Old School Runescape sees the browser MMO dialled back to 2007
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I remember 2007’s Runescape. That was about the time I’d look over my younger brother’s shoulder as he eyed his homework distrustfully - knowing fine well that somewhere in another tab, cardboard Flash people were hacking at rocks or each other with lead-grey pickaxes.Since then, the game has moved on in hops (more quests), skips (combat system upgrades) and jumps (a fundamentally new graphics and audio engine). But nostalgia comes even to the young, and today sees developers Jagex launch early access to Old School Runescape.
I’ve never tried to round up enough pirates to staff a ship with - it’s a tricky life for startups in the current climate - but if I did I’d want to do so from the comfort of my own port. That, and the ability to lead your new friends into previously undiscovered Eastern Lands, is what RuneScape’s new high-level expansion is offering.
Runescapists will soon be able to choose the method by which persistent botters will meet their sorry end. As detailed with some relish by Jagex, guilty automatons will either be stomped by dragon-y foot, swallowed up by the abyss, or fried by heavenly rays from above which will “burn them to a crisp".
Humza Bajwa, 19, faces a 15 year sentence after using a replica gun to rob another player of 4.7 billion Runescape coins. 
Last week I looked at the 
On Wednesday, we looked at the 
To call Jagex an odd developer, would be an understatement. They’re the largest developer in the UK, but many gamers haven’t heard of them. In the eleven years they’ve been around, they’ve worked on just one notable game - RuneScape - which was released before they existed as a company. And they’re about to sign up their 200,000,000th user account, which must be more than any other game. We caught up with them to find out how the game was made, how they’ve changed it over the years, and how you keep working on the same game for over ten years.
