Runescape
developers Jagex have been feeling particularly nostalgic this week:
they’re considering re-launching a six-year old version of their MMO.
After
players and developers alike spent time reflecting on the good old
days, the latter began to rifle through their archives in search of
previous builds of the game. “The fine vintages of 2006 & 2007
appeared to be the high point of collective interest,” Jagex said on their blog.
They then announced that they’d managed to pull a build from August
2007 out of their cellars. It’s a complete, fully-functioning snapshot
of the game.
Jagex are now asking their fans if they would like to play it once more.
Running
an older build of the game would require separate servers and
additional staff to supervise and maintain it, so Jagex will be polling
their fans to find out how enthusiastic the community is and because
they know they’ll receive a strong response, “just like the poll for the
return of the Wildy & Free Trade, which saw a jaw dropping 1.4
million votes.” Depending on the level of response they receive, they’ll
implement one of four strategies. This is the breakdown they gave:
“Level 1 – 50,000 or more votes:
2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the current
Runescape game, with an additional membership fee of around $15. These
servers will receive no content updates and only critical maintenance.
Level 2 – 250,000 or more votes:
2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the main Runescape game, supported by a small development team,
with a smaller additional membership fee of around $5 extra. These
servers will receive basic maintenance for bug fixes and little
improvements, with the possibility of integrating our modern anti-bot
technology over time, if it becomes necessary.
Level 3 – 500,000 or more votes:
2007 servers will come back as a separate entity to the main RuneScape game, with a dedicated development team, with no extra membership fee. These servers will receive regular maintenance, some content updates and integration of anti-bot technology if necessary.
Level 4 – 750,000 or more votes:
2007 Servers will come back as a separate entity to the main RuneScape game, with a larger dedicated development team with no extra membership fee and the free portion of the game available to all.
These servers will receive continuous maintenance, modern anti-bot
technology if necessary and – crucially – regular members’ polls to
determine which updates you want to see prioritised.”
I
think it’s not unrealistic to expect voter numbers to reach level 3 or
4. That 1.4 million votes for the return of the Wildy & Free Trade
is really just a drop in the ocean. Runescape has over 200 million registered players, is now in its eleventh year and is still growing. Last year we looked back on the history of the game with this three-part Runescape profile.