Runescape Nostalgia & Homesickness

Ah yes. For the past four years, ever since the Evolution of Combat (End of Combat) update in Runescape, I've sincerely missed the game.

To this day I still disagree with the whole ordeal, but I gave up and quit immediately after the update happened, canceling the ongoing 7+ years of membership I had.

I still think back about that game while playing other games, wishing I could still play Runescape for what it was. Wishing I could still find worth in AFK-skilling Runescape while I play other games simultaneously.

After Jagex pretty much blew off most of its community, I moved on to Phantasy Star Online 2 and Team Fortress 2.

Interestingly, Blade and Soul was released this year, which I started playing. And just playing this game makes everything Jagex tried to do with the EoC, look completely pathetic. BnS happens to be my first MMORPG to play that uses an ability system with tons of cooldown.

But when Runescape tried to introduce it to us, it just didn't feel compelling at all, it was forced upon the community, it seemed completely unnecessary.

While BnS has its own share of issues, but looking at it's combat system alone, it's a million times better than what Runescape 3 tries to be. At one point in the past few years I actually tried to look again at Runescape 3 and see if I can stand the new combat system, but I couldn't. It just wasn't as fun as the old system. They've thrown their old players out for new ones.

With a free explore 3D world versus Runescape's grid based 3D world, smooth movement and skills versus RS3's mess of trying to make movement skills on a grid based game, there's just no reason to play Runescape anymore. The combat was the major meat of that game. Skilling is okay, but I mostly only did that for quest requirements or to "do something in RS" while AFKing the game.

BnS's backstep is a pretty fluid quick jump backwards that has actual PvP/PvE uses. Meanwhile Runescape's grid based backstep just feels messy compared to what the game used to be. It doesn't fit in.

I'm pretty new to BnS, but thinking back on what kind of things RS tried to add to the combat system via all of the skills, it feels like BnS has made all of them, except in a full action combat environment, with more organization and delineation between classes.

I don't know the situation now, but in the EoC beta it felt like a bunch of abilities were just copies of each other, for the most part.

Runescape Mages had a choke hold skill a la' using the force. Actually I don't remember if it worked to also stun your enemy. It probably did. But I'll reiterate that none of it felt like Runescape at all. Then again it is an entirely different combat system anyway.

Blade & Soul Force Masters have a "Phantom Grip" which can be used to grab the enemy, and slam them around. In the free movement environment the game is, it's extremely fluid. You can even carry people around with it until they break free.

But even with BnS being a thing in North America now, if 2012scape existed I would totally play it alongside every game I've been playing for the past 4 years.

I never tried Oldschool Runescape because really, it's just as big as a "screw you" from Jagex as the EoC was because you have to start from scratch anyway.

Who wants to redo 7+ years of gameplay?

Who wants to redo 7+ years of gameplay, only to get an outdated version of the game?

To this day, I still hear that the only thing that people do in Runescape anymore is PvM. PvP doesn't happen anymore. Hugely popular minigames are completely dead now. Their player count only rests at around 75k players now, much less than in the past.

It is silly to say any game that's gone on for as long as Runescape has will ever die, there will always be players who become complacent with the changes. But killing off a huge portion of your playerbase can and did happen.

Maybe some day if a version of Runescape is made that is complete free explore, action combat, and 3D movement like BnS comes out, might I ever return. Well. Not really return. I'd check out the "entirely new game" that it is.

The transition from RS2 to RS3 was basically the closing of an old game and opening of a new game, even though there was still a lot of demand for the old game.

I will probably always remember and always miss the fun times I had in Runescape. To be honest, I stopped subscribing to them with the mindset that I no longer wish to support what they do, and I hope RS3 continues to go on a downward path until Jagex decides to really revitalize their veteran playerbase.

I would love to become a paying customer for them again. Before that, there were times that I stopped playing RS2 for as long as half a year while I gained an interest in other games or similar, but during those times, I still paid for membership both to support them and because I knew I'd come back.

But I know I won't be coming back now, and doubt they'll ever do anything to bring their real veterans back.

Also, if you don't think Runescape is really dying or on a downfall:

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=runescape

Of course, I would wager that a lot of multiplayer games are declining. Perhaps people who have already left a game that died are now dying out of new games they try faster. Who knows.