Play and Earn

Innovation in blockchain technology has given rise to play-to-earn gaming. Over the last year, we’ve seen several play-to-earn projects rise and fall. While many of these projects have been successful, the narrative across the GameFi space is changing.

Some of the pitfalls of play-to-earn projects have made developers reevaluate — with a focus on sustainability and player experience. The central idea is that players shouldn’t play to earn but instead play and earn.

Samurai Legends will be a part of this significant shift in the GameFi landscape. We’re emphasising the following going forward:

• Play-and-earn instead of play-to-earn
• Sustainable game rewards
• Utility for $SMG & $KOKU (marketplace, community governance, burn mechanics)
• Development of the flagship Samurai Legends game

Play-to-Earn Pitfalls

Market Conditions

Play-to-earn projects eventually falter without a near-constant influx of new players and capital. This makes these projects incredibly dependent on favourable market trends across the entire crypto space. We’ve seen multiple projects rise and fall as part of this macro movement — the most notable being Axie Infinity. As market conditions change, so must the GameFi space.

NFT Heavy

The play-to-earn model incentivises holding a disproportionate amount of NFTs compared to other assets in the ecosystem. Unfortunately, this puts massive sell pressure on the price of tokens — harming investors and making long-term rewards unsustainable. A more sustainable and rewarding ecosystem can exist with a stronger incentive to diversify assets.

No Focus on Sustainability

Play-to-earn ecosystems focus on maxing out earnings potential as soon as possible with no regard for sustainability. Players are drawn to play-to-earn with high ROI expectations, yet these projected earnings are never sustainable. Without an incentive for reinvestment or a constant influx of new players, these projects fail to deliver for players and investors alike.

No Emphasis on Playing

Most play-to-earn games have been straightforward in their scope. Unfortunately, this has led to a focus on earnings and a disregard for player experience. As GameFi projects become more complex, the focus will shift away from grinding for earnings and toward creating value in genuinely engaging games.

Playing And Earning

The recent changes in the Samurai Legends ecosystem represent our first steps away from play-to-earn and toward play-and-earn. Hardcore gamers can spend hundreds of hours in traditional video games, generate no value, and retain no ownership of digital items. Our goal is to create a complex, player-owned world where real gamers can create value while genuinely enjoying the experience.

Energy staking was one of the first steps in our journey towards a play and earn ecosystem. It is an observable fact that projects that don’t incentivise reinvestment will eventually fail. If players hold an even spread of the ecosystem’s assets, then they are incentivised to have the ecosystem’s long-term interests in mind. A more sustainable environment is required instead of having an ecosystem that is infinitely exposed to exponentially growing rewards.

In addition, our ecosystem governance system is coming soon. This is another feature that incentivises both players and investors to stake $SMG to have a say on the changes affecting the ecosystem. Having a firm understanding of community desires will enable us to enact faster and smoother adjustments for a better future. We’re publishing the full details on community governance in an article later this week, so stay tuned!

The above measures are far from solutions but instead necessary steps to take in our evolution as a leading GameFi project. Additional measures will be implemented to increase $SMG’s utility and curtail $KOKU inflation. However, the ultimate solution will lie in fundamentals that create an environment to play and earn in Samurai Legends.