Power Outage In Venezuela Causes Economic Crisis In RuneScape

In Venezuela, it’s well-known that there are people who mine gold in RuneScape to sell online and turn a profit. For some, this is more profitable than working a more traditional job, and a recent power outage in the country has caused an economic crisis within the game as people can’t play.

Credit: Jagex

Over on Reddit, a graph showing the economic decline in RuneScape has gotten a lot of attention, with lots of players shocked at the impact Venezuelan players have on the game’s market.

Over on Twitter, one user writes [translated]: “Fun Fact: We already knew that in Venezuela there are people who work playing ‘Runescape’ where they spend all day harvesting virtual gold to sell them in currencies to other players (more profitable than a job).

“The blackout caused an economic crisis in the game’s virtual market.”

Credit: Jagex

The news has also been addressed on YouTube, where one streamer said: “Power outage in Venezuela has plummeted the amount of dragon bones sold…so the Venezuelans whose job it is to play RuneScape because the RuneScape gold coin is worth more than their actual currency, had a country-wide power outage, and this very literally affected the price of dragon bones. What the f*ck, dude.”

Watch the video below.

YouTube video

Although people are quick to laugh at the situation, there are reports of “at least 15 hospital deaths” resulting from the blackout.

Hopefully Venezuela and its populace will be back on its feet – and back at the computer – soon!

Credit: Jagex

 

 

Featured Image Credit: Jagex