On 12 September 2005, a revolutionary content update was released: Cook-X. This enabled one to cook all of one's uncooked materials of the same type without having to click to cook every object. Since then more and more skills have received similar changes or even new content. Smithing became a lot more enjoyable, and so did Mining. You were able to train these skills with ease now, without the chance of receiving RSI. Heck, even Woodcutting became even more of a laid-back skill to train. The cherry on the pie was the Runespan update, which allowed one to gain maximum experience with minimum effort. Updates like this are received with mixed feelings: players who already have level 99 will probably complain that they had to go through a lot more work, but upcoming players and perhaps those that strive for even more experience will only praise these updates. There was just one skill left for the ''make-x'' treatment: Firemaking. For a long time, aforementioned players heavily debated whether or not this should be implanted. And now Jagex has finally released Bonfires, the Cook-X equivalent of Firemaking.

Firemaking, as a skill, needs little explanation, and so neither does this Bonfires update. You’re just lighting fires after all! While traditional Firemaking forced you to find long, empty paths to make your lines of fires on, Bonfires enable you to limit yourself to just one fire. You just have to keep adding logs, and that’s all. But Jagex wouldn’t be Jagex without making this update even more appealing. First of all, you receive more experience if you add logs to a bonfire instead of lighting a new fire. Also, if you Firemaking together, your experience will increase as well! Firemaking has always been an asocial skill to train (others interfering with your efforts has never been a pleasure), but now it is in fact a group skill! Jagex has also added a few extra features: increased life points through firemaking and a fire spirit random event. The increased life points boost is very useful of course, especially for those using the Dharok equipment or those who are in a clan. The fire spirit is an event which can happen about every 100 logs. Interaction with the fire spirit rewards you with some charms for the Summoning skill or some items of little value.

On the one side, this update has perhaps made Firemaking a tad too easy. Some even say it has been made as easy Cooking. Well that is true, in the sense that Firemaking has become an easy moneysink, as it is even able to train next to a bank, just like almost all other buyables. So, in a way, the era of the traditional Firemaking is over.

On the other hand, this update might not be as much of a break with the past as we think it does. Starting from level 83 Firemaking, players have been able to train Firemaking for free for almost a year at the Jadinko Lair already. The experience rates there have been as high as 300k a hour, which is probably as much as the average player will obtain while participating in a Bonfire. Besides, this content will increase the price of the higher-levelled logs because it has never been a better time to train Firemaking. A good incentive! And finally, perhaps Jagex can add higher Firemaking requirements in the future without people complaining how ''hard'' the skill is. Like I said, it has never been a better time to train your Firemaking, so join in the Bonfires!