Others, like Corne an 21-year old programmers who hails from Arnhem, Netherlands, who did not want to reveal his name, but placed bets on gold, and by it, real-world currency, on matches with other players. "I love money. If it's in real life or in RuneScape that is, money is great to have," he said in an interview.

He buys much of his gold through intermediaries, who purchase gold in bulk from farmers of gold and then resell it on websites such as El Dorado or Sythe. Horn believes he's spent anywhere between four and five thousand euros, fueling his belief that at one moment was a gambling addiction.

The moment players such as OSRS gold Corne and Mobley return the game of RuneScape with the hunger and money of adulthood, the game's black market grew. The players still reported the existence of Chinese gold farmers, however, there were others profiting off the revival of RuneScape, including Venezuelans such as Marinez.

On the 12th of March the year 2020, Marinez determined to enroll in a police academy in Caracas which is the capital of Venezuela and begin to work towards becoming a police officer. The following day it was announced that the Venezuelan government released its initial two cases of COVID-19.

The government also closed all schools, closed the frontiers between Venezuela and neighboring countries, and put six states and Caracas under quarantine. Marinez was left stranded on the road and then hunkered down at his uncle's house in a city fifty miles from his capital.

Two months later, Marinez came back to Maracaibo, "without any money in my pockets," he said. He tried to find work but could not find an employment market destroyed due to the pandemic. It also led to a prolonged economic recession.

Ten years ago, Venezuela, a petrostate under the leadership of Hugo Chavez, witnessed a bust in oil prices. The cost of a barrel plummeted to around $50, down from a record high of more than $100, as well as there was a resurgence in sanctions against Venezuela. U.S. instituted wide-ranging sanctions against Venezuela's authoritarian government.

"When the prices of oil began to fall in the early 2000s, there was not enough money to import the products," said Alejandro Velasco Professor at New York University who specializes in Venezuelan political issues, in a phone interview. "As as a result it was impossible to find money to support the economy."

The Venezuelan coffers were already empty after the country spent its largest recent oil earnings on social services , including rs07 fire cape service  subsidized health care, food along with literacy and health programs. Chavez was also known to have removed perceived dissenters from the oil business following an attempted military coup, impacting production.

A widespread system of corruption in the state has harmed the economy, according to Paul Angelo, a fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations who specialises in Latin American politics.