Unfortunately, Jagex has managed to mess RuneScape up completely, in my humble opinion. I remember when I used to play, from 2006. 2006, free to play noob, gathering robes and small misc. items like burnt bones from the wilderness, training on goblins, etc. 2007, got mems and life became awesome. Spent my days in love with the RS world. 2008 was the great year when Summoning was introduced (right?), members was great and fun to play, and free to play was doable. 2010, things took a turn for the worse with the graphics. I logged on yesterday, and my god... looks like a gay WoW?
I think after the wilderness dillema, Jagex lost a lot of people. Since then, a few have come back, but RS3 definitely lost even more (old/veteran) players. If it came to that, and I wasn't in the know regarding RSPS nor having worked on my own, I'd have probably given up on the game and never come back to it. Its the RSPS communities that kept me going, especially the 317 edition that a lot of people used to work on. I think people have moved on, and there are few people as attached to this childhood-defining game as I am.
And you know, even if RS dies, and RS06/RS07 players, both RSPS and official, dissipate, I will always have my 317 06 replica, that I can play whenever I want, any day of my life, to remember what it was like to be me so many years ago, :')
the thing is we know the game inside out and achieving items and riches aren't really a thrill like it was when we where kids, to impatient to make money and just focused on the fun part of the game.
