RuneScape developer turning in-game gold into charity donations

RuneScape developer Jagex has launched a month-long scheme that allows players to donate their in-game gold to have it converted into real-life currency to be given to charities.

The Well of Goodwill accepts RuneScape items, gold, and bonds, and Jagex will give $1 for every 10 million gold pieces donated in November.

At the time of writing, 98,978,036,994 coins have been donated, which equates to $9,897. Jagex has a real-time tracker for the charity drive.

The charities receiving the funds include GamesAid, Willow, SpecialEffect, Action for Kids, and the Internet Watch Foundation.

"With the Well of Goodwill, we believe we have created a perfect system to allow our players to support worthy charities through their in-game efforts without affecting their own real-world pockets," said Jagex COO Riaan Hodgson.

A community FAQ for the Well of Goodwill also says that the charity drive will act as a money sink to help fix the game's virtual economy. "A second benefit of adding the Well of Goodwill is that it will also act as a massive gold sink for the game: something we promised with the launch of Bonds that's still needed, which will have a huge impact on improving the game's economy," says Jagex.