Jagex prohibits mod that enhances Old School Runescape visually

A player wanted to enhance the MMORPG Old School Runescape with an “HD” mod and invested 2000 hours into the project to give the online role-playing game a graphical overhaul. However, developer Jagex prohibited the mod before it could be released. They are also working on such an enhancement, but they are still very much in the early stages. This has sparked protests in the game and on the forum.

How did the player want to improve the MMORPG?

The Reddit user “117” was developing a plugin called “Runelite HD” aiming to increase the resolution of the popular mod “Runelite” for the MMORPG “Old School Runescape.”
He had been working on the project for 2 years and had invested approximately 2000 hours of work, as he stated himself.
Originally, the launch of the project was planned for September 6. Prior to that, “117” had reviewed the code and fixed the last bugs.

Developer bans project – has started working on something similar

This is what Jagex did: The player states: Just before the planned release, RuneScape developer Jagex contacted him and asked him to stop the project. They said they had “a similar graphical enhancement in development” – but that it was still in a very early stage.

Therefore, a fan project that changes the appearance of Old School Runescape would conflict with Jagex’s plans.

It is said that Jagex considers it absolutely necessary for the appearance of Old School Runescape to be consistent. Therefore, they want to ensure that the official changes are the only available ones.

Old School Runescape is a “classic version” of the free-to-play MMORPG Runescape (2001). It is a version of the MMORPG as of 2007. This variant is immensely popular – similar to WoW Classic.

This was the compromise proposal: “117” then suggested that he could take down his project once Jagex had finished their improvement.

Jagex immediately rejected the compromise.

Players now want to pressure Jagex with protests

This is the discussion: The Reddit thread on the topic has now become enormous. The thread in the forum has almost 70,000 upvotes and over 5000 comments. People especially sympathize with the fan who invested so many hours into the project.

They hope to create enough stress so that Jagex is forced to address the issue. In-game protests are also taking place to show solidarity with the mod developer.