Sometimes it’s best to admit when a plan doesn’t work out, which appears to be the case with RuneScape and its Wilderness zone. Readers might remember that it transformed from a PvP area to a high-risk high-reward PvM location last year, but Jagex has decided to admit that players just don’t like the change and divert time and energy elsewhere.
“It’s possible a different implementation could have different results, but we’ve seen very little interest from players in actually wanting that kind of gameplay, with most either treating it as a nuisance, or just an opportunity for even faster, more aggressive spawns to kill,” the newsletter explains. “[The Wilderness] was an experiment in whether PVM could achieve the same feeling of unpredictable risk, and the answer, at least for this version, has turned out to be no.”
As a result, the threat mechanic in the Wilderness has been removed, as well as the Cursed Wisps that were originally in the area as a way to incentivize PvP but are instead being used by players to trick others into a fight. The Wilderness area itself will stay where it is, as the devs reason classic content like it still has its fans, but otherwise the team is moving on.
The weekly newsletter also points out an upcoming AMA on Thursday regarding changes to Animated Dead and the Fractured Staff of Armadyl, while this week’s patch notes detail another suite of specific gameplay fixes and adjustments.
