Jagex offering fans a chance to shape the future of RuneScape

Also, I just looked more carefully, and the poll is a mess. A password is not required to vote, meaning I can just scour my friend list and highscores and vote from other players' accounts. Also, you can only vote "for", meaning people who are against it can just wait for someone to find their nick and vote in their place, or they can just be confused and enter their name, waiting for the question what their vote is, which will never come.

Looking at the poll mechanics, it would indeed appear that Jagex have already decided in advance to bring back the old mechanics, and this poll is deliberately set up to ensure the players support them. I rather like (and by "like" I mean "dislike") the "I wish to remain anonymous" box -- why are they offering that? It's so(ooooo) thoughtful of them to protect our privacy; if you wish to remain anonymous, simply make sure that nobody else has already typed your name into the player name box and hit vote on your behalf.

These issues have already been brought up on the forums, and the response so far from the community management team has been "yes it does look fishy, feedback has been escalated, wait for official response." On the other hand, they've also told us "safeguards are in place" -- I really hope that's not the full extent of the official response; nobody's going to take that seriously. I'd be happy if the official response was even "Why yes, it does look fishy, How About That" -- it's the current pretense of a fair vote that really annoys me.

I could go on for hours, but I think I've whined incessantly for long enough. I'll just leave you with the following snide remark: this poll is actually Jagex's way of testing a new high-tech security system which doesn't require passwords. In a few months, we'll be able to log in and play the game without passwords too. Remember though, account security is still your responsibility.

Aaaand that's what happens when you post in anger. I've gone on about how there's this false pretense of a fair vote, but ... lying isn't lying if you don't expect people to believe you, is it?

I've been thinking "how stupid do Jagex think we are?" but looking at this whole situation, the answer to that must be "not stupid at all, actually"; from the perspective that it's SUPPOSED to be obvious the poll is rigged (how did that escape me?), the whole situation becomes rather funny. In a good way.

Look at the caption above this box: "Player Name: (Valid RuneScape usernames only*)". Look at that asterisk. Must be some hard-to-find fine print in there -- oh wait, two lines down:

" * If you do not have a RuneScape account, click here to create one. After creating an account, you may return to this page and vote using the account's player name. "
So, if you've never played RuneScape before, you're welcome to support this poll... oh it's not mentioned here but there's no limit to the number of accounts you can create. Ah.

When I stop looking at this as a "supposedly fair" poll, and start looking at this as an "ironically unfair" poll, the situation goes from infuriating to entertaining. (Well, unless you're opposed to the upcoming changes. I know I am, but for purely selfish reasons -- I invariably die in PvP situations, and the auction house has been a reliable source of income for me. Ha.)