RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001.

[2] RuneScape takes place in the world of Gielinor, a medieval fantasy realm divided into different kingdoms, regions, and cities.

Players interact with each other through trading, chatting, or by participating in mini-games and activities, some of which are competitive or combative in nature, while others require cooperative or collaborative play.

[11] Old School RuneScape, a separate, older version of the game dating from August 2007, was released in February 2013, and is maintained alongside the original client.

They can train their in-game skills, engage non-player character (NPC) monsters and other players in combat and complete quests at their discretion.

Other skills allow players to kill certain NPCs, build their own houses, move around the map with greater ease, steal from various NPCs, market stalls and chests located in-game, light fires, cook their own food, create their own potions, craft runestones and weapons, plant their own plants, hunt NPC animals, raid dungeons, and summon familiars to assist in combat and training skills.

Combat is an important aspect of the game, allowing players to defeat monsters to obtain dropped items or to complete quests.

[38][39] A beta for a separate combat system dubbed "Legacy Mode" was opened to players on 16 June 2014,[40] before being introduced to the live game on 14 July.

[50] Players can interact with each other through trading, chatting, or by participating in mini-games and activities, some of which are competitive or combative in nature, while others require cooperative or collaborative play.

[60] Among its early innovations Jagex developed an interpreted domain-specific scripting language called RuneScript, which is used by RuneScape's server for event handling.

[61] In February 2002, a monthly membership service was introduced, allowing access to additional features including new areas, quests, and items not available to free users.

A beta version of RuneScape 2 was released to paying members for a testing period beginning on 1 December 2003, and ending in March 2004.

[80] On 28 February 2012, an in-game feature was introduced called the "Squeal of Fortune" that allowed players to win items on a daily basis by spinning the wheel.

[82] Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard had previously described microtransactions as "a stealth tax", and the update provoked complaints from players who believed they had been "betrayed" by the change.

[83] In July 2012, Jagex released Solomon's General Store, making it possible to spend real currency in exchange for "RuneCoins" that could be spent on cosmetic rewards in the game.

[84] On 29 August 2012, Gerhard released a response to this controversy, describing these microtransactions as "[having] a significant role in ensuring that we can continue to support, develop and grow the game for many more years to come."

[86] On 26 March 2014, Gerhard reiterated his stance on microtransactions and their importance in updating RuneScape, and announced a partnership with Supersonic ads, allowing players to earn RuneCoins by watching advertisements or sampling products.

[87] On 30 August 2012, Gerhard announced that an HTML5 version of RuneScape was in development that would allow the game to be played on "your favourite tablets, platforms and even smart TVs.

"[88] A video released on 22 March 2013 stated that the new version would be called RuneScape 3 and would use WebGL, and would include a fully customisable user interface and improved audio.

[11] At RuneFest 2014, Jagex announced that they were developing a new client to replace the HTML5 version, which had never been released from beta due to performance issues.

[95] On 23 May 2018, it was announced that due to constantly accumulating bugs and a game engine that has become incompatible with modern support tools of the company, RuneScape Classic servers would be permanently closed on 6 August 2018.

The music was designed to define the underlying cultures of the various locations accessible, and ambient sounds, such as the cry of seagulls flying over the ocean, occur in logical places.

[126] For account security reasons, Jagex discourages the discussion of fansites within the game or the forums – and a rule specifically prohibits sharing web addresses.

In an attempt to stop cheating, Jagex made direct interaction with the client difficult, established rules against the practice,[134] and introduced random events that required player input to complete.

[49][137] On 25 October 2011, Jagex released an anti-bot system[138] code-named the 'ClusterFlutterer', as part of a game update intended to permanently prevent "reflection" bots from working.

[62] From 26 September 2012 until its removal on 20 August 2018,[139] accounts that were banned for using bots were sent to an isolated area named "Botany Bay" to be given an ultimate punishment as decided by players.

Bonds were introduced to allow players to exchange real currency for in-game benefits legitimately, a move described by CEO Mark Gerhard as "essential for the future of RuneScape".

According to a statement made by a Jagex employee, the bug was caused by insufficient testing of an update that saw the release of a new game skill, Construction, wherein players could create their own houses in which PvP combat could take place.

2006 Buzz Log stated that, "while it may not be as easy on the eyes as some other popular [MMORPGs], like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, or EverQuest, RuneScape is still a lot better way to kill time than pushing around cells in a spreadsheet".

[156] In its 2008 intellectual property profile of the game, Developmag.com stated that whilst Jagex's changes to curtail real world trading resulted in "a wave of user criticism... growth is understood to have resumed since".