Is Runescape Losing Popularity?

In the past months, the game creators decided to remove three very popular elements from the game; Player killing, staking, and unbalanced trading. According to their news section, hey removed this element in order to stop "real world traders" from selling their virtual currency for real money and profiting from their game, and to preserve the fairness of the game. Apparently, these three elements were an important part of the game, because the average amount of people playing the game, indicated on their website, has nearly halved since these elements were removed.

Looking at Alexa 1 month page view traffic details, Runescape page views have declined 17% in relation to the internet and popular Runescape fan site, Zybez declined approximately 40%. However, in the 3 month view, traffic has not been affected for Runescape in relation to the internet.

The game creators, Jagex Software, have been planning and releasing several updates to retain and entice new gamers. They recently announced the planning of a full screen, detailed version of their online game, which could definitely increase interest in the game. Jagex stated,

As if the improvements below weren't enough, an optional fullscreen version of RuneScape is due at the same time. This will let you play at a resolution of your choice, and it also supports widescreen monitors. We think you'll agree, the future of RuneScape is looking very good indeed....

The second most searched term related to Runescape is, "games like runescape." Perhaps gamers are seeking alternatives to this popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). As disgruntled Runescape players scour the net, databases have been built to provided the information they desperately seek. Gamers will come and go as they lose interest or are enticed by newer, more promising gaming communities.

http://www.runeup.com