Riot



A Riot is a large gathering of players protesting for a cause, normally involving the protesters, the Jagex supporters, and sometimes even Jagex staff members. Riots are caused because of events such as a new update or restriction.

Riots are held all over RuneScape and in different worlds, but many riots have been held in non-member's world Varrock and member's world Falador.

Riots are often organized at YouTube, where players are usually gathered to protest the Wilderness or trade limit updates.

Riot gear and customs
In recent riots, players often wear either pink skirts to show they support the rioters, blue skirts to show they support Jagex, and either black or green to show that they are neutral. The pink skirts however, are more commonly used for an opposite purpose. They are often used after parties, more specifically, after parties hosted by Jagex and the Jagex team. In these parties, the pink skirt "is given away to show how far the madness has spread!" During Riots, players often try to cover as much of the screen as possible, activities such as spamming the '@' and '&' key, planting mithril seeds, flowers, creating Fire, or using prayers such as Retribution are common. Smite and Redemption is also sometimes used by the Jagex supporters.

Trains are also sometimes made by players following either a high-level player or a moderator, the latter often receiving streams of insults and abuse.

It is also noted that no major riots occurred prior to 2007.

Effects on Community
Riots tend to be frowned upon by the majority of RuneScape players because they appear to be little more than spam-fests. They ostensibly have a goal of effecting in-game change but in actuality rioting has been practically ineffective in convincing Jagex Limited to reverse an update; the single documented exception to this rule was the SwiftSwitch riot (see below).

History of Riots in RuneScape
Here is a summary of all major documented riots in RuneScape, beginning with the most recent:


 * The Graphics Riot was a riot protesting the new July 2008 graphical update's constant lag and new features. There were more Jagex supporters than rioters in this riot.


 * The Wilderness Riot, "Second Pay to Pk Riot" or "June Riot", as it is called among some players, was held on 4 June 2008 (5 June in some time zones). The aim of the riot was to express dissatisfaction with Jagex' decision to remove player-killing from the Wilderness and general unbalanced trade on 10 December 2007. It lasted throughout the whole day from the early hours of the morning until around 3:00 GMT the following morning.


 * The Unbalanced Trade Riot (or the World 1 riot) is a riot that started sometime before (9 PM 2 Jan. US eastern time) 1:00 A.M., UTC time, in the early morning of January 3, 2008. This riot was caused by many F2P players finding that the update instituting a trade limit was unfair.  It is also the first major riot to ever occur in F2P.   This riot lasted around seven hours; sometime before 1:00 A.M. (UTC), and ended sometime before 7:30 A.M., at which time only five, if even that many, people were still rioting.


 * The Pay to Pk Riot (also known as the World 66 Riot, the First Wilderness Riot, the End of RuneScape Riot, the Free Trade Riot, and the Falador Riot) was a riot that took place primarily in Falador square, World 66, beginning on December 10th and lasting for nearly a week, although it did pick up several times even until early January. It was mainly in response to Jagex' anti-RWT updates (specifically: Wilderness Changes, Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars!, Trade and Drop Changes, and RuneScape vs Real-world Trading).  World 66 is where the riots primarily occurred, although there were many other riots occurring at the same time or soon after.  It should also be noted that the riot's name is somewhat misleading, and that many other subjects were brought up besides player-killing.


 * The Mod Hasmo Riot (also known as the World 18 Riot) was a riot initiated by the visit of Mod Hasmo to Edgeville in world 18 after the Bounty Hunter and Wilderness changes of December 10th, 2007. Hasmo was met by players with enormous hostility. Hasmo was heavily flamed by the players in the area, many of whom were former PKers, stakers, and merchants that had been negatively affected by the recent updates. Hasmo attempted to calm things down but the situation only increased in intensity. The riot lasted for about 15 minutes and ended after Mod Hasmo left world 18.  After the riot some players claimed to have seen two Jagex mods during the event but Mod Hasmo was the only verifiable one there.  After the riot, Mod Hasmo was spotted near the Wilderness in world 69. He was bombarded with question after question until he logged off.  Obscene language was used and Mod Hasmo quickly muted the players causing this and logged off.


 * The Duel Arena Riot was a series of events that occurred on the evening of November 20, 2007 and on the morning of November 21, 2007. Rioting mostly took place on World 83, and the Rants official forum had thousands of posts protesting the new staking cap.  Many stakers became enraged and began ranting and rioting to protest the change. The riot seemed to continue hours later in world 91 where stakers continued to protest against the dueling update.  Some phrases used during the riots included "Dueling is dead", "We pay we say", "3k no pay," and more.  Many people in the forums and during the riots also displayed their anger with the phrase "Ruinedscape, the Once Massive Online Adventureless Game by Jagex Ltd."


 * The "Pest Control Riot" was a widespread community disapproval movement that occurred on July 17, 2007, when Jagex made an update which involved the lowering of experience gained while playing the Pest Control minigame. Pest Control-experience was lowered by 30% on an average, counting all factors.  This resulted in a significant amount of discontent from Pest Control content users.


 * The 14 Hour Riot was a major protest against Jagex that occurred in World 28 in Falador (and partly on the Ice Plateau) on February 24, 2007. Allegedly, a famous player-killer named Elvemage was muted for luring another player.  It is said that Elvemage said the phrase "Mods should burn in hell" when a moderator was present and which got him muted immediately.  Thus, a riot broke out at Falador due to this, and several people were muted as a result. The players, and maybe some of the moderators, were protesting that permanent bans and mutes were unfair, and some of the players were yelling, "Ban the bans!".  Many of those who participated in the riot set up cannons and used the Retribution prayer, symbolizing their anger.  The riot was spam for most of time, with the majority of the players yelling things such as "Save Elvemage".


 * The Rule Seven Protest was a player-initiated event which started on 2 January 2007 shortly after an update to Rule 7 in which SwiftSwitch, among all other third party clients, were banned. Members united in world 27, activating the Retribution prayer and shouting "save ss" and pleading for Jagex to reverse the resolution.  Most players were not protesting: they were spectating the protesters, lighting fires, casting teleother spells, and following moderators.  Smaller gatherings occurred in F2P.  In world 81, players collected in Varrock square.  The Official Forums were also affected, with the Rants forum reaching over 500 online users.  Players were also gathering in the Ice Plateau, being tele-othered from Falador square.  These users were engaged in shouting "save ss," as with the square, and were killing each other.

Where Riots often Occur
Riots usually occur in places where players often pass by, such as Varrock (Grand Exchange or Varrock Centre), Falador, Lumbridge, and other popular cities. They are also usually held in popular worlds, like World 1 or 2. Riots usually become bigger when Jagex or Player moderators begin to come. It is also common for a riot to spread if they are teleported to places such as the Ice Plateau or Waterbirth Island.