Life in Venezuela

Venezuela is a country located on the North coast of South America. For people living in Venezuela, life can be a very scary and stressful experience for them as there is complete mass corruption within the country. Depression and suicide rates are quite high due to the overwhelming struggle to live a normal life over in Venezuela. Hyperinflation is one of the biggest issues for the country.

The Venezuelan Bolivar gets devalued due to this, which ultimately makes it difficult for the people of the country to buy items.

One very common act throughout Venezuela due to the poverty there is constant power cuts. This can cause numerous issues for people in Venezuela as it can force certain businesses to temporarily pause their operation while the power is gone. Power cuts can also make certain places very dark, which encourages criminal activities such as robbery. This is making Venezuela a dangerous and corrupt place.

Overall, it is immensely difficult for people in Venezuela to survive as a healthy person and they are unable to live freely compared to other more fortunate countries around the world.

What is Runescape?

Runescape is a very well-known MMORPG, which was released on the 4th of January 2001. As children, many people around the world have at least heard of the game Runescape or Old school Runescape. Although the game is not as popular as it was many years ago, there are still over one hundred thousand players playing on average every single day.

The game consists of various activities players can choose from. In Runescape, the objective of the game is in your hands, you decide what you want to do and accomplish. You could train different skills such as Smithing or Magic.

A very popular experience within the game is the socializing aspect. Many players build friendships through Runescape. Players can also gain Runescape gold through killing challenging bosses and monsters located around the game.

The in-game local currency in the game is called “Runescape gold”, and it can be either OSRS gold or RS3 gold, although there is no official name and players tend to call it different names. Popular names being: “coins”, “GP”, “money” or “gold”. The purpose of the Runescape gold is to make purchases and sales with other players within the game.

There is also a mobile app that was released in 2018 for the Old school Runescape. The game is the same but of course with different controls. You can connect with your actual PC Old school Runescape account, which enables the player to instantly continue with their progress on mobile or PC. This is good for people who are not able to stay home for long. For example, people with school or work cannot play for at least 7-9 hours per day, so the mobile version of the game is very helpful in these situations.

Within the Old School Runescape, there are sub-game modes in which players can choose from right at the beginning of the game. These include: Regular, Ironman, Ultimate Ironman, and Hardcore Iron man.

Every individual game mode is different from each other to make the game more entertaining. The Ironman modes also add difficulty and challenge within the game, which players like to see, especially once they have played a lot of the regular game mode.

Regular mode is the basic mode everyone has typically started with, and is the first game mode to ever be released. It follows all the basic rules of the game and has no restrictions on your account.

OSRS Ironman mode adds a grey helmet symbol next to your name to indicate your Iron man status. You are given the restrictions of being unable to access the Grand Exchange (the game’s market place) and you are also unable to trade with other players.

Ultimate Iron man mode adds a silver helmet symbol next to your name to indicate your Ultimate Iron man status. You are given the restrictions of normal Iron man mode with the additional restriction of being unable to use any bank within the game. You are unable to make any deposits to any bank located throughout Runescape.

Hardcore Iron man mode adds a red helmet symbol next to your name to indicate your Hardcore Iron man status. You are given the restrictions of regular Iron man mode; however, you only have one life. Once you die, your stats will stop being tracked on the Hardcore Iron man mode high scores, and your account will carry on as a regular Iron man.

Gold Farming in RuneScape

Many players, not only in Runescape, have heard of “Gold farming”. Gold farming is the act of mass-producing money in-game and then exchanging this in-game money with someone who wants it for real cash.

For a country such as Venezuela, this is not an uncommon thing to see in the country as it can be quite profitable for them. The fact that it is not uncommon just shows how less developed Venezuela truly is.

However, it is of course against game rules to be doing this and you will be banned if caught doing so. But if done correctly, you can stay hidden and get away with these acts. Many people in Venezuela of the younger generation are seen playing Runescape as they are more familiar and understanding of modern technology and online games.

An example of gold farming within Old School Runescape could be as follows: A Venezuelan can learn how to defeat monsters using a good OSRS range guide and he could level up an account to be able to slay a well-known profitable boss called “Zulrah”. This boss can average around 3 to 4 million Runescape gold per hour. This can sell for around $2-3 (not accurate as rates are changing constantly) which can be a lot of money for someone living in Venezuela.

It is rumored that people who gold farm on Runescape in Venezuela make a lot more than doctors in the country. This once again shows how workers of high importance and heavily underpaid.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, it is clear to see that it is extremely profitable for Venezuelans to be making money through Runescape. There are also no moral issues seen here as they could have been doing far worse, black hat activity, which they are not.

Gold farming on Runescape really and truly is not causing anybody any harm and is saving someone’s life out in Venezuela. The high income can be used to spend into education for families, food, and homes, which are essentials that every single individual around the world should have access and rights to.

Of course, the downside should also be looked at. Gold farming will undoubtedly ruin the game’s value of items.

In basic economics, it is known that if there is a high supply, prices will drop down to meet demand. This means that players currency will be less valued.

Overall, it is impossible to implement a 100% removal of gold farming and should just be accepted by players that it will never be gone. It is active in every single online game where an in-game currency is present.

People should just enjoy the fact that Runescape, an online MMORPG has saved many lives in Venezuela without even intending to. That alone is a very great accomplishment for the gaming community.