CarrieB

Now that I've finished the thread... I'm rather shocked at the amount of class envy being displayed here. There are important lessons to life - "you have to work for every penny you earn" is not one of them. However, "being creative enough to find a way to make your money work for you" is one of them. People who are "born into money" do not have it all. Sit there and envy them all you want, but I'm sorry - they're just as clueless as you are. So they can party a lot - big deal. That's not what life is about. If people like Paris Hilton were to lose all of their money tomorrow, they'd be out on their rear in the street begging for food. Period. Why? Because they haven't learned how to earn the money themselves. It's the same situation with RS, and players buying their way up. So they've got full Guthans and every 99 cape available - so what? How in the world does that affect you? It doesn't. There is, however, one very important point that you are missing... the folks that buy their way up have not learned how to get those things themselves, and they're going to have to keep paying gold to keep themselves in the style of playing they've become accustomed to. You, Mr. Hard Worker, on the other hand have done the quests and put in the work required - and now you know all of the monsters and where they are. You know the shortcuts that can cut your nat creating time from 5 minutes to just under 2. You know where you can easily replace that special item just by asking an NPC. Mr. Buy My Way does not know these things, and as such, his way of playing becomes a permanent chain around his neck... it truly is its own punishment. Now, all of that being said, back to the "R"eal "W"orld. You never have to work for every penny you earn. What a fallacy of thinking. Ever heard of a house earning equity? Ever heard of interest? Ever heard of multiple streams of passive income? That mindset in and of itself will keep you from ever breaking out of the class/caste that you believe yourself to currently be in. One of the beautiful things about the "western world" and its structure of capitalism is that anyone - ANYONE - with any amount of schooling (or none), can become a very rich person with just a little effort. Entrepreneurs abound in the U.S., and it's petty for those who are short-sighted to sit and whine that the world should be socialist so that the people who have great ideas, or who work hard, or who have creative ways of making money work for them should have to turn around and give that money away to the folks who sit on their butts with their hand stuck out. This is the exact reason why the welfare system does NOT work, and why countries run by socialism are the poorest and have the least-ambitious populace. I'll help you guys out a bit: 1. Work Smarter, Not Harder 2. Don't work for every penny; make every penny work for you. 3. Focusing on what other people have and what you don't have is a waste of time. Focus instead on how to get what you want. It's time better-spent. As for kids playing with their parents' permission - our entire family plays, including 2 sons under the age of 13. I know when they're on, I am usually online at the same time. Jagex made the right call by leaving that decision up to the parents. My husband and I love being able to play an interactive game with our sons that actually helps them learn important things like setting and reaching goals, and we gladly pay a monthly fee for that.

I understand what you're saying and I agree; it's just the way you said it. If you've ever bought an item from another player that you couldn't get yourself - say, an Abyssal Whip or Dragon Helm - then you are, in fact, paying someone else to play for you.