Old School Runescape gets new continent

Runescape is 15 this year and that means party time, even for the 2007 throwback version of the game known as Old School Runescape. The first third of Zeah, a new, Old School-exclusive continent is now in-game: the city of Great Kourend.

As is fashionable, five great houses vie for control of Kourend, each with its own traits, specialties and goodies for players who are able to prove their loyalty. Winning favour with House Lovakengj unlocks the Blast Mining minigame (like strip mining with XP to match) while House Arceuus holds a brand new necromancy spell book along with Blood and Soul rune crafting (a "new challenge" apparently). The Tithe minigame, accessed by ingratiating yourself with House Hosidius is Farming on steroids.

An exhaustive scroll of details can be found on the Old School site, but if you'd rather see Zeah first hand, the ship leaves from Port Sarim.

I confess myself puzzled by the community's vote in favour of updates to Old School Runescape. Instead of a time capsule preserving the world as it was in 2007, it's a living MMO that just doesn't look as good as mainline Runescape. But I say this as the sentimental sort who plays on Blizz-like Vanilla Warcraft servers, and as I haven't been invested in Runescape for years there's every chance I'm out of touch. Are you an Old School Runescape player? Tell me how you feel about a whole new continent crawling out of the sea.