What are your thoughts on the topic of buying vast amounts of XP with ingame or real life money?

May I please add this is not to turn into an attack or hate thread on anyone so please no names

This is the exact reason i am now sticking to my hardcore ironman makes the game feel as it should.. no bxp or *faster* methods.

I hate how its become, if you are willing to spend irl money you can easily be a massive gainer.

I don’t like it, but it’s a part of the game now. I’d rather channelize my energy towards something meaningful than dwell over what I cannot change. Achievements have gradually been undermined for years, to a point where I no longer feel a sense of achievement or even set goals.

I believe it was around a year ago when I stopped setting goals (besides 120 slayer). Sure, I know I’ll get 200m eventually in whatever skill I do (assuming I don’t quit), but gaining XP is more of a mundane routine than something I’m focusing on for the sake of achieving an end goal. I rarely pay attention to RS (you may have noted that I’m often unresponsive in the CC) because there simply is no satisfaction for me to play monotonously for an achievement with no value. Instead, I focus on other things with RS in the background. In a way, it relaxes me and helps me e.g. study for prolonged periods of time.

I knew during the first prismania promotion that there would be many more like it to come. I considered using it myself, because to play competitively, you have to use these promotions. It simply is the most productive and efficient choice and I don’t begrudge anyone for taking advantage of it. I have a suspicion that in about a year from now, buying spins/keys will be normalized to such a degree that in the elite community, you’ll be considered a fool if you don’t. I believe it is this very elitist mindset which prompts most players to buy excessive amounts of XP.
 
The last promotion was a nail in the coffin for me, because it destroyed the last skill I held any value to. It didn’t really come as a surprise to me, but I had previously come to terms with competing with people who bought a few million XP every promotion, because by optimizing a few macro factors, I could still potentially keep up. Now 120 slayer means nothing to me and I’m ok with that. The only reason I play RS3 anymore is because of Consentus. I take pride in being a part of the clan’s progress and getting to know all individuals.

Tl;dr fast and buyable xp ruined what was fun in the grind

I don’t like it, but it’s a part of the game now. I’d rather channelize my energy towards something meaningful than dwell over what I cannot change. Achievements have gradually been undermined for years, to a point where I no longer feel a sense of achievement or even set goals.

I believe it was around a year ago when I stopped setting goals (besides 120 slayer). Sure, I know I’ll get 200m eventually in whatever skill I do (assuming I don’t quit), but gaining XP is more of a mundane routine than something I’m focusing on for the sake of achieving an end goal. I rarely pay attention to RS (you may have noted that I’m often unresponsive in the CC) because there simply is no satisfaction for me to play monotonously for an achievement with no value. Instead, I focus on other things with RS in the background. In a way, it relaxes me and helps me e.g. study for prolonged periods of time.

I knew during the first prismania promotion that there would be many more like it to come. I considered using it myself, because to play competitively, you have to use these promotions. It simply is the most productive and efficient choice and I don’t begrudge anyone for taking advantage of it. I have a suspicion that in about a year from now, buying spins/keys will be normalized to such a degree that in the elite community, you’ll be considered a fool if you don’t. I believe it is this very elitist mindset which prompts most players to buy excessive amounts of XP.
 
The last promotion was a nail in the coffin for me, because it destroyed the last skill I held any value to. It didn’t really come as a surprise to me, but I had previously come to terms with competing with people who bought a few million XP every promotion, because by optimizing a few macro factors, I could still potentially keep up. Now 120 slayer means nothing to me and I’m ok with that. The only reason I play RS3 anymore is because of Consentus. I take pride in being a part of the clan’s progress and getting to know all individuals.

Tl;dr fast and buyable xp ruined what was fun in the grind

Basically the best example in my opinion and I agree with Red completely.

It's absolutely fucking pathetic. "Real life wealth won't ever affect in game status" was one of their things a long time ago. Now you can buy 120 or even 200m in a skill if you so desire.
Took me over a year to get 99 Slayer this time around and for someone to get 6x my exp in 2 days is a joke.

I don't see the point in buying skills, As Rob says it just undermines all the achievements that honest grinders made before all the buyables and minigames came in. It's like the normal workplace, the honest people progress through their own merit and the ones who aren't able to use wealth or putting other people down to buy their way up there, I play RS to escape from all that shit. Unfortunately Jagex is a business and needs profits, they obviously see buyables as an additional means of income so we will just have to close our ears, stand up tall and say at least I can be proud of my account!

This is a large reason why I quit my P2P main and now use an exclusively F2P account. We can escape some of these promotions simply by our limitations of using BXP. In addition to this, not many F2P players would spend money on TH keys considering how we get (unusable) Fallen stars in 8/10 spins. I have always played RS in a way that I ignore XP rates and enjoy a challenge, and thus I'm very grateful that I can escape Microtransactions to a certain degree, and really feel bad for you players that come face-to-face with this blatantly unfair concept every day.

I'm sorry that achievements are no longer worth as much (relatively) as they used to be. In recent months, I've found it in me that no matter what, I love RS. I hated EoC when it came out, and I have learned to ignore it now. I hated RuneSpan when it came out, so I have never used it since the first hour I tried it, and spent thousands of hours getting 99 at GOP (more than enough for 200m in F2P). I hate TH promotions so I simply ignore them. At the end of the day, I think all of us can find it in ourselves to simply play the way WE want rather than conforming to negative change. The first step is ignoring XP rates and levels - simply log onto RS and make your #1 priority to have fun! Once you've done that, I can promise you that these exploited features of the game will no longer bother you. After all, there is no point in playing a game if you're constantly feeling disappointed.

i feel bad for people that do it , agree with red makes things a joke but it would have saved me 2.5 years smithing

I know I'm one of those people who back a few years ago started playing less and kept saying I would "be more active" but it never lasted for long and if I'm completely honest, the fact that XP is now piss easy to obtain (especially if you buy it with irl money) is one of the major factors that keeps putting me off. Like Robert said, they said a long time ago about real-life wealth was never going to affect your in-game status...

I got my 99 Farming through doing continuous farm runs over a 8-10 month period and got the 99 Farming cape a day before my birthday. 6 months later warbands was released. For me, warbands was bad enough but now it's unbelievably easy to get free/bonus XP that you can buy your way to 200m xp if you have the real life wealth to do so.

As soon as the clan chat is implemented into 07, I think I'll start playing on there instead.

Didn't want to jump on the Redtunnel band-wagon straight away so i thought i'll write a reply rather than just quoting his post.

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As the game players decrease over time, Jagex will continue to release treasure hunter/solomon store exclusives that will "reel you in"

Having experimented with the more recent lamp promotion, i was able to get 11m divination experience in a day which is obscene, i did send a message to a JaGex staff member about this shorty and got the reply that, Jagex lost a significant amount of money this year and that money was needed for christmas bonuses. (I will not be naming what Jmod it was)

Goals that seemed impossible are happening more rapidly

200m xp in a day? done
120 slayer cape on a level 3? done
Untrimmed slayer cape? done

Think back when you first started RuneScape a more simpler time, where your enjoyment mattered the most, and the only thing you/your parents paid for was your membership.

This is basically why I've quit RS3..

It ruined the game, they get arsey at rwt but they basically do it themselves, they sold out and now their legacy is a shit game, only thing decent about it are clans tbh

If you play the way you think the game is meant to be played what does it matter how others play.  You can still go for achievements and in the end its really what you think that matters.  If you dont like promotions than dont use them; jagex is a business and this is how they're going to make the money. 

Ironman is the way.

I really don't care, if people want to waste their real life money on xp it's there fault buying membership is for fun but buying xp just makes the game end faster , it's actually just stupid

but ye if people want to waste their money on xp. you can better just buy membership and buy cool irl longer lasting stuff from that money you spent on bxp