Since the inception of video games, people have spent an enormous amount of time and money because of the craze. However, people didn’t know about earning money while playing games. Slowly and gradually, the invention of new technology revolutionized the definition as people can now earn income while playing games in digital currencies. The current scenario opens the door to opportunities for NFT games, crypto gaming, play-to-earn games, and Web3 games.
Crypto gaming is the trending topic in the space that harnesses blockchain technology’s power. The blockchain is revolutionizing many industries, not just in the gaming sector. Although play-to-earn games are still in their infancy stage, they are gaining popularity every minute. Let’s decode the crypto gaming guilds, list of crypto gaming guilds, and what they offer to people.
What is a crypto gaming guild?
Generally, a gaming guild comprises a collection or group of gamers that organize to play video games together and share data. Although guild is a popular term in gaming, we refer to such groups as clans, factions, or communities. Gaming guilds have been present for decades and amassed popularity because of esports or competitive gaming.
Crypto gaming guilds come with different visions as some players might wish to clock millions while others want to build robust communities that produce the best projects.
Crypto vs. Traditional gaming guilds
Traditional gaming guilds (commonly known as clans) are centralized entities owned by a few people. The guilds recruit experienced players to foster their talent and help them perform well in competitions. As players begin to excel in competitions, the guild acquires sponsorships to take a cut off of their earnings. Traditional guilds are limited to a game and disband when the game’s popularity starts to dwindle.
Crypto gaming guilds enable each player to maximize the output in play-to-earn games. While traditional guilds focus strictly on achievements, overall performance and activity are essential for crypto guilds. They enable players by lending them NFTs and other assets, ensuring they don’t stick to a single game. Crypto guilds often invest early in the holdings of new up-and-coming games and have access to below-market rates.
Crypto gaming guilds also bring social good to the gaming space, making them stand out. People in developing countries or with underprivileged economic backgrounds now have a chance to gain financial freedom by playing games by renting the NFTs needed for the gameplay from the gaming guilds.
When did it all start?
The credit goes to the Philippines for the origin of the current play-to-earn concept. The popularity of P2E games began to explode when COVID-19 ravaged the world, but gamers were earning from the Axie Infinity game. Soon a hashtag began to trend on social platforms with #ThankYouAxie as people cashed out their winnings and took photos of their shopping.
As more and more started playing the game, the demand rose, and in turn, Axies (in-game assets) began trading at record prices. The founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG), Dizon, saw an opportunity and began leasing Axies in scholarships. The earnings from playing Axie Infinity were shared between scholars (70%) and the guild (10%), while the community managers got 20%. Many individuals appreciated the model, and soon people began creating new guilds.
Crypto gaming guilds are all about NFTs
NFTs began to rise this decade, and people began collecting them, pushing high prices. While not every NFT has significance, some have a price tag of millions on marketplaces. Crypto guilds can maintain several NFTs as the players indulge in crypto games and aim to create their NFT market. Additionally, crypto guilds are looking over to solve the centralization problems in traditional guilds with tokens. In short, guilds play a much more economic role with the digital assets that players can use.
Players can quickly join a guild as each guild has an application page where you can either submit a form or join Discord to learn more info about the guild. As a player, the guild will provide an account for the game of your choice and give some training on effective strategies. While things vary from guild to guild, you can find an open spot in your favorite guild and ask them in Discord.
List of crypto gaming guilds
Yield Guild Games
Yield Guild Games (YGG) is the biggest guild, with a market cap of more than $300M. YGG is operating as a DAO and has adopted the name ‘Guild of Guilds,’ composed of famous gaming guilds in space. It has over 10,000 Axie Infinity Scholars across ten countries that either rent or do a profit share using in-game assets.
As of Jan 2022, YGG raised $28.4M in funding, including some big names such as Animoca Brands and BlockTower Capital. Yield Guild Games has $YG as the native token used for governance. The guild follows a two-year lock-up period and a three-year vesting schedule for all private investors, founders, and advisors to protect tokens against a dump in the market.
Merit Circle
Merit Circle is another famous crypto gaming guild that DAO governs and works with Axie Infinity, Illuvium, Hash Rush, and Star Atlas. The project has over 2700 scholars and keeps 30% of the profit while gamers save the 70%. It has some subDAOs for isolating each game in the guild. Example: Axie Infinity has a subDAO within Merit Circle that holds assets related to the game.
A subDAO essentially helps keep enhanced security as it acts as a resistance to other games if one is compromised. Merit Circle has $MC as the native token with two staking options, i.e., single stake and liquidity pool. While the single stake receives 20%, the liquidity pool receives 80% of the liquidity mining rewards.
Good Games Guild
Good Games Guild is a new guild with over 300 scholars and receives investment from Good Games Labs. It has a DAO for management and governance and earns 20% of all the revenue generated from the guild. It has also collected $1.7M in seed funding from some notable investors. $GGG is the native token of Good Games Guild with a market cap of $3.5M.
What is the downside of gaming guilds?
Crypto gaming guilds are dependent on yields generated from the NFTs (in-game assets). NFTs are volatile and could slump in value on external factors. If crypto gaming fails, it would also lead to the failure of crypto gaming guilds. However, as risky as they sound, the investment opportunities also offer the potential for more significant returns in exchange for accepting the associated level of risk.
Future of Play-to-Earn
If you are a gamer and have extra time to play crypto games, joining a gaming guild could be an excellent opportunity to monetize your earnings. As more and more people come under the umbrella of play-to-earn games, the development of metaverses will begin to rise, and so will the crypto gaming market. Play-to-earn and GameFi provide ample opportunities and change the gaming landscape for the future.
P2E is a perfect approach to making money in the virtual world while avoiding problems associated with the real world. P2E gaming guilds will evolve in the future in the sense of decentralization of digital items and custodial ownership, which exceeds the control of governments and companies.
In the future, play-to-earn games can change how people interact with financial institutions, marketplaces, and governments because they promote a self-sovereign financial system and an open economy for creators and gamers alike. Since the GameFi space is still young, we can only wait and see what the future holds for the entire blockchain space.
