Axie Infinity hardcore players: This is the "Ethereum" of blockchain games
Axie Infinity's breakout this time is because it made people aware that this game "can make money without playing."This article is sourced from Lydong BlockBeats, authored by 0x13.
In the crypto space, there should be no one who hasn't heard of the name Axie Infinity.
Axie Infinity's last breakout was because it made people aware that "you can earn money by playing games." This time, Axie Infinity's breakout is because it has shown people that "you can earn money without playing."
Of course, the premise of "earning money without playing" is that you have two types of Axie Infinity tokens in your wallet—AXS and SLP. According to Coingecko data, the governance token AXS of Axie Infinity has surged by 410.2% in the past two weeks, while the SLP tokens earned by players through battles have increased by 162.7% in the same period.
The market performance of NFTs in Axie Infinity is also strong. According to CryptoSlam data, the secondary market trading volume of Axie Infinity NFTs has reached $370 million in the past 30 days, nearly ten times that of the second-ranked Bored Ape.
In other words, Axie Infinity is currently the absolute leader in both the ERC-20 secondary market and the NFT secondary market.
"It reminds me of Ethereum."
If you have been active in various Chinese communities of Axie Infinity for a long time, you must be familiar with the name "Jiong Knight." He is a veteran player of Axie Infinity and has established and operated the Axie Infinity Baidu Tieba, writing numerous game tutorials and strategies that have helped countless players grow from complete novices to top players on the global leaderboard.
Jiong Knight's main job is industry analysis and investment in the blockchain sector. He is usually busy with work, and the only time he can play games is after returning home in the evening. He first encountered this blockchain game in March 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, during an epic bear market in the cryptocurrency industry, and during the second season of Axie Infinity.
Affected by the pandemic, Jiong Knight, like many others, began working from home. There is a saying in the crypto space: "People only have the motivation to do research during a bear market." It was during this time that Jiong Knight started researching Axie Infinity. He spent a lot of time investigating projects related to the virtual economy and made some investments, with Axie Infinity being the most appealing to him.
This is a magical project that continued to develop during the bear market without ever stopping. The Discord channel was much more active than other projects at the same time, with new players joining every day. Although the industry was in a slump, Axie Infinity was thriving.
"It reminds me of Ethereum," Jiong Knight said while recalling that time.
He saw the shadow of early Ethereum in this blockchain game. Ethereum quietly developed and improved after the bear market in 2013, finally exploding in the next wave two years later. Although linking Axie Infinity to Ethereum was just his intuition, a fleeting thought that the two had some similarities, he still noted this blockchain game and focused on it.
"Don't put all your eggs in one basket, but I just like to catch one rabbit."
While playing Axie Infinity, Jiong Knight fully utilized his strengths in analysis and research. For a field that hardly anyone in China was paying attention to at the time, a "pioneer" was needed.
So Jiong Knight began his "pioneering" efforts. To help more Chinese players learn about this game, he chose to establish the "Axie Fantasy Creatures Tieba" on Baidu Tieba. On this broader platform, he started writing one game tutorial after another and often helped players solve various problems. Although the number of users on Tieba has been decreasing in recent years, the Axie Fantasy Creatures Tieba remains active, with many players discussing their gaming experiences daily.
After deeply experiencing this game, Jiong Knight gave it a high evaluation, stating that Axie Infinity is "the game that truly inherits and continues the products born in the circle."
The inheritance of products born in the circle refers to Axie Infinity inheriting the gene breeding gameplay from the previous popular blockchain game CryptoKitties, which includes scarcity, collection, and the process of breeding to create new scarcity. In his view, such collectibles are more efficient, cost-effective, and provide more real-time and perceptible interaction compared to traditional collectibles.
The continuation refers to Axie Infinity binding card and skill combinations to the breeding body parts. Jiong Knight believes this undoubtedly makes the game more interesting. Players can not only collect but also battle with other players like in Hearthstone, winning rewards from battles, and breeding Axies with good skill sets can also sell for a good price.
"At the same time, its art style is suitable for all ages, quite childlike, which is the type I like," Jiong Knight said.
Now, Jiong Knight believes that the explosive popularity of Axie Infinity is entirely justified.
"As long as the bull market comes, Axie will definitely be the leader in this field." Jiong Knight has always believed this. He feels that Axie Infinity has many conditions that can lead it to success, and what comforts him the most as an old player is that the development team has always had long-term operational plans for the game, including migrating to the Ronin sidechain, V2 battles, voting governance models, and metaverse land game modes. As each plan on the roadmap becomes a reality and market feedback improves, the confidence of old players in this game has greatly increased.
"Although we have a saying not to put all your eggs in one basket, I just like to catch one rabbit, haha," Jiong Knight said.
"The Play to Earn model has made the player community a more vibrant small economy."
Axie Infinity made many people realize for the first time that you can actually earn money by playing games, and this model is called "Play to Earn," which is generally translated into Chinese as "玩赚模式" or "边玩边赚." Players can earn freely tradable NFTs, tokens, and other game assets by playing the game, and selling them allows them to make money, which is unimaginable for traditional gamers.
Many mobile games now require players to keep spending money, with game developers continuously releasing stronger new equipment. If players want to win in the game, they need to keep spending money to buy equipment, but these virtual assets, such as game characters and equipment purchased with heavy spending, do not belong to the players. If one day you no longer want to play this game, you cannot sell these assets, and if the game shuts down, all assets will vanish into thin air.
"But Axie Infinity is completely different," Jiong Knight said excitedly.
Using blockchain technology, all game assets are truly owned by the players, and the game development team does not have the power to issue new Axies or other game assets. All new virtual pets in the market are bred by players using their own Axies and are listed for sale by the players themselves. Players earn SLP tokens through battles, and SLP and AXS tokens are necessary for breeding new Axies.
"Non-franchise game player participants truly create activity in the market, earning money and naturally generating a more vibrant small economy. This is the fundamental change brought about by the Play to Earn model."
Regarding the soaring prices of AXS and SLP tokens, Jiong Knight believes it is due to a large influx of new players, which has brought huge demand for AXS and SLP. However, at its core, Jiong Knight believes this is because "the team recognized the limitations of the Ethereum main chain early on and developed the Ronin sidechain."
Gas fees have always troubled all blockchain games. There was a time when blockchain game players could only wait for DeFi players to run out of mining opportunities and for gas fees to return to normal levels before they could "afford" to play their favorite blockchain games. Axie Infinity has also been tormented by this.
"Previously, on the Ethereum chain, at the most exaggerated times, I might have to pay over $20 in gas fees just to list something. If the price wasn't set well, delisting would cost dozens of dollars, and buying a pet would also cost dozens of dollars in gas fees. The gas fees were so high that breeding basically came to a halt." The gas fee issue also troubled Jiong Knight, and this problem is fatal for a game with a broad audience of ordinary players.
However, the Ronin chain, which Axie Infinity has been quietly developing, launched at a critical moment. Although there are still some minor issues, it has solved the serious problem of gas fees. "Currently, the gas fee rate for new players to list, delist, and trade on the Ronin chain is always 0, providing an excellent experience." Jiong Knight believes that the decision to migrate to the Ronin chain has been decisive for the explosive growth at this stage.
With the gas fee problem solved, another obstacle for new players to experience the game is that they must first buy three Axies to join the game and start Play to Earn. Recently, the average transaction price of Axies has risen to around 0.34 ETH, meaning that to assemble a team to join the game requires about 1 ETH as "startup capital," which deters many users.
At this time, the emergence of gaming guilds like Yield Guild Games and Mao DAO has helped new players solve this problem. These gaming guilds provide Axies for new players for free, allowing them to immediately join the "gold farming" team. Players only need to complete the required game hours and gold farming conditions to earn income, with the earned SLP tokens being proportionally shared with the gaming guild, while the remaining amount belongs entirely to the players. This greatly lowers the entry barrier for newcomers and provides a perfect solution for those interested in Axie Infinity but worried about risks.
The influx of new players will lead gaming guilds to buy and breed Axies in large quantities, which will drive up the prices of Axie NFTs and also increase the prices of SLP and AXS tokens, representing higher returns. Guilds like YGG have already started hosting more formal Axie battle competitions, with live broadcasts and commentary on Twitch, attracting more new players and forming a positive cycle.
In addition to these gaming guilds, many members of the Axie Infinity community also spontaneously organize activities and promote the game. Jiong Knight himself is preparing to host a domestic Axie Infinity community championship. He is very willing to make such contributions because he and many players "have genuinely earned money from game operations, with both capital and motivation being abundant, willing to continue investing." Currently, the Axie Infinity community is becoming increasingly vibrant, with more and more tournaments, live streams, and community activities. There are also more and more bloggers and content creators producing game tutorial articles and videos, which proves that this game is developing healthily.
"For now, just play when the game isn't too laggy."
Axie Infinity has also exposed a serious problem during its explosive growth.
It seems that Axie Infinity's game servers were not prepared to handle so many players, leading to increasingly frequent game crashes as the number of players surged. Jiong Knight used to be able to relax by playing the game for a while after getting home from work every day, but now he has no choice: "For now, just play when the game isn't too laggy."
Players are also quite helpless. Many people in the community question why the project team, having made so much money now, is unwilling to upgrade the servers. However, Jiong Knight, as a "battle-hardened" veteran player, takes it lightly. He believes the team may have prepared for user growth but did not expect such a large increase in users. Jiong Knight remains optimistic: "I think the problems brought by a well-made game with many players are definitely easier to solve than the problems of a poorly made game with no players, so we should give the team more time."
In the community, he continues to play the role of a leader among veteran players. When doubts arise, he steps up to calm everyone's emotions, advising them to watch tutorials to learn more game skills when they can't play. He is no different from those Bitcoin holders, firmly believing in the projects he has deeply researched and is extremely optimistic about.
In the entire blockchain game industry, Axie Infinity has carved out an independent market. While many blockchain games and Play to Earn models have gone unnoticed, Axie Infinity continues to speed down the highway. Compared to causing a stir within the circle, Jiong Knight hopes to see Axie Infinity break out:
