For new players - Runescape is NOT pay to win

[UpsetCouch]

For all the new players hearing about how this game is pay to win, let me tell you why that's wrong, and that you can have the same game experience spending 0 dollars. I am a maxed player, been playing on and off for 12 years, so I think I am reputable enough to be able to speak about this.

I saw a negative review that pointed out all the specific things that you can spend money on, but i'm gonna dissect each one of them, and tell you why you don't need them, and how little each of these actually effect your game play. The game does push some of it in your face, I will say that, but it's usually just when you log in, it'll give you a pop-up, and you can exit out and not have to see it for the rest of your game session. It's not that bad.

Membership will be about the only thing you could spend money on, being about 15 bucks a month. If you are adamant about not spending money, you can get a "bond" with in game money. It is a bit expensive, but is totally obtainable as a free to play player. it just takes time.

Anyways, let me lay out the different micro transactions in Runescape:

Premier Membership - Nobody needs that, It basically only gives you a few extra perks that don't really give you much of an advantage in the game whether it be through killing monsters or training skills.

Runecoins - You can buy cosmetics, which nobody really cares about, and not necessary. You can buy Auras, which give you perks like life-steal, or a better chance at catching something through fishing or something, but these aren't absolute necessities, at least until a higher level. At that point you can just use loyalty points (which are accumulated through just having membership, no additional cost to you other than the membership. By the time you need those auras, you'll already have plenty of points stockpiled to buy them).

Treasure Hunter Keys - This is the most common one that people bring up. To get anywhere with just keys, you need to spend thousands of dollars, which 99.9999% don't do that. It does give you quite a bit of bonus experience, and experience lamps for you to use on skills, and items that you can sell for a small bit of money. That's just what Treasure Hunter is all about. However, experience rates are decently high for every skill, so if you train yourself up with your time. If you just used the 1-2 free keys you get every day at the daily reset time, and extra keys from random things like quests, random keys you'll get killing things, etc. (Quests give you 2 each, i've had questing days where I can get like 15 keys in a day doing easy quests) then you'll be completely fine, and be able to get quite a bit of bonus experience for just playing the game.

Bonds - Can be bought for real money and sold for in-game money, or used for buying runecoins or a name change, or a few other things, but money is pretty easy to come by anyways. There are so many money makers that make millions of gold per hour at higher levels. There are even low level money makers that can make over a million gold per hour. As you keep leveling, more opportunities are unlocked for you, just like any game.

Runemetrics, Wealth Evaluator, Action Bars, Yak Track - For the first 2, you don't need them. It may be convenient, but it's by no means a necessity, and gives you 0 advantage anywhere. Runemetrics and Wealth Evaluator just give you statistics on what you're killing, your drops, how much experience you are getting an hour, and how much money your bank is worth. I don't have any of that, and I just use my computer's calculator for every one of those. As far as action bars go, you already get 9 of them free, which is more than enough. I'm a maxed player, and do a bit of high level PvM, and I have never regularly used 9 action bars, or needed more than that. Maybe 4 or 5 for everything i've ever done? Even if you are doing lots of high level PVM, you will NOT need all 9 action bars.

As far as Yak Track goes, that's just grasping for straws at this point. You get pretty much nothing except cosmetics and maybe a bonus experience star every so often.

Bank boosters - You can spend money on bank boosters, giving you extra bank slots, but you really don't need them. You can go to the Solomon Store and grab like 200-300 EXTRA bank slots for FREE in the FREE SECTION. I have never needed to buy bank slots ever. (Note that these extra slots are for members only, but free to play players still won't have any need to buy bank slots)

I just slapped this discussion together, because I am sick of seeing people give Runescape the reputation of being very play to win. It has it's flaws for sure, but I think people get their panties in a knot way too often about these.

If you are a new player reading this, I hope that it has helped you. Runescape is a great game in my opinion, and I hope that some of these negative reviews solely based on micro transactions don't deter you from giving the game a fair shot and you can form your own opinions based on your experience. Have a wonderful time playing, and welcome to Runescape!

[ℭℌℯя ℒʟøƴḓ]

[iTzCodes]

Right! Its all the osrs trolls trying to spew hate towards Rs3 yet again. Its deff not p2w.

Keep Preaching man!

[Poefred]

People tend to not give RS3 a fair judgement. Like, yes there is a lot of MTX options available, but even from my relatively casual perspective getting everything the MTX offer through in-game methods is very doable. And there's more than enough content that doesn't even cross paths with any MTX stuff.
That said, anyone completely put off by them merely existing out of principle or something, try out oldschool runescape. The only extra thing to buy is bonds, which are overall good for the game as a whole.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by iTzCodes:

Right! Its all the osrs trolls trying to spew hate towards Rs3 yet again. Its deff not p2w.

Keep Preaching man!

Agreed. Many people from OSRS are very spiteful of Runescape 3 solely because of this reason. I have several good friends that feel that way. I think RS3 would have a much larger following if people from oldschool gave it a genuine try!

[IndustryStandard]

It's less P2W and more of a miserable grind unless you pay.

Members have a completely different game experience.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by Poefred:

People tend to not give RS3 a fair judgement. Like, yes there is a lot of MTX options available, but even from my relatively casual perspective getting everything the MTX offer through in-game methods is very doable. And there's more than enough content that doesn't even cross paths with any MTX stuff.
That said, anyone completely put off by them merely existing out of principle or something, try out oldschool runescape. The only extra thing to buy is bonds, which are overall good for the game as a whole.

Exactly! Even though you CAN buy things, I've never felt like I HAD to buy anything to be able to progress, or felt like it would reduce the grind a significant amount.

[gwTheo]

maxed out osrs player here, no we are not spiteful of this game, actually many if not most are there for the nostalgia. this is a different game. many runescape players in general were playing during the change. rs3 isnt a bad game at all, although i do find it a bit overly complex which happens with many mmorpgs

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

It's less P2W and more of a miserable grind unless you pay.

Members have a completely different game experience.

I think any MMO is going to have a miserable grind, whether you pay or not. MMOs are notoriously grindy games.

Free playing does restrict a TON of the game for sure. Maybe a little too much. If I had any advice for Jagex, it would be to open up the game a bit more to free players, and just make the beginning of the game MUCH simpler. I know the tutorial takes a long time, and i'm sure that would turn me off from the game pretty quick.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by Kazugane:

maxed out osrs player here, no we are not spiteful of this game, actually many if not most are there for the nostalgia. this is a different game. many runescape players in general were playing during the change. rs3 isnt a bad game at all, although i do find it a bit overly complex which happens with many mmorpgs

Glad to see you here from OSRS!

That makes total sense. I play both versions, and am a decent level on OSRS, and I do like them for different reasons. OSRS' simplicity and nostalgia being a couple of them. I only say people are spiteful and negative toward RS3 due to my own experiences overall, which may not represent everyone. Definitely would wanna hear more OSRS opinions of how we could improve RS3 overall, and hope Jagex picks up on it.

[StabbyU2]

I am a OSRS player and I will admit I was opposed to trying RS3 when i started but now I am going to start a new account and give it a fair shot cause I want Jagex to succeed so they can keep producing more content.

[IndustryStandard]

Yes, any MMO is going to be like that. So why is a thread trying to deny this currently exist?

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

Yes, any MMO is going to be like that. So why is a thread trying to deny this currently exist?

My thread is about micro transactions and how they don't affect gameplay too much in reality, not about how grindy the game is. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by stabbyu2:

I am a OSRS player and I will admit I was opposed to trying RS3 when i started but now I am going to start a new account and give it a fair shot cause I want Jagex to succeed so they can keep producing more content.

I'm glad to see people give it a fair shot! It is a lot to deal with at first, trying to understand mechanics and where certain interfaces are, but there's plenty of online help, and i'd be glad to answer questions where I can!

[IndustryStandard]

Originally posted by UpsetCouch:

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

Yes, any MMO is going to be like that. So why is a thread trying to deny this currently exist?

My thread is about micro transactions and how they don't affect gameplay too much in reality, not about how grindy the game is. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

It's a fact that membership includes higher tier equipment that cannot be obtained or as easily obtained as non members.

It's a fact that members get hundreds of shortcuts and grind ease compared to non members. Allowing them to make money much faster and easier, level up quicker and get tons of member only benefits like wonderfully placed member only banks or NPCs in key grind areas.

Runescape is an MMO and this is expected. It might not be strictly P2W in the literal sense but it's pretty close and really not worth defending.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

Originally posted by UpsetCouch:

My thread is about micro transactions and how they don't affect gameplay too much in reality, not about how grindy the game is. I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

It's a fact that membership includes higher tier equipment that cannot be obtained or as easily obtained as non members.

It's a fact that members get hundreds of shortcuts and grind ease compared to non members. Allowing them to make money much faster and easier, level up quicker and get tons of member only benefits like wonderfully placed member only banks or NPCs in key grind areas.

Runescape is an MMO and this is expected. It might not be strictly P2W in the literal sense but it's pretty close and really not worth defending.

Assuming that having a membership option that unlocks more content makes it pay to win means that almost all MMOs would be pay to win. Oldschool Runescape included. WoW included. Hell, that would mean that any game with a DLC is pay to win, because you have top buy expansions that you wouldn't get otherwise.

Just because you CAN pay for a game doesn't make it pay to win. I'm not sure how it's not worth defending. My definition of pay to win is being able to buy items or stats in a game that gives you an UNFAIR advantage to other people. I don't feel Runescape comes under this definition, and I gave examples why this was the case.