In addition to OSRS gold his pocket change earned while working in a local pizzeria, he makes approximately $60 a month with RuneScape which can be used to purchase cornmeal to make arepas and rice for himself and his younger sister. For Marinez playing online isn't only about arepas. It's about escaping, even if he believes that the medieval fantasy game is boring.

Amid one of the worst economic recessions of the past 45 years, and without conflict, some in Venezuela have turned toward gaming on video to survive and possibly a way to move. Gaming with video games isn't just about sitting at a desk. It can mean movement. Hunting herbiboars in RuneScape could help finance the food we eat today and tomorrow's future with Colombia or Chile, countries where Marinez is a member of the family.

Across from the Caribbean Sea in Atlanta, nearly 2,000 miles away Marinez lives Bryan Mobley. As a teenager the game he played was RuneScape continuously, he told me in a phone call. "It was enjoyable. It was a way to clearly avoid homework, and shit like this," he said.

At 26, Mobley has a different view of buy rs07 fire cape the game. "I do not see it as the same as a virtual reality," he told me. He sees it as more of a "number simulator," an analogy to virtual roulette. An increase in the quantity of currency in games is an increase in dopamine.