Making money in P2E games is more than just playing them. Here are a couple of ways most web3 gamers earn using blockchain games.
Every since web3 games were introduced into the markets, people of all ages are now curious about how exactly blockchain gamers are able to earn by simply playing an online game. It’s not going to be as easy as tapping a few buttons, some of them require complex strategy or intimately knowing in-game mechanics.
Here are 5 common ways gamers are able to earn in blockchain games.
1. Flipping NFTs
Most blockchain games are only playable using an NFT character, usually manifested into fantasy-like creatures or characters. They have distributed characters through a mint sale.
NFT mints are proliferated with NFT flippers. During a project’s mint phase, they are usually at its max hype. As the sale progresses, other players will want to buy into the hype.
This tactic enables you to earn money by getting into the mint before it sells out(requiring you to be very early!), buying multiple NFTs, and selling them for a high profit on the open market. This is a risky investment strategy, but it can work for some players.
2. Breeding NFTs
Certain crypto games offer breeding capabilities with their NFTs. For example, Axie Infinity, allows users to breed Axie NFTs to create new NFTs. Using blockchain technology, the newly created creature cannot be replicated or copied. It’s entirely unique.
The NFTs players breed often have less utility or power in the game, so they’re less valuable, but you can still sell them on the open market. However, frankly speaking for most games this won’t be the main way you make income.
3. Selling the In-Game Currency
The reality with most play-to-earn games in the market is that “earning” might not be the appropriate word for them. That’s why it’s very important for users to take profits as much as they can.
The P2E markets often showcase a very popular game appearance, with its many fans hyping the currency, claiming it’s going to the moon. However once the hype dies off, this leaves many investors with massive regret for not selling earlier.
For now, most P2E games consist of players staking their playable character NFTs, entering them into turn-based passive combat that takes a certain amount of time, then you get a certain amount of the in-game currency as a reward.
It’s essentially P2E’s staking. Players earn in-game tokens as rewards for using their digital NFTs and this is the core of most play-to-earn games.
4. Liquidity Pool Staking
Liquidity Pool staking in blockchain games usually works like this:
- You earn the in-game coin from the game
- You pool the coin with another coin, usually either $SOL or $ETH
- You stake your pooled coins in the game (like depositing money into the bank)
- In exchange for providing this liquidity for other users, you are given more of the in-game coin as a reward (like earning interest from the bank)
For example, DeFi Kingdoms is mostly a series of gamified Liquidity Pools, where you passively stake in-game coins for different APRs.
The percentage returns on some of these liquidity pools can be abnormally high. But, the problem is if the in-game coin drops, the value of your pooled coins will drop too.
If this happens, no insanely high APR can possibly make up for the drop. And those percentages aren’t fixed, the more people who enter the pool the more they lower the APR.
5. Buying Digital Land
Some open-world metaverses offer players the opportunity to buy and build on virtual land.
For example, Decentraland is an open metaverse where players can buy virtual land and build shops where they sell digital assets like clothes for their in-game avatars. Users build their own mini-games on the digital land, which earns you $MANA, the game’s in-game token.
This is the primary method investors can make money in open metaverses.
Final Thoughts
It is no doubt that one of the primary factors for the massive growth P2E has gone through was that users wanted to earn. Earn quickly they did, but in turn, some also lost money at a gamble they did not completely understand.
It’s important to take notes and research thoroughly before pouring your savings into the next big P2E project. Although the space has taken significant steps towards improving GameFi as a whole, don’t let the visually appealing graphics fool you – play-to-earn can and will deplete you of your funds if you let it.