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Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

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Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#71
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Providing value" is doing some serious heavy lifting in that sentence - MLM/Ponzi schemes can definitely argue they "provide value" and its telling that its your metric for not being a con. In a traditional ponzi scheme many people get paid, until the last people are left holding the bag.

As a video game maker myself I'd say that video games generally provide value. If this particular video game provides as much value as its valued at is not for me to decide, but for the people who play it and invest in it.

"As a tupperware party host myself, I'd say that tupperware generally provides value. If this particular piece of plastic provides as much value as it's valued isn't for me to decide, but the friends and family I invite to the party."

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#72
post #51

I'm heavily invested into axie (5 figures), happy to answer any questions.

What is the source of the token rewards? Are the tokens pre-mined and then handed out based on games played on Axie’s servers? Just trying to understand the innovation. Is it primarily that game rewards can be exchanged on chain, while the granting of the rewards is still centralized?

Two tokens:

AXS is the governance token and is premined, mainly held to fund the team, given out as rewards to players and given out as rewards for keeping AXS staked. Used for breeding new Axies

SLP is the token gained by playing the game, this token is also used for breeding new Axies. The game servers sign a message allowing you to claim the SLP from a smart contract on the ronin chain, this part is not completely decentralized.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#73

> Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptocurrency fund made one of its largest investments to date in Sky Mavis, leading a $152m financing that valued the company at $3bn. > Sky Mavis, which takes a 4.5 per cent cut of transactions within the game, has made about $1.2bn of revenues I mean, say what you want about this being a scam, ponzi scheme, etc. That is some real cash. I saw this game popping up on Twitch a few months ago…

There's 20 search results on this page at this moment for ponzi. HN missed the boat hard on this and there's a lot of sour grapes. Technical folks have left the marketing chavs alone and they've taken a concept and made it something that we hate. We hate it so much we can't see its potential. If a bunch of people put their money into a constrained system and the price goes up that doesn't automatically make it a ponz…

the attraction is the skyrocketing value as more people join in for fear of missing out - but once the growth levels off on one particular token, and it’s no longer the fastest growing asset, then the top of the pyramid cashes out and moves on

people are calling it out because we’ve literally seen it over and over again

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#74
post #67
post #52

> Axie, which is loosely based on the Pokemon franchise, rewards players with tokens for winning battles and completing quests. So I looked for a gameplay video on YT, and it looks very much like a typical free-to-play mobile game. I'm guessing the difference is that you can exchange the in-game currency for actual money? Not sure why you'd need a blockchain if that's the case... Also, are these games actually fun? O…

They're bad, grindy games. The appeal is specifically that they reward with crypto-tokens that can be traded on exchanges for real money. It's basically just a way to work around regulations. Technically the game doesn't deal with a real currency, but they give fungible tokens that can be relatively easily traded on third party exchanges. The financial aspect of these games makes zero sense, as is the whole concept o…

Personally I think the PVP part of axie is pretty good as a game. It's strategic and a better player can easily win with a worse team.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It really makes me reconsider the group-think on hacker news. This is pretty bad when it comes to crypto topics. A lot of the crypto ecosystem is toxic and gross. Schemes, scams, marketing fluff, and meme bro attitudes galore. BUT, if you can bear to pay attention and cut through the noise, there are some pretty incredible innovations occurring in crypto, gaming, and defi. HN is very dismissive on these topics. It…

> HN is very dismissive on these topics. In general, when ever crypto topics come up, the pro-crypto side tends to do a pretty terrible job of establishing that there are "some pretty incredible innovations occurring in crypto, gaming, and defi." Perhaps you could list some and change our minds? I just saw on Twitter how some one is minting NFTs using the art of a deceased artist and their family is scrambling to fig…

I'm not involved in nor have I ever bought anything crypto related. But I'll say this for it, it's the most interesting new tech to hit the internet in the past couple decades.

Everything else has been pretty incremental over that time period, crypto is something really new and I suspect that's why its adherents are so obsessed by it.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#76
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So any SaaS startup that offers referral fees is now a pyramid scheme?

If a SaaS provides services it doesn't fit the definition of a pyramid scheme, no.

And Axie provides the service of "fun," no? I fail to see how there's any difference here.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#77
post #67
post #52

> Axie, which is loosely based on the Pokemon franchise, rewards players with tokens for winning battles and completing quests. So I looked for a gameplay video on YT, and it looks very much like a typical free-to-play mobile game. I'm guessing the difference is that you can exchange the in-game currency for actual money? Not sure why you'd need a blockchain if that's the case... Also, are these games actually fun? O…

They're bad, grindy games. The appeal is specifically that they reward with crypto-tokens that can be traded on exchanges for real money. It's basically just a way to work around regulations. Technically the game doesn't deal with a real currency, but they give fungible tokens that can be relatively easily traded on third party exchanges. The financial aspect of these games makes zero sense, as is the whole concept o…

Can you even call it a game? It seems like work more than anything else. Its a shitty boring job where you’re paid less than a contractor to do work that is completely meaningless and unproductive.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#78
post #15

I wonder if, in the future, a significant portion of the population will have a full time job playing one of these crypto games. They'll be paid based on their in-game social achievements, which will include things like "cares for the (virtual) environment", "demonstrates commitment to diversity", "encourages others to follow health mandates", "uses de-escalation techniques in conflicts." New mission types and achiev…

It's funny to see an enthusiast for this kind of thing show the absurdity of it so clearly.

Re: Crypto’s hottest game is facing an economic maelstrom

#79

Since this got posted on HN I asked myself, "does my crypto portfolio include Axie?" I saw it didn't, so I bought some, and already made a 3% profit, and likely to increase in the coming month. Thanks HN.

hope you can predict the top
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