Update hints

An update hint is a message which offers clues about an impending update that Jagex releases on one of its official off-site accounts. Currently Jagex posts hints on Twitter and Facebook. The hints are in the form of a picture, a different picture for each account, both referring to the same update. Together the images provide clues about an update scheduled to be released within a few days. The hints are usually posted on a Sunday or Monday.

Twitter
Jagex has two English Twitter accounts, @OfficialJagex, which is used for general Jagex news, and @RuneScape, which is specifically for RuneScape, and is where the hints are released. The actual hints are pictures accompanied by "coming soon" message that does not offer any additional insight into the content of the hint. The images are attached to the Twitter messages using TwitPic, an image hosting service designed to be linked to a Twitter account. Jagex's TwitPic account is Runescape. Jagex also has a number of foreign language twitter accounts.



Historical
Originally, Jagex only had one Twitter account, @OfficialJagex, where all their messages were posted. However soon after Jagex made separate accounts for each of their major products. Initially the hints posted were a few sentences with no accompanying pictures. However after the return of Behind the Scenes in June 2010, the hints were changed to the current system. A list of all of these text-only twitter hints can be found here

Facebook
Jagex started posting update hint images on their Facebook account, RuneScape, on 4 July 2010, a day before the release of Love Story. The images are different than the ones released on Twitter, but are of the same update. The images are always released on the same day, and together they can reveal many aspects of an upcoming update.

Response
The Twitter hints initially filled a void left by the removal of Behind the Scenes due to the time pressure they put on developers. Players missed knowing what would be released in the coming weeks, so Jagex started posting hints on Twitter which still provide players with a small amount of information about upcoming updates when they were ready to be released, thus no longer putting pressure on developers to meet a deadline.

After Behind the Scenes returned, players were given the unprecedented opportunity to see upcoming content instead of just hearing it, since previous Behind the Scenes and twitter hints were never accompanied with images. Any time a new hint is posted, players eagerly speculate on what it means, and many threads are created on the RuneScape forums containing theories and guesses.