augmented illusions

Charles Kozierok (Qeltar) wrote about the recent Runescape update, and the way forward for Runescape as a social environment. It’s a well-considered and thorough article and I hope Jagex will take note of his sensible suggestions. The main thrust of his article is that Runescape’s economy has sacrificed gameplay in order to stop real world trading in Runescape virtual assets. Jagex has sought to accomplish this by essentially removing all free market mechanisms from Runescape’s economy. Incidentally, Kozierok mentions the option of allowing real money trade inside runescape based on a controlled exchange rate, which sounds interesting, and would have been an interesting step forward for RS. But that was probably a bridge too far for Jagex management. Although Jagex maintain that they have thought long and hard about the series of updates and anti-RWT measures they have implemented, it is clear to anyone in Runescape, that the social implications of this were not on Jagex’ radar. Kozierok’s outlines the consequences:

What’s particularly bothersome is that the unintended consequence of many of these changes is a seizing up of what until now had been a liquid, dynamic economy, which encouraged specialization and player relations. While I am rather independent and appreciate its value, I also like not having to do everything myself. We’ve always been able to pick and choose what we enjoy doing, because we knew that in most cases we could buy items from others that represented the output from activities we didn’t like. This also encouraged teamplay and provided opportunities for lower-level players. Unfortunately, the hard controls on trading and the hassle involved in buying and selling will remove much of the player interaction from the game, leading to everyone having to do things on their own. Consider the example of guam leaves becoming more valuable; only those who actually had guam leaves would benefit. If you want to make wild pies you will pretty much have to hunt your own chompies. Skill trades and assistance with skills will be greatly diminished, except for very short duration uses of the Assist System. There will also be other negative side-effects, which I’ll discuss in the next section.

This is something I have been hearing in my own house, and a reason why some clans are already disintegrating: it used to be that players loaned each other rg or items to facilitate training. With the restrictions on “unbalanced” trade, and the flawed workings of the Grand Exchange, this is no longer possible, which means that much of the social interaction and player to player cooperation being actively discouraged, which, deprives the game of much of its attraction to players. I’ve observed my son’s clan for a good while now: members usually know each other IRL, there is a spirit of mutually shared goals and cooperation, which used to be based on the peculiar aspects of Runescape’s free market economy, which was dynamic and had a great liquidity. All this has now come to an end, with Jagex controlling item prices through the Grand Exchange, a process which is inherently flawed. Kozierok mentions a number of solutions to the problem. Essentially he suggests making the Grand Exchange into a Central Bank: instead of a price controlling institution it needs to limit itself to occasional monetary interventions, leaving price levels to the free market, because there is no way in which prices for new items can be established if market mechanisms are absent from Runescape’s economy.

It’s obvious that Jagex doesn’t have economists on the payroll and that the same goes for anthropologists. I think the current riots (Runescape’s forum system was shut down by them on a number of occasions) are not the usual grumbling after an update, but point to something more serious: Runescape inhabitants sense that the raison d’être for the entire game has been taken from them. That is why the furore over no longer being able to have drop parties or helping newbies is so great. It’s odd that Jagex are not able to consider the entire culture that is Runescape and instead suppose that the only valid economic relation is between Jagex and individual players. It also mystifies me that it’s so obvious that Runescape’s culture is not better understood by Runescape.

Does this spell the end of Runescape as we know it? Kozierok sees risks:

Well, sure, melodrama on the part of players seems to be par for the course after updates these days, but I think this is different. I cannot ever before recall seeing so many unhappy comments from legitimate players, including some of the most experienced, long-tenured and intelligent players in the game. Jagex is at perhaps the last fork in the road to good-intentioned Hell; there is still time to ameliorate some of the problems, but if solid action to help innocent players is not taken soon, the damage to the game may be irreparable. I don’t think the game will die, but I do think that we will lose out on a lot if good players are forced to leave by a lack of responsiveness to valid complaints.

I think he’s right: from being a wonderful example of a well functioning free market economy, Runescape’s culture runs the risk of changing into the equivalent of a Sovjet-style economy, where cooperation and mutual exchange will have changed into social egotism and distrust. The end of Runescape as we know it. It will be interesting to watch how Jagex approach the january deadline and whether they will implement changes along the way. I believe the delay between announcement and implementation is there precisely to tweak decisions that may have unforeseen consequences.

supplemental note: reading the forums this morning, I wonder whether what many people are saying will come true: that money will be made on resources, because these will no longer be farmed for real world trading.