RWTscape

First topic message reminder :

To be honest, I'm surprised there isn't a thread about this already, so I made one.

Today, April 2nd 2012, JaGex introduced a system which allows you to purchase spins on the Squeal of Fortune for real life money.

So I'm interested in your opinions on this. The forums are, unsurprisingly, full of rants and flame, and I want some smarter discussion.

Is it real world trading? Is it illegal gambling? If so, what's caused JaGex to break their own rules and do this? Is this the end for RuneScape?

Discuss...

Ok. Get personal. That's like, really cool and mature, and it'll totally change my opinion...

*Yawns*
*Opens a bag of popcorn*
*Sips some soda*

*Eats all of Darks popcorn*

Not planning on making any more drama. Sorry to disappoint.

Trust me, you never make drama. You just sometimes are part of drama others make. *cocuh cough* myself *cough cough* morbius *cough, splutter, wheeze, sneeze*

Oh thank God. I was starting to worry something was wrong with me

I think you're taking this a little too seriously. I can only accept it's RWT trading if the goods are in anyway transferable for valuable goods in game that can benefit a player. They rarely do.

Picture the scene. Two of the common rewards are tattoos, one is horns and the last is 50gp.

Three spins, each time the same circumstances, each time I got the 50gp.

What are the chances?

It's getting kind of annoying with the horns and tattoo problems. Many players have said that even though they had a LOT of spins, horns and tattoos barely showed up and even when they had circumstances like mine, they still won the coin prize.

Why are Jagex holding back the decent prizes if they made them "easier" to win?

ARGH! I've been so short-sighted, there's more to this than what meets the eye!

It's not just about making money, it's about trying to weaken the power of gold farmers! Don't you see?

If you offer players spins they can buy and a chance to win valuable prizes, they don't go buying the gold directly from gold farmers! Most people would not go to gold farmers, but those that do, might be more easily enticed by rare prizes given away in game for free without having to go to a great degree of effort.

Throw in a few cosmetic prizes, give it a fun design, more methods in the game to play it and make it look easier than it is, players will start buying spins rather than going directly to gold farmers; weakens their efforts.

The money could then go into specialising software that eliminates bots and stops them from ruining the game by allowing their software to be more easily identified and increasing overall security or perhaps into other media, such as funding design into making new merchandise, perhaps even *action figures courtesy of the Hasbro partnership*.

Obviously they don't tell anyone, because RWTers would react!

You know, I suspect you're right. That's actually rather ingenious on their part if it's the case.

How about it Slayer, does it make sense?

I've gotten two Mystic Tattoos. Both are shit.

With today's 3 spins, 2 of my rewards were double spin tickets. So, 7 spins today... well, 5 not including the spins that rewarded me spins.

You know I was looking on the RS wiki, and apparently, the items-kept-on-death interface values tattoos at 100m each.

So congrats 3mpty, on a technicality, you're 200m better off

If only

But my theory behind the implimentation of purchasable spins... does it make sense?

I'm avoiding answering. I don't think you want to hear my answer.

In that circumstance, I don't want to know anymore.

I came up with a theory and if you just won't look at it, then go f*ck yourself!

No let's stop the fighting, Morbius, SLayer doesn't wants to answer because he doesn't wants to discuss with you on non-friendly terms, he is trying to avoid problems, that's all

What's up Morb?

MorbiusMonster wrote:ARGH! I've been so short-sighted, there's more to this than what meets the eye!

It's not just about making money, it's about trying to weaken the power of gold farmers! Don't you see?

If you offer players spins they can buy and a chance to win valuable prizes, they don't go buying the gold directly from gold farmers! Most people would not go to gold farmers, but those that do, might be more easily enticed by rare prizes given away in game for free without having to go to a great degree of effort.

Throw in a few cosmetic prizes, give it a fun design, more methods in the game to play it and make it look easier than it is, players will start buying spins rather than going directly to gold farmers; weakens their efforts.

The money could then go into specialising software that eliminates bots and stops them from ruining the game by allowing their software to be more easily identified and increasing overall security or perhaps into other media, such as funding design into making new merchandise, perhaps even *action figures courtesy of the Hasbro partnership*.

Obviously they don't tell anyone, because RWTers would react!

To expand on my theory, the implimentation of spins as a reward for a variety of things is also designed to further this cause. By incentivising players to work hard and achieve plausible goals, they gradually build a better relation with their character and with the game. This would deter would-be real world traders from risking their accounts by visiting websites that deal with dodgy transactions, particularly if they've built it up from nothing.

This ultimately offers an alternative to real world trading within the game that protects both the player and the interests of the game from 3rd parties.

This bank holiday, I could have had the chance to win a set of horns, because they were becoming a common reward.

They never showed up once, so much for them being made more common. In fact, when doing a spin earlier, it offered me a prize that wasn't even on the wheel!

How?

Because this is exactly what Jagex wanted to happen. Right now, you and anyone else in the same situation are probably thinking "well, I could buy some spins, while the horns are still common"

See what they did there?

Seriously though, if you want the horns that desperately, it's not too late to earn some more spins ingame.

I swear the free spin reward rate has been lowered. I got 20 a day last week doing Runespan, and I've had 3 since doing other, equally grinding skills this weekend.

Interestingly, I'm experiencing the opposite. Ever since I found out Jagex considered people using free spins as justification for buyable spins (about a week ago), I've stopped using mine. Since then, I've gotten no less than 7 reward spins (that might not seem like much to you, I suspect members get more) compared to the 3 I otherwise had since their introduction.

Even more suspiciously, of the 7, 5 have come from my first action after closing the Squeal pop-up. 5 out of 7.

It's like they're trying to lure me back in...

Listen, I have to agree with Morbius on this. Let's get a few items out of the way before diving in. First, I would not be surprised at all if Jagex is in something of a financial hole. Second, real world trading has been a problem for them, and part of this has been the problems arising from sketchy goldfarming websites stealing the identities of the RWT customers.

These things in mind, it seems reasonable, if not entirely wonderful, for Jagex to begin to implement these spins. Jagex has built up something of a large infrastructure for this very popular game, and that requires continued spending to maintain.

If Jagex is in financial trouble, then the way they have chosen to do this kills two birds with one stone. They have, as Morbius has outlined, generated an opportunity to "buy advancement", without having to go through a third party dealer that is sketchy. This would seem to me to fall roughly under many of the arguments for the legalization of drugs, wherein people are willing to use the legal channels, if they are available, even if the legal channel is far more complicated.

So really, I'm not going to say I'm happy about it, but it makes a shit ton of sense.

MorbiusMonster wrote:This bank holiday, I could have had the chance to win a set of horns, because they were becoming a common reward.

They never showed up once, so much for them being made more common. In fact, when doing a spin earlier, it offered me a prize that wasn't even on the wheel!

How?

Really? I got 5 Curled Horns, 4 Mystic Tattoos, and a Maurader Tattoo. Admittedly, I did save up 24 spins thanks to Double Spin tickets and normal spin tickets (13) from Runespan.