Play-to-Earn: What’s Wrong With it, and How Can We Fix it?

Play-to-Earn: What can be done to help the P2E industry produce more sustainable, outstanding titles, asks Ilman Shazhaev , CEO of Farcana Metaverse.

According to the Blockchain Game Alliance, NFT games generated $2.32 billion in revenue in Q3 2021 alone. Most of the new Play-to-Earn (P2E) projects promise a brand-new fascinating virtual world. This is exactly what lures in investors from all over the globe, who put in thousands of dollars just to get their hands on a new game.

Few, if any, of these projects have a real product to show off. What’s more, the majority of them are basing the value of their token on a vision, rather than on interesting gameplay and a strong in-game economy. As a result, we have what we have: a long line of similar, poorly-built projects.

Why does it happen, and what can we do to help the space produce more sustainable, and outstanding titles?

Play-to-earn: Focus on the product

The main problem of the P2E space is, that most projects raise funds and use them to launch massive marketing campaigns. But they don’t put enough work into evolving the actual products. At the same time, creating an in-demand product rich with new features is key to making the game successful in the long term. It also keeps a stable influx of users.

It all starts with the research. For one, those teams who take the time to study their audience will be rewarded for the effort. However, it’s no less important to keep this connection by welcoming the community to test the game, then receiving and processing their feedback. Then they can use it to improve the product and better serve the users’ needs.

Developing strong tokenomics

Token instability is another concern. If the project doesn’t have enough traction and doesn’t provide multiple utilities for the token, players will inevitably lose interest. The token value will crash, and the game will sink into oblivion.

For some players, the risks will be higher than the others – in particular, for people from developing or struggling economies. I can provide an example from real life. A fisherman from a village in the Philippines lays aside the work of his life to earn some money in a crypto game. It may multiply his income several times. Can you imagine his disappointment, when the money he planned to live on during the next few months is burned away due to the game’s unstable tokenomics?

Our team fixed the problem of an unstable in-game economy using mining power as collateral. The gamers participate in the royal battle and earn a real Bitcoin when it has already been mined by the Farcana’s internal capacity.

Play-to-earn: In conclusion

The Metaverse will become a space that will encourage the users to explore outside their comfort zone, gradually expand it and connect with others. As its creators provide new forms of entertainment, contexts for communication, and spaces for learning, we should encourage people to get in touch with each other.

About the author

Ilman Shazhaev is the CEO of Farcana. He is a techpreneur with extensive experience in launching IT and DeepTech projects. Shazhaev has a background in IT management, data science, and AI; He has produced 30 scientific publications and owns 10 registered patents. In 2022, Ilman launched the production of a blockchain-based GameFi project Farcana, it is the first triple-A P2E game with a BTC prize pool, its own NFT marketplace, and battle royale mode. The project has introduced a new Play to Hash (P2H) model, where the game economy is supported by its own hash rate, resulting in more stability and transparency.

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