Hi guys,
Over the past couple of days, there’s been a lot of heated discussion about the Beyond the Arc promotion, which has understandably opened up conversations about microtransactions in general. We haven’t been ignoring these conversations: you can be sure that we’re all reading them, and are deep in our own discussions about what it might mean for the future.
It’s probably worth noting what the main criticisms are:
- Beyond the Arc feels like we are putting an Arc reward behind a paywall. That’s largely because the Arc rewards are – as we’re aware – underwhelming
- A combat and Invention-related reward feels like a game content update, not a reward from a Treasure Hunter promotion.
- The outfit can’t be gained using daily keys. You need additional keys to complete the outfit
- The frequency of Treasure Hunter promotions feels constant right now
It’s also worth keeping in mind that, when it comes to microtransactions, they are vital to RuneScape as a business. Without them we wouldn’t be able to invest in RuneScape as much as we currently do. Regardless, when we design promotions, we try to consider and balance the health of the game, the commercial success of RuneScape, and of course – how microtransactions impact on you.
Here are my answers to your feedback below, and please be aware that we are still in discussion about your feedback.
Arc rewards behind a paywall
When we first sat down to design The Arc – Chapter One, we wanted to get the gameplay right and we were more interested in giving you satisfying XP rates than item rewards. We got that wrong. You need more than just XP rates to tempt you to play – in the case of The Arc – for up to 30, 40 hours.
We’re sorry about that, and we’ve learned for Chapter Two. One of the core focuses is to make it more rewarding. There are plenty of item rewards planned for The Arc – Chapter Two and you will hear about them at Runefest (I can reveal one reward now: the Crystal Siphon, which lets you siphon crystal equipment as if they were Tier 90, gaining extra XP rewards).
The lack of rewards in The Arc has meant that the High Armour of Hanto feels like something we ripped out of the content and plopped behind a paywall. That was not the case at all, but I can see how it could be seen that way.
Combat/Invention Gear in Treasure Hunter
It’s possible that we will release combat gear on Treasure Hunter in the future, but it’s clear we need to be smarter in our approach. Future combat gear on Treasure Hunter should not be a replacement for current ingame gear, and it shouldn’t devalue the methods of getting those items.
It should be noted that we are looking for other ways to bring the High Armour ingame - Vic’s store, for example, or other methods – as long as we do not undermine those who have already gained the gear in Beyond the Arc.
Inability to gain item using daily keys
We clearly need to do some thinking on how we do this kind promotion in the future. We made some changes based on your feedback since the last promotion of this style - Flight of the Butterflies – but these didn’t go far enough. In particular, we will be exploring the idea of allowing completion of the maps over longer periods than just the period of an MTX promotion (like this suggestion).
Promotion Frequency
This is where we have to come back to the point that microtransactions are an extremely important factor in making RuneScape a continued success. We don’t want to overwhelm you with promotions, though: there should be a balance between ensuring commercial success for the game, and making it fair and within a reasonable range which you – our community – are happy with.
I hope this addresses some of your concerns around the promotion and the state of microtransactions within RuneScape.
All the best,