The MMORPG RuneScape is currently facing review bombing on Steam: The generally “very positive reviews” of 84% are now met with “mostly negative” reviews of 25% in the last 30 days. The mood in the forums is hostile. The reason is a battle pass that is upsetting players for various reasons.
Which MMORPGs have the best ratings on Steam?
- We looked into it on MeinMMO in March 2023, with the question: The highest-rated MMORPG on Steam at that time was “Old School RuneScape,” the classic version of regular RuneScape: It even had 90% positive ratings.
- Online role-playing games like Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy achieved similarly high ratings.
- RuneScape still had 87% positive reviews in March 2023, but now it has fallen to 84%. This is partly because only 25% of the reviews in the last 30 days were positive.
This battle pass is the reason for the current anger:
Player with 6,055 hours writes negative review on Steam
Where does the big drop come from? RuneScape has been suffering from review bombing on Steam for about a week: This is what it’s called when players express their displeasure about a decision by writing a negative review.
Even players with thousands of hours in RuneScape are currently publishing negative reviews on Steam for the MMORPG:
- A user with 3900 hours urges Jagex to stop immediately.
- Another player with 4800 hours says that the developer Jagex has removed core systems from the MMORPG to push players toward microtransactions.
- A player with 6,055 hours says he has been playing the game for 20 years, but the new changes are a joke. To fulfill the battle pass, one would need to play 1,300 hours and only has 2,184 hours available for that.
New battle pass oversteps the boundaries
What is the reason? RuneScape introduced a new battle pass on August 29, the “Hero Pass,” which is set to go live on September 4 and then be renewed every 3 months (via gamesradar):
- The idea is that players can upgrade this pass for free and unlock rewards.
- But players who pay for a “premium service” unlock a premium version of the pass: they can unlock different and better rewards.
- For additional money, players can optionally skip levels in the battle pass.
Players see the pass as a “step too far” towards pay-to-win
What bothers players about the Hero Pass in RuneScape: D This pass is critically viewed by many RuneScape players.
In their eyes, the pass is a step towards “pay-to-win” because it comes with bonuses that allow skills to be leveled up faster or to collect more experience points. Moreover, many believe that it’s enough. People are already paying for a subscription, and now Jagex just wants to “squeeze more money out of the players.”
Other players criticize that the pass rewards “daily play,” and they do not want this psychological FOMO pressure.
The player with 6,000 play hours criticizes that the pass simply requires too much time to fully complete it within 3 months.
A player outlines what free options have disappeared from the game over time and which new paid content has been added to RuneScape.
Another overarching complaint is that the developers are putting their time and resources into such things instead of other content.
Jagex is lying to you
How should the pass be received and how is it actually received?
The battle pass was presented in a video by the developers, with the big message: “RuneScape is now even more rewarding.”
The pass would expand the core mechanics even further.
The staff said that when you play RuneScape, you receive buffs, cosmetic items, and other things. It makes the game much more rewarding now. Everything will earn points.
This “positive” video received only about 17,000 views in the last 9 days.
Another video, however, received 286,000 views in just 24 hours.
In this significantly more successful video, YouTuber Asmongold amplified the mood. He picked up on the players’ anger and subtly titled it: “RuneScape is screwed. How Jagex is lying to you.”
How are the developers reacting? As PCGamer states, Jagex is currently acting unsuccessfully and half-heartedly. They have announced that they are listening to the feedback, but have not yet explained what they want to change. They are facing a lot of hostility. The RuneScape community is known for their – carefully expressed – open and rough manner of dealing.
At the moment, the situation appears very tense.
While RuneScape is heading down the path of introducing a battle pass, other games have already decided to remove the pass from a game:
Steam: DOTA 2 dispenses with the battle pass – now prefers to improve the game
