GameFi: The Land of broken promises?
People are flocking to the GameFi industry with the hope of changing their lives. It is a matter of fact that many workers abhor sitting in the office from 9 to 5 so the vision of being able to be at home playing games while still earning enough for food and other necessities naturally entice people.
However, can late-comers actually achieve this?
Where it all began
The first GameFi titles used the Bitcoin blockchain, but the birth of Ethereum with smart contract capabilities has enabled new innovation and ideas for game developers. The most popular project at the time was CryptoKitties, which actually causes a crash to the entire network.
Now, Axie Infinity is no doubt leading the GameFi trend, with notable names followed such as Decentraland, The Sandbox, ....
According to Coindesk, as of July 2021, an average Axie Infinity player can earn around 4,500 SLP/month (~$800). The game experienced massive growth from 30,000 daily players in April 2021 to over 1 million in August, with most of the players coming from emerging markets like the Philippines, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Many Filipinos have been able to quit their daily jobs, some even managed to buy a house for their parents and themselves. Clearly, this is something we all dreamt of when we enter this market.
Less notable games have provided decent earnings with many players considering them as a second source of revenue. Mobox, a gaming platform that combines yield farming and farming NFTs, has allowed people to earn between $20 - $30 a day.
Where we are now
After the first GameFi trend back in August/September, hundreds of new games have now been introduced in the market. The average gamer now can not afford the initial investment of top games anymore (to build a good team in Axie Infinity you need somewhere between $1500 - $2500) so they come to these new projects with the hope of finding the next Axie Infinity. However, all too often what they found is overblown hype, broken promises, and even outright scams.
First, many projects open their IDO long before they are released, leaving early adopters with a bag of worthless tokens. Even with the game opening, it is still under the player’s expectation and many devs subsequently quit to move on to new projects.
It is a fact that blockchain games are extremely difficult to make and require a dedicated and talented team in order to pull off, so it is always recommended that you DYOR carefully.
Being aware of this issue, only after months of development did WidiLand open its IDO to the public in November, and we have prepared an action-packed December for token holders and interested parties. And remember that our game will officially be launched in January, just one and a half months away from the IDO.
Next, due to the inflationary pressure from private investors or the team, many token prices have taken a plummet, which hurts both early buyers and gamers who can not have decent earnings and ROI. This problem has somewhat been alleviated through the use of the dual-token model, yet without clear planning, it is still difficult to incentivize different parties in the projects and can lead to internal conflict. Even in the wider crypto industry, there are only a number of projects with great tokenomics.
As a result, we have spent hundreds of hours designing the tokenomics of WidiLand to the benefit of all participants in our projects. For a detailed analysis, you can read our article here.
Finally, many projects are focusing too much on the financial aspect while the purpose of the game should be to provide fun and enjoyment first. Many variations such as Click-to-Earn or Move-to-Earn most certainly do not contribute to the longevity of most projects (there are truly innovative Click-to-Earn or Move-to-Earn games, nonetheless).
This is why we have chosen to build WidiLand as a farming game as we believe it is the perfect blend between enjoyment and financial incentives. Players can learn how to plant fruits, harvest, and corporate with their friends. Meanwhile, thanks to its non-competitive environment, players can earn a more stable income compared to PvP or PvE games. Of course, we will also implement several challenges and events for the competitive ones in the foreseeable future.
Final thought
It is still our firm belief that GameFi and Metaverse will bring mass adoption to crypto and create a paradigm shift to the decade-old online gaming industry. However, with little regulation and investor protection, we implore our users to take caution and have realistic expectations.
Our team has participated in the crypto industry for a long time and we are fully aware of these setbacks. Therefore, WidiLand has and will continue to explore new measures and innovations besides the aforementioned ones to bring the most satisfactory experience to our players.