Crypto gaming’s transition from play-to-earn to play-and-earn

4 min readMar 17, 2022

It’s great to see that some gamers these days no longer play crypto games just to earn money. Now, they have the opportunity to enjoy new experiences and hone new skills within the vast metaverse. This article tackles crypto gaming’s transition from play-to-earn to play-and-earn. Find out how various blockchain projects managed to change the course of crypto gaming by giving their users other reasons to delve into the metaverse aside from earning.

Play-to-earn: Play because you need to earn money

At the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of people were laid off from their jobs while some were forced to stay indoors due to lockdowns and quarantines. As a result, many people opt or are required to find other sources of income.

When crypto games such as Axie Infinity gained popularity, people began to see how lucrative and rewarding playing the game is. In the game, players will try to win battles using Axies. If they win, they will be rewarded with “Smooth Love Potions” (SLPs) that can be converted into cash.

In order to earn money, people will play Axie Infinity even if they are not initially fond of playing games. This is where we can better associate the term play-to-earn. You are playing mainly because you need to earn money and not for the purpose of honing your skills and gaining more experience. Play-and-earn, on the other hand, works differently.

Play-and-earn: Play for new experiences, with rewards as an added bonus

Due to Axie Infinity’s huge popularity, a plethora of other crypto games emerged. In hopes of becoming the next Axie Infinity while offering something unique, these games explored various genres and gameplays.

If the card game, Axie Infinity is played with a turn-based strategy, other crypto games will take you to a whole new gaming experience. For instance, the P2E game, Happy Land lets you build your own digital farm where you cultivate crops and breed animals before selling them in exchange for rewards.

Meanwhile, an upcoming crypto game named Mirror World lets you interact around interconnected worlds using virtual creatures. Lastly, MetaGods, a blockchain-based MMORPG game, lets you take the role of a demigod to explore dungeons and defeat opponents.

With the new crypto gaming experiences provided by these latest and upcoming games, the concept of play-to-earn is now changing to play-and-earn. Now, players are becoming more interested mainly in the adventures and entertainment brought by these titles and not just in the potential monetary rewards they can get.

Now, you are no longer playing to earn money. Instead, you are playing while earning money. Another great example of how play-to-earn transitions to play-and-earn is the popularity of crypto gaming guilds.

Crypto gaming guilds and their role in P2E’s transition to play-and-earn

Due to the increasing prices of Axies, players now have to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars to assemble a decent team of 3 Axies. Thus, it is hard for some people to afford to join the game. This is where crypto gaming guilds such as Play It Forward DAO (PIF Guild) enter.

Through the PIF Guild, interested crypto gamers can apply for a scholarship. The PIF Guild rents out in-game assets or NFTs like Axies to give the scholars a chance to play and earn. This allows individuals to enter and play their desired crypto game without shelling out huge sums of money.

However, the PIF Guild is not just an ordinary crypto gaming guild. It is also a community of crypto enthusiasts and P2E gamers who interact and socialize within the guild and the rest of PIF DAO’s social media platforms.

Thus, those who venture into the world of crypto gaming can have more than one reason for entering. Aside from earning, they can also make use of the metaverse to meet a large group of fellow-minded people. They can also be a part of a community where they can excel financially and professionally.

Due to the increasing development within the overall crypto space, reasons for entering and staying in the P2E industry are no longer limited to earning alone. Now, people often enter the crypto space for the experience, with the added bonus of earning during the exciting adventure.

Conclusion

For crypto gamers, especially the first players of Axie Infinity, playing crypto games was once similar to working on a job where you need to grind to get paid. Now, with countless gameplays and entertaining features of the new and upcoming crypto games, playing is no longer a daunting task. Instead, it is a whole new exciting adventure that players get to experience.

Thanks to the developments within the crypto gaming industry, players can now enjoy and focus more on the gameplay and the storyline rather than the earning mechanism of the games alone.

Play and earn by becoming a scholar of Play It Forward DAO and meeting fellow crypto gamers while exploring the vast and lucrative Metaverse.

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