I think a lot of us who are chronic Runescape players over the years, maybe even decades, are so used to the habit of dumping 10+ hours a day, losing sleep, playing hooky, avoiding obligations/commitments with family and friends, disregarding other video games, etc. all just to get more GP, more XP, rise up the hiscores, beat all the quests.
But in the current state when you’ve “caught up” to the higher end of players, short of aiming for base 60s, 70s, maybe even some 99s, you’ll find that most people have reached burn out, the player count dropping leads to pessimism, and there’s not much to do other than nerdy goals with leveling or clue hunting.
This game is a slow burn. The content that everyone is looking towards, such as Slayer, KQ, Barrows, DKs. As well as the QoL updates like “Select X”, Abyss RC, and bank management, are all still so many months away most likely. You can likely achieve all of your goals to reach best in slot equipment, base 40s, maybe even base 50s/60s across all skills, even at a casual pace, and well before Slayer is out.
The ones who reach burn out from rushing to end game in the current state will quit until the updates they want are out. Or potentially even not come back when they’ve had more fulfilling experiences outside of 2004scape, because their game play experience was so grindy/sweaty.
Those who play more casually, maybe a few quests a week, a few levels in the tedious skills every once and a while, etc. will not feel the same burn out. They will view the game as something on the side, and pick and choose when to go full nerd mode as the updates get launched and depending on what else is going on their life.
These people will feel more satisfied during their play experience, meet more people over all, take it slow and enjoy the little things in this nostalgia project that they never even knew about because they have always played Runescape in “rush mode,” never read the NPC dialogues, never “explored” that weird ladder in some random building, or a turn in a cave that wasn’t quest related, etc.
I’ve tuned in to a lot of 2004scape Streamers and YouTubers. The ones who seem the most frustrated, or lacking of emotions, are the ones grinding out their nerdy goals fixating on EPH and competing against everyone else for the hiscores. The ones that actually have the most fun are talking to random players, reading the quest dialogues, actually exploring, and not fixated on “XP waste” for doing something inefficient or silly.
tl;dr - It’s ok to play casually, and smell the flowers, explore stuff you never knew, banter around with people. You might even find it more fulfilling. The best updates are months away, you can accomplish your goals by then all the same, without burn out, and getting the most FUN out of the game as possible.
