How PlayToEarn has changed since the Blockchain Gaming Boom

PlayToEarn, PlayAndEArn, PlayAndOwn, PlayToOwn

PlayToEarn has evolved since becoming the term most associated with the blockchain gaming boom of 2021 led by the popular Web3 game Axie Infinity.

The first blockchain game model featured a token that players earn while playing a game, hence the term PlayToEarn. The idea was revolutionary in the sense that regular gamers could now make a living playing a game without being a content creator or pro gamer. Through $SLP farming under its first model, Axie Infinity was able to provide players in some countries with an income that at one point was higher than the minimum wage.

However, this model proved to be somewhat short-lived as it was exhaustively extractive of the game economy. Value must enter the economy in order for value to be extracted. When Axie Infinity became popular in 2021, value entered the economy through new players. But as supply of the utility token overtook demand, prices began to head south as economic laws took over.

This was not an isolated case. Games with a similar model all had the same problem. Pegaxy, a horse simulation game on Polygon, saw an influx of players, most of whom came from the Axie ecosystem. The prices of NFTs and tokens shot up quickly, but also fell just as quickly. Web3 gaming personalities became critical of the PlayToEarn model, and soon after, gaming began to create a new narrative.

PlayAndEarn

The narrative shifted from PlayToEarn to PlayAndEarn to try to change the focus of the project from financial gain to enjoyable gaming. The potential to earn from playing the game is still there and players can still own their assets. The main difference is that developers now focus more on creating a fun game, rather than a project that can generate financial rewards.

Aside from the narrative shift, projects began to invest more in the development of their games. Value-adding gameplay, rather than just interacting with the protocol, was the priority when motivating players. The competitive nature of gaming is one aspect that developers are looking to focus incentives on as more projects try to build a competitive eSports scene to supplement their core in-game economies.

PlayAndOwn / PlayToOwn

But attaching the word “Earn” still connotes an extractive mindset that doesn’t really help blockchain game economies, especially in their infancy. Earnings are still equal to the old model where token earnings are seen as wages for players. From PlayToEarn to PlayToOwn, a new concept called PlayAndOwn or PlayToOwn began to form.

The shift in focus from earning to owning takes away the extractive mentality. This does not inhibit the ability of players to extract tokens from the ecosystem, but it adjusts the thought process to reinvest the tokens in the economy instead of withdrawing them and creating further selling pressure for the token. Income through this narrative comes in the form of increased value through ownership of gaming assets Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

Sunflower Land, a PlayAndOwn blockchain game on the Polygon network, follows this narrative quite well. In their protocol, players earn $SFL, the primary in-game currency that is also an on-chain token. But instead of extracting $SFL from the ecosystem, the team has built desirable and limited NFTs that can only be purchased using $SFL. Once these are all sold out, players wishing to purchase the asset must do so on the secondary market.

PlayToEarn was a revolutionary start to the blockchain gaming philosophy. It is still debatable whether the changes in narratives really affect players’ extraction decisions. But one thing is for sure, the ideologies surrounding PlayToEarn have changed since the blockchain gaming boom of 2021.