Old School RuneScape (OSRS) recently made a tweak to its economy, with developer Jagex announcing an increased Grand Exchange (GE) tax. The GE is RuneScape's trading hub and Jagex acknowledges that "any update involving your hard-earned gold can be sensitive," so the developer went into some detail on why it was making the change: the short version is the game needs more money sinks to curb inflation.
The main change is an increase in the taxation on any sale from 1% to 2%, which may seem minor but represents a doubling of the rate, with most of the money raised in this way being removed from the game and keeping the economy healthy.
"The goal here isn’t to punish trade," says Jagex, "but to ensure that Old School continues to have a vibrant and sustainable economy for years to come. Increasing the GE tax is one of the most effective ways we can do that."
All very grown-up and Financial Times of them but, OSRS players being OSRS players, the masses are revolting (thanks, GR+). Developer Jagex is a British company, and any Jagex developers in-game are distinguished by a little golden crown icon. Thus an American player decided the appropriate response to the new GE tax was to recreate the Boston Tea Party.
The tremendously exciting clip below shows our perfidious Yankee friend disrespecting the crown by standing at the end of a pier and, one by one, dumping 28 tea cups on the ground. This player has perhaps the most American name imaginable: Jesus-Bacon.
No more taxation without representation! from r/2007scape
"You think the British would have learned by now," intones Jesus-Bacon, "no taxation without representation!" OSRS actually does have direct representation for players, in the form of in-game polls, but let's forget that minor inconvenience and "remind them what happened last time!"
Jesus-Bacon was not alone in going full Freedom Eagle on the changes. "They took a page from the British Empire, rather poetic from a British game after all," says ThatGymDude. "It is great meme material and some lessons from history in it. How ironic for them that their playerbase is majority Americans who have a very effective method to deal with said tactic. History repeats itself."
I'm not sure dumping 28 cups of tea on a pier is going to have Jagex rushing to sign the Treaty of Paris, but the revolutionary fervour is certainly real, with some channelling more recent US politics to make their feelings clear.
"King Roald, total disaster," says GnarBiscuit. "Weak leadership, ZERO control. Doubles the GE Tax, a MASSIVE gift to the Elite PvM Class… Looks like a Third World Country. No Infrastructure, No Health Care, and overrun by undocumented RATS and GOBLINS!! Goblins from 'Goblin Village' they call it, TERRIBLE. Roald is a JOKE — Goofy Fake King!! VERY SAD!"
We pay to not pay!! from r/2007scape
Then came the moment where the OSRS crowd discovered the Laffer curve: "There are far more middle and lower class players," booms self-proclaimed OSRS billionaire Afraid-Love4488. "Raise their taxes and eliminate ours. It will impact the economy much more. Thank… much appreciate"
Jagex is yet to address the complaints of these tax-dodging Americans though, amusingly enough, some don't think it's gone far enough: we need a wealth tax!
"The rich mega rare billionaires should be taxed more because they have a greater ability to contribute without compromising their standard of living," says SlightlyScotty. "We need to implement a progressive tax that increases based on bank worth. Start with 100m at 2% and go all the way up to 50% if you own all 3 mega rares."
I kind of hope Jagex introduces tax brackets to OSRS, just so we all get to enjoy the chaos that will inevitably ensue. Then maybe players can forget about besmirching the crown and wasting good tea, and get back to exploiting the legal system.
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