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Members

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 219.89.43.186 (contribs) at 11:28, 4 April 2007. It may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 11:28, 4 April 2007 by 219.89.43.186 (contribs)
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See also Free-to-play

Pay-to-play or Members are players who have paid subscriptions to have access to the full version of RuneScape, and are sometimes referred to as "p2pers" or "p2p". The pay-to-play version of RuneScape was first announced on October 4, 2001 and launched on February 28, 2002. Most updates to RuneScape only concern members. Members have many more privileges and usable features in the game and on the RuneScape website.


Subscription

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. 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 which each provide different subscription payment methods and prices. Different payment methods require different information to be given during a secure payment process. Subscriptions can also be canceled and extended.


Member Credit

Member credit is obtained by paying for a subscription. Member credit is essentially the number of days remaining in a subscription. When member credit expires, the account will revert to free-to-play, and all extra features available only in the pay-to-play version of RuneScape are inaccessible again. Remaining member credit is displayed when members log in. Membership cannot be frozen, and a day of member credit is used each day until it runs out.


Starting a Subscription

Players can subscribe for membership by clicking the 'Start a new subscription' option in the 'Membership' section of the sidebar on the RuneScape website. The site will then attempt to automatically detect the player's home country. If it can't detect the country of a player, it will bring them to a page where they will be prompted to select their home country. After a country has been determined, a page listing a variety of payment methods available in that country will be displayed. Players can then select a payment method of their choice from those displayed, and will be prompted for information (different depending on selected payment method) in the following pages during the secure payment process.


Cancelling a Subscription

Subscriptions can be cancelled by selecting the 'Cancel an existing subscription' option in the 'Membership' section of the sidebar on the RuneScape website. Players will be offered various cancellation options:

  • Players may log into the site by entering their RuneScape username and password. After logging in, players will be taken to a cancellation page where they may choose from a list of reasons for cancellation and go to the cancellation confirmation page or they may choose not to unsubscribe. The cancellation confirmation page requires a final confirmation of the cancellation of the account's subscription and also provides a final option to choose not to unsubscribe.
  • Players who have forgotten their username and/or password may cancel their subscription by providing their credit card number and expiry date as well as the surname and email address provided when the subscription was taken out. This will cancel all RuneScape membership subscriptions on the credit card. After submitting the information, players are taken to a final cancellation confirmation page where the credit card number and expiry date entered are displayed and there is an option to confirm cancellation.
  • Players who have subscriptions using alternate payment methods through the payment provider PayByCash can cancel their subscriptions on the PayByCash website.

When a subscription is cancelled, players will continue to have access to members only worlds and features until their member credit expires.


Extending a Subscription

Several payment methods are not ongoing, and need to be extended in order for payment to be continued. In order to prevent member credit from expiring, players must extend subscription. RuneScape subscriptions may be extended by clicking on the 'Extend an existing subscription' option in the 'Membership' section of the sidebar on the RuneScape website. This will bring players to either the normal page displaying payment methods for their detected country or the country select page if the country is undetectable. From this page, players may extend their subscriptions by choosing a payment method and entering their payment information as normal in the secure payment process.


Payment Methods and Subscription Prices

RuneScape subscriptions have a relatively low price compared to other MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) such as Guild Wars, which is bought on a compact disc for anywhere from $20-$60 depending on the campaign, although it has no monthly payment, and World of Warcraft, which costs $20-$80 for the disc depending on whether the expansion pack is included, and is additionally $12 a month for game play. RuneScape is also unique among most MMORPGs in that it also has a free-to-play version, and is hosted on a website rather than being distributed on discs.

There are various payment methods for RuneScape. Several payment providers who have agreements with Jagex process the transactions, and compete to offer better prices and availability. Sections below contain information from the RuneScape Knowledge Base's Billing section on all available payment methods.

Credit Card Payment

The cheapest subscription payment method is via credit card. Credit card payment is available to customers worldwide. When a subscription is paid via credit card, each month the payment is taken from the credit card account and a month of subscription is credited to the player's account. This is ongoing, and payments will continue to be taken from the credit card account a few days before the player's membership credit runs out until the subscription is cancelled. Credit card payments are processed immediately. Payments from the credit cards Visa, Visa Delta, and Mastercard are accepted from all customers regardless of location. The credit cards JCB, Visa Electron, Switch, and Solo are also accepted from customers in the United Kingdom. Subscriptions paid for via credit card cost $5.00 USD, £3.20 GBP, $8.20 ASD, or the equivalent in the customer's local currency. Further information is available during the secure subscription payment process (instructions for beginning above).

Alternate Payment Methods

Other payment methods are also available. These payment methods are made available for convenience and cost substantially more than payment via credit card to cover the costs of transaction fees paid to other parties. Some of these payment methods are not available to all locations, are not ongoing, and do not process immediately. Jagex calls the extra cost of these alternate payment methods a 'convenience premium'.

PayByPhone

The PayByPhone payment method is available from payment provider Surfpin to players in the United States, United Kingdon, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. Players wishing to subscribe via PayByPhone call Surfpin's PayByPhone service and receive a PIN redeemable (after a processing period of 5 minutes) for one month of member credit on the RuneScape website. Subscription is paid for by the cost of the call, which is added to the caller's phone bill and is dependent on the country the caller is calling from. Players who subscribe via PayByPhone can unsubscribe simply by not calling again to resubscribe. No longer subscription lengths are currently available through PayByPhone. Further information is available during the secure subscription payment process (instructions for beginning above).

PayBySMS

The PayBySMS payment method is available from payment provider Surfpin to players in the United States and the United Kingdon. Players subscribing via PayBySMS send a text message from their cellphone to Surfpin and receive a message in reply with a PIN redeemable (after a processing period of 5 minutes) for one month of member credit on the RuneScape website, very similar to the PayByPhone payment method. PayBySMS is only available in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is generally the most expensive payment method, costing $9.99 USD or £5.00 GBP plus any charge made by the subscriber's mobile phone operator. The subscriber's network provider may also charge for the text message sent. The cost of the message is added to the subscriber's telephone bill if the subscriber has a contract or removed from the credit on the subscriber's phone.

PayBySMS currently supports the following telephone networks:

  • Networks in the United Kingdom:
    • 3 (Hutchison 3G UK Limited)
    • O2 (O2 (UK) Limited)
    • Orange
    • T Mobile
    • Virgin Mobile
    • Vodafone
  • Networks in the United States:
    • Alltell Wireless
    • Cingular
    • Dobson
    • Nextel
    • Sprint

Players who subscribe via PayBySMS can unsubscribe simply by not sending another text message to resubscribe. No longer subscription lengths are currently available through PayBySMS. Further information is available during the secure subscription payment process (instructions for beginning above).

PayByCash

The provider PayByCash also provides a wide variety of payment methods. PayByCash offers different costs for different lengths of payment, with discounts available for longer payments. Costs are listed in the table below, while the payment methods that PayByCash offers are in the table below that.

Note that costs are taken from the RuneScape Knowledge Base, where an asterisk next to the cost listings for PayByCash states:

Cost per month dependent on chosen payment method. Exact amount will be displayed during subscription process.

Length Total Cost Cost Per Month
1 Month $7.95 USD $7.95 USD
3 Months $19.95 USD $6.65 USD
6 Months $34.95 USD $5.825 USD
12 Months $69.95 USD $5.82916666666667* USD

Quite interesting that the cost per month of the 12 month plan is actually higher than the cost per month of the 6 month plan. It appears that the 6 month plan gives the better deal, however in the Knowledge Base article above, the cost is claimed to be $5.50 USD per month for the 12 month plan. This claim is unverified at the present time.

Payment Method Locations Available Length Processing Time
PayPal Worldwide One-off, 1, 3, or 6 months of membership Usually within 24 hours
Western Union Worldwide One-off, 3, 6, or 12 months of membership Up to 14 days
Direct Debit United States only Ongoing monthly or bi-monthly Up to 6 working days
Cash by Post United States only One-off, 1, 3, 6, or 12 months of membership Up to 14 days

Payment Method Comparisons

Below is a table comparing all available payment methods from all payment providers except PayByCash showing the provider, payment method, monthly cost, locations available, length of payment, and processing time.

Provider Payment Method Monthly Cost Locations Available Length Processing Time
WorldPay Credit Card $5.00 USD/£3.20 GBP Worldwide Ongoing Immediate
Surfpin Pay by Phone $6.99 USD/£4.50 GBP/$10.00 CAD/$11.99 AUD/$11.50 NZD/ €6.99 EUR United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany One-off 5 minutes
Surfpin Pay by SMS $9.99 USD/£5.00 GBP United States and Great Britain One-off 5 minutes


Note that PayByCash also accepts several other payment methods. See complete list of accepted payment methods for details. At the top of PayByCash's complete list of accepted payment methods, PayByCash states:

'Please note that not all options are available for all services or are available to people in all countries.'

Extra Features

Membership unlocks many features of RuneScape that are not available to free players. Almost all recent updates to RuneScape are available to members, but not to free players. There are very few quests available to free players, while new quests available to members are added at a rate of 2-3 a month. There is a condensed list of features unlocked with membership below:

  • Extra skills
  • Higher capabilities in other skills
  • Use of several transportation systems
  • Three times as much explorable map area
  • More accessible servers (members can access free-to-play worlds and pay-to-play worlds, although they cannot access members only features in free-to-play worlds)
  • Mini-games and other features, such as dueling under set rules and risks
  • Better equipment, such as Dragon, Barrows, and Crystal weapons and armor
  • More bank space (Non-members get only 60 bank spaces while members get 400)
  • More items available
  • Many more quests
  • More music and sound effects
  • More space on the Friend list and Ignore list (Members get 200 spaces while non-members get 100)
  • Use of the Forums on the RuneScape website
  • Ability to vote in polls on RuneScape website

It is important to note that 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. The name of the item is replaced with "Members Item" and the examine is "Login to a members server to use this."


Members Only Skills

Currently there are eight skills in RuneScape that are only available to members out of a total of 23 skills. The members only skills are listed in alphabetical order below:

There are many benefits to unlocking these skills. Many members quests have members skill requirements. Agility allows run energy to recharge faster, and allows entry to certain areas and use of many shortcuts. With Construction, players can build their own player-owned house. 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 unlocks new items. Thieving allows entry into certain areas as well as being an easy money source. Slayer unlocks new monsters and items, as well as the Magic Dart spell.

Because free players do not have access to these eight skills, they cannot be raised. This makes it difficult for free players to be listed on the hiscores, and makes them look less experienced overall. Members only skills make up over a third of the total number of skills to train in RuneScape.

Members Only Areas

Free players have very 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 most of the Wilderness. Membership allows full access to the entire world map. Remember that these new lands bring with them new quests, people and activities to experience and explore.

Here is a short list of some, but not all of the lands reserved for members (Regions and cities/towns/notable features included):


File:Wilderness Members.PNG

A map of the section of the northernmost Wilderness that is only accessible by members.










All of those areas and several more are exclusive to members.

Minigames

All of the minigames in RuneScape are members only. Minigames are cooperative competitions between players and other players or just a game players can play on there own or in teams. Minigames can be good methods to gain experience in combat or non-combat skills, or just fun competition between players. Minigames are one of the most enjoyable aspects of RuneScape that are restricted to members.

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

  • Agility Pyramid - An excellent way for players to quickly train Agility, as well as a decent source of money.
  • Barbarian Assault - A fun team combat minigame which unlocks new armor.
  • Barrows - An enjoyable, challenging single player combat minigame which has valuable rewards, including the desirable Barrows equipment, which is among the best armor in the game!
  • Blast Furnace - An efficient way to smelt bars of metal, as well as a good source of experience in several different skills.
  • Brimhaven Agility Arena - A great Agility trainer for players with moderately high Agility levels.
  • Burthorpe Games Room - A room where players can compete in various board games.
  • Castle Wars - An extremely popular competitive game of combat Capture the Flag, in which two teams infiltrate each the enemy castle and fight to score. Tickets rewarded to the winners can be exchanged for decorative Castle Wars armor and capes. Complicated strategy and tactics have been developed as well!
  • Champion Challenge - Engage the titans of eight different races of monsters in special rules battles! If you defeat them all, you can face the human champion!
  • Duel Arena - Tensions abound in the famed Arena where players face off in a one-versus-one battle to the death. Customizable rules, fine-tuned strategy, and stakes ranging from nothing to millions of coins fill the Arena with a sense of excitement.
  • Fishing Trawler - An interesting fishing minigame in which players sail along the sea trying to keep a leaking ship afloat while they fix their net and catch some fish! Rewards are fish up to your fishing level, so the higher the better!
  • Gnome Ball - A challenging Agility minigame where players try to pass and charge with a small ball towards a hoop to score a goal, while defending gnomes attempt to tackle them before they can throw it. Players earn both Agility and Ranging experience if they're successful!
  • Gnome Restaurant - Players try their hand at delivering food to hungry customers in record speed! A variety of unique items and other rewards are available.
  • Mage Arena - Learn the legendary God Spells and earn your God Cape and God Staff! These spells powerful additions to any magic user's aresenal.
  • Mage Training Arena - One of the fastest ways to earn Magic experience; the Arena offers four different minigames each involving a different type of magic. If you are successful in these games, you can earn Pizzazz points to exchange for runes or the valued Infinity Robes!
  • Pest Control - This immensely popular team combat minigame involves protecting the vulnerable Void Knight while you fight incoming monsters. Commendation Points which can be exchanged for experience in any combat skill as well as a selection of items are rewarded to successful teams.
  • Pyramid Plunder - A source of extremely fast Thieving experience. Combat is interestingly integrated into the game.
  • Ranging Minigame - A fast way to train Ranging which can even be profitable! Players can even exchange tickets earned as rewards for coveted rune arrows.
  • Rat Pits - Players can train their cats to be a fierce hellcat or a clever Wiley cat in these arenas of battle between cat and mouse, then show off their fully trained cats to their friends!
  • Rogue's Den - Players show their deft abilities as they navigate this tricky maze filled with traps and obstacles. Fail and be teleported out! Depending on success, players earn fair amounts of Agility and Thieving experience as well as Rogue Armor displaying their skill.
  • Shades of Mort'ton - Build up a temple and defend it from attacking evil spirits! One of the best ways to train Crafting, a good source of Firemaking experience, or a good way for players to test their prowess in combat and see how long they can last against the shades while they train up their combat skills!
  • Sorceress's Garden - Players attempt to sneak around watchful elementals guarding their gardens to get the a Sq'irk Tree to pick Sq'irk fruits. If caught, they are teleported out! Excellent Thieving experience.
  • Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup - Help clean up the village of Tai Bwo Wannai. Beware, as players may encounter dangerous Bush Snakes and Broodoo victims! Players earn the village currency of trading sticks for a reward.
  • Tears of Guthix - Collect the tears of the God of Balance in a sacred cave guarded by his faithful snake servant Juna. The tears give the best reward of all - experience in the players' worst skill.
  • Temple Trekking - Escort citizens through the dangerous Mort Myre Swamp in Morytania to a temple on the River Salve. If successful, players earn tokens exchangeable for a random reward, including resources such as herbs or ores, or tomes exchangeable for experience in specific skills!
  • Treasure trail - Players follow cryptic clues on wild chases to valuable rewards. Rewards include runes, Holy Book pages, Trimmed Armor, God Armor, Third Age Armor, and much more!
  • Trouble Brewing - Two teams compete as each try to brew the most bottles of rum! Experience in a variety of skills can be earned for performing the many complicated tasks needed in the process of rum production.
  • TzHaar Fight Cave - Players fight alone against an army of Tzhaar monsters! If they can withstand the masses, and defeat the dreaded TzTok-Jad, the most powerful monster in the game, they can earn the coveted Fire cape! Winners as well as less fortunate participants earn varied amounts of the Tzhaar currency of Tokkul.
  • TzHaar Fight Pit - Players are thrown into pits where they fight an every-man-for-himself battle to the death! Deadly alliances and betrayals are all a part of the game. Tokkul is rewarded to the winner of each round.

Most members try out all the minigames at least once. Each is enjoyable, and most of them have excellent rewards.

Unlockable Capabilities in Skills

Free players are limited in their access to free-to-play skills. Since areas and training methods are also limited, it can be difficult for free players to obtain high levels in these skills. Free players cannot use members items for combat and use some of the capabilities reached at higher levels in the free skills. Many guilds are located in members only areas. Membership brings full access to not only several members skills, but also the free skills.

Here is a list of some capabilities in free skills available to only members:

Members Only Quests

The vast majority of quests in RuneScape are restricted to members. These quests unlock important features, new areas, new transportation systems, and new skills. There are currently 18 free quests, and 103 members only quests. A complete list of members quests is 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 many in-game features that are accessible only in pay-to-play worlds. There are 59 members only worlds out of a total of 138 worlds.

A list of worlds that are members only:

  • World 2
  • World 6
  • World 12
  • World 18
  • World 22
  • World 23
  • World 24
  • World 26
  • World 27
  • World 28
  • World 31
  • World 36
  • World 39
  • World 42
  • World 44
  • World 48
  • World 53
  • World 54
  • World 56
  • World 58
  • World 59
  • World 60
  • World 64
  • World 65
  • World 66
  • World 69
  • World 70
  • World 71
  • World 76
  • World 77
  • World 78
  • World 79
  • World 82
  • World 83
  • World 84
  • World 88
  • World 89
  • World 91
  • World 92
  • World 97
  • World 98
  • World 99
  • World 100
  • World 103
  • World 104
  • World 110
  • World 111
  • World 112
  • World 114
  • World 115
  • World 116
  • World 120
  • World 121
  • World 124
  • World 129
  • World 130
  • World 131
  • World 132
  • World 137
  • World 138


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. Currently only two parts of the website are reserved for members:

  • The forums - Free players may view forum threads but cannot add posts to threads or create new threads. This makes it more difficult to use a valuable method of communication, which can limit contact with other players in the Marketplace, Game, RS-Classic, and Community forum sections for trading, clan recruitment, clan discussion, game discussion, or other reasons, as well as removing the only easy way to contact Jagex: the Support section of the forums, which allows for suggestion of updates, rants, complaints, and feedback.
  • Polls - Free players also cannot vote in polls. Polls are important because they are a main method of receiving feedback for Jagex. Poll results often affect future updates. (From April 2007, veteran non-members can vote in at least some polls.)

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 chose 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:

  • Regular, oak, and willow logs to quickly train Fletching
  • Food such as cakes or lobsters to train Agility quickly
  • Vials and secondary ingredients for Herblore
  • Enough coins to pay for all the equipment and skill items that you plan to buy once you are a member
  • Items to utilize new capabilities in free skills that come with membership
  • Items required to do basic member quests you plan to complete
  • All free quests done (Yes, Dragon Slayer is absolutely necessary)


Recommended Skill Levels

While players of any level may join, it is often recommended that players start members with certain skills to receive the most benefits.

Recommended Members Quests

Conclusion

This concludes the guide to RuneScape membership. Membership should be a carefully planned step made by prepared players. Players who prepare, plan, and set goals for the first few months of membership will experience easy success and soon be well on their way to becoming an advanced player.


External Links

The following external links are credited with contributing information to the making of this article:

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
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