Seasoned fantasy MMO RuneScape is at a crossroads. Developer Jagex has vowed to remove Treasure Hunter, the game's long-festering and widely unpopular microtransaction hub, if at least 100,000 players vote for it in a new custom poll. At the time of writing, three hours after the poll went live, over 42,000 people have voted yes.
The aptly named "Remove Treasure Hunter?" poll is live here. As Jagex points out, the nature of the poll echoes the player vote that first pushed the company to revive and release Old School RuneScape many years ago – a version of the game which was effectively deleted when the Evolution of Combat update overhauled many mechanics and turned RuneScape into what's now known as RuneScape 3. (OSRS, as it happens, uses player polls for almost all major updates to this day.)
"Today marks one of the most important moments in RuneScape history," Jagex says of the new poll. "We are proposing a new future for the game led by integrity, where your achievements are based on merit, and the vast experiences offered within Gielinor can truly shine. This is an era-defining shift for RuneScape where YOU will cast the deciding vote - just as we did for the birth of Old School."
The poll is simple. There is, after all, only one option: "Vote Yes Now." Voting yes, Jagex says, means "you want to see an integrity-led RuneScape powered by your own accomplishments through gameplay," and that means burying Treasure Hunter.
If Treasure Hunter dies, a whopping 225 different ways to directly purchase skill experience and skilling items would be removed from RuneScape, leaving "only Bonus XP & Cosmetics available for direct purchase."
"For those of you who told us you rely on MTX items to fit RuneScape into your life, we will continue to offer Bonus XP in the store as the only purchasable means to speed up progression," Jagex adds. The company claims 54% of players "expressed a desire to retain a progression-friendly MTX option in our Experiment surveys."
This would leave some buyable XP boosts in the game, but it would also dramatically clean up the MMO's economy, which has steadily slid ever deeper into pay-to-win or at least pay-to-skip territory as RuneScape 3's population fell drastically behind the OSRS horde. Anyone who owns any of the affected items will have an "amnesty period" to use them up.
This MTX poll is the new headliner for Jagex's campaign to clean up RS3 with a renewed push for game integrity. In a press release, new Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy admits that, "Since Squeal of Fortune was introduced in 2012, and subsequently Treasure Hunter in 2014, our approach to monetisation has, over time, eroded some of the integrity at the heart of RuneScape."
Bellamy, who's been vocal about charting a multi-year roadmap for both versions of RuneScape, adds: "While these systems have helped fund the game, they've done so at a cost to something far greater: the integrity of our worlds. This vote is about correcting that, and taking a step toward designing experiences that are fair, rewarding, and built to last."
"Here's our promise to you," Jagex says of today's poll. "This will all be done without impacting one of the biggest and most ambitious content Roadmaps in RuneScape's history. If the vote passes, we'll announce this Roadmap alongside our Content Roadmap in January's RuneScape Ahead."
In the time it took me to write this news article, over 2,000 additional votes were added. With a full two weeks left in the poll, things are looking up. The OSRS community, long worried that the microtransaction reaper would one day darken their doorstep, has shown up in force, and the exhausted RuneScape 3 community is practically running through the streets.
"I can't believe I lived to see this," exclaims one RS3 player.
