The Year Of Freeplay
Entry posted by The Newspaper
436 views
The Year Of Freeplay by Xela
While these riots carried on, a large proportion of the population were enjoying a new update: the freeplayers. For the first time, the freeplayers were given a minigame in the duel arena, along with the new bounty hunter and clan wars games. Team capes became the latest fashion item and were worn by everyone, filling up the extra bank space that was also added on a day that is mostly remembered as being a terrible day for all players. Is this not the vocal minority's opinion as we so often see in RS history?
In came 2008, and the traditional yearly freeplay update came in the form of the Stronghold of Player Safety, which people assumed, at the time, as being the only thing that the freeplayers would get, as they had what was believed to be the only replacement for the old wildy.
Fist of Guthix brought a new PvP minigame to members and freeplayers alike, providing fun for lots of players and signalling the start of Jagex's scheme for restoring full PvP to the old PKers who were still unhappy with the offerings of Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars. This however brought a change in the update schedule for freeplayers, breaking the usual schedule of one update a year. Players dismissed it as being part of the reconciliation for the removal of PKing.
The Lumbridge and Draynor achievement diary also brought the previously members only diaries to the masses. This proving that freeplay were certainly getting a bumper year and giving them a better taste of the members life than the doomed to fail Gnomecopters that were an obvious advert for membership.
Then came the big one - the graphics update. In what was the biggest update since RS1 became RS2 every player gained the improved graphics that brought RS into the 21st century. Although it was always assumed that freeplayers would get the new graphics, it was by no means guaranteed but once again they came out with something new to enjoy.
The Runecrafting Guild came in August, providing yet another minigame to the freeplayers along with more staves and some assorted other items that soon became fashion items among the freeplay community. This provided another much needed way to train the most difficult skill in the game, but especially so in freeplay.
Finally, in the last replacement for the old wilderness, PvP worlds brought in a new era and possibly a final replacement for old PKing. The whole world became a battle and perhaps it was the greatest one yet. Players still complained about the drops being wrong and the losses they could face for the smallest of rewards, but it brought new armour in the corrupt dragon set and a new way to play and enjoy.
The holiday events are now even bigger with the new quests. We can see how the usual yearly update has been done many times over last year, and all because of the removal of the wilderness. Some may say this is too much of a price, but as a freeplayer who never used it anyway, I can but hope that this stream of updates keeps on flowing.
So, December 10th. Perhaps a day that changed the world, but also the start of the year of freeplay.
2 Comments
Recommended Comments