Award-winning developers Jagex today announced that the first of a series of planned updates has arrived for RuneScape, introducing vast amounts of player created content as a result of the RuneLabs initiative. Initially launching in January of this year, RuneLabs is an exciting platform that allows players to create, share and suggest new ideas for the world of RuneScape and lobby support from the wider community before seeing a final vote cast.
Each month Jagex are going to provide the community with different criteria to use as guidance when suggesting different types of content. Since its release in January the RuneLabs incentive has seen a massive response from the community with over 35,000 ideas put forward to the development team, prompting a response with over 290,000 votes cast on the ideas put forward.
[quote cite=” David Osborne, Design Director Of RuneScape”]
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the quality and range of concepts that our players have put forward. We’ve seen small quality of life hotfixes suggested, quests with elaborate storylines and brand new skills such as Necromancy and Sailing. The community has always been at the forefront of everything we do, but now RuneLabs gives them a much greater voice in the developmental process. It’s taken a while to process all the suggestions, but now we’re starting to see the first results of the votes which were cast at the beginning of the year. As RuneLabs continues to grow, we’re hoping to see bigger and better ideas which will allow the players to shape greater areas of the game that they love.”
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The first of the ideas that will be implemented will be added in two different parts. The Slayer Belt item released last week, allowing players to be more efficient in the Slayer skill. Following that update will be two new types of Dragon, Rune and Adamant armor in-game providing a tougher monster to hunt alongside new crafting materials and cosmetic items.
Source: Press Release