Old School RuneScape's Skill Poll Gets Over 178,000 Votes, and a Very Close Result

mmorpg.com:

Old School RuneScape ’s journey towards the eventual creation of the first-ever new skill has already featured some passionate debate, criticism, feedback, and now, massive participation for what still turned out to be a close result.

Since yesterday was a holiday in the UK, the team shared the result in a new devblog today. There were over 178,900 votes counted, which is indeed a pretty massive turnout. things were pretty close in the results though, with a split of less than 600 votes separating the winner and second place.

The winning skill pitch that will be refined and broadened into a full-blown concept is Sailing. Sailing received a total of 105,799 votes, and was followed by Shamanism with 105,208 votes, or 59.2% versus 58.8%. The third option presented, Taming, was a distant third, with 71,390 votes. There were over 22,000 votes for the back to the drawing board option, “I didn’t like any of them”. 

As for the outcome, “Sailing has been chosen as both the community’s favourite skill pitch and the skill we’ll take forward into refinement. Sailing is an open-world skill which will let you explore the uncharted seas of Gielinor, take part in various maritime activities, and upgrade your very own ship!”

So moving forward, Sailing will be the skill pitch that gets refined. If you’re not sure exactly what “refined” means, you’re not alone, and the team is already planning a stream this week to explain what this whole process will look like. 

However, with such a close poll, it isn’t over for Shamanism. “Your feedback regarding Shamanism was clear: you love the concept of the ‘spirit realm’ and see the potential to revitalise under-utilised areas of the game. You also like the idea of expanding our rich lore – and