RuneScape players rally against Jagex over egregious membership changes

Jagex has found itself in yet another controversy after the developer sent out a survey to RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape players asking for their opinions on potential changes to memberships.

The survey asked players of both games their thoughts on several changes to membership tiers, which were all more expensive than the current membership offerings. Some of the changes included the following: shorter AFK timers, specialized member worlds, the inclusion of in-game ads in both paid memberships and free-to-play, improved account security, character name reservations, and other features that fell upon deaf ears.

What is probably the most egregious offense in the survey is the suggestion of in-game advertisements for paying members, along with a steep price increase to memberships in general, which can be as much as $350 a year. The response from the RuneScape community has been heard by Jagex, with a long statement outlining the purpose changes were for "research" purposes only and in no way are concrete, or even in development.

The statement from the developer wasn't enough for the community to quell their fears, which led to Phil Mansell, CEO of Jagex (Mod Pips), admitting in a separate statement, "The Conjoint Membership Survey has caused the community frustration, anger, and concern - we made major mistakes with this and are truly sorry. Your feedback is heard loud and clear."

However, this statement from the CEO once again fell on deaf ears as players re-rallied against the company by conducting in-game riots, canceling memberships, and, in the latest, review bombing the Steam listing for both RuneScape games, with OldSchool now sitting at "Overwhelmingly Negative."