Aftermath

After the Bot Nuke Day and other updates slamming the botting programms the total Runescape population has been decimated. As of now (11/27/11, 10:07 p.m. EST) The total population on Runescape is sitting at 64,000 players. I realize it is a Sunday and fairly late for those who prefer to play earlier and not on a Sunday, however the worlds in Runescape have become very small as far as world populations go. A few questions I would like to ask would be, Do you think that the Bot Nuke Day hurt Jagexs' profits from the game because of the lack of more members? Do you like the new Runescape free of bots and how it has less population? Finally, Was Runescape overcrowded with almost 300,000 players online? By the way I'm happy to see the Clan is online and running I haven't been on for a while because of school. I did achieve 99 smithing before school had started! Anyways, Have a Nice Day/Night!!

Sincerely,
Shane.

I think it definitely hurt Jagex's profits in the sense of subscribers, but I think numbers will grow in time. Now that players aren't immediately facing spam from gold websites when they join the game, I think new players will stick with it. If I joined and saw all that spam, I would consider this game not to be controlled and dying and wouldn't continue playing. I wouldn't consider the bots that "played" RuneScape players at all. So in a sense things really haven't changed.

Congrats on 99 smithing btw :].

I love playing without bots stealing resources and people cheating to buy gold and levels!
The fact that "only" 64k people are online at any point in time (just a snapshot) is exactly as it was before the bots took over.
Bots work 24/7 so the higher numbers didn't mean "people" players.
High numbers playing doesn't always mean a good game.

"Do you think that the Bot Nuke Day hurt Jagexs' profits from the game because of the lack of more members?"

Undoubtedly so, but Jagex wouldn't have brought down the hammer if they didn't have the financial stability to keep running without the bots' membership fees. They make up for it in other ways, such as advertisements, adding more membership perks, etc.

"Do you like the new Runescape free of bots and how it has less population?"

Love it. Botting has always been my #1 zero-tolerance rule, so seeing the game free of them (or at least most of them) is refreshing. As for the less population, I don't really mind seeing that the majority of the population that remains actually consists of real players.

"Finally, Was Runescape overcrowded with almost 300,000 players online?"

Yes, but only because a lot of them were bots. If they were all actual players, it wouldn't be so bad.

Good to see you post again, Shane. Hope school is treating you well and grats on 99 smithing!

I've never seen any figure of 300k people being online at any point in time - ever....

maybe its my timezone but its always been around 30-70k depending on if USA is sleeping.

Anyway I like it with no bots, I don't even care if prices have gone up - they will stabilize and I'd rather a world full of 99% legit players that speak back than skilling amongst bots.

JaGEXs profits certainly have been hurt, but they probably would have lost more money fighting against credit card fraud that RWT (and bots farming the gold) brings.

So, they have probably broke even, or just under.

Consider that the player base might grow now though with less bots in game.

Prices have gone up on the G.E but you can now gather raw resources more easily wich will give you more cash to spend anyway.

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Sorry for any typos, incredibly hard to edit posts on my phone

Love the update, nuff said.

Thanks for the input everybody!! I'm personally happy because RuneScape has become fair again, well, for the most of us Anyways i'll be popping in and out of the forums from time to time Nice talking with you all

There is no doubt Jagex has taken a financial hit by removing such a vast amount of subscribing bots. On the other hand I think Jagex needed to do it to protect the long term viability and goodwill of the game.

I definitely like the new no-bot playing experience, no question about it. Regarding the less population I like that too, giving me greater opportunity to collect resources and stuff like that.
Although there is definitely less people around, the people who are left are real and will chat to you.

In my opinion Runescape was definitely overcrowded when bots existed. When my game play decisions are based around bot activity then that is a real problem to me.

Congrats on 99 smithing, Shane, and looking forward to see more of you once school finishes.

They definitely lost alot of profit from this bot busting. However it really shows that jagex care about the integrity of their game.

A good video from where Jagex speaks about breaking the bots on Youtube offical RS channel;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZHalHeWer8