Coin Abuse
There are lots of game types that can be accessed through the internet, such as RTS (Real-time strategy), FPS (First person shooter), RPG (Role Playing), Simulation (like “The Sims”), MMOG (Massive Multi-player), and Sandbox, but recently a new genre has appeared, that of P2E (Play to Earn). While game companies have always found ways in which they can recover the cost of developing and supporting on-line games, players are not in the same position in most cases as there is the cost of the game software in some instances and the fact that gamers can (in some games) buy certain objects that help them through the game or give them status. Those objects are paid for with real cash and while there are some external quasi-markets for such objects, game companies will ban users who buy or sell objects outside of the game world.
That said, the idea of P2E games, which are an extension of cryptocurrencies, stems from a number of games where only the top few competitors could earn actual currency when battling other top competitors in events sponsored by gaming platforms. However P2E 2.0 now finds that a number of on-line P2E games have appeared where the average rank and file player can actually ‘earn’ cryptocurrency inside the game and transfer that crypto to currency outside of the game through NFTs or similar block chain systems. While this all sounds a bit iffy, the key to such games are NFTs, which are generated by players as they progress through the game. In order not to over-supply the market (NFT inflation) and decrease the value of generated NFTs, some algorithms allocate ‘rarity’ to certain objects which limits the overall growth rate of NFTs in a particular game, and each new P2E game tries to build a better ‘economy’ than previous games, given the economic structure of each are in the block chain for public examination.
So is this a bad thing or a way in which gamers can generate income, rather than have the game be a cost? It’s not quite that simple, despite some games advertising that you can earn over $6.00 each day, as such games become so popular within days of release, that sites crash, making it difficult for those who like the game for itself and are not interested in creating a profit center. It is also difficult to get earned money out of the games as this excerpt would indicate.
“It is necessary to withdraw the mined Ninky Coin (aka Idle Ninja Online Token - $NINKY) to the electronic wallet Metamask (browser extension/mobile app that is a secure repository for your in-game tokens) and purchase Binance Coins (a cryptocurrency exchange platform currency) to pay a ‘gas’ fee (whatever) and send it back to Metamask. Even after swapping and selling it can be converted into cash through the process of sending it back to the domestic exchange” Simple, right?
Stories of users renting hundreds of computers for 3 days to mine in such games, producing over $330,000 in profits have circulated, inciting a new rash of users to jump into the P2E business, along with those who are willing (for a fee) to teach others how to mine and profit when playing such games. In many countries, such games are illegal because they encourage speculation, as the value of in-game NFTs can swing wildly on a minute-to-minute basis, but many gamers resort to VPNs to hide their identities and create multiple user entities, making it difficult for governments to rein in such speculation. While there are still a number of P2E games that have developed over time, a few have also been cancelled as platform owners were afraid that they would be targeted by government organizations as providing a platform for such speculation, regardless of the game itself. To understand such volatility, we included a price chart for Binance Coin, one of the less volatile cryptos. The site lists 8,558 different cryptocurrencies on a daily basis with today’s top winner Scar Token) up 718.49% (to $0.00000009333) over the last 24 hours and today’s loser Railnode, down 98.86% (to $0.05449) over the same period. That’s volatility…
That said, the idea of P2E games, which are an extension of cryptocurrencies, stems from a number of games where only the top few competitors could earn actual currency when battling other top competitors in events sponsored by gaming platforms. However P2E 2.0 now finds that a number of on-line P2E games have appeared where the average rank and file player can actually ‘earn’ cryptocurrency inside the game and transfer that crypto to currency outside of the game through NFTs or similar block chain systems. While this all sounds a bit iffy, the key to such games are NFTs, which are generated by players as they progress through the game. In order not to over-supply the market (NFT inflation) and decrease the value of generated NFTs, some algorithms allocate ‘rarity’ to certain objects which limits the overall growth rate of NFTs in a particular game, and each new P2E game tries to build a better ‘economy’ than previous games, given the economic structure of each are in the block chain for public examination.
So is this a bad thing or a way in which gamers can generate income, rather than have the game be a cost? It’s not quite that simple, despite some games advertising that you can earn over $6.00 each day, as such games become so popular within days of release, that sites crash, making it difficult for those who like the game for itself and are not interested in creating a profit center. It is also difficult to get earned money out of the games as this excerpt would indicate.
“It is necessary to withdraw the mined Ninky Coin (aka Idle Ninja Online Token - $NINKY) to the electronic wallet Metamask (browser extension/mobile app that is a secure repository for your in-game tokens) and purchase Binance Coins (a cryptocurrency exchange platform currency) to pay a ‘gas’ fee (whatever) and send it back to Metamask. Even after swapping and selling it can be converted into cash through the process of sending it back to the domestic exchange” Simple, right?
Stories of users renting hundreds of computers for 3 days to mine in such games, producing over $330,000 in profits have circulated, inciting a new rash of users to jump into the P2E business, along with those who are willing (for a fee) to teach others how to mine and profit when playing such games. In many countries, such games are illegal because they encourage speculation, as the value of in-game NFTs can swing wildly on a minute-to-minute basis, but many gamers resort to VPNs to hide their identities and create multiple user entities, making it difficult for governments to rein in such speculation. While there are still a number of P2E games that have developed over time, a few have also been cancelled as platform owners were afraid that they would be targeted by government organizations as providing a platform for such speculation, regardless of the game itself. To understand such volatility, we included a price chart for Binance Coin, one of the less volatile cryptos. The site lists 8,558 different cryptocurrencies on a daily basis with today’s top winner Scar Token) up 718.49% (to $0.00000009333) over the last 24 hours and today’s loser Railnode, down 98.86% (to $0.05449) over the same period. That’s volatility…
Binance Coin Price Chart - YTD - Source: CoinMarketCap.com
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