Honestly for an MMO it’s still a good price. MMOs in particular people sink a tonne of hours into, so it’s pennies per hour which (like gaming in general) is a pretty good rate for entertainment. That doesn’t mean huge mark ups like these are anything but infuriating.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Runescape should have tiered membership for multiple characters. For example, one character for $10, three for $20, ten for $50, etc. This would make it easier on player’s wallets, and frankly it would encourage people to play the other game modes.
Having said that, I think the larger problem is that the people that develop the game get peanuts for pay. Most of them are fans of the game and just want to work on it, but doing so shouldn’t trap them to a low income. It’s not a good sign when developers can leave the company and earn a higher salary streaming Runescape content.
What can you expect when the company is owned by an investment group.
I see what you’re saying, it is a lot of memberships taken out of the game, but I would argue no one running a bot farm is paying for membership with Earthly currency. They wouldn’t want to tie legitimate credit information to any of those accounts, and so they obtain membership through bonds purchased with in game gold.
It’s in part what has driven the cost of bonds from 5 million gold to 15 million. As a result, I’m of the opinion that bots aren’t a revenue source for Jagex.