The Old-School Runescape community is caught up in drama regarding the permanent ban of content creator Rendi, who accuses Jagex of lying about the reason he was banned.
On July 2, Rendi’s account was banned following a video displaying how to get into a restricted area without meeting the requirements. While these videos aren’t usually a problem – Rendi has previously won an award from Jagex for his work to discover and report bugs – the creator believed catching these minor bugs was the reason he was banned.
Didn’t want to put out spoilers but yes my HCIM “defensaga” was banned July 2nd, 1 day after the video was released. The newspost said this was banned because I crashed the game over the course OF A YEAR to dupe GP with intent to sell it = chain ban, but all other accounts remain
— Rendi (@Rendi_Mento) July 10, 2021
After massive community backlash accusing Jagex of acting in poor judgement, the company released a statement on July 9 claiming that the banned accounts were actually “used for malicious activity” which included “crashing of game worlds for the purpose of item and wealth duplication to be sold for real world monies”.
In an update to the statement, Jagex has clarified that the account bans were unrelated to bugs displayed on video. They also confirm that the creator has had “at least 14” accounts banned in 2021 already, while another player connected to the drama has received “at least 48” bans in the same time.
While Rendi argues that he was always open about reporting bugs, the update from Jagex alleges that the company received screenshots showing certain bugs being abused an entire month before they were officially reported.
Rendi has disputed these claims as a “massive lie” on Twitter, however Runescape developer Mod Ash has stated “while you’re most welcome to assume the player’s telling the whole truth, I’m afraid we disagree.”
While you're most welcome to assume the player's telling the whole truth, I'm afraid we disagree. https://t.co/KaqRIIf7d3
— Mod Ash (@JagexAsh) July 10, 2021
While players are demanding Jagex provide proof that Rendi is guilty, Mod Ash points out that they have no plans to “share details of techniques for attacking our game worlds”.
Replying to Rendi directly, former Jagex employee Mat K has advised them to file a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act to see the full details of why he was banned.
The Old School Runescape subreddit is in uproar, with individuals quickly taking sides on the matter. The initial Reddit post, titled “FREE RENDI – THIS IS ABSURD” has over 24,000 upvotes.
Since then, threads have emerged – all with hundreds, often thousands of upvotes – picking sides on who is at fault. Of course, there are also others who are simply enjoying the drama.
While the controversy is unlikely to receive a resolution without further updates from Jagex, it’s interesting to see a subreddit of almost 600,000 players become completely wrapped up in the drama.
In other news, the co-creator of Halo has revealed previously-unseen weapons, monsters and concept art that were cut from the original game.
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