think the current system is FINE. 

2006 Runescape belongs in 2006. Pking belongs with the veterans who flock to old pk videos to enjoy them regularly...for nostalgia purposes.

Jagex just takes criticism too seriously. Awhile ago, on a popular WoW vs RuneScape video on YouTube, certain WoW players dissed RuneScape for not having DX and OpenGL rendering.

Guess what?

The following week, these two options were hardcoded into the HD display properties interface albeit the fact that DX and OpenGL rendering look exactly the same!

The same goes for the HP Constitution update! A couple of WoW, GW and other client based mmo fanboys mock RuneScape for the " 0 0 0 1 1 1 "' , the slow tedious combat...and bingo; Jagex adds a multiplier.

What Jagex should do is add more skills, more armour, and improve their character's facial features to the extent that it would have some kind of variety. 

Most importantly, if Jagex wanted to compete with WoW, they should introduce races native to RuneScape only with mounts based on the popular RuneScape bestiary!

These oldschoolers should know that it is 2010 already. Three years have gone by, and so has the intolerance toward the marxist modus operandi. This is new runescape. Let us move on and stop dissing these new runescapers by calling them 09ers 010ers...etc!

Originally posted by Bermann

Jagex just takes criticism too seriously. Awhile ago, on a popular WoW vs RuneScape video on YouTube, certain WoW players dissed RuneScape for not having DX and OpenGL rendering.

Guess what?

The following week, these two options who hardcoded into the HD display properties interface albeit the fact that DX and OpenGL rendering look exactly the same!

The same goes for the HP Constitution update! A couple of WoW, GW and other client based mmo fanboys mock RuneScape for the " 0 0 0 1 1 1 "' , the slow tedious combat...and bingo; Jagex adds a multiplier.

What Jagex should do is add more skills, more armour, and improve their character's facial features to the extent that it would have some kind of variety. 

Most importantly, if Jagex wanted to compete with WoW, they should introduce races native to RuneScape only with mounts based on the popular RuneScape bestiary!

 

These oldschoolers should know that it is 2010 already. Three years have gone by, and so has the intolerance toward the marxist modus operandi. This is new runescape. Let us move on and stop dissing these new runescapers by calling them 09ers 010ers...etc!

I have to disagree with your criticisms.

The DirectX and OpenGL updates for Runescape had been planned for a couple of years, but only came into fruition when the engine was updated enough to handle them. There isn't much of a difference, graphically, with Directx and OpenGL, but the options allow players with different setups to run the game much smoother.

Constitution was brought into the game as the first part to the damage soaking update, because weapons were becoming far too powerful in correlation with the armor to defend against them and the food to heal damage. The 99 HP factor is something Jagex had been criticized on by their players for years, and the update was done so that damage can be more specific. The explanation of helping new players was Jagex being...well, Jagex. Confusing in their explanation and somewhat condescending to new players, it is their forte.

They have said that they always have at least one skill in development, although they announced last year that they're not working on any new skills until they can flesh out the final levels of Dungeoneering. I believe there are two more "floor" updates coming out, with the second being the finale where the player finally meets/encounters Bilrach (the man whose diaries you collect in the floors). There's really no clue as to what Jagex is working on in terms of a new skill.

More weapons/armor are being added on a continual basis, and they've hinted that more equipment slots may be on their way. The dragon kiteshield has been confirmed for sometime in a future date, but it's important to know that they try to release armor/weapons slowly so that they can be properly balanced. 

Character facial features received an update, but as far as the engine goes they are working on a small texture budget. Until they can do some more updates to the engine, these faces are likely the best we'll get for the time being, and faces are probably low on the priority list.

There may not be many unique races to Runescape, but they've done a pretty good job personalizing the ones that do exist, and giving them their own stories.