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See also: Free-to-play
The member's icon
The member's icon

Members, pay-to-play or P2P, are players who have paid subscriptions or redeemed bonds to have access to the full version of RuneScape. The pay-to-play version of RuneScape was first announced on 4 October 2001, and fully instated on 27 February 2002.

Jagex, the company that owns RuneScape, introduced Membership as a way to cover the vast majority of the costs of RuneScape, such as in-game updates, extra staffing, server hosting, etc. As a benefit, members have many more privileges and usable features in the game and on the RuneScape website.

Many people's critiques of the game are due solely to the limitations of a non-member in the game, specifically at a higher level as content and areas become repetitive and dull. However, a large portion of the community do not see this as an issue, arguing that free players aren't entitled to the same benefits as paying customers.

Subscription

See Membership subscription for payment options

In order to become a member and access the pay-to-play version of RuneScape, players must first have a subscription. When players subscribe, they receive members credit which allows them to access the pay-to-play version of RuneScape. When you start a subscription by credit card, it will be paid monthly (every 30 days). Subscriptions through different payment methods may have varying lengths, although there is a minimum length of one month. Jagex is affiliated with several payment providers, each providing different subscription payment methods and prices. Different payment methods require different information to be given during a secure payment process.

Furthermore, players may use bonds, an in-game item that allows a player to pay for selected account-related and out-of-game benefits such as membership, RuneCoins and Treasure hunter keys with in-game resources.

Since these bonds may be purchased directly from the Grand Exchange or other players, this essentially means that players may instead opt to pay for their own memberships through coins, the in-game currency, rather than real world money.

Extra features

A player using the transportation method.

A player using the magic carpet transportation method.

Membership unlocks many features of RuneScape that are not available to free players: almost all recent updates to RuneScape have been for members, with the exception of a few major updates in the past months. There are very few quests available to free players, while new quests available to members are added at a rate of one or two a month. This is a condensed list of features unlocked with membership below:

These benefits will only be available if the member logs onto a members server. If a members-only item is on a non-members server it will not be usable.

Although if you go onto a free server while membership is activated, the bank space will still be increased beyond the normal free limit, and you may still place things in even if there isn't one already in there. Fullscreen mode is also available on free servers while membership is activated.

Members-only skills

Currently there are 10 skills in RuneScape that are only available to members out of a total of 27 skills. The members-only skills are listed in alphabetical order below:

Agility Agility
Construction

Construction

Divination Divination
Farming Farming
Herblore Herblore
Invention Invention
Hunter Hunter
Slayer Slayer
Summoning Summoning
Thieving Thieving
A player at a .

A player at a Summoning obelisk.

There are many benefits upon unlocking these skills. Many members quests have members skill requirements. Agility allows run energy to recharge faster, allows players to run for longer amounts of time, and allows entry to certain areas and use of many shortcuts. With Construction, players can build their own player-owned house and erect God statues across the map which then become altars to recharge prayer. Farming allows players to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and trees that only they will be able to cut. Herblore lets players make potions to aid them in combat and the training of other skills. Hunter is a great money maker, and items from it help train several other skills. Thieving allows entry into certain areas as well as being an easy money source. Slayer unlocks new monsters and items, as well as the Slayer Dart spell, Broad-tipped bolts, and Broad arrows. Summoning allows members to summon helpful beasts that can aid the player by holding items, boosting stats, helping in combat, restoring health, among other abilities. Some familiars have secondary abilities such as the pack yak can bank items and the bunyip can allow you to eat raw fish. Invention allows you to augment equipment.

Members-only areas

Free players have strictly limited access to the world of RuneScape. Free players can only access the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin, the north-eastern most point of Karamja, and the Wilderness. Membership allows full access to the entire world.

Here is a list of some, but not all of the lands reserved for members:

A player using a to teleport.

A player using a Spirit tree to teleport.

Minigames

Most of the minigames in RuneScape are members only. Minigames are interactive competitions between players and usually require or involve cooperation and communication. However, some minigames are just for players to play on their own. Minigames can also be good methods to gain experience in combat or non-combat skills, or to just invoke fun competition. Minigames are arguably one of the most enjoyable aspects of RuneScape, and a common reason that impel many to become Members as most of them are restricted to members.

Here is an alphabetical list of the currently available members-only minigames, along with a short explanation:

A player juggling balls, in .

A player juggling balls, in Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza.

Unlockable capabilities in skills

Free players are limited in their access to the skills available in RuneScape. Since areas and training methods are also limited, it can be difficult for free players to obtain high levels in much of the free-to-play skills. Free players cannot use members items for combat and cannot use some of the abilities or items reached at higher levels in the free skills. Many guilds are also located in members only areas. Membership brings full access to not only several members skills, but also the free skills. Prior to the Evolution of Combat update, it also gave special attacks to specific weaponry.

Members-only quests

Main article: List of quests § Members' quests

The vast majority of quests in RuneScape are restricted to members. These quests unlock many important features, new areas, various transportation systems, and many new methods to train skills. There are currently 35 free-to-play quests and 180 members-only quests. A complete list of members quests is found here.

Some quests granting useful abilities are listed below:

Low difficulty

A Members-only ranged weapon, the .

A Members-only ranged weapon, the Dwarf multicannon.

Medium difficulty

These quests are highly recommended to finish, as this allows access to a larger variety of weaponry and armour and just as important, faster and easier transportation.

High difficulty

Achievements

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When you become a member, some of the first things you should do are the "Easy" achievements. The rewards are listed below:

Extra servers

Members can access and log into servers reserved for the pay-to-play version of RuneScape. If members wish to, they may also log into free-to-play worlds, although on these servers they can't use any in-game features that are accessible only in pay-to-play worlds. There are 86 members-only worlds out of a total of 171 worlds.

Additional website features

Players who opt for pay-to-play are given access to a few sections of the RuneScape website that are unavailable to free players:

Membership strategy

In order to save money, some players will pay for a few months of membership and then cancel or end payments. Before becoming a member, they will prepare for the new features by obtaining items that will allow them to quickly train members only skills and do members only quests. After they have completed their desired goals, they will cancel their membership and begin preparation again. While most members do not choose to switch like this, it is a good idea to obtain items that new members will need in large amounts before beginning membership.

Soon-to-be member checklist:

Recommended members quests

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If you plan to do members quests, it is a good idea to get any free player levels before you become a member, so you can spend more time doing members-only quests or skills without wasting membership credit for something you could do in free player worlds.

Immediate quests (these quests open the a larger portion of the members world to you):

Short term quest goals (these will unlock new features and build your list of completed quests) - some items should be gathered:

Development quests (these will expand your members knowledge and prepare you for further questing) - build on quests completed previously:

Long-term quests (these are where you begin to become a strong player):

Transportation quests

These are easy quests that can be done for 2 key tokens

Preparing for an ending membership

When going from Pay-to-play to Free-to-play, there are many things you want to consider before your membership ends. Along with being restricted by the smaller free world area and limited to the free skills, bank space is an important aspect to consider. Non-members are mostly limited to 103 bank spaces whereas Members have 468 extra bank spaces (for a total of 571 bank spaces).

Other RuneScape servers

The membership of an account also apply to Old School RuneScape.

If a member has logged onto RuneScape Classic during one of its reopening periods, they can play on the RuneScape Classic servers as a member.

Trivia

References

  1. ^ Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, Constant Tedder. "RuneScape reaches one million members!." 4 May 2007. RuneScape News.
  2. ^ http://twitter.com/RuneFest/status/22349419276

External links