Why macros in F2P on Runescape are not banned.

One of the most controversial questions on Runescape is..

"Why are all those level 3's that never talk, move, and just cut and bank at like EVERY yew tree in F2P never banned? I mean, gimme a break, there's no way that Jagex hasn't noticed."

Well, most people don't know the answer, and to be honest, it's quite simple. How many people do you see that are NOT macroing? Maybe ONE per tree. And how many macroers? 7? 8? Well, the thing is, Runescape has a VERY fragile economy. For example, the introduction of pure essence. That shot the price of nature runes by like 600 gp for a while, and now they're like 300, compared to 150 previous to that incident. Now, if there are 7 macroers per tree, and 1 non-macroer, that's 8 people. Now, if there was only 1, yews would be harvested at 1/8 of the normal speed. Basically, with these macroers, per tree, about 800% more yews are released than what's normal. Now, if there was only 1/8 of yews in Runescape, what do you think would happen?

Prices would SOAR.

Now, let's see how many ways to bring in $ depend on yew prices. First, there's the people that actually cut it and then sell it. And then there are the people that bother to cut it and alch it. Cutting and alching is considered one of the biggest ways to make money on Runescape. And then yews are used to skill. Firemaking levels would be at a low if they cut out 700% of all yews.

Now, that's just one way to make money. Why would that impact the economy? Well, it's considered the second best way to make money on Runescape. The first one is merching, and far more people alk than merch. But if we compare the size, WAY more cash is generated from alking than from merching. Merching uses already existing money, and alking generates it. So, what's the impact?

If yews go up by even 50 gp, and they would go up to at least 1.2k if all the macroers were banned, alking does not have a profit anymore, and nobody would use it. I'd say that's about 50% of all cash in Runescape, gone. Yes, alking is that important. Not to mention that the other skills would be flooded, decreasing profit for everyone. If alking was prevented because not enough yews were cut, then there would be far less money on Runescape, and that would cause the price of everything to rise, sending Runescape into a recession, and eventually, even a depression.

Basically, Runescape depends on macroing. They ban some, but never all macroers.

And yes, I know quite a bit about the Runescape economy. I typed this myself.