As a result of one of the largest economic slumps over the last 45 years, without a war, many in Venezuela have turned to RuneScape gold playing video games to ensure survival and potential migration. Gaming with video games isn't just about sitting on a couch in front of the screen. It can mean movement. Herbiboar hunting in RuneScape can finance today's food as well as the future of the world with Colombia or Chile, countries where Marinez has relatives.

Over the Caribbean Sea in Atlanta, nearly 2,000 miles away Marinez lives Bryan Mobley. As a teenager playing RuneScape continuously, he told me via phone. "It was entertaining. It was a method to get away from homework, shit like this," he said.

A mere 26 years old, Mobley views the game in a different way. "I don't consider it the same as a virtual reality," he told me. For him, it's more of a "number simulator" like virtual roulette. A rise in the amount of money in the game is an infusion of dopamine.

Since Mobley started playing RuneScape in the early aughts an underground market had been bubbling under the economy of the computer game. In the land of Gielinor, players can trade items--mithril longswords, yak-hide armor, herbs gathered from herbiboars and gold, the game's currency. Then, players began trading gold in the game for rs07 fire cape service actual dollars. This is known as real-world trading. Jagex the game's developer, prohibits these exchanges.