RuneScape announced yesterday a new promo that works in conjunction with its existing Treasure Hunter system. It’s a bit of a lockbox system, with the caveat that you can claim one to two keys to open said lockboxes for free every day just for logging in, depending on your sub status in the hybrid MMO. If you want more, then you have to buy them with cash.
The promotion, however, changes things up. “With every Key you use, you have a chance to earn a bonus prize on the Prize Pool interface at the top of the screen,” says Jagex. “Claim that extra prize immediately, or use more Keys to get a chance at more, rarer, prizes. Every Key you use will apply one of two actions: add an extra prize to your pool, or remove all prizes gathered so far from it. The longer you hold out without claiming, the more extra prizes you can claim and the rarer your prize pool collection will get. But be careful – you could lose it all!”
That’s prompted players who normally don’t find the treasure hunter lockboxes particularly problematic to flock to Reddit with a multitude of complaints ranging from accusations that the promo is rigged to concerns that the game is shamelessly promoting gambling to a game chiefly aimed at kids.
Jagex has said it’s listening to the feedback.
“We’ve been trying a varying amount of different things with Treasure Hunter over the past few months (Oddments, Prize Pool etc.), in order to get a better idea of the direction we should be taking,” JagexSayln posted on Reddit. “For us, Prize Pool is an additional bundle of prizes on top of what you already get from Treasure Hunter – with a clear risk/reward mechanic, however that baseline of prizes never changes, nor is risked in the process. Obviously the vast majority of you are unhappy with this direction, and I’ll take this on board and be sure to share it in the next retrospective the Live Events team has.”
