Free-to-play



Free-to-play, also known as F2P, is the free version of RuneScape where no annual/monthly payment is needed. Players who play the free version are known as "free players", "F2Ps", or "non-members". This is in contrast to members, who pay a monthly fee for access to a much larger map and a multitude of skills, items, quests and activities, and a more advanced version of the Instant Demo, a version of the game with very little features.



Overview


The free part of RuneScape is described by Jagex as being the game with close to 5,000 hours of skills to train to reach the maximum level of 99, while members is considered the expansion version. There is no limit to the amount of time players are able to continue playing for free, although free players are only able to enjoy about 20% of everything RuneScape has to offer. Free players can upgrade and become a member at any time by paying a monthly fee, granting access to more skills, locations, items, etc. Free-to-play is recommended if one plays RuneScape less than two days a week. Formerly, the free-to-play version of RuneScape was its only form, prior to the introduction of members and the subsequent creation of RuneScape 2. The pay-to-play servers were intended by Jagex to benefit all of the RuneScape community.

With respect to gameplay, the majority of new updates within RuneScape are restricted to pay-to-play members with the exception of updates concerning graphics or the addition of new servers or the project1 weapons update with all the scimitars, 2h swords and swords and different combat attacks. The free version of RuneScape has remained essentially unchanged since the introduction of members' servers and RuneScape HD. The free-to-play community has received a small number of gameplay additions that fall outside of those areas, however, including (but not limited to):


 * Runecrafting as a direct result of the quest Rune Mysteries
 * Changes to the tutorial, from the Tutorial Island, to the quest Learning the Ropes, back to Tutorial Island to another quest, Unstable Foundations
 * The Blood Pact quest
 * Access to Holiday events
 * The Stronghold of Security
 * The Party Room
 * The Grand Exchange
 * The Duel Arena, the old Bounty Hunter arena and the Clan Wars arena to compensate for the removal of the player killing in the Wilderness
 * The Misthalin Training Centre of Excellence and Stronghold of Player Safety
 * The Fist of Guthix activity and related items
 * RuneScape High Detail (access to resizeable window)
 * Lumbridge and Draynor Diary, the first Free Achievement Diary.
 * The Runecrafting Guild and related items.
 * The Crafting Guild.
 * PvP Worlds and Corrupt dragon equipment.
 * Musicians and resting feature.
 * Tools for games.
 * Skill Total worlds for players with a total level of 1000 or over.
 * The Dungeoneering skill and some resource dungeons.
 * Ability to purchase/wear team capes
 * Quests (Swept Away & Myths of the White Lands) permanently available to F2P
 * Gunnar's Ground quest

With the removal of full PvP in the Wilderness, there has been a boost in F2P updates including: Duel Arena (Al Kharid), Bounty Hunter (Wilderness - PK replacement), Clan Wars (Wilderness - PK replacement), and Fist of Guthix. This boost may be a reaction due to taking away the primary source of PvP activities in the F2P game.

In addition to the differences described above, the majority of outside-of-game features (such as the official RuneScape forums) are open to members only, but also to F2P players with at least 2.5 million total experience or a skill total of 500. This requirement was 12.5 million total experience before an update by Jagex on 15 March 2010. Jagex has also changed access to RuneScape Classic, making it members-only.

Advantages
Listed below are some of the advantages non-members have over members.

No monetary cost
Players are not required to pay, nor is there a cut-off period. Free-to-play now acts as a less substantial game to new players: some may find they do not enjoy the game, and are able to leave without losing money. In addition, Also others may use the free-to-play version to learn the basic skills of the game before launching themselves into membership or may even play as a free player without ever getting membership.

Simpler play
As restricted as the play is, players are able to devote more time to social or fun activities. That is, free players can relax, not feeling as if they are wasting in-game time (and the money spent in order to get this time) they could use to train, make money, or do quests. In addition, most quests or monsters in free-to-play are more moderate compared to exigent members-only monsters and quests, allowing new players to easily and gradually get a handle on the game. Simpler play also means that there is less distraction in F2P than in P2P, allowing F2P players to more easily focus on their goal.

Greater sense of achievement
Because skills are generally easier to train in Pay-to-play, some players consider getting a certain goal on the free version to be a more prominent achievement than getting it on a member's server.

Less chance of death
Monsters in the free-to-play world are generally not as powerful as monsters found in member worlds. An example being dragons, of which only Elvarg appear in the free-to-play world, while powerful and deadly dragons like green, blue, red, black, bronze, iron, steel, mithril and frost dragons and even the King Black Dragon dropping some of the most valued loot in the game can be found throughout the Wilderness and other areas in members-only worlds. Additionally, free players do not have to worry about taking poison or disease, which can occasionally weaken or even kill P2P players without them realising.

Disadvantages
There are numerous disadvantages, which Jagex has only started to fix in recent history. However, one cannot expect free players to ever have the exact same abilities as members as this would mean the company may lose profits.

Smaller world area
The world which free players have access to is very small compared to what members maintain. Free players have access to 30% of RuneScape, whereas members have access to the entire world, including areas unlocked throughout their membership. Free players only have access to Varrock, Rimmington, Falador, Draynor Village, Al Kharid, Edgeville, Lumbridge, Bandit Camp (Wilderness), Port Sarim, the free-to-play section of Wilderness, Gunnarsgrunn, Musa Point (Karamja), Crandor and some Daemonheim floors.

Limited resources
Most areas in the free-to-play worlds only contain a small portion of what is available, so many natural resources, such as logs, raw fish, and runes are only able to be produced at lower levels, thus meaning slower training and less money-making.

As there is limited diversity within the F2P version of Runescape, the economy is also slightly bottlenecked in the sense that less supply is being generated into the economy while demand is heavily placed.

No Capes of Accomplishment
Free players can train skills to 99, but cannot buy any Skill capes. These capes were made for members to display their mastering of a skill, thus their accomplishments go unseen. There has been much debate on whether non-members should be allowed to purchase Skill capes or not. Many members disapprove the idea of releasing Skill capes to non-members as they feel this should stay a member-only benefit.

Limited access to skills
Free players can only train 16 of the 25 skills. Free players also have limited access to these skills. This generally slows down the ability of free players to increase their levels, thus inhibiting their enjoyment of the game through repetitive tasks of the same element, quickly losing the interest of potential skill trainers.

You could train Thieving in 2001 as F2P. Some people that have never been P2P still have a Thieving level higher than level 1.

Fewer items
Free players have access to less than 2,000 items, whereas members have access to thousands of others. In addition, many of the items members can access are more powerful, have unique abilities like specials or barrows effects, are more valuable, or a combination of all three. Members items in free worlds are shown as "Members objects" and cannot be traded or wielded until moved to a member’s server.

Instant Demo players have access to less than 100 items.

Less spells
There are many fewer magical spells available to cast, which limits the max damage dealt.

Fewer and weaker equipment
Free players cannot use as many and strong weapons or as much armour as members can. For example, the highest armour free players can wear is Corrupt dragon armour (armour and weapons of this last 30 mins before they disappear), while members have access to more advanced equipment, such as Dragon armour, 3rd age armour and Barrows equipment. This dramatically changes the battlefields for free players as they have less access to quick kills (i.e. poison and ancient spells) and weaker supplies for skill training.

Slower training
Free players do not have access to as many locations which allow for fast levelling of skills/combat. In addition, the free worlds are often crowded, and players often have more competition for monster and item respawns. Also, for most skills, there are fewer methods that allow training. For example, training prayer on members is about 20 times faster (given the right resources). Free players did not get to participate in the Bonus XP weekend as members could.

Lower maximum combat level
When Summoning was released in January 2008, free-to-play players continued to have a maximum combat level of 126, whereas members can train up to level 138 combat. This is because Summoning is members only (as of 12 January 2008) and adds to combat as well, calculated similarly to the prayer skill. However, the raised combat level due to Summoning will not appear in free-to-play worlds.

Less item storage space
Free players have a 68-item maximum in their banks (78 if they have registered their email addresses), which is far less than the bank space that members receive, 506 as of April 2010 (516 if they have registered their email addresses). Additionally, members can store numerous items in their player-owned houses, saving space on their bank load and making a nice retreat from normal game-play.

Free players only have two spaces for Grand Exchange offers whilst members have six. This causes restrictions on merchanting for free players as well as simply being more difficult for free players to trade items via the Grand Exchange. For free players that have more than the maximum amount of coins allowed in the game, they also do not have access to some of the better storage items, such as Spirit Shards, in which to store their excess capital.

Fewer music tracks
To unlock the Air guitar emote you need to unlock 500 songs in the RuneScape music player, which can only be done by members. Currently about 217 songs are attainable in F2P in contrast to 700 (and slowly increasing with additional updates) in P2P.

Fewer quests
Although there are 22 free quests, free quests are released very rarely - the last free quest released other than the current tutorial quest, Unstable Foundations, was Gunnars Ground, on the 20th of September 2010. In contrast to this, members get an average of 1-2 quests every month. During a holiday event, a holiday related quest may temporarily be available for free players until the event is over. Due to update on 24 June 2010, however 2 holiday quests are now permanently returned to free players.

It was confirmed by Mod Fetzki during the 11 February 2010 Q and A that a new F2P quest would be coming very soon. The quest, The Blood Pact, has since come out.

Also, free players cannot sort their quest list to Progress or Difficulty like members can, only Free/Members.

Lower trade limit
A free player's maximum trade limit is 5,000 coins to 10,000 coins (34 quest points) every fifteen minutes (or 40.000 coins if the free player has another friend on the friend list for 3+ months and with 34+ quest points), whereas the maximum trade limit for members is 240,000 coins every fifteen minutes if they are in friends list for 3 months.

Younger player Base
Since it costs nothing to play the free to play version of Runescape, it can be expected that younger players are more likely occupy free to play servers. This drags down the general maturity level of the game and makes it undesirable for older players who do not want to be pestered by immature players.

A common stereotype among members is that free players report abuse for even the slightest infraction of a rule. Reporting, especially for slight offences like offensive language, is often looked down upon by higher level players, members, and older players, who think those who report are generally younger. One explanation is that reporting others may convince Jagex to make them a Player mod and many free players, seeing that the free game becomes dull, dream of becoming one because they believe that player moderators receive many free benefits, most of which are myths (free membership, ability to change levels and get items, etc.); abilities that player moderators do have are also too sought after, such as muting for 2 days and access to a section on the forums.

Lesser attention
The same set of rules apply to members and non members alike.

Despite some assumptions as to Jagex's real intentions on fighting in-game crime, there are no real cases to prove Jagex ignores free players in their reviews. Jagex has revealed many times the thousands of accounts banned, free-to-play and pay-to-play alike, thus free players should always take caution while playing and should often refresh themselves on the rules of conduct.

Money-making methods
Free players have severely limited amount of methods to earn money compared to members. In definition, members have access to much more game content, activities, more controlled World population and more areas and profitable ways to train their skills, whereas free players often find themselves crowded in mundane tasks and activities altogether. This puts an inefficient and insufficient strain on well-known free-to-play money-making opportunities as players contend with competing over resources or sharing low increments of demand in the economy. Examples of this include is Lobster fishing, woodcutting Yew trees, mining Coal etc. As every member knows, greater game content along with higher-cost items obtainable throughout PvP and minigame (i.e. Treasure Trails, Barrows), a greater variety items for merchanting opportunities, easier skilling locations (such as shorter banking runs in Catherby fishing spots compared to Karamja), there is a much higher gp and exp gain per hour averaged towards comparative F2P methods.

Unbalanced Combat Triangle/Less equality in the battlefield
Members' servers allow much variation between each combat class. F2P is greatly warrior-based. Rangers do not have access to rune ammunition nor crossbows above the style of bronze(except for the regular crossbow and the Phoenix crossbow), they only have maximum ranged hit of 191 (with Eagle Eye on). Mages do not have access to Ancient Magicks and Lunar Spells as well as being restricted to lower level spells in the standard spellbook (Bind and Blast spells for example, are the highest level spells accessible in F2P), and have little damage potential in free-to-play, with a maximum hit of 206 (using the arcane blast necklace, gravite staff, and a Wizard Mind Bomb whilst casting the Fire Blast spell) instead of the long held max hit of 160 without the time and cost of expensive Dungeoneering rewards. Free players cannot have access to entire standard prayers and Ancient Curses. Free players cannot reach higher than 35 floors and do not have access to Occult Floors in Dungeoneering for what they are stuck at 35 floors (Frozen, Abandoned 1, Furnished & Abandoned 2) in Daemonheim for Dungeoneering. Though restriction towards higher level armour is susceptible to Melee as well, higher bonuses and the general demand for a one-time cost of full Rune equipment outweighs the factors attributing to that of a Mage's and Ranger's potential use in F2P activities. This allows for less variation in the battlefield as it causes many F2P players to preferentially use Melee in the advantage of a less balanced F2P Combat Triangle.

Rare updates
The free game is very rarely updated. There have been extremely few new free-to-play quests or areas released since the launch of the pay-to-play version of RuneScape (the exceptions listed above). Generally, the only updates which affect non-members are interface, music, graphic updates, and consistent additions of free-to-play servers. Usually, the only other updates involve the security and safety of players' accounts. Holiday items and other items are released after updates during Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and April Fool's Day for free players. Free players have access to all of these items with the exception being the wintumber tree that was released in conjunction with the reindeer hat during Christmas 2006. Recently, Mod MMG has revealed that Jagex plan to release F2P updates more regularly. He also revealed there will be a "headline" update for F2P in the future. He was almost certainly referring to Dungeoneering.

Advertisements
The free game also has large advertisements across the top of the page above the Java player. While the majority of these are not exceedingly irritating, some of the ads flash and have annoying sounds that cannot be turned off. Some ads expand and can cover most of the screen if the cursor is accidentally moved over the ad, making it harder to focus on the game. Others have a quality so high that it slows down some computers. The ads can also cause a problem as far as spyware is concerned and some anti-spyware programs often flag the RuneScape ad cookies for deletion, sometimes trying to block the RuneScape ad server, which is a violation of the rule that forbids ad blockers. To prevent crazy overrides with these ads and their capability of lagging the player’s game play, you can right-click the ad, turn the repetitive actions off, and zoom in on a black area to create an appearance of having no ad. In order to reduce the impact on performance by an advert, it can be right-clicked and "Low" selected under the "Quality" sub-menu, however this will only work on Flash-based adverts. Another way to minimise offensive advertisements is to use the "Text Size" feature on most browsers, and hold "CTRL" while scrolling down with the mouse scroll-wheel. Usually these tactics are not needed as most advertisements shown are polite.

Also, it is possible to eliminate ads altogether by disabling both images and Flash, but this will break other web sites and it could possibly still get you banned because it is debatable whether or not that is "ad blocking". However, many people would argue that it is illegal for JaGeX (or any company) to force people to install Flash or certain image codecs when they are not required for operation of the actual game, and some people may not even be allowed to install these programs because of legal reasons, such as a court ruling.

Though extremely rare, offensive ads can be seen in the space above the RuneScape screen. Please note however, that offensive adverts can be reported on the RuneScape main page.

Rule-breakers
Due in part to the larger crowds and the easiness of creating an account without having to pay money, free-to-play is prone to contain more scammers and general rule-breakers. Most notable of these are the macro users: players using programs to repeat specific tasks. This is especially common at areas containing Yew trees. Most scammers make accounts with long or hard to remember user names (i.e. a combination of letters and numbers from different parts of the keyboard). So that if the player scams someone, the scammed player would not remember the username to report. Care should be taken around suspicious players in free worlds, for this reason. This can also appear frequently in member worlds, even though limited (such as Green Dragon Bots). (However, due to the Update:Trade and Drop Changes update, macroer numbers have been severely reduced and do not pose as much a threat; and with trade restrictions, scammers have become much less common.)

Community/website features

 * Free players cannot post in official Jagex forums unless their total experience exceeds the 2.5 million total experience requirement or their total skill level is over 500.
 * Free players used to only be able to vote in certain polls specified by Jagex. However, Jagex announced on 22 April 2010 that all future polls will be accessible by free players and members alike.