Congratulations! Old School RuneScape is here to stay!

After running for two straight weeks the Old School RuneScape poll has now closed, finishing with 449351 supporting votes in total. Although sadly the final tally has fallen short of the 500,000 and 750,000 targets, the incredible passion from the Old School community and their supportive friends has inspired us to offer something special to kick off this new service...

We’ve been overjoyed by the enthusiasm and goodwill amongst the community since the start of the poll. There is clearly a super passionate group of RuneScapers who have shown that they are nostalgic for some Old School gameplay. As a gesture of our own goodwill and an aspiration for this newly established community to flourish and hopefully grow we will NOT be charging the additional $5 membership fee for at least the next 6 months!

The enthusiasm for the service and positive early start has been great to witness, with many people voting just to help out their friends which is a truly awesome show of camaraderie and possibly unique to our great community. Now that Old School RuneScape has been launched we need to see how many players will actually use the service on a regular basis, should the community continue to grow and players remain engaged then the service will remain as a free benefit to our cherished members. Obviously, should player activity decline over the next 6 months rather than grow we would have to introduce an additional $5 membership fee to fund the on going service.

A small development team will remain dedicated to Old School RuneScape, both fixing any issues that crop up and being available to work on tweaks and changes to the game over time. We remain committed to making Old School RuneScape an exclusively community driven service. You can be sure we will not make any design changes to the game without the community voting on it first.

Starting in a few weeks, we’ll have regular polls for the Old School community to decide which changes they do or don’t want made, short listed from your discussions on the Old School Feedback forum. We’ll also be adding in more of the modern anti-bot technology into Old School RuneScape so we can maintain our stance of zero tolerance to cheating, botters and gold farmers.

Old School Features 0 - 49,999

Votes 50,000+

Votes 250,000+

Votes 500,000+

Votes 2007 server launch? No Yes Yes Yes Level of on-going development X None Small team Additional dedicated development team Cost of service X Additional membership fee of around $15 Additional membership fee of around $5 No Extra membership fee** Level of maintenance X Critical only Basic Weekly Anti-bot & Anti-gold farming upgrade X None Possible Yes Regular membership polls to decide new content X None None Yes

** There will be no extra membership fee for at least 6 months. We will review this again in September and if the community is still active and growing then it will remain free.

If you're a RuneScape member hungry for some 2007 nostalgia, wait no longer! Click here to visit the homepage, where you can log in to the game, see the latest old school news, access the forums and the wiki.

If not, then RuneScape membership just became even better value than ever. Not only do you get access to the thousands of hours of exclusive members content and additional skills in the main game, but you will also get separate access to Old School RuneScape on the same account. Click here for full details.