Old School Runescape is a game that transcends time, literally. The current build of the game is from 2006, and made a return at the request of the fan base who had come to be dissatisfied with Runescape 3. Since its return in 2013, it has garnered the title of being one of the most played MMOs in the world.
Despite it initially being an appeal to nostalgia, Old School Runescape has evolved to become much more than that, receiving many content updates since its release. In December 2022, it was announced that the game would be receiving its first new skill. Only time will tell what the skill will be, but there are various predictions that can be made.
Old School Runescape's New Skill Predictions
Though there are a wide variety of skills in Old School Runescape, they all fall into one of four categories. Those categories are combat, gathering, production, and utility. This is relevant because as of the community consultation poll, nearly a staggering 50% of players voted for the new skill to be a utility skill, with second place being combat at 22%. This means the new skill will likely be a utility skill as well, which may figure into how the skill functions. This will also have implications of what kind of content it will be added to the game, both on release and in the future. However, it may be difficult to avoid upsetting the balance of one of the longest running MMOs.
One of the possibilities for a new skill could simply be a blast from the past. Summoning and Dungeoneering are two skills from around Old School Runescape's original era that left a good impression on many players. Dungeoneering focused around groups of players exploring a rogue-like dungeon, and summoning gave the player the ability to craft their own summonable creatures. They both featured the classic Old School Runescape grind while also bringing something to fresh to the game. If a vote were to be made with either of these two skills in mind, players may see themselves being able to participate in one of these activities once again.
This wasn't the first time players have voted on the addition of a new skill for Old School Runescape. In the past, three skills have been proposed that ended up failing the polls and were never heard from again. Sailing and warding are the most well-known, especially because they nearly won their respective polls. Even now, fans make posts about Old School Runescape's possible sailing skill in an attempt to give it more traction. If they were to come back with a bit more refinement, they may find a way to pass the polls this time and make it into the game. This may be possible considering many of the complaints surrounding these skills were the finer details, not the skills themselves.
However, Old School Runescape's new skill may be an opportunity for something entirely new. It doesn't need to be tied down to skills of the past, and the team for Old School Runescape's has proven time and time again that it can be entirely independent in originality without sacrificing the game's charm. This would also allow for the community to possibly suggest skills of its own, which it has been doing quite often on social media platforms such as Reddit. A collaboration with the community for a decision on this scale would not only settle the worries of players, but allow the developer to work with them to bring quality content to the game as well.
Due to the process outlined by Jagex, it may be quite a while before the new skill makes it into Old School Runescape. However, with enough time and collaboration, this new skill could make an excellent addition to the game. Only time will tell, and this game from the early 2000s has plenty of time to spare.
Old School RuneScape is currently available on Mobile and PC.