Venezuela is in an economic crisis, with the currency suffering from rising inflation. The value of the Venezuelan Bolívar has sunk so low that it is worthwhile for some families to live off the in-game currency of a German MMORPG.
The 20-year-old MMORPG Tibia is very popular in countries like Brazil, Venezuela, or Chile. This is mainly due to the low hardware and internet requirements of a core high-quality online role-playing game that has been able to build a loyal community over the years.
The large player base, partly in Europe, is a bonanza for gold farmers and item sellers from poorer countries who see opportunities to get some money to secure their livelihoods.
The government in socialist Venezuela is cracking down on the activities of gold farmers, as they are essentially printing money independently, further driving the inflation of the country’s own currency, the “Bolívar”. Nevertheless, some men have now granted insight into their actions. This reveals the problems in Venezuela.
Venezuelans play 7 days a week to feed their family
In an interview with the economic magazine Bloomberg, a 29-year-old graphic designer from Venezuela stated that he plays 7 days a week in a cyber cafe on an old CRT monitor to keep himself, his wife, and daughter afloat. He sells gold or leveled-up characters for US dollars and cryptocurrencies. Although this only brings in a few dollars a day when converted. But in Venezuela, that is still more than what a regular worker would earn.
A similar sentiment comes from an unemployed programmer who has spent the last 5 months in Tibia:
“It is a shame. I never thought that an in-game currency would become more valuable than that of a country”
A mason reported that his arduous work for the government barely provided enough for breakfast. Now he leads a group of heroes through a medieval world with pixelated monsters. What sounds better?
Only woe betide if the internet goes down, as it did recently in some neighborhoods of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. For two months, two-thirds of a man’s income disappeared, forcing his wife to become the breadwinner of the family.
This “market gap,” created by the problems of the country itself, has recently led to the emergence of several companies like “Tibia Venezuela Coins” that specialize in trading Tibia gold on South American marketplaces. In exchange, other currencies are at stake. In particular, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin prove to be a good investment to sustainably acquire more US dollars.
The president of Venezuela has also recognized this and is currently considering introducing its own digital currency called “Petro,” which should combat the financial crisis and enable transactions independent of banks.
Old school MMOs like RuneScape or Tibia feed families, ruin the game
The gold farmers from Venezuela report: An advantage of the old-school MMOs is that they largely remain unnoticed. There is no witch hunt like with newer games, where in-game currency is now also sold directly. And even if accounts get banned, it is not a big obstacle to start over again.
A gold seller who regularly gets banned in the cult MMO RuneScape would appreciate more support from the creators of Jagex: “Shouldn’t they be proud that their game feeds several families?” In response, Jagex explained that this is not possible, as it would destroy the game.
Gold sellers are known to have a bad reputation among players. The extent of this problem was highlighted by a now-deleted guide on Reddit that circulated under the name “Killing Venezuelans”.
Tibia is a 2D MMORPG from Regensburg that was released in 1997. It fosters many social features around it and allows for infinite character progression, conducive to eternal gameplay. For years, it was one of the largest MMOs worldwide, reaching nearly 65,000 players at the same time in 2007. Even today, about 15,000 players still gather simultaneously on the servers.
