Nothing crafty intended! We are simply in ongoing discussions, both internally and with the DCMS (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee) about how we improve things for all RuneScape players. To set some expectations though – immediate, drastic change as some people are suggesting would put the whole game and its community at risk which is not something we would do. We are working on a Designer Diary in which we will discuss some of the issues more openly, and will let you know as soon as this is ready to release.

Realise we have been a bit too silent recently though so happy to answer any reasonable questions we can in the meantime!

[deleted]

Comments on the 10b gp that came into the game with people abusing the gem virtus promo? When you say it would put community at risk what do you mean?

Mod Cam commented on the Virtus bug abuse issue here: https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/d9814q/what_effect_does_mtxvirtus_th_promo_actually_have/f1mijav?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

_Manks

Have any potential treasure hunter promotion concepts been rejected due to fears they would be too bad for the game?

Depends what you mean by 'bad for the game' but yes it does happen, although not often. Thats mostly because the teams working on them care about the game and have no reason to want to damage it. Promotion designs are shared openly and the other dev teams help by giving feedback.

HashTagDeeperino

Any hope for a complete and total end of the gambling system that is in place and a replacement with, at the very minimum, a system that basically sells the same stuff but does so without any gambling element? 'Cause if that's too drastic a change, that bodes very poorly for the game's future. It's barely asking for anything - just that we stop exploiting people with gambling systems. Still selling the same product. If the product that's being sold can't stand on its own merit and needs a gambling system to prop it up, with the removal of that system being a change that would threaten the game, that speaks volumes.

It's also important to note that there's no need for "immediate" change - players have been demanding change for years. If you fix something now that's the furthest thing from "immediate". In any way that a change would be "immediate" it is due to negligence - not planning and enacting change sooner.

We're not just suddenly asking for something, and no one should be accepting any sort of spin that is trying to portray this as "Jagex trying to quickly react to something".

I also am not particularly interested to hear that you're speaking to DCMS, because we already know Jagex is lying through their teeth to parliament, or is just so grossly negligent that insane statements that ignore common knowledge and basic reasoning are being made.

Answered a similar thread about RNG vs Direct Purchase earlier here: https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/d9540k/genuine_question_mtx/f1mif0f?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

Too early to give specifics but its something we are looking into to see if we can make it work. As mentioned we will go into more detail in the Designer Diary.

BoundToFail

How do you feel about your performance as a company in front of the MP's? Do you feel like calling loot boxes 'surprise mechanics' is an accurate representation of what your fellow employees and players think?

At what point is the Line in Treasure Hunter, should we start expecting larger than 200m cash or higher than t80s items in the near future? I'd assume Shadow Torva and Shadow Pernix were in the planning. Do you still plan to go through with these?

Why did your PR team think it was a good time to announce a new skill? Is the level of outrage something you see as concerning or do you feel it's more of a vocal minority?

How do you feel about the post that said tried to contact your customer service support about putting a limit on treasure hunting spending? You said you didn't provide those services, are you looking to add this in the near future?

What part do you play in Jagex, I'm not sure I've seen your mod name around here before? Last time one of the corporate Jmods commented on here they disappeared again very soon after.

I understand that immediate change is unrealistic, but is there any chance of getting some sort of time span on when we can expect to see change? 3 Months? 6 Months? 1 Year?

Would you rather fight one Alice sized treasure hunter key or 100 treasure hunter key sized Alices?

Additional question: https://i.imgur.com/FkWoDTp.png How do you reflect on these comments you made a few years ago?

Lots of Qs here so will number replies.

1. Jagex were happy to volunteer our help to inform the discussion and have been singled out as being "encouraging" by the comittee where other studios refused to participate.
2. Theres nothing in the near future for sure and Torva and Pernix are not on any current plans. I think the better answer for this is why it came about. We surveyed lots of players last year about TH and many of them told us there were not enough exciting non-XP rewards and felt they werent getting as good value for money as they used to. Very open to suggestions of other ways we could address that.
3. Well, we wanted you to know that there is some really exciting new content coming soon as we realise we havent had so many big updatees recently. We are looking at the causes, scale and impact of current situation very closely, but worth noting roughly 10% of RuneScape players engage with MTX, so the majority dont feel so strongly. That said I'm concerned about anything that spoils the enjoyment of the game for any of our players.
4. Our player support enables players to request deletion/suspension of the account or request a payment block.
5. Im a Product Manager on RuneScape and I work closely with the LiveOps team (aka MTX) as well as other content teams and designers. My focus is ensuring the longevity and health of RuneScape which all our teams are equally commited to. You are right I'm not often on here - honestly I would be if I had more time ;)
6. I think you will see changes in those timescales, but obviously bigger changes take longer. Ill discuss more in the upcoming Designer Diary video.
7. 100 Treasure Hunter key sized Alices [notes down promo idea]
8. Well I think most of it holds up actually. That example is actually a case where we did have a design concept that we scrapped becasue we felt the direction it was going in was wrong for the long-term health of the game. I'd definiteily like to see more experimentation and ways to get better value for things like cosmetics and clearly some of the things we tried since then didnt work out.

Hope that answers at least some of the questions and also some of the other comments in this thread.

02grimreaper

When you say reasonable questions does that mean questions not concerning mtx, or reasonable questions concerning mtx?

asonable questions does that mean questions not concerning mtx, or reasonable questions concerning

Both - ie happy to answer questions about mtx or non-mtx topics too if i can. Just be aware I wont reply with business sensitive information, or on projects we havent announced through official channels.