Turning Back the Clock with RS2006

As a Runescape player myself, I joined the game in 2006. Entering RS2006 is literally like retracing my steps.

That interface is the same as the one which welcomed me then. That button is identical to another I once pressed. I chose my name and password in precisely the same way. I entered forums which aped exactly those I saw back then.

Only the dates have changed, on the news alert scrolls and the forum posts. Otherwise, this is as close to time travel as we get. The old days of Gielinor back once more and me walking in as a noob.

Is it nostalgic? Of course it's nostalgic! It's a sentimental journey back in time, touching aspects of our own happy history.

The forums are buzzing with new and old arrivals. The Compliments Board is awash with headers reading 'thank you', 'wow... just wow!' and 'I'm so happy!'  Inside the commentators tell of tears in their eyes and a feeling of profound relief.

They've all come home through a tumultuous journey, which saw unwelcome changes in-game and a global Recession in the real world.  Who amongst us wouldn't like to catch just a glimpse of 2006 before it all went wrong?

There were eighteen skills in 2006. Gone are Construction, Hunting, Summoning and Dungeoneering. Constitution was still called Hitpoints.

In order to create anything in your inventory, each item had to be clicked, every single one. Unformed bow on bowstring; herb into vial.

And, incidentally, those herbs would have to be identified first, because nobody knew what they might be. This was an age of peering at the colors, trying to guess from the exact shade of green.

The Wilderness was there, of course, before the time when it was removed in a bid to combat Real World Trading and bots. (A noble pursuit sullied by 2012, when many players accused Jagex of simply buying into the very same industry.) PKing clans ruled supreme.

Questers (myself included) could embark upon eighteen f2p and eighty-six P2p quests. The big names amongst them were the Underground Pass, Mourning's End Parts 1 and 2 and Monkey Madness. For those adventuring around Varrock, Romeo and Juliet still wandered around.

There were twenty mini-games, including the classics Castle Wars and Pest Control. The random events could be dangerous to those away from their keyboards or cheating via bots; and treasure trails were worth doing.

But more to the point, everyone had a level playing field, regardless of real life status. You rose or fell on your merits only within the game.

For more memories, there is the RS2006 Wiki to peruse.

For the furious players signing up in droves, the response to 'won't Jagex hate this?' is likely to result in unsympathetic expletives. For the makers of RS2006, the situation is a little more complicated.

They are the ones putting in hours of their lives, recoding from memory and scratch every aspect of a vast game. If the rug is pulled from under them, in legal battles, then that's months of their lives wiped out in a flash.

Fortunately, Jagex have not yet commented, let alone taken action.  In December 2011, when RS2006 only had 20,000 registered accounts, Mod Vault optimistically indicated that the project makers were largely relying upon the goodwill of the copyright holders.

However, with over 109,000 people signing up in the intervening four months, it's likely to be raising red flags in the Jagex board room.

After all, 129,000 players in RS2006 are 129,000 players not being monetized in Runescape itself, and that is more or less the number in-game on any given day.

In April 2012, the recreated 2006 Runescape is not yet live. Those donating to the project are able to act as pre-Alpha testers, but the general public are consigned solely to the forums. It's a beautiful atmosphere, filled with gushing praise and the rose-tinted gaze of sentimentality. The game itself is viewed with great anticipation.

But that is also liable to be when the crunch time occurs. Letting people float in a nostalgic dream of a long-gone website is one thing; but unleashing a full-scale rival game will be something else entirely.

We await developments and Jagex's eventual reaction. Will Goliath stamp all over this particular David? Or will diplomacy prevail?  Regardless of the Fate of RS2006, it will surely have delivered a powerful message to the makers of Runescape: that a hugely lucrative and loyal player base will ditch them in seconds, if microtransactions and other game breakers go on.

By the end of 2012, it seemed that RS2006 was no more.  Wild rumors circulated, some stating that Jagex had finally served legal papers months into the coding.

But the most pervasive of all stated that Mod Vault had simply pulled the plug and run off with the donations thus far.  For those Runescape players, already disillusioned with the legal game changing beyond all sight, it was a final kick in the teeth.

The reality had gone; and now the nostalgic dream had gone too.