Riot



A Riot is a large gathering of players protesting for a cause or change. Groups involved are often sided with either Jagex, known as the Jagex-supporters (or just the Supporters), protesters of an update or event, known mainly as just the Protesters, and sometimes even Jagex staff members and player moderators are involved, however, the latter mainly tends to remain neutral and indifferent.

Riots are held all over RuneScape and in different worlds, but riots held in non-member's world are usually located in Varrock and for member's world; Falador.

Riot gear and customs
In recent riots, players often wear either pink skirts to show that they support the rioters, blue skirts to show they support Jagex, and either black or green skirts to show that they are neutral.

During riots, protesters often try to cover as much of the screen as possible with activities such as spamming the '@' and '&' key, planting Mithril seeds, flowers, lighting Fires, or using prayers such as Retribution. Smite and Redemption are also sometimes used by 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.

Effects upon and by the community
Riots tend to be frowned upon by the majority of Runescape ' s players because they appear to be little more than spam-fests. They ostensibly have a goal of affecting in-game changes, but in actuality rioting has been practically ineffective in convincing Jagex to reverse an update; the only documented exceptions to this rule was the Rule Seven Protest and the Protect Item Riot (see below for more details).

The Pay to PK Riot, which lasted from 10 December to 17 December, 2007, was heavily controversial, and much debate raged on as to whether the effects of previous changes to the wilderness were for the better or for the worse. The effects of this riot are the most felt today, with the community still at odds as to the changes implemented.

Mod Emilee once said that riots have the opposite effect of a constructive feedback and are generally ignored.

History of riots in RuneScape
The following is a summary of the most notable riots in RuneScape, proceeding from earliest to the most recent.

Rule Seven Protest
This riot was started started on 2 January 2007 shortly after an update to Rule 7 in which all third party clients were banned. Most third party clients inserted themselves into the RuneScape interface to allow the use of calculators, IRC chat programs, and other conveniences. One of the most notable such programs was SwiftSwitch. Many users of the program were outraged that it was banned. Members united in world 27, activating the Retribution prayer and shouting "save ss" and pleading for Jagex to reverse the resolution. The riot even began to spread to the Ice Plateau as many players cast Telegroup spells to take other players there. Smaller F2P gatherings occurred in Varrock square, in world 81. The RuneScape Official Forums were also affected, with the Rants forum reaching over 500 online users.



14 Hour Riot
This was a major protest against Jagex that occurred in World 28 in Falador on 24 February 2007. Allegedly, a famous player-killer named Elvemage was muted for luring another player. Allegedly, Elvemage said "Mods should burn in hell" when a moderator was present and which got him muted immediately. Due to this, a riot started and several people were muted as a result. It started as a riot specifically about Elvemage, but soon spread to mutes and bans. Many of those who participated in the riot set up cannons and used the Retribution prayer.

Pest Control Riot
The Pest Control Riot was a widespread community disapproval movement that occurred on 17 July 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.

Duel Arena Riot
This riot took place on the evening of 20 November 2007 and on the morning of 21 November 2007. It was in response to the Duel Area maximum stake being capped at 3k, when previously there had been no limit. Rioting mostly took place on World 83 and on the Rants forum. 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 "Duelling 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."

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, it was a riot that took place primarily in Falador square, World 66, beginning on 10 December 2007 and lasting for nearly a week, although it did flare up as late as January. It was mainly in response to Jagex's 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, such as the trade limit and the Duel Arena stake limit.

Mod Hasmo Riot
Also known as the World 18 Riot, this riot was initiated by Mod Hasmo's visit to Edgeville in world 18 after the Bounty Hunter and Wilderness changes of 10 December 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. Obscene language was used, and Mod Hasmo quickly muted the offending players and logged off.

Unbalanced Trade Riot
Also known as the World 1 riot, it was a riot that started sometime in the early morning of 3 January 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, after which very few people were still rioting.

Wilderness Riot
Taking place near the 6 month anniversary of the Pay to PK Riot, the Wilderness Riot, also known as the Second Pay to Pk Riot or the June Riot, was held on 4 June 2008 (5 June in some time zones). The aim of the riot was to express dissatisfaction with Jagex's 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 early the following morning.

PvP Glitch Riot
This riot took place on 13 April 2009, after Mod Andrew announced that everyone that abused the infinite drop potential glitch would be banned. It occurred in Varrock. This riot was mostly attended by high levels who presumably abused the glitch and were afraid of getting banned. This particular riot lasted for several hours.

Protect Item Riot
Taking place on 15 July 2009, it concerned an update where players could no longer use the protect-item prayer in PvP/Bounty Hunter worlds and were automatically skulled, meaning that there was much greater risk to losing expensive items. The updates were enacted to prevent players from using high hitting special attacks while risking next to nothing, a very popular tactic in PvP situations which many players were upset to lose.

The Bounty Hunter Riot
When the Bounty Hunter craters were removed in early 2009 and replaced with a mock PvP minigame of the old Wilderness (Bounty Hunter worlds), players that made a lot of profit off the craters and transferred enormous sums of money in the craters were very upset upon the removal of the craters. This is because the Bounty Hunter worlds, as many player killers say, have a "luck" drop system.

In the old Bounty Hunter craters, every item was dropped upon death so the chance of a good kill was guaranteed.

On May 15, 2009, hundreds of players gathered on World 32, a free-to-play Bounty Hunter world, and protested outside Edgeville bank. Spamming and flaming (towards mods) ensued. People that were against Jagex donned a rune 2h (or any 2h) while Jagex supporters wielded rune platebodies (or any platebody). Rumors of a few prominent, famous player killers attending the event were circulated.

Although the riot only lasted a few hours (a couple hours shorter then planned), the effect was considerable; the RuneScape official forums was spammed once again and many other smaller riots were spurred.

HP Riot
The constitution skill was formerly known as hitpoints or HP. On 3 March 2010, there was an update to the HP skill. Everything concerning health was multiplied by a factor of 10 (like damage dealt and total health). Although it had no sizable affect on the way the game was played, some players believed it was an unnecessary change to a basic part of runescape.

On the day of the update and the day after, there was some rioting between falador and the grand exchange, mostly on world 66. Some common chants were "It's HP, not LP" and "Welcome to Wowscape," an accusation that runescape was becoming more like World of Warcraft.

Dungeoneering Rollback Riot
This riot took place on 14 April 2010 in response to a rollback that took place due to a bug allowing players to gain huge amounts of Runecrafting xp while in Daemonheim. The Riot began at the Grand Exchange and passed through Draynor Village before congregating in Falador. It soon spilled over into general anger at the Dungeoneering skill, specifically its resemblance to an activity. Slogans used included "We Pay We Say" (similar to the Pay to PK riot) There were other phrases used such as "bring back durial321" (a reference to the Falador massacre) And parodies of other riots, including phrases such as "shave the whales" and "we pay to eat cabbages" (again, similar to the pvp riots) The riot took place on World 66 and protesters seemed to be attempting to recreate the scenes associated with the Pay to PK riot. However, the riot was not as successful and many rioters were flamed by general players.

Forum Changes Protest
This protest took place from the 19 April 2010 to the present day. It developed in response to what many players regarded as devastating changes to the forums, including the creation of communities (which many players felt divided existing communities), the removal of suggestions and the transformation of feedback into compliments and rants. What seemed to cause the greatest ire was the removal of Future Updates, due to the strength of the community there and the fact that the Recent Update forum was allowed to remain. This event is unusual in that it mainly took place on the Forums and that it was peaceful, with people who spammed being immediatly kicked from the protest's clan chat and told to leave. There were two parts to this protest- a series of gatherings in Varrock, World 20 and continued protests in the Forum Communities section of the forums.

Forum users, particularly those of Future Updates who had lost their main base, wore red hats in their profile pictures and used a common signature to denote their support for demonstrators. To date, Jagex has made no statement on the changes since then future updates has returned.

As of 29 May 2010 Jagex has eliminated the six hour time limit for posting on different forums which was the most widely reviled update change.

F2P-related Riots and Protests
Riots and rioters specifically entitled to and for F2P players demanding more attention and change are known as F2P rioters', these types of riots/rioters are currently on the rise within most F2P worlds. This riot is becoming more and more drastic because Jagex ignores the majority of riots alone, and many people also think that Jagex ignores F2P riots the most (which is one of the reasons the riot is happening in the first place).

Many recent changes and updates to Runescape, with the few exceptions of several holiday events, are concerned with members only, and as such, F2Pers, who make up a very significant portion of Runescape, feel left out and tend to lash out against P2Pers and Jagex alike. This riot has become more violent. F2Pers that support the riot are starting to attack members and pro jagex users or as they are also called 'supporters' in pvp mini games because of their non support for the riot. In fact, some supporters get very radical and flame the rioters which makes for a big flaming fight.

Another hotspot for rioters is the fishing dock at Musa Point. Players have been long demanding a bank and range here, and this is the issue that causes regular riots there, some of which even spread to Port Sarim and occasionally Falador.

Common traits

 * Spamming the chat-box, either with messages relating to the riot or with nonsense such as "@@@@", "&&&&", "////" or "####".
 * Arguing and flaming between the two sides of the riot.
 * Use of overhead prayers such as Redemption or Retribution.
 * Setting up Dwarf Cannons amongst the rioters.
 * Servers filled to capacity for the larger riots.
 * Players posting about the riot on the forums.
 * Presence of moderators attempting to keep order and mute the most aggressive rule-breakers.
 * Players teleporting each other using Teleother or Telegroup spells.
 * Players who misconceive the purpose of the updates and join out of peer pressure.

Trivia

 * It had become some thing of a tradition for rioters to wear pink. In the dungeoneering Rollback free to play riots however the rioters wore black skirts and priest gowns. In the recent forum riots, red hats were worn- partly due to their noticeability in forum avatars. It is not uncommon to go into a thread in Forum Communities and find most of the players wearing red hats.
 * Shortly after the Constitution update, Mod Mmg had to temporarily disable his clan chat due to rants.