Runescape is one of the largest and most successful MMORPGs available on the internet today. However, with success comes the inevitable attraction of trying to cheat to get ahead without having to put in the work required to gain all the ingame skills and wealth via natural methods.
There is an increasing amount of virtual currency stores appearing on the internet who are proactively promoting the cheating aspect - paying real money for runescape virtual money. This has led to a significant clampdown by Jagex Ltd on unbalanced ingame trades that has resulted in an increasing number of player characters being permanently banned from playing the game.
Rule 12 of the game rules states:
RuneScape items must only be exchanged for other items/services within the game.
Exchanging RuneScape items for items or other benefits in other online games, real-life money or other real-life benefits is not allowed.
The rules of the game are obviously not of interest to the people who set up the virtual currency stores as they are simply captalising on the demand by players who decide to ignore the rules.
The reality of the situation is that as a player breaks the rules they run the risk of being banned from the game they are trying to cheat. The cost of cheating has therefore increased significantly, as it is not just about losing virtual items but losing real money as well as their time invested in creating and developing their character. This may hold true for all MMORPGs in addition to Runescape itself.
Overall, by paying real money for virtual money, players may cheat the game but in reality are only cheating themselves out of real money as they are not entitled to any refunds from either Jagex or the virtual currency stores.
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