Gone is the web-based client that was innovative in 2001

Mathew Burnett, Jagex With players investing hundreds of hours in MMOs such as RuneScape, making any change – no matter how minor – can divide the audience, as Blizzard has experienced with fan-run ‘vanilla’ servers for World of Warcraft. Given the transformative effect of NXT, how did Jagex ensure that as many fans as possible would be happy with the new engine?“Our aim is to provide a client where every player believes they have a better experience,” Burnett responds. “We are going to do our best to bring people over willingly and we have already seen a huge take-up. We release every week so it allows us to adapt as we go along to make sure everyone is happy.“NXT is not a different game, just a new way to experience it.
The content is the same. We worked hard to ensure that it matched the look of the Java client and kept a ‘no textures’ mode that some of our players still prefer. “We have already been though our difficult game evolution; three years ago when we modernised a number of things in the game some of our players weren’t comfortable with the change. So we have RuneScape as it was in 2007 as a separate active development. The two function as a family and, while RuneScape brings out NXT, we also keep adding to our alternate universe, Old School. Most players settle in one game or the other, but some float between them as new bits catch their attention.”The NXT engine sees RuneScape align with the state of games today not only in looks, but also in philosophy.

Gone is the web-based client that was innovative in 2001, yet out-dated in 2016. “We had been seeing a decline in browser play for quite a while,” Burnett states. “Java applets are going out of fashion as a way of delivering web content with support increasingly being removed from browsers.“This has allowed us to put our priority on the downloadable client. The combination of C++ and native access to system resources offers us much better control over performance.”But while NXT may be the next step for RuneScape, Jagex has no desire to completely sever ties with the game’s history – or the platform that brought it to prominence.“We built what we have so far with a browser offering in mind,” reveals Burnett. “Our build pipeline allows us to compile the C++ through emscripten and produce a HTML5 client we can serve in a browser. What we have works, but the technology isn’t quite there yet.

It’s going to take us some specific effort to ensure we can produce the performance we need to make this shippable. New payment scheme has had 'strong and immediate' impact on illegal practice A crackdown by Jagex on gold farmers in RuneScape has cut the wealth generated from the practice by over 80 per cent.The UK studio recently introduced a Bonds system into the fantasy MMO, which cost ￡3 ($5) each. Once purchased through the website, these can be redeemed for 14 days membership, 160 runecoins or traded for in-game items.The initiative was brought about in part to tackle gold farming - the process of acquiring in-game currency with real-world cash - and steady the game's economy. Dishonest gold farming has had a detrimental effect on the online gaming space since its inception, and Jagex has worked tirelessly to limit the scope and consequence this activity has had on RuneScape over many years,” said Jagex COO Riaan Hodgson.“While we anticipated that the launch of Bonds would impact the flow of illegal wealth into the game, we are thrilled the initiative has resulted in such a strong and immediate impact. This action lays the foundations for runescape gold to continue going from strength to strength in its second successful decade. RuneScape executive producer Phil Mansell added: “We’ve had a great response from the community since Bonds launched, and we are pleased to see the new features have had an immediate impact on the game.