When players such as Corne and Mobley were able to come back into with the money and appetites of adulthood The game's black market increased. Players still reported the existence of Chinese gold farmers, however, there were others profiting off RuneScape's renaissance: Venezuelans such as Marinez.

On the 12th of March of 2020, Marinez began to apply into a police academy Caracas the capital of Venezuela, and work toward a career in law enforcement. The following day when the Venezuelan government announced the initial two cases of COVID-19.

It also shut down all schools, closed the frontiers between Venezuela as well as neighboring countries and put six states and Caracas in quarantine. Marinez was left stranded on the road and holed up at his uncle's house in a city that was over 50 miles from the capital.

After two months, Marinez came back to Maracaibo, "without any money in my pockets," he said. He tried to find work but couldn't find any in the market, which was devastated by the epidemic, as well as a lengthy economic recession.