RuneScape creators' new MMO has an unorthodox solution for the inevitable waves of bots: Giving you a 'legitimate way' to bot the game yourself

Brighter Shores
(Image credit: Fen Research)

23 years after creating RuneScape, Andrew and Paul Gower are back with a new MMO. Brighter Shores, which has been in development for 10 years at the Gowers' studio Fen Research, looks like an attempt to reimagine RuneScape for the year of our Lord 2024, and in a way that avoids some of the flaws and pitfalls that have marked their original game over the decades. Such as bots, which have long been legion in RuneScape.

"Obviously, you're never going to completely eliminate bots," Andrew Gower told PCG in a recent interview, "so our approach has been more to make it so that they don't negatively impact the game." That means all sorts of things, of course: Gower says the studio has "designed the economy of the game so it's not gonna be broken if lots of people bot," and that "the whole way that instancing works [means] you're not gonna be standing in a chunk and there's tonnes and tonnes of bots all around you." 

But it also means something a bit more unorthodox: a "legitimate way" of botting the game.

Gower says one of the ways Brighter Shores is trying to minimise "grindy gameplay" is with a feature that lets you "set your character to carry on doing [activities] even whilst you're logged out." That means you shouldn't have to spend "hours and hours and hours to get your level up." Instead, you can set your character to get on with the grind while you're away. "You might be doing combat while every night [your character] is doing fishing," or vice versa.

"A lot of the reason people, in my opinion, use things like bots is sheer frustration about the grind," he says. It makes a degree of sense: RuneScape is notorious for its grind, to the extent that there are stories on this very website of players spending 8 months (or 2,500 hours) killing particular bosses to acquire this or that rare drop.

At some point, says Gower, players think "'I just cannot face chopping down this tree for another 10 hours,' and then end up resorting to bots out of desperation." By providing those players with a legitimate in-game alternative, Brighter Shores hopes to strike at the root of the problem. "We're hoping that massively disincentivizes people from breaking the rules, there's a safe way that isn't gonna get you banned."

I'll be intrigued to see how the theory bears out in practice. To keep things fair, and to not accidentally create a game that you don't actually have to play, Gower says the automated system in Brighter Shores "doesn't give you XP as fast as if you do it yourself," which I suspect may incline more than a few people to try botting the game the illegitimate way. 

Likewise, although I don't doubt there are plenty of people botting RuneScape to get out of grinding it personally, many bots are run by shady players who make real-world money selling their ill-gotten gains online. If Brighter Shores takes off, I struggle to imagine the legal way to bot the game will have much of an impact, but I suppose we'll only know for sure after the game hits Steam in Q3 this year. 

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
An alien waters some cacti in Stars Reach, a new MMO that recently funded its Kickstarter.
Former Ultima Online lead says MMOs have 'been in a rut for a long time', and that cozy games like Animal Crossing have been filling a non-theme park hole
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs
A forester from Old School Runescape, contemplating life next to his pheasant friend on a green field.
You can finally try out Old School RuneScape’s first new skill in nearly two decades right now
A skeletal warrior stands holding a two-handed sword, wearing bulky black plate armour.
There's a whole world of MMOs you probably don't know about, and the best way to play them just got basically its own Steam Workshop
Wyrdsong concept art
Wyrdsong, the RPG from ex-Bethesda talent, isn't dead—but it's no longer an open world: 'We're down to a skeleton crew'
Razer Project Ava key visual
Razer is collaborating on a gaming CAPTCHA to combat AI-powered bots, and of course the first game to use it is the worst Web3 nonsense I've ever seen
Latest in MMO
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
One year later, City of Heroes' officially recognized fan server has me praying it's the future of dead MMOs
Several adventurers in World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore server crying over the death of a fallen comrade.
Blizzard plans to revive WoW Classic Hardcore characters 'at our sole discretion', after DDOS attack puts major streamer guild OnlyFangs in the ground
A forester from Old School Runescape, contemplating life next to his pheasant friend on a green field.
You can finally try out Old School RuneScape’s first new skill in nearly two decades right now
Ghoul in sunglasses
After years of playing as stupid, boring humans in Fallout, you can finally channel your inner Walton Goggins and become a ghoul in Fallout 76
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
After 12 days and 100s of wipes, World of Warcraft's latest world first raid ends in anticlimax: 'That's the boss?!?'
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'