A Quick Primer on Play-to-Earn Gaming/NFTs/Metaverses

I’m a Concept Artist/Singer/Sound-Designer with a deep interest in World Building, Experience Design, and Games. Think open-world, AR/VR/XR, and all things Metaverse/NFTs.

When I started to go down this rabbit hole in the crypto space, I discovered many hidden corners, but the question that seemed to continue to interest the ‘market’ was: “What will be the next Axie Infinity?”

This is because the proof of adoption/ $$ is so far the greatest in Axie’s gaming metaverse, particularly in the Philippines, with total earnings at times becoming bigger than whole industries, such as total remittances back to the Philippines from abroad. This is remarkable.

Now, here’s a neutral statement: In the crypto space, the two opposite ends of the spectrum are a speculator or a community builder and a lot of very creative room in between. That is to say, you can see it purely as a wild west space (hence the question: where do I put my money next, given it might become as big as Axie), or an opportunity to create a sustainable way for you and others to monetize their skill sets while developing fruitful and mutually beneficial relationships along the way, and at the same time cultivating an engaged community that continues to draw value.

I want to highlight the latter ethos, and in doing so, I think a better question to ask is, “what are some platforms and spaces that have the potential for creating real, engaged, vibrant experiences and communities in the play-to-earn and metaverse space.” Here’s a list of platforms and ways to track them (randomly thrown together):

The Sandbox (Sandbox.Game): One I’m most excited about (full disclosure: I own a parcel in it), simply because in developing relationships with AR/VR/Voxel artists and experience designers, I’ve seen them being blown away by the potential and adoption of The Sandbox with the VoxEdit and Game Maker capabilities. The work that has gone into building it out really shows. I can’t wait to complete the Sandbox Bootcamp Certification and envision audio-centric and visually mesmerizing experiences and games.

Some others to research are Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space, and Substrata.

Treeverse(Treeverse.net): Dubbed as “The RuneScape of Blockchain Games,” is in private alpha at the moment. The team behind it appears to be solid and the support undeniable, and if crypto Twitter is any indication, it has a bright future. (Full Disclosure: I own a Founders Plot in Treeverse)

On that note, I think crypto Twitter is great for developing an intuition around the Metaverse. Everyone should get on that. You can also contact me if you’re interested in consulting on specifics but starting with some basic hashtags related to metaverses, gaming, NFTs, and play-to-earn is a good idea. Also, Discord and Clubhouse, for the same reason because that’s where people gather. If you’re interested in a specific platform, always get on their Discord first. For general connecting/discussion, Twitter (inc. Twitter Spaces) and Clubhouse are the way.

SpatialWeb.net: This isn’t on the chain, but they’ll have native NFT minting and marketplace capabilities. It’s a high-fidelity spatial audio XR platform that aims to be device agnostic for communal experiences. I did a demo with them and try to attend training sessions. I think it’s simply excellent as it emphasizes expertise and fundamentals of world-building and custom plugins over flashy templates to customize and curate your own experiences and find ways to gamify and monetize (whether using NFTs or not).

Yield Guild Games(yieldguild.io/): On their website: “YGG IS A PLAY-TO-EARN GAMING GUILD, BRINGING PLAYERS TOGETHER TO EARN VIA BLOCKCHAIN-BASED ECONOMIES.” Definitely one to track, and they do some great work. A use case for how to be profitable while also being one of the good guys. They have their own YGG token (full disclosure: I own YGG tokens). A while back, I minted a YGG Badge on their website (for free except gas, you should too), and I’m excited about what utility it would bring. YGG is also how I became familiar with a whole universe of games in the play-to-earn space. This rabbit hole also leads you down to Sushi Swap, where currently you can stake your YGG token to earn 2x return on yield farming (see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGOb7n3CU9A)

YGG would be amazing just for their Discord which is an aggregator of all the buzz in this space.

The “GAME DISCUSSIONS” space above has literally all the games you want to keep track of, including a channel for The Sandbox. (Notice Axie Infinity has its own dedicated space). So you can keep scrolling down, and titles keep getting added, and each one is its own universe, of course — a very rich ecosystem.

Speaking of aggregators here’s another great way to see what’s happening in this space: https://dappradar.com/rankings

DappRadar ranks top Blockchain Dapps (decentralized apps) based on usage and $$ (sliced by duration 24h/7d/30d), and as you can see, many of them are gaming metaverses. Alien Worlds on WAX blockchain and CryptoBlades on Binance are of particular interest:

Needless to say, there’s a lot to absorb here, but it helps to start with a general overview using the resources above and then focus on areas that naturally connect with you and speak to your strengths. That could look like an informed investor, a skilled gamer, or an NFT/Metaverse creator inspired by these “wins in the wild” and replicating them in your own project.

A request. If you found this useful, would like to consult re: specifics, have any feedback, or would like to send a note of appreciation, you can reach me here:

e-mail: [email protected] eth wallet address: 0x4BdAA7fCE6A3640142afCD52115fBdb6Edc4D6a3

Thank you for reading!

This article is part of The Gaming Metaverse Writing Contest hosted by HackerNoon in partnership with The Sandbox.

Submit your #gaming-metaverse story today for your chance to win up to $2000 in SAND tokens.