If you’ve been scaping the runes for a while now, then you’ll be either happy or bitter to know that Jagex’s RuneScape, the popular free-to-play MMO, turns 12 years old. The public beta was launched on January 4th 2001 RuneScape with more than 200 million accounts till date. In 2012 alone, players put in a reported 486 million hours of playtime, with 3.2 billion players being “put to the sword.”
To celebrate, the community team is starting with one of 12 player events that will be ongoing through the weekend.
Design director Mark Ogilvie states, “2012 was filled to the brim with game updates both large and small. Last year saw flurries of graphical reworks of the popular areas of the game, bigger and better boss monsters, an overhaul of the combat system, new starting areas as well as the challenging task of introducing voice acting into the game.
“For me, the highlight of the year was undoubtedly witnessing the creation of the 200th million RuneScape account, which secured the game’s place as the most played online game of all time. But 2013 is going to be even better.”
There are currently plans for HTML5 to provide a faster experience along with two new skills, a Grandmaster-level quest, Wilderness Warbands, a Construction skill rework, improved grouping systems, and the ability to customize the screen/interface.
Source: VG24/7