Runescape has been around for a long, long, long time. Since it started back in the early 2000’s it’s gained a lot of popularity across the world. It was truly one the most popular MMO’s of the time “excluding World of Warcraft”. Either you’ve heard of Runescape, or haven’t, that’s how Runescape is. Back during its earliest years it was a small browser MMORPG where you could do quests; level up skills like mining and fishing, but was also a large multi-server network that let players interact with everyone else that was also playing. It was definitely a one of a kind, and then it just got even more popular and grew until it eventually upgraded the low poly graphics to something more sophisticated. Nowadays you have to install a launcher and play the game off of that instead of the browser.
Unfortunately, like all games that last longer than the average game it slowly started to get more and more out of control. Servers started getting crowded; players were being highly toxic to each other, and now a lot of people get on runescape trying to sell their fake money for real money. People stand in various digital street corners trying to sell rare and powerful gear, or even other Runescape accounts for gold or money. It’s not the same game that many people fell in love with back in the day, but it’s not any different from any modern day MMO games.
One way Runescape tries to solve the overcrowding issue is having servers specifically for paid members. If you pay for a membership you get access to the other half of the map on free servers as well access to worlds where people who play for free can’t reach. Of course, that’s not going to stop people from trying to sell you things, but it can relieve congestion when on the daily grind for experience. If you don’t pay up grinding to level up skills is going to be harder though. With free worlds only being half the intended map size there isn’t very many spots for those specific ores and fish you need to collect.
Back in the day it was easier to get away with fast levelling up with bots. You didn’t need to do any work; just leave your computer on till you reach level 100. With the major jump in technology from back then to know it’s easier for the admins to sniff out bots and ban those who use them, so it’s a riskier thing to do know then back then. Trying to get around grinding isn’t uncommon in MMO’s though. In Bethesdas latest Fallout 76 players were sneaking into the developer room where they have every item in the game stored away, and even went as far as item duplicating.
Besides World of Warcraft, Runescape is the only other big name MMO from back in the day that many gamers can recall hearing about or even playing. Now some even consider playing Runescape a meme. To add on to that, they even brought back the old school Runescape on PC and on mobile phones, but even now there still crowded and bothersome. If you think that RuneScape’s ever going to quit though think again. The community is a large international group that has supported this game for almost two decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game lasted at least another two decades.
