Still, despite Jagex's willingness to listen to the committee's feedback, the analysis, and also the proof that it held, reignited arguments about the place of monetisation and loot boxes in RuneScape, which complicates the conversation of those characteristics in video games as a whole. Loot boxes and in-game money shops may be described as optional, however the services and items they supply are appealing to runescape players, especially in live casino games where there is often a pressure to buy OSRS gold maintain the same degree of progress as the remainder of the runescape player community. RuneScape players can quickly fall prey to this trap, because some of runescape's greatest content, such as quests or new locations, are locked behind high skill requirements.
It's also not possible to avoid the microtransactions which exist in RuneScape. Every time you log into runescape you are taken to the lobby. Here you'll find adverts for the most recent deals in the Treasure Hunter advertising or Solomon's General Store. As soon as you enter runescape itself, an icon to start Treasure Hunter will show up in the top-left hand corner of your screen, which you've got to manually close. The desire to invest is present and it shouldn't be.
The issue Jagex is tackling today is, how can it regain the trust of runescape players who have become disenchanted with its execution of monetisation? Jagex's response is a willingness to experiment with its live events and monetisation methods, with the objective of evolving past the current loot box program to one that is more attractive to runescape players. This will also include revitalising and reworking older types of monetisation, such as Solomon's General Store, over the next several years. Matt Casey explained the aim of restructuring the monetisation using RuneScape is:"We want runescape players to feel any material that they paid for is done in a generous way, represents good value for money, and we would like to be clear with these systems."
If you play RuneScape, then you will have noticed the first of those experiments has already occurred. From 22nd November to 2nd December 2019, RuneScape conducted a version of its Dual XP weekend. The difference being that, rather than having the event happen over the actual weekend, every runescape player was instead awarded an allocated 36 hours of dual XP to use during this week. This invention, according to Casey, received a positive response from the neighborhood:"We have the right balance of buy gold runescape mobile runescape players who wanted to min max it and not lose out, but, at precisely the exact same time, feel as though they have the option of when to perform."
