Jagex Addresses the Squeal of Fortune

Christopher · **Posted:** May 4th, 2012, 8:41 pm

http://services.runescape.com/m=news/so ... k-response

tl;dr Jagex is delusional about what does and doesn't undermine the "integrity" of the game. Also their definition of "appreciated content" is judged by the amount of use, rather than the player feedback. They basically just ignored everything and added their own meaning to whatever arbitrary numbers they could use.

Runescape.com wrote:

It’s been two months since we released the Squeal of Fortune and we wanted to take the opportunity to respond to some of the player feedback, correct some misconceptions about the popularity of the update, motivations behind the update and importantly outline why it’s also here to stay.
First of all I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent us feedback about the recent Squeal of Fortune updates. We designed the Squeal of Fortune from the outset to be a fun and light-hearted feature to RuneScape, giving players a new way to receive free rewards every day they log into RuneScape. As with many of our updates, our members always receive extra benefits like double the free spins daily and we have evolved it since launch – providing all of our players numerous additional ways to earn free Squeal spins within the game.

As with all content we add to RuneScape, we went to great lengths to ensure that the Squeal of Fortune would enhance the playing experience without undermining what makes the game truly special for millions of players every day; we truly believe we have succeeded in both priorities.

We recognise that some in the community have mixed feelings about the Squeal of Fortune and, whilst we spend a great deal of time and effort creating game experiences that resonate with the majority of our players, the reality is due to the epic size of our community it simply isn’t possible to please all of our players all of the time despite desperately trying too. Therefore our philosophy has always been to do what is right for the long term health of the game, a fact many of the long standing player will know I’ve consistently done over the years irrespective of the initial pain, with the not so distant Bot nuke a great example. I can confidently say that we have always been rewarded for doing the right thing in the long run and the reality today is that the game is not only consistently improving but our community steadily grows year on year.

That said, all the feedback we receive for our updates and how the community engage with it is still extremely important to us. We have been reading your posts on the forums and listened to your concerns. As a result of your feedback, we implemented some changes to the way Squeal of Fortune works, such as adding new ways to receive extra spins as in-game rewards and also introducing additional payment protection for all in game purchases as soon as players notified us it was a concern.

Naturally the team and I are saddened that some players are upset about free spins and some also don’t like the ability to also purchase additional spins, however, the reality is 90% of our members are enjoying the Squeal of Fortune on a daily basis and over 70% of our free players utilise the Squeal of Fortune daily too - making it some of the most widely appreciated content release to date. The majority of our players also continue to take advantage of the many free ways to earn extra spins, so it’s certainly here to stay.

The stated concerns from players regarding RWT'ing, gambling or using the Squeal of Fortune to buy their way to success is simply not true and not possible given the design of the system. Whilst we have seen most players take advantage of the new rewards and many choosing to purchase extra spins, we have not witnessed any abuse of the system despite monitoring it extremely closely.

Looking forward, RuneScape continues to grow more than ever, both in terms of innovative compelling content as well as the size of the community. With the launch of The Runespan last Monday, a major graphical performance upgrade yesterday (which has already seen a significant portion of the community benefit from over a 100% improvement in game frame rate), it should be evident that we just gearing up for our most exciting and biggest content year ever........... including a complete upgrade to the combat system later this summer!

You’ll naturally all hear a lot more about this in the very near future so watch this space.

Thanks for reading ... and have fun,

Cheers,

Mark Gerhard

Jagex CEO

Market Man6 · **Posted:** May 4th, 2012, 9:04 pm

"90% of our members are enjoying the Squeal of Fortune on a daily basis and over 70% of our free players utilise the Squeal of Fortune daily too"

because this is far to easy to use. if you logged in each day and had the store interface pop up into your screen, EVERYONE would do dailies.

"The majority of our players also continue to take advantage of the many free ways to earn extra spins"
cause they are monster drops! you cant avoid getting a drop! or they appear in your inventory involuntarily for skilling. also unavoidable.

"a complete upgrade to the combat system later this summer"

JAGEX DO NOT DO THIS!!!

Freeasacar · **Posted:** May 4th, 2012, 9:14 pm

Christopher wrote:

Jagex is delusional about what does and doesn't undermine the "integrity" of the game. Also their definition of "appreciated content" is judged by the amount of use, rather than the player feedback. They basically just ignored everything and added their own meaning to whatever arbitrary numbers they could use.

You're completely right about the fact that just because a lot of people use the SoF, it doesn't mean they appreciate the content. The SoF is simply an effortless way to gain an advantage in the game that people will use regardless of whether it has a negative impact on the game's integrity or not. Basically it's like a cheat code in a multiplayer game. Why wouldn't the average player use it if it's presented to them?

Runescape.com wrote:

The stated concerns from players regarding RWT'ing, gambling or using the Squeal of Fortune to buy their way to success is simply not true and not possible given the design of the system. Whilst we have seen most players take advantage of the new rewards and many choosing to purchase extra spins, we have not witnessed any abuse of the system despite monitoring it extremely closely.

This is the most hilarious part of the response. People aren't upset that the SoF might encourage real world trading. They're upset because the SoF is real world trading. If the new Jagex fails to see this then they are a complete joke of a company. If the new Jagex knows this but are deliberately ignoring the issue (or in the case of this response, deliberately covering it up) then it is solid proof they are only interested in profit and not player satisfaction. Personally I think it's the latter.

This entire response isn't doing the new Jagex any favors. Not posting it at all and relying on the already-existing FAQ in the forums would've served them better even though it was very bare-boned. However, I suppose the fact that they felt the need to post the response at all speaks volumes about the unprecedented player dissatisfaction that the update has caused since it was released. It might even have been more prominent than the outrage sparked by the wilderness/free trade removal. Makes me wonder how many subscriptions they've lost in the past two months that forced them into making a response.

Landerpurex · **Posted:** May 5th, 2012, 3:46 am

What complete nonsense. The grammar and spelling errors in the article are just the god damned beginning...

I have no problem with the Squeal of Fortune, in theory. The only aspect of it I hate is the cash shopping. Implementing incentives to do more quests, free (mostly arbitrary) crap every day and the possibility of tickets from drops is fine by me. It's the merge into cash shopping that bothers me.

As freeasacar said, the response is laughable. If it were such a great piece of content, they wouldn't need to publicly defend it. It's very saddening to see what Runescape has become. The Mad May thing should be enough of an indicator as to the future of the game. I love it, and I still play it, but being browbeaten with incentives to become or stay a member along with cash shopping is really starting to grate on me.

As far as a combat update goes: I wouldn't mind one as long as it made sense. I think there have been enough subtle updates throughout the years that make the Runescape (read: melee) combat system a strong point in the game. If it's something totally ludicrous like attacking once per click, then I'm bailing on this game and will badmouth it every opportunity I get. But if it's something somewhat minor that adds to the experience, I see no reason to be unwelcoming to change.

Riptide · **Posted:** May 5th, 2012, 10:35 am

Freeasacar wrote:

This is the most hilarious part of the response. People aren't upset that the SoF might encourage real world trading. They're upset because the SoF is real world trading. If the new Jagex fails to see this then they are a complete joke of a company. If the new Jagex knows this but are deliberately ignoring the issue (or in the case of this response, deliberately covering it up) then it is solid proof they are only interested in profit and not player satisfaction. Personally I think it's the latter.

They're ignoring the outcries of the people who worked hard to achieve things like 10 million or get God armour/swords. And if you want solid proof that they only want profit, look at the fact they edited their own damn ToC to fit what they're saying about the Squeal.

Saten Ruiko · **Posted:** May 5th, 2012, 7:24 pm

I was going to quote the parts of the message that I felt made no sense...but Market Man already did.

Of COURSE 90% of your members are using it. If there's a button on my screen saying "click this for 5k exp" do you seriously expect me to say "NAH I CARE MORE ABOUT UPSETTING JAGEX'S STATISTICS" and ignore it? That's a laughably terrible explanation, and the fact that Mark uses it just tells me they don't have any better explanations.

The first sentence of the third paragraph is true. You cannot please everyone--it is foolish to try, and a company that realizes they just need to please the majority is one that will succeed. However, they're using statistics that might as well be fake in their argument of people being pleased, and I dislike that.

Lander also makes an excellent point about all of the spelling and grammatical errors. There's a ton, and I would expect much better out of a CEO.

Macho Nacho · **Posted:** May 7th, 2012, 9:56 pm

My theory is that Jagex is secretly profiting - and even piloting - some of these RWT sites themselves. :3

Market Man6 · **Posted:** May 7th, 2012, 11:28 pm

Hahaha macho. some of the individuals that are part of the new jagex sure could be!

Henner · **Posted:** May 8th, 2012, 8:22 am

Honestly getting 99 anything anymore wouldn't be as satisfying as it was 9-10 years ago.

Landerpurex · **Posted:** May 9th, 2012, 1:36 am

As satisfying OR as challenging. I used to Fuzzy Bunny

bricks whenever I saw anyone with any non-buyable 99s. In RS Classic, anyone with the Legend's cape was exactly that: a legend. Anyone with a 99 cape was a god, even if it was melee or buyable.

Chop Ya Down · **Posted:** May 11th, 2012, 3:39 am

R.i.p Old Runescape

What we have now is the sloppy leftovers of a great game. Jagex contradicts itself more and more with each passing day.

Jagex Addresses the Squeal of Fortune

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