As of 2022, the Play-to-earn industry is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing sub-segments of the crypto industry. At the time of writing, the market cap of “Play2Earn” tokens, aimed at rewarding players of P2E games, was over $21 billion. Such a massive market size shows the traction that the industry has experienced among both hobby gamers and professionals.
However, as many thought leaders and industry experts have pointed out, the play-to-earn space has some quite unique characteristics compared to its sister industries. For instance, during the recent ‘World of Web3’ Summit 2022 in Dubai, P2E executives such as Serdar Senay from Mad Metaverse have pointed to the immense opportunities play-to-earn games could bring to people in developing regions, such as Africa or Asia.
For example, in the Philippines, P2E games provided much-needed respite during the pandemic, which severely impacted its economy. Recent studies indicate that the pandemic pushed over four million Filipinostowards poverty. The success of P2E games is evident from the fact that 32% of respondents said they would choose to play P2E games full-time if such an opportunity was available. As Serdar Senay perfectly sums up, “P2E means financial inclusivity and empowering communities.”
Therefore, let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits that the play-to-earn industry offers, and how it came to be as popular as it is today in the first place.
Axie Infinity’s rise: The turning point for P2E gaming
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The rise of Axie Infinity coincides with the increasing popularity of NFT gaming. In 2021, the most popular P2E game surpassed $3.5 billion in NFT sales, which majorly benefited players in many third-world countries. The SimilarWeb data suggests that over 50% of Axie Infinity’s traffic is from the developing world. For example, the Philippines accounts for over 40% of traffic, Venezuela for around 7%, Argentina for over 4.8%, and Brazil for over 3.6%.
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And you don’t need to look far to find the reason for the game’s immense popularity in thes regions. As Serdar Senay highlighted during the WOW Summit,, “what it does is, it actually enables people living in Vietnam, earning $2-$3 a month to earning $5-$6 a month at least.” According to him, “it is doubling income for a lot of people and changing lives in slums of Vietnam and other places where there is a huge income gap.” All P2E games, including Senay’s project MAD Metaverse, solve a problem by offering high-earning opportunities to the masses.
Empowering players
The ultimate objective as far as the implementation of the P2E model is concerned is to empower the player and the community by helping them earn more. Senay, too, believes that it is highly crucial to understand what the customer wants. It is on the brands, platforms, and solutions to break the need into actionable pieces. The brands that fail to empower the players will be obliviated in the increasingly competitive space.
In the long run, P2E games need to be able to rival traditional games in terms of user experience and fun. To achieve this, it takes clever game design, stable feedback loops, and developers driven by ideology, not revenue.
Simple UX, low gas fees
The P2E model’s success would be measured in the long run. It would be too early to say whether this model will sustain. However, Senay believes if the UX is right and the gas fees are low, it would have high possibilities of success.
In recent years, the most popular blockchain for NFTs and P2E games has been Ethereum. However, this blockchain has frequently made headlines for unsustainably high fees. As such, it has become unviable for many people in developing countries.
Many examples of the latest breed of P2E games are currently attempting solve this issue by leveraging the latest generation of high throughput blockchains, which includes Solana, Algorand, and others. Other projects have started to work on new programming techniques which reduce fees for Ethereum and other traditional blockchains.
What does Mad Metaverse do?
At its core, the Mad Metaverse is probably among the most comprehensive digital ecosystems for NFTs. The platform positions itself as a place where participants would create, live, and breathe NFTs. In order to provide a unique and exciting gameplay experience, Mad Metaverse has introduced brand new mechanics to the NFT game industry, including evolving and third party mutated NFTs.
These novel gameplay additions not only make the game more engaging and fun than most P2E games on the market, but they are also expected to increase the earning potential of Mad Metaverse players compared to other games. As a result, Mad Metaverse has already been named as one of the top NFT games in 2022 by reputable crypto media such as CoinMarketCap and CoinCodex. Players who are looking to participate in the upcoming Mad Metaverse launch in Q2 2022 can join the community’s discord or follow the news for further updates.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
