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It's against the rules of most games, but it happens all the time.ĪRONCZYK: These transactions usually take place on websites at, like - I don't know - whatever,. He knew that this behavior he was seeing, it was probably gold farming.īERAS: Gold farming basically means going into a video game and earning gold or points or coins or whatever and then selling it to other players for real money outside the game. Like - but these were actual people, and you'd see them there for hours.ĪRONCZYK: Just killing the Green Dragons over and over again for hours. And they weren't particularly bots 'cause bots are - at that time were pretty detectable. But then he notices this strange thing starting to happen with some of the other players.ĪRAFIN: A lot of people, like, just doing the same activities over and over again. Along the way, he's trying to get more gold and more powers.ĪRONCZYK: While Shafqat's on his quest, he can see all of these other players moving around the game on their own quests. He could go start a revolution against the king or go make nice with the ice trolls. He can pick from one of 150 different quests. So when Shafqat logs in, it's more of a choose your own adventure. Players are not really trying to reach some elusive end goal. And then the next kid would come on, and he'd play for 30 minutes.īERAS: The way the game works is like this. Like, the Toronto Public Library, you have 30 minutes - right? - so, there'd be one kids playing for 30 minutes. Like, literally you'd see all those library computers. He started playing at his local library when he was a tween back in the early 2000s. Today on the show, a story about how two groups of people who usually never meet from the richest and poorest corners of the world crash into each other in a video game.ĪRONCZYK: And how that leads to a battle filled with wizards and goblins and chinchompas that shakes the actual lives of tens of thousands of people.ĪRONCZYK: A lot of the people who play Old School Runescape have been playing for years, like this one guy we talked to, Shafqat Arafin (ph). But these deaths were bigger.ĪRONCZYK: Hello, and welcome to PLANET MONEY. Thousands died here.ĪRONCZYK: And OK, that happens all the time in video games. This place where we are, it was the site of an epic months-long fight between two warring clans. And now there's these ghosts that walk around that are called revenants.ĪRONCZYK: Ghost hellhounds and ghost goblins and ghost ghosts all float by. JACOB: It's all been torn apart, and it's kind of fallen into ruin. We see the mouth of the Revenant Caves and enter. The ground has turned black, and rivers of lava stream by. We are almost there.ĪRONCZYK: The sky darkens. We stop so I can eat a lobster and recover. You ran through the dragon pit, and one managed to get two bites on you. JACOB: (Laughter) Just keep running (laughter).ĪRONCZYK: Oh, my God. But as you enter the wilderness, you have to watch your back.ĪRONCZYK: Whoa. JACOB: So some people are geared up to fight, and others have items on that are just fashionable.ĪRONCZYK: There's lots to see here. This person has a scarf on with a party hat. Another person has a kind of translucent shield. Inside the game, it is a hodgepodge of medieval themes and characters. To get there, we have to head towards the edge of the world.ĪRONCZYK: Old School RuneScape looks kind of retro and old school, like a video game that hasn't been updated in ages. He is taking me to a crime scene, the site of a brutal massacre. Millions of people play it all over the world. If you don't know it, Old School RuneScape has been around for, like, 20 years. Anyway, in Jacob's videos, he talks about this game and what happens inside of it. We are only identifying him and others in the story by their first names because they are afraid of being threatened and harassed. It's called Old School RuneScape.ĪRONCZYK: And my guide, Jacob, is a YouTuber who is kind of like an investigative reporter. I tuck the two stamina potions and three lobsters into my backpack, and we are off.ĪRONCZYK: Now, I'm probably not going to surprise any of you here.
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JACOB: This amulet will let us teleport around and two stamina potions and then a couple pieces of food in case you start dying.ĪRONCZYK: Did you give me three lobsters?ĪRONCZYK: I put on my glory amulet. To get ready for our tour, he hands me a few things. And when we meet, he's wearing this reddish cape. Jacob's got green hair and a green beard. I'd never been there before, so I got a guide - a guy named Jacob (ph). SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: This is PLANET MONEY from NPR.Ī few months ago, I visited Gielinor.