User:Pwatrous/sandbox

For the current version of this game, see RuneScape.

Old School RuneScape (OSRS) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex. The game was first released on February 22nd, 2013, as the result of a controversial update that split the player base. When OSRS launched it was originally an August 2007 build of RuneScape, but has since received engine improvements, new content, and quality of life updates largely decided by in-game polls. Despite having a smaller development team and a slower relative update schedule, OSRS has a significantly larger player base than RuneScape, twice as large in late 2017 and quadruple the size by the beginning of 2019. A significant factor in this increase was the release of the official Android and iOS versions in October of 2018.

Gameplay

The input mechanics are mainly point-and-click. The player controls a single character and can interact with NPCs, objects, and entities in the game world by left-clicking, or selecting an option from the object's right-click menu, since many objects offer more than one interaction option. OSRS, like RuneScape 3, makes profit through a membership subscription that gives free-to-play members access to the full "pay-to-play" content of the game. Players can purchase their membership with money or through in-game currency, purchasing items called Old-School Bonds.

OSRS offers an "Ironman" game mode wherein players are completely barred from economic interaction with other players, and they must be completely self-sufficient. Ironman mode players cannot take items that other players have dropped, sold to stores, or left unclaimed on the ground from kills. Ironman players are also unable to collect loot from monsters that have been touched by other players.

First introduced in October 2014, this is often considered one of the most difficult ways to play the game, as many late-game items only come from high level bosses and have a small chance of being obtained. Although these accounts can still use all of the game's chat features, the game mode is often touted as a "single-player" experience due to the necessity of solo exploration of the game world for progression. Additional Hardcore and Ultimate Ironman modes were later added that impose additional restrictions on the player.

Deadman Mode is a separate incarnation of OSRS released on 29 October 2015, which features open-world player versus player combat and accelerated experience rates. If one player kills another, the victor receives a key to a chest letting them loot items from their victim's account. Players who engage other players in combat will be marked with a skull icon – "skulled" players come under attack from NPCs if they try to enter safe cities, and the number of keys they are holding will be visible to other players making them an obvious target. Players who die in Deadman Mode will lose a significant portion of their experience points in all but five skills of the player's choice.

Additionally, Jagex hosts separate, recurring "Deadman Tournaments" where players can qualify for a final elimination round, incentivized by monetary prizes. The Autumn Finals of September 2018 boasted a US$20,000 grand prize.

Skills

OSRS allows players to train 23 unique skills, 15 of which are free-to-play and 8 members only skills. When a player begins their account, they must begin training each of their skills from level 1, except for Hitpoints, which begin at 10. Each skill can be trained to a maximum level of 99, at which point the player can purchase a unique Cape of Accomplishment, or Skill Cape. While the capes provide small bonuses, they are primarily used for cosmetic purposes or as a status symbol due to the immense time requirement to earn a cape. A player can automatically trim their cape by leveling an additional skill to 99. As of November 2016, Slayer was the rarest untrimmed Skill Cape, held only by 23 players. Artisan, Sailing, and Warding were all proposed skills that were rejected from the game.

Skills in OSRS fall into four distinct categories. Combat skills are used for fighting monsters and players. Higher combat levels allow a player to fight tougher enemies for a chance at rare and valuable items. The combat skills are Attack, Strength, Defense, Ranged, Prayer, Magic, and Hitpoints. Gathering skills involve collecting natural resources from the environment. The gathering skills are Mining, Fishing, Woodcutting, Hunter, and Farming. Artisan skills involve processing items into a final item. The artisan skills are Cooking, Smithing, Fletching, Firemaking, Herblore, Crafting, Runecrafting, and Construction. Finally, the support skills, Agility, Thieving, and Slayer, have no formal classification.

Combat

There are three combat classes in OSRS: warrior, ranger, and mage. Similarly to the game of Rock–paper–scissors, each combat class possesses an advantage over one other, in a triangular fashion. Warriors are strong against rangers, who are strong against mages, who are strong against warriors. Within each combat class, there are various armors and weapons a player can train with. Each weapon provides a set of different combat styles, allowing a player to choose the manner in which they train.

A player's combat stats are averaged to determine their combat level, which maxes out at 126. A player's combat level is important in determining who they can attack in the Wilderness, a Player versus player area of the game. Some players like to create what are known as "pure" accounts, in which they restrict training a skill (typically attack or defense) in order to keep their combat level low. PvM, or player vs monster combat is another popular training method in which players repeatedly kill powerful bosses for experience and a chance at rare items.

History

Concurrent players of Old School RuneScape (blue) compared to RuneScape 3 (yellow) from 2013 to 2018

In response to the declining player base and negative update reception of the then-current version of RuneScape, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard officially announced a poll for the creation of OSRS in a news article in February 2013. The article explained that an August 2007 backup of RuneScape was located in the company's backup archives. The company admitted that the game had changed a lot and that the backup could be used to create a separate version of the game if the players desired. In the article, Jagex explained the goals of the poll, and what each number bracket would unlock for the player community. In two weeks, it received enough votes for the game to be released.

OSRS was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on 22 February 2013. Upon release, the game was only playable for accounts that had a membership subscription. The option for non-members to play in the limited free-to-play areas was granted in February 2015. In contrast to the original game, OSRS does not offer micro-transactions, and has a player base that heavily opposes them. OSRS is graphically simpler and has far fewer customization options than its successor.

Although OSRS has a small team of developers relative to that of the live version of RuneScape, it receives regular patches and new content of that of a flagship product. Most updates and changes are polled, and can be voted on in-game. The proposed updates are voted on by players, and are only implemented if 75 percent of paying players accept them. Poll results used to be visible to everyone before casting their votes, but on April 10, 2019, after numerous complains from players, poll results became hidden until the conclusion of the polls.

In 2017, Jagex announced the development of a mobile client for Android and iOS devices, which was released on 30 October 2018, after a series of small, closed beta testing rounds and larger, open Android and iOS beta tests. In under two weeks, it became the most downloaded mobile game in eight different countries, surpassing a million downloads.

Controversies

Over the years, OSRS has seen its fair share of controversies. Most notably, in late 2018, wealthy players took to OSRS forums to complain about large amounts of gold disappearing from their accounts overnight. While many players were quick to write it off as another case of the victims not properly securing their account, Jagex released a statement that the gold was actually stolen by an employee. Due to the real world worth of the stolen currency, valued at close to $100,000, Jagex turned the issue over to the police. This same moderator was also alleged to have been involved in a Denial-of-service attack with his clan during the previous year's Deadman Tournament.

The game also sparked heated debate in 2017 over the addition of an LGBT themed holiday event in which players were tasked with finding the pieces to create a rainbow scarf