RuneScape defined a generation of gaming as a web-based MMORPG in the early 2000s. Today, a lot of those people who grew up playing the game are now at the forefront of the NFT and Web3 revolution that we are seeing now. Why is this happening? Read on.
Let’s start out with the game’s history in the venture capital industry. In 2005, Insight Partners — a now renowned venture capital firm— invested in RuneScape’s parent company: Jagex. They “secured a 35% investment” in the company, which had been primarily self-funded until that point.
RuneScape had all of the perfect ingredients for a product in the early 2000s: an intuitive on-boarding experience (tutorial island), a flawless user experience, a loyal community, an internationally growing userbase, a premium model through subscriptions, an innovative roadmap for upcoming releases, and a scalable platform.
Insighthas been one of the leading software and internet investors in the industry today, and this wouldn’t be RuneScape’s first and only impact in the venture space. While people may question the game’s visual design, it still has had lasting relevance today. Leading venture investors such as Insight Partners, Spectrum Equity Investors, and The Raine Group continued to lead investments in RuneScape’s parent company throughout the early 2000s.
Source: https://www.insightpartners.com/, https://www.spectrumequity.com/, https://raine.com/
Little did we know, RuneScape would serve as one of the cornerstones for incubating a community of people that would critically understand the concept of NFTs and decentralization in Web3 — because RuneScape had been thematically built by its players on analogous concepts.
On Twitter, you may have seen RuneScape come up occasionally:
Source: https://twitter.com/yo/status/1331389658266218502
Source: https://twitter.com/NFTSiblings/status/1472216078537441289?s=20
Source: https://twitter.com/RSGPfinance/status/1470782553510580229?s=20
Shaan Puri coined the term “RuneScape Mafia” as a way to describe early adopters of crypto. Shaan Puri is a well-known product-leader, entrepreneur, and angel investor who hosts a podcast alongside Sam Parr.
“I know a whole bunch of people who got super successful in crypto. They all came from this RuneScape Mafia. […] They were trading in the arena basically. They would buy, sell — they would go farm and get virtual goods. Then, they would go flip them. They were basically digital flippers. And guess what, that same group of people is really good at crypto and was early on it. Figured it out early. They were good at Poker — that same skillset applies to a whole bunch of things that can be successful.” (Link)
Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/twitch-shaan-puri-25-net-worth-into-bitcoin-front-run-institutional-capital/