Dr_Elephant

I appreciate that. As far as you agreeing with Puddin_tane, I will say you are entitled to your opinion... ...even when it's dead wrong. :wink: I kid! I kid!

LOL It's funny how people jump to conclusions about others' personal life based on one post. I'm married with two children, work full time, invest in real estate... I'm probably boring you by now. Anyway, when I say social experiment, it's not that I live my life through Runescape. Quite the opposite. I play Runescape in a very disconnected way and enjoy seeing certain aspects of human nature manifest itself in this virtual world. By the way, I've tried the pub/club thing. In many cases, the lives some people lead in those establishments are more pathetic than anything you'd find in an online game. You'll find out soon enough when you're old enough to enter such places.

Okay, I'm beginning to see your point more clearly. Time is money and when you're cheated out of your time, you would take that as seriously as I would take being cheated out of my real money. Fair enough. I think we both just play Runescape for different reasons. The time I use to play RS is very clearly set aside as leisure time so I don't see it as a loss of time, no matter what I lose in the game. Because better items and more GP enhance the "fun factor" for you, it can be frustrating when those things are lost because of the cruel intentions of other players. This is where I would agree with you wholeheartedly. Just because I find it amusing in the game doesn't mean I fail to recognize the danger of some kid being so desensitized to conning people out of virtual money that it makes it easier for him to turn around and try the same tactics with real money and real victims. That is the same reason I don't let my six year old watch age-inappropriate movies or play ultra-voilent video games (bring on the tween-flamers).

I truly hope this does not come across as condescending, but I must admit your post had me chuckling with almost as much enthusiasm as I do when I chuckle at the scammers. You're obviously looking at this whole thing through quite a different perspective and with different experiences than myself. I take real life seriously. More serious than most and maybe more seriously than I should. Which is why, by contrast, I find amusement in this non-reality that is Runescape. Quite simply, when my Runescape character loses Runescape gold and Runescape items he is never in any danger of losing his house, his job, his wife and his children and never does he have to go through his little virtual life facing the danger of virtual hunger pangs and little virtual debt collectors. Nor does he contemplate virtual suicide (unless you count the free teleport to Lumbridge) because of his losses. No, those are things that only real people face in the real world, when they become victims of real crime. I hope that helps clear things up.

One of the reasons I enjoy Runescape so much is that it is an interesting little social experiment. In fact, I find it more amusing than annoying that there are people trying to resort to "criminal" tactics to obtain wealth in Runescape because it essentially acts as a mirror to our real society, but in a way that no-one needs to be truly hurt physically or financially (while some consider losing RS gold as being hurt financially, I would ask them to compare their computer game money to the real money lost by real victims of extortion, fraud and armed assault). In real life, there may be a few thugs who generate wealth by peddling illegal substances or subverting the laws of the country or locality they live in, but the vast majority of middle-class to wealthy people make their money while obeying the rules of the land. Yet, there's never a shortage of people willing to try getting rich by theft, fraud or extortion, even when the success rate is not nearly as high and the risk of incarceration looms. The same applies in this virtual world. Even though it likely takes much longer and is harder to scam people out of a few GP - couple that with the risk of the ever-present "Report" button - there's no shortage of kids/immature adults willing to try. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I like having those people participate in this game. I just take comfort in the fact that the damage they do is only virtual.