Wilderness and Free Trade Vote



The Wilderness and Free Trade Vote was a petition created by Jagex to bring back the old, dangerous version of the Wilderness and let all players trade freely - with no limit whatsoever.

This has sparked many debate on the forums, and has crashed the RuneScape website for some. Currently, 100 votes are cast almost every second. Many people have voted, and many people have not. This is the first time that Jagex have begun a poll to reinstate removed content.

Controversy
Due to the mass shock to the players, many people believed this to be fake. The "Guinness World Records" footer at the bottom of the page lead people to believe it was a hoax and was not a real petition. Due to the inital footer, it was originally believed by some to be no more than a promotional attempt, however, the later removal of the footer demonstrates that the petition is indeed real.

The description on the page also does not specify how many votes are needed. Only "the majority of all players" is mentioned. However, no one is sure of the exact amount of players and Jagex could easily lie to make their desired choice.

A major criticism of this campaign is the inability to actively vote against it. Whilst it is assumed an abstained vote is a vote against, this is a poor premise for a poll as it does not clearly show how the general Runescape population feels about the proposal.

Another criticism is the generalization of 'Wilderness and free trade', If a player chooses to vote then they vote for both elements. It could be argued that Jagex should have released two polls so that if players agreed with one aspect, but not the other, then they could vote for what they felt they would like reinstated.

Riots
There have been numerous, small-scale riots concerning this vote, mostly in favour of bringing back player-killing in the wilderness.