Permanent Free-to-play and bonds

[Sobend 897]

I don't think enough ex-players know about freeplay Old School to make this update have a sudden difference.

[Zooey 700]

I don't think enough ex-players know about freeplay Old School to make this update have a sudden difference.

I thought that too, but someone posted these rs-client/osbuddy stats, which are usually closer to 50/50. No idea if these people will stay though!

Edited February 20, 2015 by Zooey

[Sobend 897]

Still a lot of people who don't know :(.

 

Although I'm interested in seeing what the peak will be Sunday afternoon with permanent freeplay on OSRS and bxp weekend on RS3. Could get to like 120k people.

[Zooey 700]

Still a lot of people who don't know :(.

 

Although I'm interested in seeing what the peak will be Sunday afternoon with permanent freeplay on OSRS and bxp weekend on RS3. Could get to like 120k people.

I keep seeing posts on the subreddit pointing out how Jagex really has done almost no effective advertising. There are some cool ideas, like getting the oldschool client on Steam and and similar options but I have no idea why Jagex is so silent about it

[Sobend 897]

I think they'll get it on steam eventually. Jagex has a few other games on steam and with Old School being freeplay now I think we can expect steam to come shortly.

 

Also, I like how for one week Old School Runescape is the way I want it to be. Freeplay, no Grand Exchange, no Bonds...

[Zooey 700]

I think they'll get it on steam eventually. Jagex has a few other games on steam and with Old School being freeplay now I think we can expect steam to come shortly.

 

Also, I like how for one week Old School Runescape is the way I want it to be. Freeplay, no Grand Exchange, no Bonds...

I expect to see you in the real Sal's CC

[Shooter585 191]

Yeah I'm going to be playing 07 a lot this week because it's the only week we will ever get of "real" oldschool :P

 

I agree that the advertising is not great. I get lots of Runescape 3 ads on Facebook and other realms of the internet (unfortunately) but I have not seen any 07 ads since it was coming out. This is something I'd like to see more of. Also I believe Jagex has been thinking of putting Old School on Steam for awhile now, at least that's what the Old School Jmods are saying.

[Sobend 897]

It's really good to see Old School active again. At over 50,000 now. I wonder if the Grand Exchange has anything to do with it.

 

Once resizeable mode comes out I think the game can really expand.

[Shooter585 191]

I wouldn't say it's good to see Old School active again, because it's really been active for the past ~10 months. But the numbers have expanded greatly with f2p, and it's nice to see all the level 20s and 30s running around (most of which don't have other OSRS accounts). I am only level 78 but everytime I right click I see nothing but green :P At times the number of people on Old School exceed the number in RS3, which would have been hard to believe a year ago (if you cut out the afkers RS3 probably still wins, but hey, it's something).

[Yuanrang 343]

Wow. It is weird to see that one third of the current player base is now playing Old School, rather than the new version. I guess that means Old School actually turned out to be successful, which is not weird since it was a great game. :P

[Jure 5]

Loving the increase in numbers that came with F2P/GE. Hopefully the trend continues and we'll be seeing more players on OS in the future. :)

[Shooter585 191]

Wow. It is weird to see that one third of the current player base is now playing Old School, rather than the new version.

It's actually closer to a half, before the F2P update it was about one third. The Runescape 3 player counter counts both 07 and Runescape 3 (and lobby, and forums, and Runescape Classic).

 

Right now there are 92056 people on the Runescape 3 counter and 45369 people on the Old School Runescape counter. If we say forum, lobby, etc are negligible, then 49.3% of the people online are playing Old School and 50.7% are playing Runescape 3.

 

I think popularity might die down a little once f2p is no longer a new thing, but it could feasibly become more popular.

[Jure 5]

For these days it's pretty common for OSRS to pass RS3 numbers, at least at the times I check them. I really wanna see what do Jagex employees have to say about "inferior" game having more players.

[Yuanrang 343]

I think it depends on you see it. Part of what made RS2 popular was that it hooked people in, and had a fairly simple concept. JaGEx wanted to expand their horizons and, because of a few choices they made, ended up suffering because of it in terms of players leaving. :P

[Dark Archer 0]

In my opinion, Jagex should have just made it F2P with P2P on release day to begin with... Think of the masses who did not play RuneScape at all the time because of the game, but still had the inner passion want for the old game back. There would have been i would say, at least 50k more people online that day. Who the majority would have eventually bought membership anyway. There would even probably be a slightly bigger player base even today. Jagex has a bad rap when it comes to there marketing strategies, it's either excellent or self-destructive. There is no in-between with them.

[Micael Fatia 542]

Yeah I agree, it would've made one hell of a difference. It would have benefited the clan world greatly, there's a bunch of people who only now are starting training their accounts to join F2P PKing clans because they couldn't do it before due to the F2P only worlds being P2P. Will take a long time for these members to get their accounts to a decent level, accounts that would be pretty high level now had Jagex released F2P with OSRS.

[Yuanrang 343]

Heck, free P2P OS RS would probably even make me come back on a small account. RuneScape had a nice skilling system and nice quests, so I would greatly enjoy P2P. That said... paying for any version of RuneScape just is not worth any of my money, and I have a lot of the damn things stored in my bank. >.<

[Zooey 700]

Heck, free P2P OS RS would probably even make me come back on a small account. RuneScape had a nice skilling system and nice quests, so I would greatly enjoy P2P. That said... paying for any version of RuneScape just is not worth any of my money, and I have a lot of the damn things stored in my bank. >.<

Oldschool accounts start on tutorial island as new characters so your bank would be empty

 

You can buy membership for about 7m on RS3 which is what I've done

[Yuanrang 343]

Heck, free P2P OS RS would probably even make me come back on a small account. RuneScape had a nice skilling system and nice quests, so I would greatly enjoy P2P. That said... paying for any version of RuneScape just is not worth any of my money, and I have a lot of the damn things stored in my bank. >.<

Oldschool accounts start on tutorial island as new characters so your bank would be empty

 

You can buy membership for about 7m on RS3 which is what I've done

I know you start all over again. I was saying that RuneScape in its current state with its payment model, and fees, just is not enough value to justify spending money on it... and I have a pretty large sum of cash in my bank, and could easily afford it. :P

 

If it was a freely provided P2P though, then I would consider starting all over again. It was a fun game, but it is not worth paying for after you have been gone for as long as I have. I would much rather return to World of Warcraft.

[Dark Archer 0]

Bonds were a great idea by JAGEX. I believe chances are they will be most popular in foreign countries where the RS Membership cards are not marketed in stores, and people don't really have Debit/Credit cards. 2M should be good for a month of membership (Equivalent to $10), not 2 weeks. That might also drive the gold prices up when attempting to buy gold, giving an unfair player advantage. It's about time they introduced a system similar to this one. Well done JAGEX, your finally coming around with updates players enjoy!