Sadly, in another turn of events this week, the highly anticipated Runescape Dragonwilds update has beendelayed. The devs confirmed this by citing bugs as the reason, saying they were “simply not happy shipping the update this way”.
While it is a frustrating wait for fans of the MMO, it’s still better news than having another developer ship an unfinished product just to have it out in the open.
This 0.9 update was supposed to be the last big patch before the 1.0 update and, therefore, the launch of the massive game, including new zones, some balance tweaks, and some majorly requested quality-of-life (QOL) features to make the game more accessible.
Instead of including all of these (admittedly pretty cool) updates, Jagex, who were purchased by private equity firm CVC last year, is taking its time to stabilize what’s already there.
Why The Runescape Dargonwilds Update Delay Still Kind of Sucks
Recent updates in Runescape’s next chapter have cemented the survival-crafting aspect of the game, successfully creating a cocktail of MMO and resource gathering, base building, and satisfying boss hunts.
As much as the 0.9 update was supposed to mark a near-finished state of the MMO, it is still important that the dev team takes a step back and looks at the current state of the game.
Delays like this still create dismay among fans, regardless of how well-intentioned it was in the first place. Overhauling progression has been requested for a long time, so waiting that much longer still stings for players.
Applauding the Transparency Over Speed Approach
What stood out for us was the developers’ clear language and the fact that they didn’t hide behind vague PR speech, as many other teams would’ve undoubtedly done.
It just goes to show that delaying a title to release a better and more complete experience, even though the delay itself is disappointing, is sometimes the better approach – and earns the trust of the playerbase, instead of disgruntling it.
