A week after Squeal of Fortune was inserted into the game, there has still been no Jagex response to the outrage expressed wherever players have a voice.

Tuesday is usually Update Day and one came. It wasn't the anticipated quelling of the flames. It was an invitation to buy a real world t-shirt related to the Easter event.

Along with it, the main anti-Squeal of Fortune thread was set loose from the sticky. Over 16,000 comments floated into the mass, with no-one able to post on it to bump it back up. Any thread with 2,000 comments is automatically blocked.

Not that anyone was silenced, just more pessimistic now. More were waiting for that reassurance that never came. The future seemed set in stone. But what would it be?

More micro-transactions seems inevitable. If Jagex will pour oil on an inferno to offer a t-shirt, then they have obviously misjudged the mood; or have been ordered not to care. Membership cancellations have followed in its wake. A long-standing and loyal player base will likely be replaced by the kind of transitory gamers, who spend their money then rush on to the next big thing.

Can Runescape even compete in that environment? Their ethics kept the graphics and pretty things below the par of rivals like World of Warcraft.

Or will the game disappear entirely, lost in a Lolapps type take-over, or immersed in a sea of third party publishing? It's an option on the table, though it's one which will break the hearts of millions of people who grew up with Runescape.

For the players, the ideal will be the sort of comeback experienced at Eve Online. Will the Runescape clans be able to form that kind of unity though?

The only actual certainty is that Insight Venture Partners is in it for the money, because that's what they do. That is the nature of that particular beast. Unless they come up with a better business model, then Runescape is set to change beyond all recognition. Lucre not luck, money not merit, will be the route to in-game achievement.

Welcome to the real world.