For comparison, take
OSRS gold Desperate Measures. It was formally declared about 3 weeks before release, so you understand it was in development a long time before that. It brought new resources, narrative development, etc.. Most likely this would have been several months of development having quite a large group, but simply to show the point, let us say it costs precisely the same as the Artisan event to develop this quest. Contrary to the previous example, it costs nothing for present members to engage this content. The only way that this makes money is if people come back to the sport and resubscribe to play this. At $11/month for membership, you would need over 5000 gamers to resub in order for this to become rewarding. That's 5x the participation needed compared to a small MTX event, and this relies on earning new or bringing returning subs - a thing much more difficult to perform than getting existing users to spend a little extra.
At the end of the afternoon, Jagex is a business, and if they want to keep the lights on, then they can't manage to dump buckets of money into material that does not bring in revenue. I'm not saying that this really is an excuse to not develop new content - on the contrary, they need to keep the userbase engaged or there will be no left to cover anything - but it will explain why monetized content seems to be prioritized and sent more precisely than other articles. As it stands right now, the MTX content is exactly what funds the real content. Personally, I really like the way they're leaning of earning certain permanent improvement with every event, even though this first one wasn't a huge success.
Fantastic RuneScape gaming experience with participating and Contemporary
Constantly pushing mtx to produce short-term gains is exactly what has been the downfall of rs3 for a long time. That's also the primary reason why the playerbase has been declining. Good gaming experience with engaging and modern content higher participant count more long term profits. I really liked the way Steve Jobs set it about technology companies losing their invention and actual product development when advertising and revenue takes over the guide.
What you're saying is definitely correct. By 2017 to 2018 (the latest publicly accessible amounts ) MTX revenue dropped. Yes, and this is why they've been moving towards attempting to tie in certain permanent improvement with every one of those MTX events - so they are not just short-term gains but that they do lend some permanent value to the sport - starting with all the graphical rework of the Dwarven Mine. Not so well-executed this time, but I think we could all agree it is a step in the ideal direction.
This is more private opinion, but that I also somewhat disagree with the tagging of these events as strictly"MTX events". I've been engaging with this Artisan event without spending a dime and I rather like it. So long as the option is there to complete everything without dropping money, I don't see why it ought to be shunned. It provides some wonderful short-term goals to work towards with a decent reward. It's essentially like a fresh twist on the Yak Track, which I think is
buy RS3 gold generally well-liked but somewhat over-played.