A player with a Rs3 (that was a student at Old School for 4 months or so last year) In this discussion:

I believe that the way you described it depends on what OSRS Gold you consider "dedication". In a skill like Runecraft, "dedication" could be equated to spending time, and ignoring the urge to do something more enjoyable/profitable/account progressing/etc. It is possible to compare it to having a lot of cookies on Cookie Clicker (minus offline cookie generation however) The most significant measurement of success is more time in the app instead of spending the time to use other apps. In the case of some users, this kind of return on one's number is greater since the longer time spent in the app is sufficient.

For me (non-maxed having no skill higher than 100 days of playtime in Rs3) 99's did not really have a sense of achievement connected to the 99's. It wasn't because it "only" took 100 hours instead of 400 hours, it's because the achievement at the time of completion indicated that I'd spent the time doing just a dozen or two clicks every minute, without much of thinking. Firemaking and Fletching are two that come to mind. This lack of performance would not have been the case If I'd put in 2-4x more time getting them, but that also may just be how my brain works, and not applicable to the larger player base.

There are 99 that come with an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment, such as Slayer as well as Hunter. These were abilities that provided lots of options for me, provided a couple of various ways of training these skills, and gave back to me/my account in terms of unlocks and drops, and required a fair amount of engagement most of the time. They were things I thought I could get BETTER at when I played more, like going for tougher bosses as part of the Reaper Task (daily boss killing request from Death) or getting better in Big Game Hunter (hunter minigame which involves running around and avoiding dinosaurs and trying to track them down). Receiving the 99 felt like a gold star along the already exciting journey. but it wasn't what my end goal was but it was an enjoyable reward and a bonus for mastering the ability.

In all honesty However, I've never felt greater joy and achievement than that of getting better in certain areas of gaming. First kills at Arraxi, first kill at Nex I also completed my first triple dinosaurs in BGH performing a flawless round of Shifting Tombs as well as others All of these made me feel ecstatic when I accomplished these feats, and no 99/120 ever will be close to feeling the same. This is why I think it is the way it is now, with 99 being more of a thing that happens during the way, not a destination to begrudgingly inch towards.

And like a few people in this thread have already said the idea of giving 99's an inherent advantage in skill caps could be seen as being a step in the wrong direction, where people are now compelled to go through boring and outdated material to get benefits from the game they want to play. Same with certain high levels of skills being tied to quest and diary requirements. This is great for creating additional goals and benefits to strive for, but not good in the event that the entire journey can be a nightmare that takes away your time from the content you actually want to play. The "if you don't want it don't bother with it" approach is the same that is employed to justify the deplorableness of daily scape that has to bleed into all aspects of the Rs3and I think that we all agree that we are not interested in anything similar going into Old School, especially not using the excuse that "no one is forcing you to do it".

In the end, there's feeling of satisfaction with the increased XP rate or other shortcuts, but the success isn't (and I'd suggest it shouldn't) come from the number and time involvement alone. Both games still have plenty of grind-fests, no doubt. I'm of the opinion that they should remain this way. However, I would like to see them both work towards more engaging grinds and content that is enjoyable for the sake of it and not just to speed up or make it easier to get there.

Give players options that may be lower in XP but they will want to perform. I would like Runescape to be a stalemate It's an option, and there's a market it , and I believe it stands apart from the rest However, I do not want the desire or the time to hit three places over and over time to be the primary grind for players with a wide range of players' skills. I like the fact that OSRS represents a sport where players with a "more than time equals more achievement" mindset can cheap Runescape gold enjoy and compete, but I'm not sure that this should be the main option available to players.