Genuine question, no intention to offend anyone. Why do you play this?

[DaniTheHero]

I just can't imagine how anyone, unless playing on a computer built in from the windows XP age which can't do anything else, would decide to play this over literally any other option.

Is undying nostalgia the only reason?

If we're talking strictly from a F2P perspective, in 2021, there's so many other games that would provide far more content.
If we're talking about the full "paid subscription" experience, why would you ever consider it worth it?
Paying 10$ dollars a month to play a game that was made 15+ years ago and plays like it.
The majority of the content is the most busiest work possible to anything grindy.

There is no visual appeal (other than the initial appreciation of the classic artstyle).
there's no voice acting of any sorts to establish character.
The OST although very nostalgic for someone who has played this as a kid; is nothing special.
There is no "combat" you mouse click on a target and wait for it to die. sometimes changing passive buffs or a weapon during the fight or opting to click somewhere else on the map to run away.
The bits of content that you could consider enjoyable are locked behind a long journey of trial and error and grind.
I doubt anyone plays this for plot/story.
Although the game is an 'MMORPG', as to my knowledge, the "PARTY" mechanic is very very limited. Most content , unless designed specifically to hold more than one player, revolves around you only and other people just exist around you completing tasks for themselves in the same location.

So there's no graphical appeal. No sound appeal. No combat appeal. No story or characters to be attached to.
You have to pay money MONTHLY ( or grind even more to pay) for more content. The gameplay loop IS the grind.

I don't see how any person who just wants a new game to play would look at this ancient creation and think this would be something worthy of his time.

It may sound hypocritical as a gamer myself to use the words "waste of time" as any gaming is technically a huge waste of our time, but playing this literally feels like wasting your life away.

[DaniTheHero]

Автор сообщения: Peter Pan

So feels like a combination of nostalgia, and also how hard work means something in this game and not everything is handed on a silver platter like what most mmos do nowadays.

One can argue that a game respects your time by not doing this.

[TinselTown]

Автор сообщения: DaniTheHero

Автор сообщения: The88shrimp

So rather than being rude I'll try to answer as best as I can. Most people don't play because of nostalgia. While this version of the game was originally an old school backup of the game in 2007, it is no where near what it was back then. It's getting constant updates that release content such as bosses, raids, achievement diaries, quests and whole regions/cities etc.

So yes it is old considering when it first launched but all the content that's constantly added is new, fresh and fun for the most part.

In terms of combat, when fighting normal monsters it's fairly afk and boring but when you get to some bossing you'll see how different it can be. Changing gear sets on the fly, switchig prayers damn near every second, counting attacks, moving and kiting bosses into specific positions and this hasn't even touched raid mechanics yet. Some times you have to do all those things simultaneously in the span of like 3 seconds.

In terms of character and story, no one really plays or does quests for the story, you do them for the rewards of potentially unlocking whole areas, gear or even simply xp rewards.

"There is no visual appeal (other than the initial appreciation of the classic artstyle)"
This means there is appeal. While this is subjective, graphics don't really mean anything to me, I could get more immersed in a purely text based RPG over something that was photo realistic if the text based RPG was more satisfying to play.

When it comes to the MMORPG part, yes, the party system is limited unless you decide to specifically do group content like some bosses and minigames. The best way to treat this game is to play it like everyone's playing a single player game in one world all together.

"I don't see how any person who just wants a new game to play would look at this ancient creation and think this would be something worthy of his time."
What people do and don't like is subjective, if you like grindy games that have an absolute crap load of content that feels really rewarding when you unlock it with a satisfying progression system that doesn't bottlekneck you into any specific path or way of playing then you'd probably really like it. That being said it's ok to dislike it as well but that doesn't make it a bad game.

At the end of the day all games are simply sources of entertainment, What you find entertaining others may not, some people find horror movies entertaing, some romance, some comedy. Some people find story games entertaining, some people play for immersive realistic graphics, some play for the challenge of doing achievements or difficulty, some play simply to relax and progress through content in a big open world with other players.

Thank you for being reasonable and levelheaded unlike some.

I understand where you’re coming from and in the end enjoyment is always a subjective thing, some people genuinely liked fallout 76 and no man sky on release as well.

I still mostly disagree though.
Almost anything positive here can be found in other modern games, usually done better as they are newer especially as most of runescapes content is pretty much singleplayer.

The only “unique” appeal is the amount of grind and busy work os runescape has that is pretty much unrivaled, which as you said is actually a positive for some.
The updates keeping that grind alive is also a sign of at the very least a caring dev team.

The combat you mentioned is still very very bare bones.
Sure it takes practice to pull off, but in the end it’s just clicking between different passive buffs and changing gear mid fight.
Which was great 16 years ago, but when literally any mmorpg that exists is more deep than that in some way, there isn’t much of a sell here.

If the sell here is a “basic game that lasts forever” I suppose there’s that.

tbh i find the combat way more interactive than wow, and ff14. you have way more to pay attention to and you have to really know what youre doing. the game also has an economy where you can buy and sell almost anything with very little being untradeable which is a big appeal over games like ff14 and WoW where you get mostly Bind on pick up items and the bind of equip items just arnt as good as the raid items which cant be traded.
personally the graphics are a non factor and i cant think of any other mmorpg like runescape. it allows a lot of freedom to do what you want to do and how to do it(fish sharks with your arm, make a fire using your bow string) and making specific builds are very popular(pure dps or skilling builds) due to how combat levels work.
pvp is very popular and lucrative due to you losing everything you have on you when you die and maybe you lost 10-50million gp worth (there are a few exceptions) so the risk reward is way higher than any other mmorpg

OSRS is fantastic for solo players and also has a far friendlier community than most other mmorpgs ive played, but also has a higher scammer/botting issue.

[Crayon-Sha]

The quests are fun, and play more like a classic point-and-click adventure game and Ultima than other MMO quests. Someone earlier in the thread kind of dismissed questing for the sake of questing by emphasising the rewards they unlock, but they're genuinely well-designed, and the older quests especially had a charming, witty sense of humour.

[fillup00]

I'd say the thing that keeps bringing me back is the combat experience and the progression. Whenever you log in you're exactly where you were when you previously logged out with same stats you had before. The game is not pay to win, you can buy bonds for in game money but best gear doesn't mean you can beat a boss if you don't know how to play the game. Can even pay for membership buy using in game currency if you can make that much in 2 weeks. (Majority of the people do) There's always something to do and something you're working toward in many different aspects; 23 different skills, challenges (Chamber of Xerics, Theater of blood, Inferno), Or even the entire market of the game itself is a Stock Market, fluctuating prices can invest/flip for profit. Even gamble your gp if you'd like. Check Ge Tracker . com, there is a website to track patterns and potential investments. Closest game to that is EFT.

The combat is unlike any other game because of the combat triangle, versatile of equipment, account builds, and the tick system. Random number generator determines your damage which increases the chance of rolling higher based off of your gear. PVP terms, switching your gear to increase your defense to lower the enemies chance, while switching back to your offensive gear to attack. Faking one way and going another. Reward of highly profiting off of being better than someone else. Other games reward you with just a handful of ranks. While osrs offers 100s of ranks and many different types of accounts.

Isn't all games point and click though? Just click heads faster than your opponent in any fps and you'll succeed ;)

[Morgan Bernhardt]

So far pretty damn fun and relaxing imo.
Not into cheesy cut scenes, or cheesy looking characters, dumb stories.
Lots of content too! Love all the crafting!

[simpolplan]

Great way to multi tasl.
AFK on OSRS while working, watching a tv show or gaming on another game.

[Jagulars]

Some people like point-and-click adventure/puzzle games. This is the greatest of them all.

[Ackooba]

No other mmorpg on the market is like this, it's unique and has a lot of charm, from all the things you dislike, others might like. OSRS is a goal oriented game, just like you can make it a goal to clear the latest raid in WoW, you could do the same in OSRS. I for one dislike ♥♥♥♥♥♥ graphics but OSRS hits different, I absolutely love the way it looks(and yes I do play new games on high graphics) it doesn't have to be as black and white as you think. There's millions of reasons to play a game like this despite its age. ♥♥♥♥, how old do you think chess is and people still play it today??
Also a huge part are the quests, games like WoW don't know how to make quests.

[i5-2320]

Saying that the game has not plot/story just makes evident how ignorant you are.

[-=PR=- Culpable]

I am playing because of the community and the endless goals. I do not enjoy most of the new updates and the staff, but it is what it is.

[DUKE NUKEM]

this is the only MMO that makes me WORK for progress. all modern ones are just wimpy they give you the "rare" drops easily or let you progress to a max skill in a month, that's not fun

i want hard work. and i want valuable and varied loot pools with super rare drops

[amoretpax199]

We can never truly quit RuneScape.

[chompsky honk]

i'm a free to play player now, but i have had member's when i was younger. i had my original childhood account banned (wrongfully, jagex support is awful, i'm over it), so they most likely won't see a dime from me ever again.

i just enjoy a mindless game with a distant goal every once in a while, and i think it's pretty cool this crummy but addicting game has come to steam. the game's 20 years old and pretty much any pc could play this game back in the day, so the population was HUGE in it's heyday.

[Zef]

the main reason is nostalgia.

why do some people still play WOW?

[dfrom975]

I AGREE WITH THE OP !!!
I've been playing mmorpgs since 2004. I even like going back to games before my time, and still found this game crap when I played it about a year ago.

All the rebuttal and slander the OP is getting seems like the nostalgia players that fall short of saying they are.....can't even git it to fit the screen.

This game is truly awful for anyone playing it for their first time. Go easy on him, he is right !