A Shift Away From P2E (Play To Earn)
The era of p2e really took off during the covid lockdowns. People really had nothing to do and the government was legit throwing money at people. In which a large amount of it seemed to flow into crypto and crypto games. It was the perfect story really for the play 2 earn area and where everyone thought they could sit around and play a game with zero sponsorships, ads etc and make a boat load of money forever.
Well that just doesn't happen. Revenue has to come from somewhere in order to be paid out to others and I really feel like that's something that shocks people for whatever reason. However a game can in fact make people a good amount of money. It's through governance and asset ownership which gets trades people people. It's like buying pokemon cards and then selling them to get the best deck. Or bring in sponsorships to award out prizes to winners of tournaments etc. But crypto allows it to go one step further where the players get to make calls.
The ReRise Of Gaming
Like anything there are cycles. The p2e space got pretty out of control and then things drastically cooled off for about a year. However these games that survived and had good fundamentals are starting to thrive again and grow.
Via DappRader we are seeing a heavy growth record for the gaming space. IN fact year over year it's up over 338% with nearly a million unique players.
Some of the biggest games are still Alien worlds coming in with a heavy 264,000 Iskra (which is new to me on the Klaytn an Ethereum network. For some reason Farmers World is still going at 65k and then we have Hive/Was Splinterlands at 54k. One of the biggest issues I Have with these games at the top are the constant fees to just interact with the game which I will never understand. It's why I feel like Wax and Hive should be holding the vast majority of this gaming pool because of the feeless transactions and only needing some resources instead of which at least on Splinterlands is paid for by the company.
Play to Earn
P2E is being phased out as it was a good hype phase for sure during the bull run however simply wouldn't last. These platforms often had unsustainable tokenomics with high inflation or high deflation, overall just a poor quality of game and of course the sooner you got in the higher you would be creative a huge divide in wealth.
Thus ushering in now is what has become known as PAE or Play and Earn model.
Play and Earn
This new phase of gaming should start to bring forth new gaming that has more of a backbone. It works in these ways.
Governance and tokenomics which help push towards security and transparency. No one person or single entity now controls the tokenomics of the game. Instead those holding governance tokens get to make choices. We see this with splinterlands and the SPS token.
Partnership A greater focus on creating partnership with content creators, ads, collabs and other things to help expand the growth of the game.
Updates and Content lore goes a long way in gaming and builds a story. No longer does it feel like just a game but it gives it a sense of purpose and that you playing the game are making a impact and shaping that story. Constant updates keeps things fresh and new along with trying the new things.
Education but ease of use with education of blockchain, tokenomics etc but using UX to make it easier to interact with.
Rebalances of game economy just like the real world game econs need adjustments based on supply and demand along with changes. Failing to do so will lead your game to have major issues.
Many ways to "earn" or acquire value from the game. Tokens, NFT trading, game achievements, events and more all lead into growth, building and feeling like ownership along with giving many people options to earn.
All of these things are things I see happening with Splinterlands and it's why I believe a game like that will be successful in the long run and continue to grow.
Overall I see a shift in the gaming space and it feels like core fundamentals which will bring gaming and crypto into a new area of gaming and growth.