Runescape Ironman (HC Ironman) mode, or "Why Jagex shouldn't expect me to buy anything of theirs any time soon"
Anyone who watched today's Runescape BTS will know that Ironman mode, an idea for a little fun time between peeps to do on their own as a little side thing, has been officially made into a game.
And I'm here to show my completely unbiased opinion as to why this is a terrible idea.
For those who don't know, an Ironman character is where you do not participate with other players; instead, anything and everything you use must be received from quests, skilling, crafting, monster drops, etc. No trading, just you and your countless hours of bibblety-booping around Geilinscape. Jagex, being the smart people they are, decided "Oh, hey! You know that self-imposed challenge players love doing? Let's add that~!"
The first point that needs to be made is that not everyone is willing to make another email account to make another character, but this time officially make it so you can't communicate with other people or trade anything. With their new "You need to have a character bound to an email account or to a facebook" system they implemented who knows how long ago, it's not as simple as "Make a character, give it a name, bam, you're done". Maybe if they use that manner of system to allow people who do NOT have a bajillion email accounts for all their survey-taking and whatnot a chance to go Ironman, then maybe I could see the reasoning behind it.
The second point is that it's a different account entirely. In this week's BTS the commentator said that Ironman characters would still be able to participate in PvP such as Castle Wars and whatnot. That is to say, you will be able to participate in them as though you had a normal account, sans the ability to get combat experience. If you cannot yet see the problem, maybe I need to point it out further.
Different account = You are not a member unless you make yourself a member. Hence, you will be paying for a service that is already limited for the game mode you are playing. Hopefully you will already see the problem here.
The third point I feel needs mentioning is that you can play on "Ultimate Ironman" on old school. If it wasn't bad enough that the Grand Exchange doesn't exist on RS07, if it wasn't bad enough that you had to purchase another member's account to even PLAY on Ironman mode for the 'full experience', and if it wasn't bad enough that RS07 puts your skills back down to 1, here's what happens:
1. You need to have a member's account to play it. Otherwise you can do the 'free trial' bullshit they do to loosen up your wallet from your pants so you'll be willing to buy a new member's account just to play freaking ironman mode.
2. You do not keep ANY of your items.
3. You do NOT get a bank.
If anyone were really that keen on wasting their money for Ironman, go ahead, spend all the time you like shelling out $10 bills to the company. In the meantime, this is pretty much just a nail in the coffin for me. From setting up systems that are designed to waste as much money as you can muster to dealing with an abhorrid control on economy (YES, I believe the trade limits were a good thing!), I feel that Jagex is pushing themselves down the Sisyphus slope instead of up at this point. They're taking the comments of people who have paid for their membership and making them a reality.
If there's anything to walk away from this with, it's that self-imposed challenges are self-imposed for a reason. It'd be as though Mojang put through a mode where you limit just how much you can carry and instate a backpack system so you can manage.
...Actually, it's worse. It'd be as though Mojang changed it so you could have only one world, couldn't delete it, and when you died you had the option to delete your account.
