I’m wondering how long it’ll take Venezuelans to invest in a World of Warcraft account.
In a move that probably surprises no one who has actually been following how terrible things in Venezuela have gotten, World of Warcraft’s gold is now worth more than the Venezuelan Bolivar. Specifically, on the black market; the most popular way to change money in Venezuela right now (which sets a different value than the government itself, natch). The first to note the change was Venezuelan Twitter user “Kaleb”:
It happened again, WoW gold is worth more than the Venezuelan Bolivar.
Black Market: Bs.F 8493.97 per USD
WoW Token: ~8385g per USD. pic.twitter.com/Il7TVqYNsH
— Kaleb (@KalebPrime) July 14, 2017
But if you didn’t expect things to get worse, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. See, finding the value of World of Warcraft’s fictional gold in U.S. dollars is actually a relatively simple process thanks to WoW Tokens. The tokens are used to extend play time or buy certain in game items, and are sold for a flat $20, or a fluctuating amount of in-game gold.
As of this writing in the U.S., a token is worth about 130,039 gold. 130,039 ÷ 20 dollars = 5151.95 gold per dollar. No doubt, the value of the Bolivar has continued to plummet because Venezuela’s current GDP is probably worse than North Korea’s. So, at this point, it would probably be safe to say that Azeroth’s Gold is worth greater than double Venezuela’s currency.
Sure, being caught involved in the black market exchange can carry a stiff 6 year jail sentence. Then again, considering that the government sets the Bolivar at 10 to the dollar, and the real value is actually far worse, it may work out like illegal mp3’s in the likelihood of getting caught. I don’t know; I’m not there.
I mean, seriously, we have a writer in Venezuela. Here’s hoping you stay safe, dude. I genuinely mean that.
Source: fortune.com
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