Or is it? Lets rewind the clocks back a year. Just before the infamous Wilderness update clans ruled wherever players could kill one another, Abyssal Runecrafting was still dangerous, and Wilderness Clues were often discarded. No one would venture into the Wild, and since there were none of today's Minigames, there was little reason to.
Then the Warring and PK Clans effectively got their marbles cut off, and were forced to abandon their old ways. Without a suitable arena to fight in, most Clans had little room to compete in. Many players understandably quit over this, and RuneScape in general saw a bit of a drop in overall activity.
But even when minigames such as Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars were introduced, the choice was still just between playing nicely or not at all. And lets face it; if you know immediately what you are up against, you can easily predict the outcome of a war. Something needed to change, and fast.
The first step in going back to the right path was when Clan Wars got its overhaul. It was now possible for a couple of rival clans to choose a few basic options, such as choosing whether or not foreign spell books were allowed, or even just the Bind spell. The best new options however, were the different Arenas, time limits, victory conditions (seriously, 10k kills?), and of course whether or not you would keep your items if you died. If Clans liked to play it a bit more dangerous, they could opt for using the safe or dangerous free-for-all arena's, where everyone can attack everyone regardless of combat levels.
This was pretty much what the warring Clans wanted. It should be, as quite a few people from the larger Clans provided Jagex with feedback and suggestions on what it is that they wanted.
And then PvP worlds were introduced. And along with it came another generation of combat equipment only available as a drop from killing other players. For members there were now armour and weapons that lasted only an hour but were incredibly powerful, and even a new Ancient Spell that would slow down the melee and range based attacks of an opponent. Dragon also became available to free-to-play in a Corrupt form, lasting only a limited time.
But all that equipment didn't have much of an impact, not for clans anyways. And let's face it, other then the hordes of 1-itemers or "welfarers" that camp outside the usual respawn points and banks; on P2P there are only loners or small groups of PK-ers (sometimes even hunting people that are at the Godwars Dungeon), and on F2P you have your massive Clan Clusters warring one another, that's about it.
I write Clusters with a capitol C, as they are starting to be a familiar sight out there. Finally we have actual fights again between clans who are at each others throat, enough for them to call in their Allies (who thought that they'd be needed again). The old hatreds and the fights that go on for hours to break the enemy's bank are back, and for some reason, I missed it.
For others it is a mixed blessing. PvP worlds are for those people that spot at Aviansies that they couldn't find on any other world, for others it has become a method of moneymaking (known as PvP farming). But with the ability to crash whatever people are doing, Clans that lived just to do that are back from the dead as well. Just ask yourself, have you had a chance yet to completely use up your Brawling Gloves?
So has anything changed? Well only one thing has. Since PvP is confined to a few specified worlds, the complaints about people losing their stuff are next to non-existent. People now aren't allowed to complain, because going on a PvP world pretty much means you're willing to lose your stuff, doesn't it? Share your point of view on this, and write if you are in a Clan that goes PK-ing every so often.
