RuneScape Announces Old School Servers

Written by: Summer Walker (@Summer_Sal) | February 19, 2013 8:37 am

10 Comments

Citizens of Gielinor assemble! (on your old school servers)

RuneScape players have spoken, and they want their old school servers. In a recent news posts by Jagex, it was revealed that the old school servers from 2007 are coming back. “Since Friday, we have seen over 160,000 votes and growing in support of bringing back Old School RuneScape servers”. They had set an original target of 50,000 votes and promises greater levels of service and lower monthly costs as they try to get just under a million votes.

“These serves would be the exact version from back in 2007 and would maintain the ‘old school’ vibe and rules. The old graphics, hiscores and log-in are all part of the same archived build and would be retained. We wouldn’t ever add any micro-payment updates”

This is big news for a game based on micro-payments. Players will be able to subscribe and pay a monthly fee instead going with the free-to-play model of today. They will be able to earn their upgrades instead of buy them. Any cosmetic items will just be part of the game instead of a premium feature. However, if the old school servers really are exactly what they were in 2007, will there ever be new content? According to Jagex, the answer is no. In the breakdown of the votes, it seems they would need more than 250,000 votes in favor of the old school servers to get anything more than just critical maintenance.

MMO players are always going on about how much better it was back in “their day” but will they put their money where their mouths are? At a time where even the biggest games are going free to play, does RuneScape have the numbers to go back to a subscription?

How about you? Do you play RuneScape? Would you pay a subscription to have things back the way they were?

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone And The Secrets Of Stranglethorn Vale

Let's explore Stranglethorn Vale... Hearthstone style.Read more »

Comment
0:34

MMO

New Elder Scrolls Trailer Takes A First Look At The Wamasu

Elder Scrolls online reveals a new monster, the wamasu.Read more »

6 comments
Online Gaming

Always Online: You’ll Learn To Love It

Former CEO of EA says gamers will learn to love "always online."Read more »

22 comments

djsjr

Old school as in RS1 or before the combat changes?
- http://twitter.com/Ricksterness Rick
  
  Before combat changes.
http://twitter.com/cosmic_kirby CosmicKirby

I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding in the article about the current state of Runescape. The microtransactions Jagex currently offers were a fairly recent addition that only gives cosmetic items. Runescape always has, and basically still is a subscription based MMO.

A overwhelming majority of the content Today and in the 2k7 version of the game was for Members only (which is about an $8-10 per month subscription).

There’s no “upgrades” to buy in the current microtransactions, and the cosmetic items WON’T be in the 2k7 servers, because they didn’t exist back then.

But it certainly is interesting to see a company offer a nostalgic version of their game. With any luck they might convince certain other long standing MMO games, (I wonder which…) to follow suite if they are met with success.
James Bohuski

I’ve been a RuneScape player for 6 years and some of the information in this article is misleading.

1. The “free to play model of today” only gives access to limited content. If you’re going to play the game regularly, you pay for the subscription because the f2p content alone isn’t worth it.
2. The game is not based on micro-payments. These were very recently added to the game and only serve to provide cosmetic items and chances to win raffles for small boosts. You can’t just “buy your items,” and you still have to “work for them,” just like you always have.
3. “Any cosmetic items will just be part of the game instead of a premium feature.” True, the cosmetic item shop will not be available in the 2007 servers, but there are tons and tons of cosmetic items available through regular content in the game.
4. Jagex’s answer to new content on these servers is not “No.” If the vote receives 500,000+ votes, they will poll the community to see which content updates the community wants them to implement into the 2007 servers.
5. “Does RuneScape have the numbers to go back to a subscription?” Ummm, it has had a subscription since 2001, so I don’t know where that comment came from. The 2007 servers will be an added privilege to subscribing members. A subscription to the main game will also allow players to access the 2007 servers.

It would be unreasonable to assume that you could know everything about a game that you probably don’t play, I realize that, but I just wanted to clear up some false or otherwise misleading statements.
- http://www.facebook.com/rebecca.mcloughlin.946 Rebecca Mcloughlin
  
  Okay, so I’ve been away for a while and I’m just back with my beloved wifi and god am I confused. I’ve been playing RuneScape for about 8 years on and off now and does this mean that the entire game will be going back to the 2007 server or is it that as a member I have the choice to play the old 2007 version of the game?
  - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hagenbuch Jonathan Hagenbuch
    
    You will have the option to play the 2007 version is you’re a member. The current RuneScape is staying, just the old version is being added alongside.
http://twitter.com/Critzkreig Cody Moody

World of Warcraft will never do this. Unlike Runescape, the game was decidedly worse in 2007 than it is now. Class balance and content-wise.
http://www.facebook.com/didrik.puschel Didrik Püschel

I’m getting sick and tired of GameBreaker’s lack of research before commenting on subjects. The writer of this article clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about. RS has never been “based on micro-payments” and has had a subscription fee since 2002. The possible sub fee for the 2007 version will be ADDITIONAL to the current fee, and the micro-payments that were recently added to the current RuneScape will be removed.
- sander saar
  
  micro-payments=solomon store and squeal of fortune
  and runescape will be not removed
  only old school servers are coming
  - http://www.facebook.com/didrik.puschel Didrik Püschel
    
    Read this part of what I said again please: “and the micro-payments that were recently added to the current RuneScape will be removed.”

RuneScape Announces Old School Servers

Citizens of Gielinor assemble! (on your old school servers)

Hearthstone And The Secrets Of Stranglethorn Vale

New Elder Scrolls Trailer Takes A First Look At The Wamasu

Always Online: You’ll Learn To Love It

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Sign in to your account