What is a play-to-earn game? A guide to your future side-hustle
Gamers have long used video games to unwind after a long stressful day at school or work. For most, the hobby doubles as an entertainment and experiential art and storytelling medium. But, unless your skills are in the 99.9th percentile of players, turning your time spent playing a single game into IRL earnings is out of the question.
But what if things were different? This is where a new breed of games comes in: play-to-earn (P2E) games.
What exactly is the NFT game to earn from a game?
With NFT-powered P2E games – also known simply as “crypto games” – players now have the opportunity to take actual ownership of their in-game assets, which P2E game developers mint as NFTs on the blockchain. Although practically identical to their traditional counterparts, in-game items as NFTs and in-game currency as fully usable opens up many possibilities for the crypto player.
Skins, weapons, characters, in-game currency — even virtual lands in the Metaverse — these virtual items that players can earn or purchase in-game can be traded or sold for profit just like any other NFT. And like any other NFT, some of these in-game resources can sometimes fetch Amount of tears In the secondary market.
How does ‘play-to-earn’ even work?
Another key difference of P2E games when compared to traditional video games is their decentralized nature. In other words, ongoing development of P2E games is done collaboratively, with player feedback often taken into account by the developers to improve the game. Often, groups of dedicated players even band together to form a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to encourage more community-building within a P2E game’s player base.
Although players can be involved in the continuous progress and development of a P2E game in much simpler ways. They can start by just playing the game. As players participate in the in-game economy, they also create value for other players and developers.
In an interview with Dr CNN Philippines, an Axe Infinity player shared his excitement for the game’s huge potential as a P2E title — specifically how players will be able to make a real impact on the game’s economy by consistently playing the game. “I liked the white paper. I like how the gameplay will work. I liked their plan for it,” the player said. “But, most importantly, I like how the basic economics will work in Axie where there will always be high demand for crypto but always low supply.”
So how much do P2E games usually cost? Like traditional sports, it varies. For example, P2E titles like Splinterlands and Sandbox are completely free-to-play. On the other hand, titles like Axie Infinity require you to purchase the Axies you want to use in advance before booting up the game.
Some of the best game earning NFT games on the market
Although the P2E concept is relatively straightforward, game developers have come across many ways to implement this mechanic in their games. In the emerging development of the P2E gaming scene, two types of games have shown great promise in successfully accommodating P2E mechanics: games focused on collection and games focused on creation.
God is unbroken
Specifications: The GODS token price is $0.4246, with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.57 million on Immutable X, over 13 million NFTs issued and over 65,000 unique asset holders.
Brief description: Unchangeable’s strategic card game with PVP matches, released in March 2021.
Similar games: Hearthstone, Slay the Spire
Benefits: Free to play, supported by the former Magic in assembly exec, multiple ways to earn
Disadvantages: Gameplay can be repetitive, with limited ranked opportunities
This trick is reminiscent of a card game hearth stone And Slay the Spire, players must strategically outwit their opponents by creating decks flexible enough to overcome most opponents’ strategies. It also helps to have decent cards — as any Yu-Gi-Oh, Gwentor Magic in assembly The player will happily remind you.
So how does this NFT card game implement P2E in its basic gameplay loop? For starters, as with IRL card-based games, certain cards God is unbroken Very valuable, and can even be sold as NFTs. Through an in-game “forge” players can choose to combine their non-NFT cards, creating a Meteor NFT card in the process. neatly
Additionally, players can participate in ranked PVP matches held “most weekends,” according to the game’s site. Participation in these ranked weekend events grants players expansion packs, which contain NFT cards of varying rarities commensurate with the player’s performance during that period of play.
Thanks to its deceptively deep gameplay mechanics and balanced game design that keeps things from turning into a pay-to-win mess, the game has garnered massive community support since its launch in March 2021. since then, God is unbroken Its NFT marketplace has cleared over $2.5 million in trading volume on Irreplaceable X. Over 13 million NFTs have been released to date, and over 65,000 unique asset holders, players are looking for. hearth stoneNo more looking like fixes with P2E potential.
Axis Infinity
Specifications: AXS Token is priced at $18.97, and has a 24-hour trading volume of $138.49 million.
Brief description: Card-based RPG-style battle game by Sky Mavis, released in March 2018.
Similar games: pokemon, Neopets
Benefits: Extensive community support, soon to be converted to free to play
Disadvantages: Gameplay can be repetitive, startup costs can be expensive
In Axie Infinity, users can create an army of Pokémon-inspired creatures called Axies and battle other players through card-based RPG-style battles. These axes can also be bred, allowing players to potentially build more powerful factions or even sell the creatures outright. After each in-game win, players can earn Smooth Love Potion (SLP), the game’s currency that doubles as functional cryptocurrency. At the moment, players can exchange their in-game winnings for fiat currency on crypto exchanges.
Unfortunately, following a promising year in 2021, one of the biggest P2E games on the planet suffered a series of notable setbacks. In April 2022, Axie Infinity saw a drastic drop in its user base after the Lazarus Hackers Group breached the Ronin Network (the Ethereum-linked sidechain that powers the game) and stole $625 million in assets. By May 2022, the game’s AXS token had dropped by 30 percent. With the in-game economy tanking in recent months, many players who have invested significant amounts of time and money into the game are now “frustrated and in debt”. time magazine He said in a tweet.
As the game’s player base has dropped significantly, the value of its tokens has followed suit, making 2022 a tough year for the game. But hope remains that it may yet return. The game recently recovered a large portion of its stolen funds and looks set to transition to a more player-friendly model in the near future, Axis Infinity: Origins.
Decentraland
Specifications: LAND token is priced at $1.06, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $210.37 million.
Brief description: Created by Decentraland Foundation, Ari Melich and Esteban Ordano, 3D Virtual World is an ever-evolving blockchain gaming community, released in February 2020.
Similar games: Minecraft, Roblox, second life
Benefits: Wide industry support, multiple ways to earn
Disadvantages: Still somewhat bug-prone
As its name suggests, Decentraland is a completely decentralized and ever-evolving 3D virtual world created by users. Within the blockchain gaming community, the title is widely regarded as a demonstration of the metaverse’s potential. True to its reputation, players can purchase plots of land and turn them into many things.
With their newly-acquired digital lands, players can do a wide range of things, from establishing a digital art gallery to setting up a medieval dungeon maze to selling and displaying NFTs from their personal collections — it’s all up to imagination. Decentraland even hosts a Metaverse Music Festival in October 2021 with major headliners such as Paris Hilton, Deadmau5 and 3LAU.
Two tokens govern operations in Decentraland — LAND NFTs, which are used to determine ownership of digital real estate, and MANA, the cryptocurrency used to purchase in-game LAND and virtual goods and services. As of August 2022, there were 2.19 billion MANA tokens in circulation.
Sandbox
Specifications: The SAND token is priced at $1.31, with a 24-hour trading volume of $269.5 million.
Brief description: Developed by Animoca Games, it takes a cue from a voxel-based game Minecraftand released in November 2021.
Similar Games: Minecraft, Roblox, second life
Benefits: It’s Minecraft, but with NFTs! And there are rental solutions for in-game lands
Disadvantages: it is MinecraftBut with NFT, the transaction cost is slightly higher than decentralized
Sandbox is a voxel-based game that takes clear cues from perhaps the most popular game of all time: Minecraft. with Minecraft Indefinitely preventing NFT and other blockchain technologies from being integrated into their games via mods, Sandbox Blockchain appears to fill that void in the gaming space and then some.
Players can sell their in-game coins for $SAND, an in-game currency that doubles as cryptocurrency, hoping to profit from their voxel assets. In addition to enabling players to sell their creations to the highest bidder, Sandbox It also enables players to create custom experiences or even complete games using its in-house game maker software within the sandbox, which can then be published in a virtual land in-game or land and subsequently monetized.
The future of NFT-powered P2E games
Apart from the names mentioned above, Guild of Guardians, Pirate X Pirate, Jade RunAnd Resify Digital assets contribute significantly to the economy — and are extremely popular among gamers and crypto enthusiasts. As evidenced by all these headlines, the NFT-driven P2E gaming market is growing at a rapid pace. NFT games alone generated $2.32 billion in Q3 2021
Moreover, Facebook’s transition to Meta, the recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, and the launch of NFT marketplace Quartz by gaming studio Ubisoft indicate that the gaming industry is also serious about implementing blockchain innovation in mainstream gaming. Like, even titles like universally beloved Final Fantasy VII It saw the launch of a complementary NFT scheme to celebrate its 25th anniversary
Despite these moves, the mainstream gaming community is still largely skeptical, if not loathing, of the prospect of implementing NFTs into their beloved hobby. For the core gaming audience, the success of P2E gaming has done nothing to affect their negative stance towards NFTs.
Even developers have expressed their concerns about the growing popularity of P2E games, which can optimistically be seen as a plea for P2E game developers to focus on the “game” aspect to create truly value-added experiences for their intended audience. And, as the blockchain gaming industry aims to expand in the coming years, especially with upcoming tentpole titles like BAYC’s Otherside set to hit the market soon, only time will tell which aspect of P2E blockchain game devs will decide to focus on moving forward.
Will P2E completely overtake the traditional gaming industry? Who knows. At the very least, Epic Games’ openness to blockchain gaming shows that perhaps the two sides of the gaming world can still coexist. Until then, the option remains for gamers looking for ways to turn their hobby into a side hustle And it goes without saying that a quick buck or two from P2E games will become more achievable than turning pro or making it big as a streamer.
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