The Venezuelan people are divided after a tumultuous election in which one party described a corrupt process. Whether this election will help the country’s battered economy remains to be seen, but regardless, let’s remember a story that happened just four years ago. Then Venezuelans were given a real lesson in how to deal with a widespread crisis.

Crisis in Venezuela. About 10 years ago, a serious economic crisis began in Venezuela, marked by hyperinflation, currency devaluation, food and medicine shortages, and a dramatic increase in poverty rates, with barrel collapse. In this context, salaries in bolivars (the local currency) became almost ridiculous due to high inflation.

As of 2019, the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants has reached 3 million. Meanwhile, many of those who remain in the country have been forced to find innovative ways to survive in a very complex economic and social context, where minimum wage workers earn the equivalent of an average of $5 per month.

Innovation. In this way, while some prepared bags of practically worthless bolivars to sell in the markets, others sought a virtual land of opportunity and spent hours in front of computer screens and mobile phones hunting green dragons in an online multiplayer role-playing game.

RuneScape. First released in 2001 by British developer Jagex, RuneScape has two main versions: RuneScape 3 and Old School RuneScape (OSRS). The latter is the oldest and most popular version, and is also a favorite of Venezuelan players as it is easier to run and doesn’t use too much data.

As for the title, we’re looking at a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that has been extremely popular since its launch. In the game, players can earn virtual gold (GP or Gold Pieces) that can then be sold on secondary markets for real money. While this is against RuneScape’s terms of service, the practice of selling gold for real money, known as “Real World Trading” (RWT), has existed in the industry for years.

Internal/external economy. To give us an idea, especially for those who have never heard of this title, we are facing a kind of SIMS of that time, with RPG fights and concepts but, more importantly, with an internal economy that made it very strange to buy items between users and another “external” that allowed those who did not have the time or desire to carry out gold acquisition tasks to buy the “gold” of the game through real transactions.

Since gold can be relatively easy to earn in RuneScape, and the value of the Venezuelan currency is in free fall, it didn’t take long for many Venezuelans to realize they could have an extra source of income. So they began devoting their time to “farming” (collecting) gold in the game. In fact, over time, actual “gold farms” emerged—areas where Venezuelan players spent hours accumulating virtual resources and selling them to buyers in other countries.

Profession: farming. No joke, the impact of the start of this external economy of RuneScape meant that for some Venezuelans it became their main source of income. Earnings varied, but some were able to earn more playing RuneScape than they would with traditional jobs in Venezuela. Plus: the fact that this income was in dollars or cryptocurrencies, not bolivars, was a significant advantage.

But on the contrary, it also had a negative side. These “gold farms” and their sale led to the formation of certain stigmas, and players in the global RuneScape community began to associate Venezuelans with the practice of gold “farming”. And not only that. The game, which at the time broke the Guinness record for the number of users, had 70% Venezuelans; users in most cases did not know how to play and devoted themselves only to producing gold to sell.

Famous caves

Ghost caves. Let’s say it was the most profitable farming area in the title, with over a hundred servers and controlled by hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan players who distinguished themselves in the game by wearing purple hats. So a war started. In forums like Reddit, they repeated the large number of users named “Hispanic” who only earned gold in the game, and even developed tactics to find and attack them in order to steal all the “loot” from them.

Clans. The game developed to the point where clans, or rather “mafias”, began to appear. There were groups dedicated solely to seeking out Venezuelans for loot, and others dedicated to defending them in exchange for a “tribute” (half of the gold they normally farmed). This way, when someone approached the caves, an army would quickly appear to defend the fortress, or even reinforcements would be sent from other servers.

It didn’t matter that the number of Anglo-Saxon players was equal to the Venezuelans, they got tired at some point in the war, whereas the number of Anglo-Saxon players was inexhaustible. This has its own logic, after all, their livelihood was literally at stake.

We talk about so many things. Farming in caves would produce an optimal 20 million gold coins per hour. Groups would mine up to 480 million gold coins in 24 hours in 24-hour shifts. At the time, sales sites were marking a dollar at 8,500,000 gold coins. So 480,000,000 gold coins per day would cost $56. It doesn’t seem like much, but when real-world wages don’t exceed $3/5/8, this extra can be vital.

Inflation. As with the real (or tangible) economy, the in-game gold prices, which are a breeding ground for internal inflation in RuneScape’s virtual economy, have also begun to be affected. Yes, Venezuela’s efficiency in farming gold 24/7 with its 150 servers has caused it to start losing value. Interestingly, Venezuelans have been living off the same virtual currency as their own national currency.

Agricultural frontier. When Jagex realized what was going on in the title, they decided to take action by putting a limit on each user’s farming ability and eventually banning the Venezuelan community. Thus ended a story that could be understood as a perfect example of how the economy works.

It also reflects the ingenuity and resilience of Venezuelans living under extreme conditions, who have found a way to support their families and stay afloat amid a devastating economic crisis through the RuneScape community.

In terms of history, how a video game, originally designed as pure entertainment, became a tool for survival in difficult times.

Image | Jonathan Alvarez C, Jagex

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