Bots continue to be a constant source of conversation and presumption among the players of Old School RuneScape, particularly as Jagex made changes to the Wilderness zone that appeared to benefit bots and had to push back against player belief that Jagex is allowing bot accounts to flourish to help pad player numbers ahead of the studio’s recent sale (though to be fair, Jagex is always for sale and always about to be sold, so how is it any different?). In any case, the studio has put forth another lengthy dev blog to once more explain its position and promise players that it is fighting bots instead of protecting them.
The post takes great pains to elaborate on anti-cheat measures the studio is taking, repeats earlier shared stat lines of how many bot accounts are being caught weekly, and argues that updating PvP content is for the benefit of an “underserved” portion of the playerbase and shouldn’t be made more punitive to legitimate players in order to punish bots The studio also pushes back against presumptions that false bans shared on social media are fact, with the studio stating recent appeals are a result of crackdowns on longtime abusers, while also acknowledging that mistakes can happen and explaining ways it will lessen falsely applied bans.
The MMORPG’s community is also being warned about fake Varlamore leaks being pushed by players who are cobbling together game cache assets and faked J-mod commentary “for the purposes of market manipulation, namely for the Spectral Spirit Shield.” Jagex is asking fans to consider the motive of these supposed “leaks” with a more critical eye and to note that Varlamore is still in development, with many portions of the content not yet final. Incidentally, some of the players who were found to be creating fake leaks for their own in-game enrichment have been banned.
