Old School RuneScape

Old School RuneScape is an MMORPG with adventure elements, primarily utilising point and click mechanics. It features a persistent world in which players can interact with each other and the environment. The player controls a human character and can interact with NPCs, objects, and entities in the game world by left-clicking or right-clicking and selecting an option from the object's right-click context menu. Users can gain experience points and level up individual skills, making their playable character more powerful in various ways. Players can also take on quests from NPCs for rewards. Old School also offers an "Ironman" game mode, where players are barred from exchanging items with others, even in PvP situations. In this way, the game is played as though it were a single-player game. First introduced in October 2014, Ironman Mode makes the game more challenging by forcing players to collect all of their own resources, and additional variants that also forbid item storage, or that permit only one character death have also been added. Additionally, "Deadman Mode" is a separate game server which features open-world player versus player combat and accelerated experience rates. If one Deadman kills another, the victor receives a large amount of the victim's possessions (including those stored away) and the victim's levels are significantly drained. ==Setting==

Old School RuneScape largely takes place in the fictional realm of Gielinor. It is divided into kingdoms including Misthalin to the east, Asgarnia in the center, and Kandarin to the west, and is inhabited by many intelligent creatures, including humans, vampyres, elves, monkeys, dwarves, fairies, gnomes, goblins, trolls, ogres, tortugans (humanoid turtles), and giants. In the Second Age, Guthix went into slumber, and many other gods established power on Gielinor. The transition from the Second Age to the Third age was marked by Zamorak, the highest-ranking general of the Zarosian empire, betraying Zaros and apotheosising into the god of chaos. The Third Age spanned the cataclysmic God Wars, in which the now-deified Zamorak began a world-spanning war involving many other gods of Gielinor. The God Wars lasted for 4,000 years, and finally ended when the region of Forinthry was obliterated by Zamorak, transforming it into the extremely dangerous wasteland known as the Wilderness. This explosion awakened Guthix. Enraged by the destruction, he led his army to Forinthry, ended the war, and established the Edicts of Guthix, which banished all other gods from Gielinor. Guthix retreated into the depths of Gielinor and wept, then returning to a deep slumber. The end of the God Wars marked the end of the Third Age and the beginning of the Fourth Age. In the Fourth Age, the surviving races began to rebuild. After 2,000 years, human mages rediscovered Runecrafting, the ability to create runestones to use magic, marking the beginning of the Fifth Age. The Fifth Age is the current age of Old School RuneScape, in which humans are the dominant race. ==Development and release==

In response to the declining player base and negative update reception of the original and then-current version of RuneScape, Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard officially announced a poll for the creation of Old School RuneScape in a news article in February 2013. The article explained that a backup of RuneScape dated August 2007 was located in the company's archives. In the article, Jagex explained the goals of the poll, and what commitments it would make to maintaining such a game depending on increasing thresholds of votes received. In two weeks, it received the number of votes prescribed by Jagex to move forward with the project. The ending total vote count was 449,351, which fell short of the 500,000 reward tier. Jagex did however incorporate three of the five incentives of the highest tier by approving vote-based polls on all new content, upgraded bot protection, and no additional fees to play Old School. Old School RuneScape was released for Windows and macOS on 22 February 2013. Upon release, the game was only playable for accounts that had a membership subscription. The option for non-members to play in the limited free-to-play areas was granted in February 2015. Expansions Old School RuneScape receives regular patches and new content. With the exception of game balance and integrity, all updates and changes are polled, and are voted on in-game. The proposed updates are only implemented if 70 percent or more of paying players vote "Yes". In some instances, suggestions made by fans and players have been put to polls and, if passed, were subsequently added to the game. Some features that were not added to RuneScape until after 2007 have since been backported to Old School. New Old School-only content has also been inserted, such as a long-scrapped palaeontology-themed island, the ability to freely navigate the game's seas on modular sailboats, and the ambitious new landmasses "Great Kourend" and "Varlamore". Existing regions have been further populated with additional minigames, quests, bosses and experience-granting activities (such as rooftopping to train the agility skill). New late-game material includes pets and raids. Old School has also been modernised with tools for organising player clans and parties. After a preview at the 2018 Game Developers Conference, a mobile cross-play port was released for Android and iOS devices. In under two weeks, it became the most downloaded mobile game in eight different countries, quickly exceeding a million downloads. Old School released on Steam on 24 February 2021. 117Scape's HD Plugin, a third-party mod improving the visuals of the game while retaining its distinct style, was released on 14 September 2021. Varlamore Old School Runescape released a new update, "Varlamore: Part One" on 20 March 2024. This update added a new area for players to explore named Varlamore, with the Capital city being named "Civitas illa Fortis". Players who complete the quest "Children of the Sun". Players can participate in many activities throughout the Kingdom of Varlamore including completing hunter rumors for the Hunter's Guild, defeating the Moons of Peril boss fight, or attempting the challenge at the Fortis Colosseum. Varlamore: The Rising Darkness, (or Varlamore: Part two) is the second installment of the three part Varlamore area expansion update released on 25 September 2024. This update brought new quests, new areas, a new group boss named "Hueycoatl", the Colossal Wyrm agility course, and Mastering Mixology (a herblore activity). The third and final major update to Varlamore, Varlamore: The Final Dawn, (or Varlamore: Part Three) released on July 23, 2025. This update introduced further quests, more areas, the Doom of Mokhaiotl (a new type of encounter called a Delve Boss), and the Vale Totems fletching minigame. The reward proposal published on 05 February 2025 showcasing new quests, a new slayer dungeon, a new delve boss, and proposes new rewards. ==Esports==

Wilderness Wars An esports tournament "Wilderness Wars" was held at the 61st Insomnia Gaming Festival on 26 August 2017. Deadman tournaments Additionally, Jagex hosts separate, recurring "Deadman Tournaments" where players can qualify for a final elimination round, incentivized by monetary prizes. The esports company ESL organized the fourth Deadman competition. The Autumn Finals of September 2018 boasted a 20,000 grand prize. For most major events, tournament coverage is done by a selection of dedicated esports organizations and personnel who provide on-site commentary, analysis, and player interviews surrounding the event in progress, similar to traditional sporting events. The primary medium for professional coverage is through the live streaming platform Twitch.tv. Deadman: Reborn occurred in 2021. The next Deadman Mode tournament, Deadman: Apocalypse, started on 25 August 2023. Leagues At RuneFest 2019, Jagex announced a special new high-speed game mode with similarities to Deadman Mode called "Old School RuneScape Leagues". Leagues contrast with the original servers in that they, much like Deadman Mode, will exist as a separate game instance and only exist temporarily. Each league is intended to run for two months. Players in this game mode compete with others to progress faster and farther before the two months are over. Players that join select game servers will start anew, have vastly increased experience rates, and have the ability to unlock special permanent perks that enhance both rewards and experience. At the end of each league, players are awarded trophies based on how many league points they earned from completing various tasks. They can then spend the points on rewards for their main accounts and save unspent points for future leagues. The first iteration of Leagues was "Twisted", which ran from 14 November 2019 until 16 January 2020. In this League, players were restricted to the regions of the Kebos Lowlands and Great Kourend. The second iteration, "Trailblazer", began on 28 October 2020 and lasted until 6 January 2021. In this League, players began in the starting region of Misthalin, could unlock the region of Karamja for free, and had to carefully choose which three out of seven remaining locked regions to unlock. The third iteration of Leagues was "Shattered Relics", which ran from 19 January 2022 to 16 March 2022. In this League, players had access to the entirety of the world, but did not have full access to their skills and various bosses. In order to unlock them, they had to use a special currency earned by completing tasks within the League. Relics, unlockable boons that granted powerful effects that were present in previous Leagues, were made into less-powerful fragments for this League. However, multiple fragments could be equipped and some granted additional bonus effects if equipped as a set. The Leagues mode received enough of a positive reception from players that the first league for RuneScape 3, "Catalyst", was launched on 15 September 2025. It was continued until 10 November 2025. Grid Master In 2025, from 15 October to 12 November, Old School RuneScape hosted the 'Grid Master' community event, a temporary game mode where players created fresh Ironman accounts. Participants tackled tasks presented on a 7x7 bingo grid, earning individual rewards for completion and more powerful bonuses for completing full rows or columns, alongside Grid Points redeemable in the main game. ==Reception==

Professional reviews have been generally positive. Most critics have praised the game for introducing new features while still maintaining the traditional gameplay of RuneScape. PC Gamer gave Old School RuneScape a score of 77 out of 100. PC World called it a "nostalgic experience". Rock, Paper, Shotgun said "there's something lovely about a company being just as enthusiastic about where their game is headed as where it came from". The Cambridge News wrote "since its resurrection, the game has continued to embrace, celebrate, and expand on its origins to provide a truly nostalgic PvP experience for its growing legions of players." Heavy.com stated "there's a sense of nostalgia to OSRS that keeps people playing and it features the loved “player killing” aspect of the game that was removed for a period of time." GamesIndustry.biz wrote "it is easy to dismiss its popularity as something that simply taps into that nostalgia for old-school games, but the fact it is now four years old and still growing every year suggests that there is more to it than that." Awards and nominations The game was nominated for the "Heritage" and "Best Role-Playing Game" awards at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards 2018 and 2019, and won the award for "EE Mobile Game of the Year" at the 15th British Academy Games Awards. In addition, it won the award for "Best Mobile Game" at the Develop:Star Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Best Innovation". It was also nominated for "Game of the Year" and "Best Live Ops" at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards. Subscriptions Old School RuneScape, like RuneScape, has a free-to-play (F2P) mode of the game with limited in-game content, making its money through membership subscriptions from pay-to-play (P2P) players who have access to the full game. Membership can be bought from Jagex either directly or in the form of Bonds. Bonds can be redeemed by players for membership, or sold to other players for in game currency. Old School Runescape has a larger player-base than RuneScape 3. It hit a million users in October 2013. ==Controversies==

Gold farming The playerbase strongly opposes the introduction of microtransactions as the rules of RuneScape prohibit players from engaging in the real-world sale or purchase of in-game items, gold, or services. Despite the repercussions for gold farming, including the banning of suspected accounts, players continue to amass Old School RuneScape gold with the intention of selling it for real-life currency on third-party websites. Gold farming has also become the primary source of real-world income for many Venezuelan players due to the ongoing economic crisis in the country. In 2019, for every 1 million in-game gold coins, a worker would earn about . The community had mixed reactions to this information; some are sympathetic to their situation, others emphasize the negative impact of gold farming on the game economy and community. Seasonal events At various times during the year, Old School RuneScape launches temporary holiday events, where players can complete seasonal quests to earn special rewards. In the early days of the parent game RuneScape, the discontinued nature of these event rewards made them rare and desirable. This led to certain seemingly mundane objects (such as pumpkins and Christmas cracker hats) becoming extremely valuable. In 2003, Jagex announced that future seasonal items would not be exchangeable between players, explaining that they "don't want this to just become an event whereby a few lucky players suddenly become ludicrously unfairly rich." Shortly after the launch of Old School, a community discussion and vote decided that all past rewards would be made available again every year. In June 2017, the addition of an LGBT pride-themed holiday event, in which participants were tasked with finding the pieces to create a rainbow scarf, caused controversy among players for being seen as political and out of place in the game's high fantasy setting. In a statement, Jagex responded: "There's no political statement here. Our only aim is to acknowledge and honour an event that promotes empathy, acceptance and love." In 2022, LGBT pride-themed events were reintroduced without incident. Occurring annually until 2025, each event rewarded additional rainbow and pride flag-coloured attire. In 2025, it was announced that no new pride event would be held. In a Q&A session, Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy explained that LGBT pride-related material was "now controversial in a way it didn't used to be and that controversy now brings more risk than it did previously". https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/wow-classic-seasonal-servers --> ==See also==