**Updated** RuneScape Introduces Bidding System To Buy Banned Accounts

UPDATE (9/21)

A recent Reddit thread has outline how this Bank Bidders system will work, and it appears it will be a system that happens once every few months. As Osborne wrote, "It's not a persistent piece of game content." In fact based on the description of the "event," it appears to be more of a promotional thing. He describes it as "most likely taking place on a stream."

According to the Reddit post, the banned accounts will likely be revealed one by one, with the accounts in question having been looked into prior to the event. The devs will be checking the accounts in question to make sure the items being introduced won't have a negative impact on the economy.

ADDITIONAL NOTE

This post is reference on the most recent Bombcast, with us speculating about how everything will work. At the time, this information was not available.

ORIGINAL POST

RuneScape developer Jagex is adding insult to injury in its quest to punish those who earn a ban from the game. As part of Runefest 2016's announcements this weekend, Lead Designer Dave Osborne introduced what he referred to as a "passion project" -- a little thing called "Bank Bidders."

Bank Bidders is a system inspired by the reality show Storage Wars, wherein people bid on storage units without knowing what's in them. The idea is that they could get some pretty sweet items worth a lot of money -- or they could get a storage unit full of useless junk. With RuneScape's Bank Bidders, players are doing pretty much the same thing, only they're bidding on the accounts of players who have been banned from the game for one reason or another.

As part of the process, Jagex will tell players very little about the accounts. They might state the age, what the players liked to do and their skill levels. They might also disclose why what account was banned in the first place. Players will then take part in either a bidding or raffle system -- that part hasn't been completely decided yet -- and one player will walk away with the account.

What the players will not know at the time of bidding/raffle is what exactly is in the account. They could end up with a lot of in game currency and awesome gear, or they could get one of the less impressive accounts. Osborne also mentioned the idea of a "high roller version" for riskier accounts.

As part of the announcement, Jagex did clarify that this system will not affect dormant accounts. So, if you've just stepped out of the game for a while, you don't have to worry about coming back to finding someone running around with your stuff.

The entire system sounds like a really fun way for the developers to stick it to cheaters and their kind... although Osborne did mention that the rest of the team wasn't quite as sold on it as he is.

Also announced at RuneFest this weekend is the adoption of the expansion model for the game. Players can look forward to much larger content updates than those seen in the past, such as an entire area or region filled with new quests and more released at once. Like updates in the past, these expansion will continue to be free. They'll just give players more to do at once.

The first full expansion coming to the game will be "The Golden City of Menaphos", seen in the trailer here.

Other additions coming to the game will be a full weather system with weather that impacts the gameplay experience, the ability to scale up pets, new solo bosses, and more.

If you missed the RuneFest stream and would like to catch up on it, you can see it below. Keep in mind you'll want to set aside about 8 hours for the entire thing.