Old School Runescape, a revival of the classic early 2000’s MMO Runescape, is getting its first new mode in five years. Called Group Ironman, the mode will allow players to join forces with others to complete some of the game’s hardest challenges. The mode was proposed by developer Jagex and voted for by players in what the developer calls the most-voted-on poll in the game’s history. Group Ironman is live now for all players.
The goal of Old School Runescape‘s original Ironman mode was to promote self-sufficiency. Instead of trading with other players and looting enemies to receive items and experience points, players can only use what they craft themselves to work their way up through the mode’s ranks. Group Ironman preserves that philosophy, but allows players to form groups of up to five to take on the challenge together. Players in a group will be able to trade among themselves, but they cannot trade with anyone outside of the group, and the other Ironman rules still apply. Completing the challenge awards personal glory and a spot on the Old School Runescape leaderboards.
To celebrate the launch of the mode, Jagex released a trailer for Group Ironman and shared stats about the mode’s approval on Twitter. The developer says that after launching a poll asking players as to whether they should release Group Ironman, 141,510 players voted, with 80% of them supporting the release of the mode.
This method of release is par for the course for Old School Runescape, which releases new modes only if the player base approves them through public polling.