The situation with Coronavirus has without a doubt been a massive factor in grinding parts of the
gaming industry to a halt. This is something that has been the topic of discussion with the team
behind Runescape. Whilst players have been out earning OSRS gold and questing as they have
always done in the past, they may have been unaware of the process that the developers have been
going through behind the scenes.

Desperate Measures

This is highlighted by the recent introduction of the latest in the Elder Gods questline, known as
Desperate Measures. This quest has been in development for the past six years, and in a recent
interview with Game Rant, members of the Jagex team discussed the strain of working under the
conditions that are causing a global effect.

Lead content developer James Crowther outlined the difficulties of working during the pandemic,
stating: “Creating Content is an art, and that sort of creativity really benefits from having people
around you to bounce ideas off of. Whilst Zoom is perfectly functional, you don’t get quite the same
connection with people and that makes it trickier to convey ideas.”

Challenges of Coronavirus Pandemic

As to be expected, there have been challenges with working in the Coronavirus pandemic, as there
has been for everyone. This has resulted in what the team describes as hiccups along the way, and
messages that have been lost in translation. This is perfectly understandable given the situation
since the devs aren’t even working in the same room as one another. Some development teams
have resorted to using outlets such as Discord to finish off certain aspects of games such as bug-
testing and putting any sort of finish on their games.

The Jagex Approach

The way in which Jagex tackles releasing content is to do so on a monthly basis. Given this
frequency, it means that you won’t always see a massive piece of content such as a lengthy quest,
but there is usually enough for players to find rewarding enough to keep coming back. It also gives
them the opportunity to run events that can bridge the gap when they are ready to release new and
fuller content.

This approach may not please everyone, especially when it comes to the quests themselves and how often they are being released. That being said, it is clear to see that Jagex is making a lot of effort to make sure they can tide players over until the next round of content releases. Senior games designer Tim Fletcher goes to lengths of being in touch with the community as much as possible, stating: “I sit up in the evenings chatting with them about content and quest design and get a lot of strong opinions. I share my opinions too, and we go back and forth a lot discussing compromises and how things are done, could be done and should be done.”

One important point is the impact of how releasing the game on mobile has made. This has opened
the gates for a whole new audience to join in what millions of fans have enjoyed over the years on
PC. Not only that, but it also encourages the approach of being able to pick up the game wherever
you are.

The Desperate Measures quest is now available in Runescape. So if you want to take a break from
buying Runescape gold or working on your avatar, then this is definitely a quest you will want to
check out.

Have you tried the Desperate Measures quest yet? Let us know in the comments section below!