Obviously, they did exactly that using Runescape 3, a movement which many assert stunted the growth of OSRS Gold the name. OSRS is a Free to Play name, but it offers a monthly subscription which adds hundreds of hours of extra content. The simple fact that any type of monetization was being discussed when the title already contains a monthly subscription was probably the reason for such a backlash from the community.
Update: Jagex has issued an announcement saying that no credit card or banking information was lost as a result of the breach. "Further to yesterday's statement, we can confirm that none of our players' bank or card details were compromised," it said. "We work with an industry-respected, fully compliant third-party processor, to purposefully avoid staff using gamers' full card or bank details. This also applies when players decide to store their details at payment stage for any future purchases. Jagex undergoes regular, third-party testing to make sure we maintain the highest security standards."
A few months before, an Old School Runescape player who goes by mazrim_lol on Reddit claimed a"serious information breach" had caused him to shed 45 billion coins onto his principal accounts. His claims had been dismissed by numerous other players, several of whom suggested that it had been his own fault for not even getting the accounts properly secured, or that he might be lying around it completely. But it came to light now he wasn't lying, which he was right regarding the information breach, which was actually an inside job at Jagex. "We confirm that a Member of The Old School Team has been dismissed from employment at Jagex following gross misuse of moderator privileges," Jagex stated in an announcement posted now. "During our rigorous regular system tests, intermittent activity was identified on limited number of accounts, including the motion of riches and items back to the live match "
"After our investigation, we could resolve the problem before any substantial effect was made to the wider game, or market. We also have taken steps to return things and GP to some affected accounts. Whilst we generally do not return items or stone, we feel that given this unusual situationwe wanted to ensure no players dropped out to the rogue actions of a member of staff."
Jagex added that it is"working together with the police" regarding the incident--45 billion coins has significant real-world worth --but said it couldn't provide further specifics. However, in accordance with the Resetera thread that the worker in question is Jed Sanderson, aka Mod Jed, who may actually have murdered in excess of 100 billion coins in total, worth over $100,000 on gold-selling markets. He's also allegedly involved with the Reign of Terror clan, which has been accused of using DDoS attacks to Buy RuneScape Gold slow competitions in tournaments, including a $20,000 tournament that occurred in September of last year. Jagex said in the very time that its investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Sanderson, but in the wake of this I expect that it will be taking another look.
