Runescape Renaissance: August 2015

Since I started playing in 2007, there has always been the option to become a member and gain access to even more adventure on Gielinor. However, I enjoyed playing for free then and still do so. One subtle change I've noticed since returning is the prevalence in advertising for free players to become members, either via subscription or buying in-game Bonds. And this encouragement isn't subtle.

Members have always enjoyed more benefits for obvious reasons: a higher price indicates a higher quality game experience. Members get access to more skills, quests, areas and items within the game. They can also create an online profile and participate on forums.

But a lot more emphasis seems to be placed on having membership. When the latest World Event ended, the vanquished Tuska fell to Gielinor south of the Wizards' Tower in an area accessible only to members. In contrast, the last three World Events took place in free areas and the aftermath remains available to all players.

Additionally, as you progress in your skills, you begin receiving notices about potentially becoming a member. When a combat skill reaches level 10, you get a notice about a nifty members-only dwarven axe,

This notice appears when any combat skill reaches tenth level, giving you multiple reminders to try membership.

Additionally, certain skills used to be unavailable to free players. But at some point in the last few years, skills like Agility, Summoning and Divination could be built up to level 5 on free worlds. Once you hit fifth level, you can gain no more experience in those skills. Usually these skills don't affect free players, but during the recent World Event players used Divination, Construction and Agility to gain anima and weaken Tuska.

These notices showed up during a timed activity - how likely are players to stop playing and subscribe while the clock is ticking on gaining anima?

Membership notices appear everywhere, reminding free players they can access more quests and areas should they subscribe.

Even in free areas, such as Falador, there are member benefits such as tasks within the Artisans' Guild where members can earn smithing experience at a faster rate.

In possibly a Freudian slip regarding member items, recently every player got a free, new item. It helps with a member skill and can only be worn by members. The item's name?

Get it? Trollololololololol!

Nevermind.

Treasure Hunter is a new feature in Runescape that encourages me to login daily for a prize. But occasionally I get member items from the magic chests that I can either discard or bank, but never convert to cash or used.

This restriction covers the rarer & bigger Fallen Stars and XP Lamps as well as XP Lamps for member skills.

To be fair, you can use Hearts of Ice to freeze categories and prevent yourself from getting member items, but it still hurts to discard the largest XP Lamps for free skills.

Additionally, the bonus XP generated by Fallen Stars is available to free players only during Double XP Weekends. Members playing on member worlds have access to bonus XP all the time.

Even during the introduction of the current summer event, members could collect buckets of sand for Reyna to make a beach west of Lumbridge and earn mystery box rewards, including a pet turtle. Free players get to enjoy the actual party, which has lots of rewards for all players, but as usual there are extra perqs for members in the form of XP games for member skills.

Another addition to the game is Daily Challenges. Go to Burthorpe and Fara the gnome will reward you for completing various combat or skill-related tasks. Unfortunately, this request can involve member skills, meaning free players cannot get that day's reward.

There are many opportunities that Jagex takes to encourage you to become a member:

when you try to overstuff your bank
when click on any NPC for a member quest
when you try to gain more XP in a capped member skill
when you click on entrances to member areas
when you try to use member Agility shortcuts
when you try to create too many offers on Grand Exchange

...and so on.

Remember that happy couple from Gunnar's Ground that move into Juliet's old pad? The dwarf continues to ask for you assistance in crafting, a free skill. But after a few tasks, he asks if you can cut a dragonstone. I have the skill to do so, but as a free player cannot cut dragonstone, so I can no longer get rewards from him, regardless of my skill level.

So enough griping about constantly being begged, cajoled or otherwise encouraged to acquire membership. I begin to wonder if RuneScape can survive if I don't give them real money. In short:

Does Jagex need money? Is the company about to collapse and take my favorite game with them?

Well, a good measure of the health of a business is to count how much profit or loss the company made, and the best way to tell how much money a company makes is to look at their financial statements. The good news is that across the globe, publicly traded companies report their revenues, income and other operating data every year for all to see. The bad news is that Jagex is not publicly traded, meaning that their information is harder to find.

I am not saying Jagex doesn't produce financial statements for outside consumption. First of all, they still need financial services from banks and those institutions like to see audited financials. And if you've already produced them, why not share with everyone? This action can reassure people that the company isn't going anywhere. In this case, Jagex wants subscribers to pay real money for virtual items that could go away in an instant if the game is shuttered. (Yes, I'm looking at you, FreeRealms!) Additionally, potential employees or managers want to know that they're not going to be job hunting in six months time if they accept an offer from Jagex. As a matter of fact, really impressive financial results serve to attract the best talent that want to catch a rising star. If for no other reason, Jagex would produce financial reports for themselves just to gauge how successful current operations and initiatives are proving.

There are articles about Jagex's 2013 performance, but finding the actual financials has proved difficult. There is no section for financials or reports that I found on the Jagex website, nor any copy I could discover through Google. One article listed results for 2013 that indicate a drop in revenues and income that seem incredible. (Results in £000s.)

Profits fell from £9,700 in 2012 to £945 in 2013, a drop of 90%(!)
EBIT dipped similarly from £9,800 to £968, also down 90%
Total revenues slipped from £53,100 to £46,500, decreasing 12%
Revenues from subscriptions & microtransactions comprised the lion's share and slid from £52,300 to £46,100, another 12% decrease
Advertising revenue fared worse, going from £735 to £332, down 55%
Merchandise sales were small but bucked the trend, rising from £28 to £90, jumping 221%(!)
Overall, this indicates that expenses rose from £43,300 to £45,500, costing the company 5% more

These results (especially the first two) seem incredible and make me wish I could sink my teeth into the actual reports. The company is still profitable, but ouch, what a hit! Digging into press releases available through Gamasutra, I learned some other interesting tidbits.

Jagex is developing a CCG called Chronicle: RuneScape Legends that has its own website and twitter. (Thank you, sunk R&D costs!) This development comes on the heels of shuttering Transformers MOBA in January 2015, which in turn was the new focus of development once Jagex closed their scifi MMORPG Stellar Dawn in 2012. However, the game website FunOrb remains online.

Also this year, Jagex got a new CEO, Rod Cousens. (He came from Codemasters, the same company from where Jagex hired David Solari as Chief Marketing Officer in 2012.) Swapping out CEOs is never a good sign, especially when the previous one Mark Gerhard left in late 2014 without giving any reasons or nominating a clear successor.

So is the company in trouble? The new system of paying real cash for Bonds supposedly has dealt a blow to the profitably of third-party (and TOS-violating) gold farmers. So the company's emphasis on microtransactions isn't just greed: it serves to return control of the value of in-game money to the company from not outside actors. This control serves to reinforce player opinion of the stability of RuneScape, increasing the likelihood that the game will remain online and encouraging players to spend real money on their game experience.

So my opinion: Jagex has weathered the global financial crisis (and their audience is worldwide) while cracking down on those who exploit the game at players' expense. Outside projects fall to the wayside, but RuneScape as a property remains solid. So enjoy!

Good hunting!

~ Tidwin ~

Runescape Renaissance

Monday, August 3, 2015

Membership

I have no clue what I'm doing