"We respect their time, and in turn they stick around" 25 years later, here's why Jagex believes so many people still play RuneScape

One of the UK’s home-grown video games is turning 25-years-old, and anybody who ever had to sit through a boring IT lesson at school likely already knows what it is. It’s RuneScape, the point-and-click MMORPG that not only has remained popular over the years, but has seen a surprising amount of growth recently. The big question is: why?

It’s no secret that MMORPGs are tricky to make and trickier still to keep live and bustling with eager players, and only a select few have managed to do so through the rise and current stagnation of live service game development. Still, RuneScape has managed to weather the storm, alongside a select few other legacy MMOs.

To learn what allowed Old School RuneScape in particular to remain as big a part of the MMO ecosystem as it has, Eurogamer sat down to speak to design director Kieren Charles and senior game designer Elena Nordmark to learn more.