@Holla I'd say at this rate, you might as well quit this game. The rate and quality of updates have been pretty pathetic frankly, which is by some of the best and coolest players (Nicoya, Chris, Cocosnake, Rhipdclxvi, and many more who I don't feel like searching through thousands of threads for) quit and moved in. Either OOO stopped caring about the players, Sega caused the crap factor to go up, or something at HQ is preventing the spiral team from updating anything useful. I wouldn't be surprised if any of these were true...OOo has ignored some rather awesome suggestions in the past, bu whatever.

TL:DR You might as well quit, if other games interest you more than this. Not worth playing a game if it feels like a tedious chore.

Real world item trading: Serious business.

The moral of this story is- Don't play RuneScape.

slayz.." Either OOO stopped caring about the players, Sega caused the crap factor to go up, or something at HQ is preventing the spiral team from updating anything useful. I wouldn't be surprised if any of these were true...OOo has ignored some rather awesome suggestions in the past, bu whatever."

I have a much more simple, sad, and worrisome supposition. Look at what we see with every minor update:

Upgrading knockback an full line for valiance.
knock back on Valiance killed.
charge shot on pulsar lines deals 1 damage
etc..

Every minor tweak change of something insignificant yields endless bugs, problems, and glitches , many of which are completely unrelated (or the exact opposite) of what they were intending.

It just appears to me that for every new ounce of content (or fake content--accessories or rebalances) there is 100 pounds of bug fixes. For every hour of gameplay they add, there appears to require 100s of hours of fixes needed.

I just fear the game is built on a fautly platform, or faulty programming. And that the sad truth is, our lack of content is more from this broken system than any lack of desire or want by OOO. I'll bet they'd dearly love to give us loads of new content, but its impossible given teh constraints of this broken system.

No way to know if its true, i'm just guessing by how it appears on the outside looking in; judging by the context clues. Nothing ever goes smoothly, not even a little bit. Of course, if this were the case, OOO would never admit it, would even loudly declare it untrue. If they admitted the game was broken and that major content was never on the way, at best a slow, weak, unsatisfactroy trickle, well if they were to admit that, or let that idea percolate, no one would ever spend money on the game again.

Tantarian +10

Pretty much what I think in a nutshell

Hey there. I have also started playing Runescape since a few days ago. I had quit like a year ago but I'm lvl 95 I think. Anyways you can add me on Runescape if you want or tell me your username and I'll ad you. Oh and btw i started trading SK Currency for Puzzle pirates currency and after a few weeks I was given a 2day ban so getting a warning was lucky.

I think you should actually be praising OOO that steam trading exists at all, maybe after reading the below, you may agree. tldr for general trading is near the top, tldr for steam trading is at the bottom.

im going to recycle something i posted into the bazaar on another thread. I am not a lawyer, however in one line of work i was exposed to contract law regarding intellecual property, so i have some knowledge, but am no means an expert. So feel free to correct me if you know more.

reason 1 - practical) what erridunno said. OOO wouldnt want to have anything to do with it, because if you get scammed, they dont want you whining to them. Similarly, they wouldnt want nubs whining at the community in general either to fix it.

reason 2 - legal) TLDR - general trading the only contract you have is the terms of service for both separate games. you own nothing, not even the ce you purchased. you only purchased the right to play with some ce within the service agreement. as you dont own it, you have no trading rights to either currency. both games companies are the true owners, hence they have the rights, and must agree to the trade for it to happen. And guess what. it wont. BOTH OOO and [insert other mmo company name here] will have the right to perma ban you for infringement of thier IP.

easy to read analogy.

you borrow a car from a friend, it is top of the range and has alloy wheels. another person does the same, borrowing a car from a different friend. it too has alloy wheels. You both have the same agreement with the friend, that you can drive it and have fun with it.

one day you meet with the other person with both your borrowed cars. you both like the look of the other persons alloy wheels, and decide to swap them over. you are both happy, you both think the cars looks better, you both get enjoyment out of it.

However, your friend finds out you have done the trade. turns out the owner thinks the wheels you traded are terrible, and he wants you to put them back. you had no right to do the swap, even though it was 'like for like' in your opinion. however, you didnt own it, your opinion means nothing. Your friend takes back his car and bans you from driving it.

The owner of the other vehicle isnt pleased either, and refuses to let you go near his cars in the future.

full explanation

While you are right it may not be explictitly written in the ToS, in IP (intellectual property) law in general, if you recieve 'consideration' in any form (ie something in return in a contract, commonly money) through the use of that IP, then the owner of the IP has legal rights over part (or all) of that consideration. Hence why trading for real money is not allowed, as the IP owner technically owns that money, and here is the crucial bit, has not explicitly AGREED to the trade.
An example of this is counterfeit branded clothing. It is illegal to sell fake nike shoes, as nike has not agreed that those shoes labelled as thier brand (IP) can be sold.

In this case the other money belongs to [mmo company], and the SK crowns belong to OOO. If a trade were to occur, both [mmo company] and OOO have not agreed to it therefore it is wronging both of them at once. No 'trading rate' has been agreed to by both parties.
You as the game player, does not own the crowns, or ce, even if purchased with real money. you have only signed an agreement (ToS), to be able to play the game that they created with the bounds cited in the agreement. Hence, you have no right whatsoever to make a trade outside of the game using both of thier IP as consideration.

steam trading difference

In steam trading, the IP owners, OOO and other games companies have ALL agreed that the trading rate can be specified by the consumers, AS LONG AS they trade within the steam trading platform.

so, unfortunately, legally, trading [mmo currency] for crowns/ce outside of steam is NOT the same as steam trading, as in this case you need BOTH OOO, and [mmo company's] approval to trade. Both OOO and [mmo company] would be allowed to ban you for this.

if OOO went, " sure, go ahead", but [other mmo company] didnt, then [mmo company] would be able to sue OOO. hence OOO HAS TO say "no, its not allowed" to thier players to protect thier ass, even if OOO in reality might be up for allowing trading, as demonstrated by the steam trading platform.

The fact that steam trading exists, given all the negative stuff above, is AMAZING, and i think ALL the games companies who signed up for it should be PRAISED for doing this for the consumer, i really cant stress this enough. well done on this one OOO.

I really don't know what the point of this item in the ToS is.
If it's "to protect your account" it's kind of ironic that you get banned for it.
the primary function of the terms of service is the legal contract, telling you what OOO will allow and not allow you do do with thier creation.
This means they let let you 'play', 'within thier intended universe'. (my words)

in game items have real monetary worth since they are scarce and require effort, and citizens should be allowed to do whatever they may with them. If doing so would harm the system, then the system needs to adapt.
no, as the owner of the game, they can tell you what you can and cannot do with items in the game. fact of life. as a consumer, you can elect to not play anymore, and try something else if you are not happy. shop around, give feedback, complain!

OOO have actually done exactly what you are asking, as good as they can do, by signing up to steam trading. 'the system' you are referring to is hampered by the legal mess explained in the previous post, and steam trading is the solution. however it requires the other games companies to agree and sign up as well. OOO has done thier bit and HAVE agreed. its not thier fault that blizzard/runescape etc creators have not, so far. go whine there about it.

My brother recently picked up Runescape again too, much to my dismay. What's with its appeal all of the sudden?
Also, is it that difficult to get money in RS? I don't remember it being too much trouble.