Many of you may think you know what this is, some of you have no idea, most of you are wrong anyway. Allow me to explain.
There is a subtle difference between Purchasing Gold directly with Cash and Purchasing a Bond with Cash which is then sold for Gold. Adding that intermediary BOND step means that Gold or items are sourced directly from the existing player economy and user base rather than “being generated out of thin air”. If Jagex sold for example a Bandos Godsword to players for 5 that Bandos Godsword will have been artificially injected into the game and so reduces the player-mediated value of the Bandos Godswords already in the game. Even if Jagex were to take a Bandos Godsword from the Grand Exchange instead of “Spawning” one for the purchaser, the value of that Bandos Godsword or its “Grand Exchange Price” will still have been injected into the game.
It’s difficult to argue that selling a Bond for Buy Runescape Gold isn’t buying power. You could argue that Gold is just a measure of time a player has spent grinding and that the real measure of a players power is his skills. You could similarly argue that knowing the right people and having a great understanding of the game is power.
The best argument is that power in Runescape Account is mostly derived from hands-on experience that can’t be bought, but even in that case buying Gold is still undeniably purchasing an advantage.
So why shouldn’t we care that someone can legitimately purchase his way to in-game riches? Probably because everything in Runescape is tradeable and so there are no purchasable in-game items or perks or skills that can’t be otherwise acquired with Gold. One player can drop $5/3 on a Bond to get some Gold and another can grind some Green Dragons or Mine up ores to get it. Dropping money into Runescape is then just a shortcut to cut out some of the Gold grind. But that grind doesn’t just disappear into the ether; it’s effectively traded to another player with more time on his hands.