The P2E market has been rapidly evolving since 2017, more precisely when the amount of transactions on the Ethereum network hit an all time high because of a P2E game called CryptoKitties. This occasion created a boom among both crypto and non-crypto communities, attracting a lot of media attention, new investors, developers, projects, etc. Although the overall crypto hype somewhat cooled down till 2021, projects, especially P2E games, didn’t stop their developments and showed a remarkable growth by that time. The list of some of those noteworthy P2E games include: Axie Infinity, Decentraland, CryptoKitties, Sandbox etc. For those who just recently joined the P2E gaming and crypto community in general, it may be pretty complicated to navigate through the P2E space as all the aforementioned games have their own distinct features, gameplays, rewarding mechanisms, etc. 

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In this blog, we’ll be exploring games such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland and My Neighbor Alice, go through their gameplays, discuss the ways users can earn money by playing these games and share our closing thoughts on the topic.

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Axie Infinity

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With over $1 billion market capitalization, Axie Infinity is considered as one of the P2E space veterans. Inspired by renown games like Pokemon, Tamagotchi, etc. the main gameplay revolves around the digital pets called Axies, which come in the form of NFTs and are owned by the players. Similar to Pokemon, each of these Axies have their own characteristics and players need to raise their Axies to eventually be able to battle them against other Axies. Lunacia is the name of the Axie homeland which is divided into separate land plots. These land plots that come in the form of NFTs as well, can be upgraded, traded and used within the game for extensive gameplay experience. Breeding is another important element of the game which adds additional utility to both the tokens (AXS and SLP) and the Axie NFTs. Players can breed their Axies themselves (if they have more than 1 Axie) or send their Axies to the Mating Club if they want to breed them with other players’ Axies. In order to prevent the possible inflation of the Axie NFTs, the developers have set certain limitations on how many times Axies can be bred. 

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Ways Players Can Earn Money on Axie Infinity

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Just like in the majority of the P2E games, there are numerous ways players can make money in Axie Infinity, for this blog, we picked 3 most widely used ones:

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Playing the game and battling against other players

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As mentioned before, Axie Infinity is a game inspired by Pokemon and other similar games, thus the gameplay is similar to that of Pokemon. One needs to have at least 3 Axies to be able to play the game. Players then battle against each other using 3 of their Axies in a turn-based card game and win rewards in the form of SLP tokens if they eliminate their opponents. However, these battles are not as easy, it’s important to have a certain strategy and actually be good at the game to win the battles, otherwise there’s a good chance of losing the invested funds. SLP is one of the 2 tokens in Axie Infinity ecosystem and primarily used for paying breeding fees. Users can then trade their SLP tokens on exchanges and cash out their winnings. 

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Axie Scholarship Program

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There are lots of people who are more than willing to jump into Axie Infinity to make money by playing the game, however, there are certain requirements that need to be met if you want to play the game. Just like many other P2E games, Axie Infinity also requires players to own certain NFTs to be able to play the game and in this case this would be at least 3 Axie NFTs. Axie Scholarship program allows new players to play the game without investing any of their money and buying Axies. Instead, those new players (scholars) can use the Axies of other players (managers) who already own Axies. The way this model works is, managers give their Axies to new players and those players battle against other players trying to take their opponents down to win SLP tokens. If they win, those SLP tokens are then split up between them and the managers. Depending on the agreement between two parties, profits can be split up in various proportions: 20/80, 40/60, 50/50, etc. The typical question may arise: How can one find the managers or scholars? The answer is simple; in Axie Infinity’s community channels (mainly Discord). Axie Infinity’s Discord server is the main hub where players and interested in the game individuals gather around to have discussions around the game, thus a lot of people find and contact managers/scholars through there on a regular basis. 

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Trading Axies

By breeding Axies, players get completely new and one of a kind Axie. The price of each Axie is determined by its stats, the better the stats the more expensive the Axies are. One may think he/she found an unlimited money glitch and can breed and sell Axies all day every day making a decent amount of money. Sorry to break it for you, but it doesn’t work that way. Each Axie can be bred up to 7 times only and to perform that action, one needs to pay breeding fees in forms of SLP and AXS tokens. Breeding fees are going up each time a player decides to breed. Breeding cost per parent starts from 900 SLP tokens for the first breed and ends with 15,300 SLP tokens for the 7th one. After player gets a new Axie, he can then sell it in the marketplace for profit. “Flipping” Axies is also a common practice among the players, i.e players buy Axies for a certain price hoping the price for the bought Axie will increase in future and they’ll sell it for profit. 

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Decentraland

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What started as a 2D world, Decentraland is now one of the most well-known 3D virtual worlds that’s been showing an exponential growth starting from 2017, the year it launched. At the time of writing, the market capitalization of MANA (Decentraland’s native token) is over $1.4 billion. MANA is an in-game currency that is used throughout the ecosystem. When it comes to the game itself, in short, Decentraland is a virtual world that’s owned by the players, where they can explore the enormous world, play games, build, trade digital assets, socialize and interact with each other, buy and sell digital LANDs, etc. The main element of the game is LAND, the name is pretty self explanatory, these LANDs come in the form of NFTs and there are literally limitless opportunities that come with owning them. Once a player has acquired a LAND in Decentraland, they get full ownership over that asset and can build anything they want using in-game tools. 

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Ways Players Can Earn Money in Decentraland

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Decentraland’s scale is absolutely gigantic and it offers a wide range of opportunities for players to make money while exploring the beautiful virtual world and discovering the never ending possibilities. Below are just some of the most commonly used ways to make money in Decentraland:

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Investing in LAND

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There are a lot of stories preaching about crazy returns on virtual real estate investing, and it’s not all just empty talks. Those who managed to join the game early and secure a spot for themselves in Decentraland for a low price, now enjoy an increased value of their virtual asset. The idea of this model is pretty simple and similar to the real-world case, acquire a land plot in Decentraland, preferably the one that’s sitting at a good location (near the center or next to famous brand/celebrity), wait for it’s value to appreciate and then sell it for the profit. 

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Complete Quests

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Decentraland has a lot of quests waiting for players to join right away. Through completing these quests, players get rewarded with various NFTs and wearables. Both wearables and NFTs can then be sold on Decentraland Marketplace. Quick tip: if you’re having a hard time finding quests, go to Genesis Plaza, click on the rocket icon that’ll appear at the bottom right corner and then follow the guide that’ll pop-up.

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Becoming a Fashion Designer

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In order to make money using this method, you’ll need to possess some decent designer skills. If you have the required skills and resources, you can create 3D wearables and clothes and sell them to whomever might be interested. Again, the selling process takes place on Decentraland’s Marketplace, but it’s important to note that minting the NFTs to then put on sale, might get very expensive, thus before even starting, make sure you’ve done your proper research.

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My Neighbor Alice

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Compared to earlier mentioned P2E games, My Neighbor Alice is a very young P2E project that’s been inspired by games like Animal Crossing. Alice’s world consists of 6 different islands which are divided into My Neighbor Alice land plots The gameplay basically revolves around a farm-like setting, where players create their avatars, explore the Alice’s world, engage with other players, own virtual land plots, sell various items, complete certain tasks, trade NFTs, etc. Players need to utilize their lands by planting and growing, which in turn will give their owners crops. Taking care of the animals is another aspect of the game which involves such activities as feeding them, giving them water and just looking after them in general.

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Ways Players Can Earn Money in My Neighbor Alice

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As the main gameplay is centered around farming, main tasks and activities that would potentially earn players money would be farming-related. This includes everything from taking care of the animals to selling the corps. Let’s take a look at some of the ways players can make money within the game:

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Utilize your Land

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One of the ways players can utilize their lands is by cultivating crops and selling them to other players. The landowners should take good care of their lands and make sure their plants are being regularly watered, as this will give them healthier crops. Another way of utilizing the land plots is by renting them out to other players and receiving the rental income.

Animals

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In Alice’s world, animals come in the form of NFTs as well and these helpful creatures have the ability to create new items out of already existing ones. Those items can then be sold in the market or even be used by yourself to make unique outfits. You can also make extra money by selling your animals to other players.

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Assist others with their jobs

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Some landowners would be looking for someone who can assist them with their piece of work. If the land is taken good care of, then it will yield greater crops, similarly, if animals are well looked after, they will be better at reproducing. So landowners might need assistance with these tasks and if you’re someone who doesn’t own a piece of land or an animal, then this could be a great opportunity for you to earn some money if you’re new to the game.

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Closing Thoughts

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So far, we’ve covered 3 various P2E games in 3 different genres. Each of these games have their distinct features, gameplay mechanics, rewarding systems, etc., but also have some similarities as well. One of the biggest similarities being they’re all built on blockchain, are actively implementing the NFT concept to their games and allowing players to enjoy the real rewards. These similarities are important to highlight, as they allow the gaming industry to transition from Web2.0 to Web3.0, giving players the power and true ownership over the assets they own. P2E space is still in its very early stages and has a long way to go, especially if we are talking about the sustainability side of things. However, with so much player excitement and new P2E games being released each testing out new methods and models, the future of the space is looking bright and many believe that the P2E concept will soon be completely replaced with the new innovative concept in blockchain gaming called play-and-earn (PnE). We, as Parea Labs team, are also building around the revolutionary PnE concept and taking the current state of the blockchain gaming to the next level by making our novel inputs.

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Disclaimer: All information provided in the content is for informational purposes only and should not be perceived as investment, financial, or trading advice. Any investment decisions you make should be based on your personal preferences, financial expertise, and market research.

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About

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Parea Labs is a Web3 Gaming company that is driven by visionary ideas to provide various blockchain solutions and the excitement to build a user-focused, adaptive, and innovative gaming experience for all.

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