At the time of writing, Twitch streamer sodapoppin is catching fish in Old School RuneScape in front of an audience of over 13,000 people. A look at the game’s Twitch offerings shows thousands of other viewers flocking to streamers of all sizes who are in a similar position: longtime World of Warcraft players dipping their toes, then feet, then entire bodies and souls into the engrossing world of OSRS.
This MMO migration really picked up in recent weeks, with big WoW heads like Guzu leading the charge on an OSRS vacation. The OSRS community was quick to notice, and equally quick to pull up chairs and popcorn to watch folks familiar with a very different MMO come to terms with this game’s distinct, classical controls and systems.
This seasonal migration only seems to be gaining momentum, and for many players and streamers it’s been a refreshing change of pace that highlights the subcultures within the MMO space.
It might not be a life-changing experience, but the battlecry of “trying OSRS for the first time” started as a simple trend for a lot of people, though it has quickly become a habit. The conversations around the game are evolving beyond the zaniness and excitement of a stampede of new players, and some interesting ruminations on MMO design are starting to sprout.
The OSRS Reddit community rallied behind clipped comments from Twitch streamer AnnieFuchsia, who reckons that “a lot of people who have played a lot of WoW have gotten used to how WoW is and assume that every MMO is the same.” (Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy 14 community is dealing with a wobbly expansion roadmap and a new, fumbled raid activity). Instead, OSRS provides a sandbox environment where “there isn’t FOMO and your progress matters and is valuable, and I think a lot of people who play WoW have missed that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, there’s people who enjoy the way WoW is right now too,” she adds. “There’s people who enjoy the seasons, enjoy to push and get their new rewards, and stuff like that. But I think there’s also a lot of people who are tired of being on this hamster wheel, and I think for a lot of those people, it’s nice to discover a game like OSRS.”
This seasonal model extends far beyond WoW, of course. If anything, it’s the games industry’s favorite way to keep players on the hook, continually earning and re-earning slightly better, or different, or recolored gear to access new content, or effectively re-unlock the content they were playing just fine two months ago. My only MMO nowadays is Destiny 2, and that strategy definitely sounds familiar. When Bungie re-released the Vault of Glass for the third time, I about fell out of my chair.
I reached out to several players joining this wave of new OSRS players and actually heard back from AnnieFuchsia. She explained that, before this whole migration thing, she “sort of knew how [OSRS] looks” but had never played it or consumed content about the game.
“I’m having an absolute blast! I love the humor and all the different skills to work on,” she says. “I always found professions in WoW limiting, and OSRS doesn’t hold back lol, you can level up everything.”
She highlighted the “plethora of skills” as one surprising element coming from WoW, saying “it really feels limitless.” And while “the movement has felt a bit awkward” – understandably, given its old tile and tic-based system – she said “the game has been quite beginner friendly” so far. (As it happens, some of the folks at RuneScape studio Jagex have said they’re watching this WoW influx to help ongoing efforts with the first-time user experience).
This assessment reflects the sandbox design and relative progression baked into OSRS, which isn’t concentrated within new updates the way many other MMOs are. There’s no real “race to endgame” in OSRS. There is aspirational endgame content, but there’s also a lot of evergreen and rewarding content on the long, long road to that endgame, and the journey is the point.
“To add a little more, updates in RuneScape run alongside current content and don’t largely devalue what’s already there,” a reply from Redditor Krixx adds. “You may get some instances where a minigame is added that gives you better rates on a skill which is more optimal to do, but doing less effective methods still contribute to the overall goal of maxing your skill.”
“I play both, and typically get to [the] end of season 1 of a new expansion then burn out knowing that everything I just did is now irrelevant,” Glory_Dazed says of WoW. “I always explain how content from 2001 (Cook’s Assistant) still plays a role today. That does not compute with WoW players.”
The nature of OSRS has clearly clicked with many. “These WoW streamers are addicted af,” one user says of a clip from streamer Savix gambling with his life in a classic grind: killing cyclopses for melee defenders at the Warrior’s Guild. “Guys, we can kill one more, right?” he reckons. His chat erupts into “Absolute Cinema” after he scrapes by a kill with one hitpoint left.
“Bro streamed for 9h straight to get his d defender and then asked the chat what to grind off-stream,” user *checks notes* Shadepoopie said.
This is textbook OSRS behavior – I’ve seen B0aty, one of the game’s biggest content creators, insist “the captain goes down with his ship” in countless similar death matches over the years – and it goes to show how quickly the game can get a grip on you. The home team is taking it in good humor, even if they will poke fun at content creators doing content creator things.
“Welcome btw,” one post reads.
