Jagex announced today that they are continuing to work on making Hero Pass something that the community will enjoy and will better align with the needs of the player base. The initial backlash was unseen in the community, at least on a scale of this magnitude. There have been many protests during the game’s long life, but Hero Pass has managed to surpass even the community anguish surrounding the removal of the Wilderness and free trade, which was a big deal.
Jagex has stated that the improvement of Hero Pass will be a three-phase process which you can view below.
PHASE 1: PREPARATION & INTERIM FIXES
We have already disabled some of the paid options and Content Buffs in Hero Pass: Underworld as part of our interim fixes.
Balancing changes are up next, with more details on our proposed changes available in this consultation post.
As a reminder, we are also intending to reinstate Daily Challenges as part of these interim fixes. The latest updates on Daily Challenges are:
- The team is still working hard to bring this feature back, with the prior mechanics and rewards.
- Current estimates from the team are to have this back in place by early October.
- Last week, we added 3 Treasure Hunter Keys and 3 Large Prismatic Lamps to the Daily Mission rewards while this is being worked on.
PHASE 2: COMMUNITY CONSULTATION
The consultation period will begin on Monday 2nd October and take approximately 6 weeks to complete.
- We will start by sending out a Hero Pass player survey to ask about the various aspects of the current design
- We will run Player Panels to bring player feedback into our design iteration
- We will share plans on design changes to the wider community to gather further feedback
PHASE 3: REVIEW & NEXT STEPS
We will share our plans to improve Hero Pass built from your feedback in the community consultation and outline next steps.
Jagex, September 22, 2023
The first phase has already been underway as soon as Jagex realized that the intense backlash to the initial implementation was too large to be ignored and would not blow over. So far, the changes to Hero Pass include the removal of pay-to-win options, content buff removal, and the Premier Pass rewards being merely cosmetic instead of providing in-game advantages. One of the most requested changes is the return of Daily Challenges which has been slated for early October. Players also can toggle Hero Pass notifications on and off – a much-welcome change.
Phase 2 of the Hero Pass improvement plan is embarking on a six-week-long community consultation process. This will begin with all players receiving a Hero Pass survey and providing feedback and will continue with Player Panels, which will directly impact the design of Hero Pass going forward. Once this is complete, all plans and design changes will be shared with the community, and they will be able to provide feedback.
There are two things that stand out about the above announcement:
- Despite being almost universally disliked by the community, Jagex has no intention of removing Hero Pass.
- Jagex plans to source a wide variety of player feedback to create a version of Hero Pass that the community will either enjoy or tolerate depending on their stance.
With the six-week-long consultation process, RuneScape players will hopefully end up with a Hero Pass that they find agreeable. At the very least, Jagex has learned a harsh yet valuable lesson that there’s only so much MTX content that players will put up with until it’s too much. The in-depth feedback and consultation process is welcome, but it should have been held at the beginning. Not as an emergency tool when hemorrhaging players. Old School RuneScape treats their community with respect, and they are heavily involved in the game’s direction. Sailing is a fantastic example of this.
One can hope that going forward, RuneScape players will receive the same respect as their OSRS counterparts. After all, they are the most important aspect of the game. Without them, there would be no RuneScape. It’s time to respect the community that keeps the game alive in 2023.
