"Naturally this implies that any project led by fans that is attempting to alter the way Old School RuneScape appears will be not in line with OSRS gold our plans," Jagex wrote to 117. "We consider it vital that there's a consistency in the way Old School appears and that's why we want to be sure that our official changes are the only ones to be made available.

Hope that the news about the fact that Jagex together with Old School team are tackling this project seriously is something that excites you, even though it does require us to respectfully request that you stop your own personal project."

117 declared that they were offering Jagex their side of the bargain that included removing their project after Jagex had released their version, and also granting Jagex "collaborative oversight" over the Runelite HD's visual design.

"They did not want to be open about it," 117 said. "I am beyond unhappy and dissatisfied with Jagex, and I am so very sorry in the end that following this lengthy journey and a long time, I'm unable to show you this work. The mod isn't able to be in violation of Jagex's guidelines that apply to third-party clients. However, the Runescape developer has said it will be making changes to the guidelines over the next week to include references to projects affecting the look and feel of the game.

Original Runelite developer Adam1210 shared his views on Reddit and said that allowing Runelite HD to continue would provide a benefit to future updates from Jagex.

"I also strongly disagree with adding it to the "third parties' guidelines," Adam1210 said. "Most of those guidelines attempt to define what the line is between "quality of life] and cheating lies and I'm of the opinion that the majority of people would agree that the current guidelines provide a clear depiction of that. Also, it can help keep the game integrity.

However , there isn't any benefit in the least in a better-looking image, and it only affects users when they enable it. Therefore, this is simply a misapplication of guidelines. This is, in the end, a loss for everyone involved and I wish Jagex could take a look at it."

Some fans of the Runelite HD project have taken to a town square in Falador the capital city for one of Runescape's most important kingdoms, to stage protests that resemble the demonstration World of Warcraft players held in July. Fans can be seen in the linked video posting text dialogue criticizing Jagex for their decision, and hashtags such as osrs fire cape service Another video shows players "marching" in front of Falador Square.