As some may know, Old School RuneScape just recently passed a poll where the Sailing skill won out. Jagex is currently working on how it will implement this skill in a way players would enjoy. Despite its recent polling, Sailing has been in the minds of the community for longer than many may know.
Old School RuneScape's Sailing skill has actually been an idea that's floated around RuneScape's community since 2008. It has a much longer history than most of the new skills that have ever come to RuneScape. For that reason, the Sailing skill is has been a long time coming too.
The Origins of RuneScape’s Famous Sailing Skill
Back in July 2008, an image would surface online of a skill called "Sailing" found on the leader board on the RuneScape website. A little later, a YouTube video would also pop up, including more "evidence" that Sailing was going to be the next upcoming skill. To the community's chagrin, this would be exposed as just a joke by Mod Dave on the Runescape forums. Despite it being exposed as a joke, this would not stop players from wanting the skill. RuneScape fans continued to pitch the Sailing skill to Jagex ever since then, hoping that one day the joke from 2008 would become a reality.
Between then and now, Jagex would take advantage of this opportunity in numerous ways, although often in a much more mischievous way than some may have expected. For example, Sailing was involved with several April Fools' pranks, where Jagex would constantly tease the inclusion of the skill. This may have played a large part in the communities' inability to let go of this skill, as both the developer of the game and the players seemed unable to forget about it. It very much seemed like the skill that the RuneScape community was looking for, but it seemed like would never come to be implemented. With that said, it wasn't due to a lack of trying.
In 2015, a Dev Blog by Mod Ronan would be released, detailing the implementation of a Sailing skill into Old School RuneScape. It finally seemed as if Sailing would finally make its way into RuneScape, after 7 long years. However, it still had to pass the player-voted polls that RuneScape was so famous for. Once the results of the poll came in, many found themselves let down upon seeing that the Sailing poll failed by 7%. Because of this, the Sailing skill would not be heard of in an official capacity for quite a long time. However, that was until Old School RuneScape's 2023 skill poll.
In December 2022, Jagex uploaded a video stating it wanted to finally add a new skill to Old School RuneScape and would be releasing a comprehensive and detailed poll. This poll would come with 3 skills: Shamanism, Taming, and Sailing. And after 15 years of waiting, Old School RuneScape Sailing was confirmed as a new skill coming to the game. Sailing would win the poll by just .3% to the runner-up: Shamanism. With that said, it still has to go through another poll to ensure that the RuneScape community finds its introduction satisfying. But considering how dedicated Jagex seems to be in creating and adding a great, new skill to the game, it is likely that it will pass that too.
It almost seems like destiny that the Sailing skill would finally make its way into the game in an official capacity. Even if it doesn't turn out to be one of RuneScape's most profitable skills, it will still likely have a positive effect on the community as a whole.
Old School RuneScape is currently available on PC, Mac, Android, and IOS.