is this game p2w?

[Fork_In_My_Eyee]

title

[Orochi Samurai]

No. Its a massive grind and you CAN pay to max faster, but it will still take a LOOONG time and cost you well over £1,000 in the process so... just play the game normally.

EDIT: Also, forgot to say, there is nothing particularly to "win" at in this game anyway, the PVP side of RuneScape is dead, has been for a long time and needs to remain that way, 99% of players who do enter the Wilderness, are only there to troll and ruin other players days/accounts.

[Wolfie]

it is but it's crazy expensive to win, by win i assume you mean just getting to end game, you can buy lamps and stars for xp from th, you buy bonds and sell for gp to buy gear, but it would cost thousands to fully max with best gear

[Shoobflops]

Nothing about this game is pay to win. Trying to pay to win will get you some semblance of an advantage but in the end its not worth it and its nothing anyone will care about. Now put on your golem suit.

[Xaphnir]

What is your definition of pay-to-win?

Paying for microtransactions gives you a gameplay advantage? Yes, the game is definitely pay-to-win by that definition. It's relatively minor compared to a lot of other games that would be considered P2W, but anyone who tries to tell you microtransactions don't give a gameplay advantage is lying to you. You can play the game without purchasing microtransactions and not feel like you're missing out on anything.

Paying for microtransactions is required to compete at the highest level or do the highest level of content? No, it is not. Everything non-cosmetic that can be acquired via microtransactions can be acquired without spending anything on them, and the time spent in game with vs. without microtransactions to acquire things is not designed in a way to keep those who don't pay for them from getting them.

Paying for enough microtransactions allows you to automatically win the game? Not even the most exploitative mobile game meets this definition. Anyone using this definition can be ignored, as they're just defining P2W in a way that avoids calling their favorite game P2W, and they're not trying to engage in honest conversation.

The game must have a win condition to be considered P2W? Same as the previous definition. Virtually all of the most exploitative P2W games specifically avoid having a win condition, and are instead open-ended to keep the whales perpetually paying.

[Snowskeeper]

For what it's worth, while Xaphnir is right about there being a definite mechanical advantage that you can get by paying, this is also currently one of the only games on the market where you can purchase a subscription with in-game money. You can also use the items you used to get that subscription to get anything you'd normally only be able to get via real money.

[Yournewstepmom]

By P2W i assume you mean something like BDO. In BDO you can take a literal advantage by buying Life Skill equipment.
It [Runescape] used to be shockingly pay-to-win a few years ago but JAGEX has in-game purchasing under control nowadays when it comes to 'purchasing xp'. It used to be drastically bad: you could spend somewhere around five to ten thousand dollars to max your skills out. I only know this because A Friend (old User and ex-Pmod) actually experimented with this awhile back.

As it stands now:
The differences between 'daily keys' and RWT keys however, that's a different story. Bought keys obviously have a better roll chance than daily keys. I think Runescape does a pretty good job at shoving MTX promotions in your face but also balancing out how much you can purchase at once. (Like in the Oddament shop [even though it sort bottlenecks how much you can get ultimately leading you back to keys...].)

JAGEX loves rolling the same Treasure Hunter promotions. Over and over again, instead of actually releasing something, other than another promotion like Yak Track. Yak Track also uses a predatory method of action against users by insinuating that tasks be skipped with Bonds, which can be purchased with real money. Granted, you can buy Bonds from the in-game market that other players have put up for sale after they have purchased with real money. This only insinuates that literally buying gold is a normality. Bonds are about 25m each right now for a real world asking price of around 6 USD(?). This element is strictly pay-to-win but JAGEX has engrossed its player-base into maintaining Membership with Bonds so much that any change to this system would be detrimental. It's a very grey because of 'these' and i think it's a unique way for JAGEX maintain MTX.

TL;DR
Is Runescape P2W? - Kinda. But not as bad as you're thinking.

[Snowskeeper]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Bait.

If so, it more or less didn't work; nobody here is arguing, and pretty much every response has been in earnest.

Which, like, man, that must be some kind of record for a Steam forum thread.

[Shoobflops]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Bait.

Please tell me this is not your first time to a forum on the internet.

[King Tyrex]

Originally posted by Orochi Samurai:

No. Its a massive grind and you CAN pay to max faster, but it will still take a LOOONG time and cost you well over £1,000 in the process so... just play the game normally.

EDIT: Also, forgot to say, there is nothing particularly to "win" at in this game anyway, the PVP side of RuneScape is dead, has been for a long time and needs to remain that way, 99% of players who do enter the Wilderness, are only there to troll and ruin other players days/accounts.

i miss the pvp soo much!!, nobody is forced into the wilderness so if your account gets pk'ed then thats on you.

[Exothermically Eclectic]

Originally posted by Orochi Samurai:

99% of players who do enter the Wilderness, are only there to troll and ruin other players days/accounts.

Well, no. Most of them are there for peaceful warbands, or to abyss run runes/grind combat, or to do agility course or what have you.
The 1% that are there to grief do get really annoying, though.

[Soviet]

Originally posted by Tommy Wiseau:

Yes. You can buy gold which allows you to buy items to kill things easier or level faster.

Oldschool runescape has more RWT and more people on osrs use RWT than runescape 3 community with microtransactions.
These go back towards the game, The rwt only takes away from the game and the devs.

[Snowskeeper]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

If so, it more or less didn't work; nobody here is arguing, and pretty much every response has been in earnest.

Which, like, man, that must be some kind of record for a Steam forum thread.

You responded to a non-issue made by some dude that didn't make any input, but "ANSWER MUH QUESTION!" OP hasn't responded either. Until the op responds with a reason why he thinks it is or isn't p2w, then you're just dancing at his whims for his amusement.

Wait, is this bait?

Because, like... Asking a question in an internet forum is pretty normal, and generally answering a question is also considered pretty normal.

Is this like. Some weird game of four-dimensional checkers?

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by Snowskeeper:

Originally posted by Goblin:

You responded to a non-issue made by some dude that didn't make any input, but "ANSWER MUH QUESTION!" OP hasn't responded either. Until the op responds with a reason why he thinks it is or isn't p2w, then you're just dancing at his whims for his amusement.

Wait, is this bait?

Because, like... Asking a question in an internet forum is pretty normal, and generally answering a question is also considered pretty normal.

Is this like. Some weird game of four-dimensional checkers?

The post calling this thread bait was bait

Baitception

Wait no baitception would require the OP to also be bait, which it isn't.

Well, 7 pages in and no posts from OP, starting to think this thread may have been bait, after all.

[RandomTurtle]

I'm pretty sure this isn't bait and just a question. If it were bait it'd be made as a statement as to trigger a response from people who disagree with the statement. If the thread was:

"Runescape is Pay to Win"
"title"

That would definitely be bait.

[Scheneighnay]

It's a "pay to grind faster" model.

Paying doesn't get you anything that has stats which can't be gained through normal play.
I don't think you can directly buy anything with stats period but I may be wrong.