RuneScape Dev Really, Really Wants Its Players to Vote in Favor of Removing the Game’s Least Popular Microtransactions

So today, Jagex sent out a press release stating that it was launching a community vote to “decide the future of RuneScape’s microtransactions.” The developer has launched a page on its website that allows players to vote to remove Treasure Hunter from the game entirely, simultaneously removing over 220 associated items, including the experience points boosting items that have caused issues in the past. Jagex says it will remove Treasure Hunter from the game if the poll receives over 100,000 votes.

“This vote is one of the most important moments in RuneScape’s history,” said Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy in a statement. “Starting right now, players will cast the deciding vote on the future direction of the game. Since Squeal of Fortune was introduced in 2012, and subsequently Treasure Hunter in 2014, our approach to monetisation has, over time, eroded some of the integrity at the heart of RuneScape.

“The most concerning elements of our MTX systems have been those that allowed players to bypass core gameplay, skipping over the depth, challenge, and sense of discovery that make RuneScape truly special. While these systems have helped fund the game, they’ve done so at a cost to something far greater: the integrity of our worlds. This vote is about correcting that, and taking a step toward designing experiences that are fair, rewarding, and built to last.”

It’s critical to point out though that Jagex’s poll really isn’t a poll at all. It’s a button players can press if they want to vote in favor of removing Treasure Hunter. There’s no option for players to vote “no”, Jagex will simply implement the change if 100,000 people total vote in favor. And the page itself makes it pretty dang clear that Jagex wants players to vote for this. Using language such as suggesting those who vote “yes” want to “see an integrity-led RuneScape powered by your own accomplishments” and the presence of multiple green “Vote Yes Now” buttons all down the page are, uh, not exactly subtle. Nor is the fact that Jagex seems pretty ready to implement this, as if it already knows what the result would be.

But while a clearly-rigged non-poll sounds bad, it’s also critical to note that players actually do seem to want this to happen. Over on the RuneScape subreddit, players are ecstatic. The top comment on the Jagex mod’s official post announcing the vote simply says “Holy based”, followed by “I can’t believe I lived to see this”, and many, many more comments along those lines. In fact, the positivity is overwhelming. While some players seem skeptical that they’ll meet the 100,000 vote requirement, others are confident, even suggesting the OSRS (Old School RuneScape) players might support the poll as well, just on principle. It seems as though they needn’t worry. At the time this piece was written, the poll had been up for just four hours, and had already reached 50,000 votes. For context, Jagex says on its website that there have been over 320,000,000 RuneScape accounts created over the years…though how many of those are active is a very different question (Old School RuneScape recently surpassed 240,000 players this past August).

Overall, this seems like a positive, long-needing, and welcome change for the RuneScape community. It’s just a little weird that it’s being framed as a poll, when the desired outcome for both players and developer is pretty obvious. There is a potential reading of this as simply a move for positive PR, specifically given that Jagex was acquired just last year, Bellamy was instated as a new CEO just this past March, and he’s already had a bad round of headlines over canceling annual in-game Pride events.

Players have until November 12 to vote if they would like to remove the microtransactions, and can continue voting beyond the 100,000 needed numbers to express support for the change. Removing Treasure Hunter won’t fully remove all microtransactions from the game, with cosmetics and bonus XP items with set caps to help curb exploits will remain.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.