The end of August saw Jagex elect to burn up some of the goodwill between itself and RuneScape players with the reveal of a Hero Pass, a battle pass-style form of monetization that immediately set off fury among players of the MMORPG even as Jagex launched the thing anyway. Shortly afterwards, the studio admitted that it messed up and promised to outline tweaks to the Hero Pass, which have now come to light.
First off, Jagex continues to effectively affirm that the Hero Pass will not be removed, stating its intention to “[set] out on a journey to make Hero Pass a better experience.” This starts with interim fixes that include the return of daily challenges at some point in early October, on top of earlier tweaks that took away content buffs and added lootbox keys and prismatic lamps to daily mission rewards.
The second phase will be all about gathering player feedback for six weeks starting October 2nd. This will be done via player surveys, the creation of a player panel that Jagex selects “from community leaders of our Reddit and Discord, to content creators who represent communities,” and blog posts of design plans to gather more feedback; Jagex has already put forth its initial proposed adjustments that are focused on the length of time it takes to earn pass levels. After that, the third phase will take all of the data, share those findings, and discuss next steps.
Initial response to Jagex’s dev blogs doesn’t appear to be very sunny. Some players are still calling for the Hero Pass to be removed entirely, others accuse Jagex of dragging its feet in order to let player furor die down, and many share fears that content buffs will come back dressed in a different skin. All in all, it would appear as if Jagex has a long way to go in turning down the flame that’s boiling player frogs.
We're on a mission to make Hero Pass a better experience – and your feedback will guide us every step of the way.
Here's our plans for a new Community Consultation process over the weeks ahead.
📍More details here: https://t.co/ZBoiPjktjt pic.twitter.com/px6z9n6gdD
— RuneScape (@RuneScape) September 22, 2023
