Message From Mod MMG

Hi everyone,

From today, your gameplay investment can work in your favour with Bonds: a new in-game item - purchased on our website and tradeable in-game - which can be redeemed for RuneScape membership, spins, RuneCoins and more.

RuneScape is your game, and Bonds give you more freedom and choice than ever before: pay for your membership with your in-game wealth; securely gift membership to a friend or fellow clan member anywhere in the world; access all premium content by trading Bonds in-game any item, resources or gold; and enjoy the full RuneScape experience, free of bots and gold farmers. Read on for more information!

What are bonds?

Bonds are new in-game items, allowing you to pay for selected account-related and out-of-game benefits with in-game resources. Bonds are initially purchased just as you would purchase membership, but they can then be freely gifted or traded with other players. They can be redeemed in-game for membership, spins or RuneCoins. Soon afterwards we plan for them to be usable for charitable donations and - in the future - perhaps even the Jagex Merchandise Store. We’ve even set up a way to use Bonds to buy RuneFest tickets this year - see our FAQ for details.

Bonds may be purchased via our website's Billing Page. They cost $5/£3/€4.25 per Bond and can be redeemed in exchange for 14 days membership, 8 spins or 160 RuneCoins.

You'll be able to freely determine how you exchange your Bonds - be it on the Grand Exchange or in player-to-player trades - and how much in-game wealth you wish to buy and sell them for. Just like any other item on the Grand Exchange, the community will determine how much Bonds are worth in relation to other items.

How does it work?

• Purchase: Player A purchases a Bond from the Billing Page with their credit card or PayPal account for real money. The bond can then be gifted, traded, or consumed.
  
• Gift/Trade: Player A and Player B agree a trade for the Bond - either as a gift, or in return for in-game resource or currency of any agreed value.
  
• Consume: Player B can then use that Bond for themselves and receive membership, spins or RuneCoins. Alternatively, they could re-trade it.
  

The value that players determine for a Bond trade is entirely up to them.

A Bond is purchased in a tradeable state. Once gifted or traded in-game, the Bond becomes untradeable. Players who want to re-trade their Bond to another player will need to pay a trade tax, which will be 10% of its Grand Exchange value. We’ve added this tax on secondary trading to act as a gold sink and to prevent excessive merchanting of Bonds.

Why are you adding bonds?

With this update, our aim is to unlock your investment in your account: giving hardcore players a way to get more than ever for their time and dedication, and more freedom for everyone in how they trade. On top of that, we hope to see this open up the full members' game for many more free players, those who can no longer afford subscription and - crucially - to deal a death blow to the long-standing issues with gold farming.

Bonds are a critical part of our war against gold farmers and of fixing the damage they have caused to the game economy. By allowing real players to meet the demand, gold farmers can no longer exploit it and are cut out of the system, preventing the injection of billions of additional GP per day into the economy, remedying the massive inflation caused, and thereby stabilising the economy overall.

The key to Bonds is that there are now two paths for players to access and enjoy every bit of content the game as has to offer. No player need ever feel excluded, since they can access everything the game has to offer, by whichever method they choose – through play or traditional payment.





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My thoughts: The only way this will be remotely effective is if the in-game price of a bond is competitive/better than the irl price of coins. If it's not... then this is a pointless update.