If you can overlook the significant decrease in activity, then you will notice that activity has decreased to a trickle towards the end of OSRS Gold the graph. In other words over the past one and a half years, there really hasn't been that much activity decrease, at least with real players. Although there has been a decline in perceived activity, the drop in the number of regular players has been very minimal.
Does this mean Runescape isn't dead? Not necessarily. It could be in decline, but it's not as rapidly as people believe. Over the past year and a half, Runescape lost 3 activity points from Google Trend. For comparison between July 2009 and January 2011 (also a period of one year and one-half) Runescape lost 43 of Google Trend's activity points. Those who plan on attending the funeral of Runescape shouldn't be having a break from work anytime soon.
Jagex has launched an event for beta testing in the mad scientist costume. It's difficult for low level skillers or those with lower levels to finish the final portion. For those who are who are at intermediate levels, it should not be difficult.
It's much more difficult than I expected. I tried it with melee (65 att and str, def), but didn't feel like I wanted runes to slay dat, or even anything more than melee. Ahrim was supposed to be simple however I was unable to hit him in any way. Only hits came from my deflect prayers I think.
Just wanted to mention that Buy Old School RS Gold this event is not for everyone. Once you are allowed to go through the tunnels, leave and log in to beta. The rest can be done there (I had the ability to, for reasons unknown, to steal and obtain the last item from the chest without killing the final brother).
