RuneScape 3: The Sixth Age leaves its future up to its players

June 24th, 2013, 23:40 Posted By: wraggster

Over two games and 12 years, Jagex’s RuneScape has carved out a legend for itself. It is the original free-to-play western MMOG, having amassed 200 million registered users over its lifetime. And as competitors flood into its space, it’s the one with an established niche and community.After over a decade of iteration, though, RuneScape 3 sees Jagex deliberately upsetting the balance. The game’s Sixth Age has a grand overarching narrative that begins with the God Of Balance, Guthix, being slain at the hands of Sliske. The protective wards surrounding the realm vanish, allowing gods of varying malevolence to swoop in and claim Gielinor’s regions as their own. It is against this backdrop that RuneScape’s players are being handed the power to decide the fate of the world around them. They will pick sides and fight on behalf of their deity in World Events, which will be spaced three months apart. And these events will have a dramatic effect on the game world: familiar regions could be turned inside out, depending on which god finally wrests control of them.Isn’t there a chance this could also upset the game’s dedicated fanbase, a passionate audience of millions of monthly active users? Design director Mark Ogilvie admits that there is, but believes it’s counterbalanced by the fact that players will have the agency to decide what happens for themselves. The degree of power that we’re getting should not be underestimated; when we quiz Ogilvie on what RuneScape’s landscape might look like in a year, he replies, “We honestly have no idea.” Yet the Jagex team clearly doesn’t fear controversy – the first event is scheduled for this summer, and will take place in an area we’re told is close to players’ hearts.The main catalyst behind RuneScape’s growth has been the ubiquity of its web browser host, enabling the game to grow from a hobbyist multiuser dungeon running out of a UK bedroom to a global juggernaut. But while the client opens up the game to a huge audience, it also holds RuneScape back, leaving it unable to keep pace graphically with its peers. And this is why the second of RuneScape 3’s overhauls is a technical one.

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