Derek Keene

Review of Jagex

Company was started by a young man named Andrew Go...

Company was started by a young man named Andrew Gower and his brother in their garage on an old windows 98' desktop computer using basic java and graphical editing. In 2001, Andrew and his small team (mostly family members) released their infamous game "Runescape" to the public. It was an instant hit in the UK and became one in the United States and Australia the following year. Then, in 2004, Andrew completely re-wrote the game from the ground up, labeling it RuneScape 2, "or rs2" and then sold the company Jagex along with it's game RuneScape and it's less popular gaming website "Funorb" to a corporate bigot named Mark Gerhard. The direction of the company changed over the next 10 years and tens of thousands of that game's player's were subjected to Mark's greed and bigoted, egotist self and the decisions he made like price increases, micro-transatctions, 100% permanent banishment of player accounts instead of account roll-backs and bank cleans. Basically, Mark too an amazing game and made it into a cheaper corporate version of World of Warcraft. Not only did he ruin the lives of hundreds of players by deciding to start doing permanent account bans for various offenses in the game, but he also failed to warn/post a warning on the website to the customers/players of the game about the dangers of addiction to the game. Reports have shown than young teens and young adults can actually become mentally addicted to Jagex's game "RuneScape". Reports of mild withdraw symptoms in teens have been reported after being banned from the game or losing the ability to play the game through other reasons. This would be like a doctor prescribing a patient a low dose schedule 3-4 narcotic for years and then one day simply cutting them off cold turkey because they were a few short in a pill count by the pharmacist. Mark Gerhard was actually pressured to resign due to his overly aggressive and enthusiastic changes to the game over the years and his decision to permanently banish tens of thousands of players for minor offenses that could have been dealt with by simple account roll-backs and bank wipes, especially players who had been with the game for over a decade with thousands of dollars and hundreds upon hundreds of hours invested into the game. Reports of self mutilation, severe aggression, severe aggravation, changes in personality and behavior, commitment to mental institutions and even some unconfirmed reports of suicide were some of the results of Mark's decision to take such drastic measures against these players of the game (though it is notable that the player community of Runescape played a major role in making the decision to permanently ban these players and were a major influence on the decision to finally go through with it - even though most of the community's age range was between the ages of 13 and 17 years old at the time). Now, a man name Rod Cousens is the CEO of Jagex studios and the general feeling is that thing are looking up and almost everyone is glad to have mark gone and Rod in his chair. I still rate this company 1 star due to the actions of Mark Gerhard and the people who suffered and the game/company that suffered because of his rash and generally rushed and ill-conceived decisions. Perhaps my rating will go up over time, only if Rod does a good job in repairing the damage that was done and making Jagex a respectable and admirable company again. He could start by un-banning all of the permanently banned accounts that weren't banned for being associated with gold farming. The "macro minor - macro major - etc. etc." If he were to do that, it would be a major first step in rebuilding Jagex's reputation and repairing the player base and daily player count of RuneScape, Jagex's main game and main source of income and notoriety.