Last June, Jagex - the developers of medieval MMO Runescape - found themselves at odds with players after deciding not to create any new content for Pride Month. Disputed internally at the studio before the discussion then leaked online, the decision appeared to be a retreat in the face of a world turning on minority groups.

Following up in September, Games Industry asked Jagex CEO Jon Bellamy if he stood by the call to simply re-run existing Pride-themed quests and events. "Ultimately, my job is governance and protection as much as anything else, and so sometimes those kinds of harsh decisions have to be made to protect the imminent future of the game," he told them. "If there are tough decisions to be made next year, we'll make them. If the world has changed a bit and the environment is different, we will react accordingly."

Five months on and with this year's Pride Month on the horizon, we've asked if the environment is different.

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The Runescape Road to Restoration continues, and Jagex is once again proving that it's willing to make dramatic changes in service of improving the longstanding MMORPG. It stripped out the controversial Treasure Hunter system after enough players voted in favor of the move, and it's continuing to work through its long list of features and determine what has to go in the name of "integrity and game health". Next on the chopping block? Auras. The time-gated buffs are being removed entirely, with the "most meaningful" effects to be preserved through other items and rewards, providing this doesn't lead to power creep or more micromanagement.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Runescape is ditching Auras so you can "play on your own terms" without suffering the weight of cooldown anxiety

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we've been playing. This week, Bertie plays a classic but finds himself getting a bit bored; Marie adopts a black cat called Salem; Tom can't get out of the menus; Victoria makes a young child cry; Dom Platinums a game and feels very smug about it; and Connor finds an inventive way to play two MMOs at once.

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Hello and Happy New Year - is it okay to say that now? I'm not sure where the cut-off point is. Some people still have their Christmas trees up. We had ours out before New Year. Welcome back to What We've Been Playing! Or as I like to call this particular edition of it: What We Played Over Christmas, because it's been a couple of weeks since we've talked.

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