Jagex announces Old School Runescape Private Servers, because the grind is never over.

I fear Old School Runescape and respect its players. I've endured a lot of grind as someone who has played MMOs and games with live service for a long time. OSRS players don't just tolerate grind, they enjoy it. They are willing to dedicate themselves to the near asceticism of killing a mole every 8 months. Soon, we'll be enduring grinds that we can't even imagine. Over the weekend, Jagex revealed Project Zanaris. This is the name of the studio for customized OSRS servers run by the community. Players will be able design the parameters themselves.

Project Zanaris is a private server that offers OSRS support. Jagex says the community server project is in its early stages. However, Jagex has said that players will be able host their own Old School Runescape version where they can "tweak various elements to create a completely new gameplay experience." Jagex said that community server hosts could, for example, make all NPCs do more damage, enable PvP across the server, or set up a server-wide Ultimate Ironman Mode.

A community server browser allows players to search and filter public server, and server owners to gate access to certain groups of players. Jagex has said that it will eventually provide moderating tools for community servers owners, but has not yet shared specific details about how these tools will work. Jagex stated that it understands how important it is to server owners to protect their servers and maintain them.

The studio said it is "looking into" the possibility of allowing players to copy their characters directly from OSRS' main game onto community servers. However, this would only be a one-way transfer. If that's not possible, players can set up their own private servers to boost the drop rate of high-end items and then bring them back to the main game. OSRS is a death knell for players.

Jagex says it is "still working on the full cost breakdown" but that hosting a server varies in price depending on player cap. The studio stated that there would be a fee for players who wanted to rent a Jagex server. This sounds like they are imagining something similar to Minecraft Realms.

The Project Zanaris FAQ states that community servers are "for our members who are looking for new experiences." This likely means that you will need to purchase a membership subscription in order to play. That subscription is about to increase at the end this month.

Jagex is aware that announcing a feature of this magnitude could give the impression that resources are being used that could be better spent on creating new content for OSRS. They have made sure to emphasize that the team responsible for OSRS community servers are their own separate dev team.

Jagex clarified that Project Zanaris was being managed by a separate team. "No resources or time have been taken from Old School in order to create this exciting concept. We still plan to continue creating amazing Old School content just like we have for the past decade."

Jagex stated that community servers were "a long time away" and that it will "be light in details regarding Project Zanaris until further notice." Jagex has said that it will publish "a more detailed Q&A" within the next few week, along with a new feedback channel for Project Zanaris in the OSRS Discord server. The studio has also announced that it will eventually run closed and community server beta testing so OSRS players can have an early chance to build a server with everything lethal and no trading, as God intended.