Play-to-Earn is a Waste of Human Resources
I don’t mean human resources in the sense of hiring, firing, and unprofessional email slap on the wrist. I mean actual time wasted by people everywhere. Let’s elaborate.
Play-to-Earn never should have come to prominence because it represents a giant misstep in our society. It was catalyzed by the unimaginable growth of Axie Infinity, the golden child that’s plastered across the intro slide of nearly every GameFi pitch-deck released last year.
There’s a good reason for this — their numbers are absurd. The revenue Sky Mavis generated is mind blowing, and it’s a great example to point to in saying “we can do better” since the game and concept itself are simple and leave much room for improvement.
The problem is, Axie was a fluke…
Their growth was fueled by a hungry demographic of novice retail investors desperately seeking a new train to hop on following the decline of DeFi in Q2 of last year.
As a result, the token price, and earnings potential of this game skyrocketed as everyone and their mother aped in. Their platform devolved into a system where users could play an awful video game and make a living doing it — albeit, for a short time before runaway emissions cratered it.
Since then, the ultimate goal of GameFi founders has been to reproduce this story. Their goal is to turn their own games into ecosystems where users can make a living playing five days a week.
Fortunately, the topic of conversation in GameFi slowly caught up, and today many Token Economics gurus are discussing “how do we make Play-to-Earn economies sustainable?” People are wising up as a more realistic expectation settles in. Unfortunately, they’re all missing the big picture.
NO PLAY-TO-EARN GAME IS SUSTAINABLE
This shouldn’t dissuade game developers from creating their own in-game economies. The truth is, no video game ecosystem is sustainable.
Historically, people would spend money on a video game in return for entertainment value, which is directly proportional to how engaging and entertaining your ecosystem is. All video games have a shelf life, spanning from several weeks for your mobile-game, Tetris ripoff, to several decades for your iconic StarCraft expansion.
Several veterans are slowly coming to understand this, which is why it’s becoming more common to hear “your game should be fun and engaging first and foremost!”
Followed closely with “…it should be Play-AND-Earn, not Play-to-Earn.”
The story is changing, and realistically this means that the industry is coming back full circle to the beginning. The goal of integrating blockchain into gaming was very simply summed up by what spawned Vitalik Buterin’s interest in blockchain immutability.
Putting power back into the hands of players who can actually own their in-game assets. So users can openly transact, buy, or sell them in an open market.
In-Game Economy is a Feature, Not the Product
No team will successfully be able to reproduce the rise of Axie Infinity. The focus must shift away from turning Play-to-Earn/Play-and-Earn into a means of keeping users glued to your ecosystem in hopes of a market pump so they can make a weekly living and you can capitalize from your retained, overvalued token supply.
This is now a pipe dream that many are still chasing, and many people in the cryptocurrency space want to find a way to make a living. As a game maker, if you draw them into Axie or something similar, the train will go up… And it will come back down… And certain individuals will have made some cash… And others will have lost.
But if you haven’t created the next Call of Duty level of entertainment, a whole lot of human time and effort will have been spent with very little enjoyment gained in return.
“Insert Buzzword Here” -to-Earn is Bent, Not Broken
I often try to think about how we can take this model and apply it to something productive, useful, and able to generate revenue. Because at the end of the day, you’re crowdsourcing a massive amount of man-hours and labor. It should be your duty to try and be responsible about where you’re pointing that machine.
If this content interests you and you share the same vision, or if you have an interesting idea, reach out and let’s discuss it. Maybe we can build the future of productive crowdsourcing together at Arcanum Ventures.
Please be sure to visit our website to learn more about what other services we offer.
About Arcanum Ventures
Arcanum Ventures is a venture capital investment firm, blockchain advisory service, and digital asset educator. We bring precise knowledge and top-tier expertise in advising blockchain startups.
Arcanum demystifies the blockchain space for its partners by providing intelligent, poised, crystal clear, and authentic input powered by our passion to empower and champion our allies. We unravel the mysteries and unlock the opportunities in blockchain, Web3, and other emerging innovations.
