The players have spoken! Free Trade and the Wilderness will be returning to RuneScape on Feb. 1 after more than 91% of players voted to restore the features to the game. Over 1.2 million votes were cast in just under three weeks. Jagex launched the referendum on Dec. 24 to help celebrate the game's 10th anniversary.

The features were removed from the game in 2007 to combat botting, gold farming and item scamming. Starting Feb. 1, players will once again enjoy unrestricted free trade and the Wilderness will become a dangerous place where players can kill each other for their items.

As Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard puts it, "I firmly believe that the Wilderness represents the ultimate risk versus reward experience in any MMO and the incredible support for the campaign demonstrates that our players agree. It has been fantastic to watch the community mobilise in support of the update and we can now introduce these features certain in the knowledge that they are what our community want."

You can read more about Free Trade and the Wilderness after the jump.

Free Trade:

• Unrestricted Free Trade between players
• Unlimited staking in the Duel Arena
• The Grand Exchange would remain, but with the lower and upper price limits removed
• Party Room drop restrictions removed
• Item Lending still available
• Assist System still available
• LootShare and CoinShare still available

The Wilderness:

• The Wilderness becomes a rather dangerous area again and players can kill each other for their items
• PVP, Bounty and Bounty +1 Worlds removed (game mechanics may be re-used in the future)
• New objects that affect combat will be analysed on an individual basis
• Gravestones will still be used outside of the Wilderness
• Various PVP items and gear will still be available and won’t become 'rares'
• Revenants patrolling the Wilderness will be relocated
• Content located in the Wilderness will be reviewed as follows:
  • - Quests (e.g. Spirit of Summer) and Activities (e.g. Clan Wars) will be relocated
  • - Other content (e.g. Treasure Trails, the Beacon Network and D&Ds) will be looked at on a case-by-case basis