The War On Real World Trading - Is it worth it?
Since the middle of this year, Jagex has been going down hard on real world traders. They go around banning accounts involved in real world trading, as well as autoers. But they just keep coming. So Jagex decided to stop real world trading for good, with horrible “side effects”…
The December 10th Update: “The Last Straw”
Many people I know call this the “stupidest update ever”. The other updates do not affect me much. I even liked the shop update where I could obtain blood runes etc conveniently, instead of world switching and spam clicking. This one really was stupid, to say the least. Many people are now quitting members or even quitting the game!
What Happened?
Jagex decided to use their “ultimate move” to combat real world traders. How? Let's check it out.
No “Imbalanced Trades”
Reasoning: When you real world trade, the trade is definitely imbalanced. For example, if you buy 1 million for real world cash, the trade screen would look like this:
A: You are about to give: 1 million.
B: You are about to give: Absolutely nothing.
So Jagex decided to allow trades to go through only if the difference is less than 3k every 15 minutes in January 2008.
Advantages of This Update
- No more item scamming. (it obviously comes from imbalanced trades. Even when you lend a “friend” your item and he/she disappears with it.).
- No more hacking. (Hackers transfer hacked items between accounts.)
Why People Hate It
- No more lending or giving away free items.
Even if I were to give away 28 lobsters to a friend, the trade difference is also more than 3k.
- I think merchanting may be cut off too. Lets say Jagex thinks that whips are 1.2 million. If I try to buy a whip for 1.2 million to sell it for 1.3 million, it is also an imbalanced trade because my buyer is paying 1.3 million for something that is only worth 1.2 million! (this is only an example, the prices here are inaccurate)
When you drop an item, if it is less than 3k, it will appear. If not, others cannot see it.
Reasoning: real world traders will try to drop the money/items to transfer between players.
Of course, drop parties are prevented. You have the party room to do it. However, party room = no privacy. For this reason, some people may prefer to have drop parties at their POH.
Also, if siblings play Runescape and they only have 1 computer and they wish to transfer items between their accounts, there is no way to do that. You can't drop trade, you can't ask your friends to transfer it for you because of #1.
When you die (even in the wilderness), gravestones appear. It will remain for 1 hour for you to retrieve your items.
Reasoning: Real world traders will attempt to kill each other in the wilderness to collect the items.
The only advantages I can see from this update is: You can now safely runecraft in the Abyss. Ok, ok! My runecrafting has only like 4k exp to level 74! Hmm ... how much do I need to runecraft to 99 magic? 98k nature runes? (Oops. Sorry for overreacting.)
And then, if you die, you do not need to lose items. My friend dared to walk in the wilderness with his godsword!
People are ranting about this update. PKing is removed. The other time when I was at Edgeville bank and Clan Wars arena, I see people shouting, “We want PKing back!”, “PKing or else we quit Runescape!” Sad. First it was staking. Now PKing?!
Conclusion
It is really irritating to see that when the minority cheat, the majority is affected. The majority just want to play the game! They want to stake, PK, earn money and give/lend items to their friends. I hope that Jagex is not so blinded by the war against real world trading to see this, and that many features of the game are restored.
