Hearing about the World of Warcraft character that was sold in class reminded me of a similar situation in Venezuela where people would play Old School Runescape to make a living. Due to the hyperinflation in the Venezuelan economy, people started playing Runescape to make money because Runescape gold was more stable than the Venezuelan Bolivar. So many Venezuelans started playing Runescape that they actually started influencing the Runescape economy. As there is no limit to the amount of in game gold that can be generated, the Venezuelan “gold farmers” started causing inflation within the game. In addition, when Venezuela lost power for a few days, half the Runescape player base disappeared and the in game economy crashed until the Venezuelans got back online (Video Gaming the System).
With video games continuing to get more popular, I am interested to see if similar events start occurring in other games. At the moment, it seems unlikely for Venezuelans to switch to a different game because they only have access to very basic computers. Because Old School Runescape is so low-tech, Venezuelans are able to play with the old, basic computers that they have access to (Video Gaming the System). As many of the most popular games today require much more processing power than Runescape, I do not think it is likely that this phenomenon will spread to other games. However, as gaming increases in popularity, developers may need to start considering how to control in game economies. Game developers may also gain more ethical responsibilities to ensure that game changes do not affect the livelihoods of the players.
Sources:
Amanda Aronczyk. “Video Gaming the System.” Planet Money, npr, 21 July 2021. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1018915121
This is an incredible story because who would think a large nation’s economy would be so unstable that citizens flock to play a video game in hope of a more stable currency. This makes me think a lot about how it could be possible to make money playing video games (but not through streaming). Nearly every game created these days has some type of in-game currency (think of V-bucks in Fortnite), and I have found that people can sell these currencies for real money in the same way they buy them. At playerauctions.com, gamers can sell currencies or accounts for hundreds of games in a huge marketplace with over a million users. From RuneScape to FIFA, the site has dependable, protected sales across the world, 24/7 (PlayerAuctions, n.d.).
This type of marketplace is very surprising to me as I never knew you could sell what you earned inside a video game for real cash. For someone who stopped playing a lot of video games but acquired a lot of loot in the process, would this be a viable way to make a few bucks? Would you consider it cheating for someone to buy pre-loaded accounts that already have rare items or a ton of currency? I wonder the thoughts of video game companies and developers as their currency is sold on a separate market which likely is cheaper than purchasing in-game.
PlayerAuctions. (n.d.). Sell in-Game Currency for Real Money. Retrieved September 7, 2022, from https://www.playerauctions.com/about/sell-game-gold/