My expertise of Runescape at 2006 runescape 2018 was predominantly this: mill for hours, purchase a few shiny new gear, smash keyboard upon realising my battle level wasn't enough to equip it, grind battle degrees, equip gear, get killed in the Wilderness, shed shiny new equipment, replicate. Every few months I would decide it was time to initiate a new account, inspired by a few expert build I'd seen or a inexplicable desire to live a simple life and become some sort of fabled hermit. Frankly, 12-year-old me believed that would be an enjoyable thing to do.
Logging into Runescape is like coming home to discover your parents have turned into a new dog without telling you, and they absolutely refuse to say exactly what happened to your beloved Brassica Prime. Initially you could sulk and long to get your puppy that once was, but soon enough you begin to notice the pet is stunning when compared with its haggard predecessor. It does all kinds of new tricks, it has charm and character, heaps of endgame content and doesn't need to be fed or walked as often.
Where Runescape used to entail giving up one's hands to hours, or days, of grinding to get piecemeal progress, today it hands out flat raises with a regularity that's difficult to stomach if you are able to remember sinking 20 hours of continuous play into acquiring just half the XP you need to level up.
Happy with my progress, I place an extra eight hours into boosting my abilities. At this point my overall impression is that Runescape has only gotten wider and easier, which would not be sufficient to haul me back into its F2P clutches.
What did handle that (I begrudgingly admit) was that the amount and caliber of quests to be completed in RuneScape.
Runescape's tone is joyously light, and with fewer degree cap hurdles to jump over you are free to embrace and explore it without submitting to the mill. Which is great, because Runescape's quests have never really required you to utilize skills other than combat, and have usually incorporated puzzles or interactive elements which have more in common with old school point-and-click adventure games than dream questing.
Areas that used to be vacant are RSGOLDFAST Lottery now brimming with NPCs, quests and stories. Each inch of the world has been full of, or in some cases expanded, in order to incorporate all of the characters, enemies and also features that Jagex are busy stuffing into the match for the past decade. The fact that Runescape is an internet game is currently a bonus as opposed to its main attraction. Jagex could take their match entirely offline and it might still be worth playing.