In case you’ve been living under a rock (lucky you), the world has been enveloped in a global pandemic dominated by lockdowns, quarantine, and isolation. What better time to reignite a childhood passion to pass the time?

I high fived the end of the nineties as a baby before spending my recollected childhood in the early 00’s where the computer was becoming more common place in the average household. Consequently, I grew up on the internet. I spent my fair share of time on online games such as Club Penguin, Neopets and Habbo Hotel however my first introduction to the world of MMORPG’s was a standout memory for me.

Runescape, initially developed by brothers Andrew Gower & Paul Gower, was released in 2001 as a browser game built with Java. 20 Years on and the franchise has diverged into two separate entities; Runescape 3 being a brand-new evolution of the original franchise released on a standalone client in 2016, and Old School Runescape, a continuation of the 2007 edition of the game available on both PC and Mobile with engine improvements and new content voted on by in-game polls.

Considering I grew up with the game, starting to play a little later than its initial release, I personally prefer Old School Runescape and have chosen to explore it more as my media niche. I’ve spent the last 6 months obsessing over a newly built character as the pandemic has built up speed and have once again fallen in love with the humorous charm of the OSRS universe. While at first glance it may seem to be a generic medieval fantasy, the writing and music are what bring a special life to the in-game sphere.

Trust me, I’m not a fan of fantasy at all, yet this game gets me every time with its quirky story line. Just about anyone can jump right in, especially since they have such a well-constructed free section which will still have you playing for hours without paying a cent.

With the games franchise being long running, there is ample amount of content relating to the community cast across the internet from fan made wiki’s to subreddits to memes galore. OSRS Wiki and r/2007scape are two of the main community-based resources I use to complement my game play, whether it be for interacting with other players or to get a walkthrough on how to do a difficult quest. This doesn’t even include the substantial amount of content created by the developers themselves to not only promote the game but to promote the community’s contribution through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and most frequently Twitch.

This just scratches the surface of the 20-year history that Runescape and its community harbor and I hope to delve deeper into it to present to a public audience, particularly through the investigation of the importance of the community to the games development as all game changes go through player voted polls. I hope to reach edges of the community I never have before while considering the impact it has on the game play itself.

Reference List/ Sources Sited:

https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/
https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/
https://twitter.com/OldSchoolRS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOldSchoolRuneScape/
https://secure.runescape.com/m=forum/forums