Reviewing the History of MaoDao Gold Farming: Game Guilds are Enacting the "Homeric Epic" Era of the Metaverse

Written by: Xiao Mao Ge

This article is written for the MaoDao community and investors in the metaverse track. It is foreseeable that various DAOs, guilds, and metaverse projects will emerge in the near future. We review past achievements and mistakes, adjust our direction in the rapidly developing NFT track, and continue to move forward.

At the same time, we hope to break free from the constraints of practitioners and view the entire industry from a broader perspective while envisioning the future of the metaverse. In this article, MaoDao will candidly share the financial data, operational experiences, and future aspirations related to gold mining over the past six months to provide inspiration.

In the 12th century BC, the "Homeric Epic" described the decline of Mycenaean civilization, a time in ancient Greece filled with wars and conflicts, where various heroes vied for power. This era is also referred to as the "Medieval Greece." However, it was followed by the brilliant era of ancient Greek city-states, where major city-states like Athens and Sparta emerged, each with its own citizens, culture, and the ability to mint independent currency, giving birth to the democratic system of city-states.

In November 2021, Facebook rebranded, and the long-dormant Metaverse sector experienced a new wave of explosion. Amidst the lively discussions, one could vaguely sense a certain sense of destiny within the crypto industry: "The wheels of history roll forward, and all roadblocks will be crushed."

At this time, it also marked the 180th day since the establishment of MaoDao's Axie Infinity play-to-earn guild. In these six months, MaoDao started from scratch, leveling up by defeating monsters, and has built a core gaming gold mining and NFT community, even creating the Ready Player Cat, a crypto-native IP with Eastern elements.

It is undeniable that the so-called "metaverse" is still in its early stages; perhaps everything we are currently doing is merely exploring the embryonic form of the metaverse. If we view the Metaverse as a major trend of the future world, we might be in the prelude to an exciting "Homeric Epic" era.

Today, the crypto world is nurturing the spiritual connotation of the metaverse, and various stories reminiscent of the heroes (gods) of the "Homeric Epic" era are being reenacted. Through the fog, the past and future rhyme, as if we see a fragment of a brain-machine teaching written hundreds of years later:

"In the 21st century, various early gaming guilds and DAOs have begun to explore and experiment, subsequently issuing their own tokens and governance systems, possessing their own community members in the digital world, forming unique virtual economies, and the glorious Metaverse era is about to begin."

What Are We Doing in Play-to-Earn?

We usually refer to Play-to-Earn as "earning while playing." To put it simply, we are engaged in a business of "taking players to play games." In fact, the current threshold for the Play-to-Earn model is very low, but due to its simplicity, it is easy to get started and spread.

Building an Axie Infinity guild is very simple; you only need three things: a portion of Axie assets, a group of players who can dedicate about 3 hours a day to play games, and methods to guide players and manage the community.

In fact, due to the low threshold and the novelty of the industry, data regarding guild players can easily lead to misunderstandings. For example, the number of players in a blockchain gaming guild is a vague figure. Currently, it is common for a player to use multiple accounts or play multiple games. If a blockchain gaming guild claims to have XXX players without specifying "within a specific timeframe" and "which game," it can be considered an inaccurate statement. The correct statistic should reflect the long-term average number of players in a specific game within the blockchain gaming guild.

We have found that, constrained by a lack of infrastructure, the current process of Play-to-Earn gold mining is extremely manual. For instance, our community administrators need to possess methods for guiding players and also need to collect data and manage community processes daily. During this period, we encountered several issues, including:

• New players have a high probability of quitting within a few days to the first week after experiencing the game. Since MaoDao published the Axie Infinity tutorial article on May 30, players have been actively signing up, with nearly 600 players having tried or experienced Axie, while only about 150 core players have remained stable and persistent, forming the core gaming community of MaoDao.
• Community administrators in blockchain games need to have methods for guiding players and learn to handle and coordinate numerous trivial matters within the community, which requires a significant amount of time and energy. This mainly includes leading new players to get started with the game, providing guidance on gameplay from the previous days, and advising on how to improve win rates in PvP battles. Additionally, if players are dissatisfied with the Axie assigned to them, they need to coordinate with the administrator.
• There is still a phenomenon of players using multiple accounts to play, which poses significant risks for us. If discovered by the officials and accounts are banned, we would lose the Axie assets within those accounts. Therefore, our game administrators initially check each player's battle records and conduct daily statistical analyses to provide guidance, communication, coordination, or warnings for different players.

MaoDao's statistics on battle records for new players

Play-to-Earn Helps Us Understand and Practice the Fundamental Logic of the Metaverse

After six months of gold mining and community building, we believe that the foundational construction of the metaverse revolves around three core dimensions: "people," "assets," and "platforms and standards," corresponding to "players," "Axie assets," and "community management platforms and methods" in the guild. The blockchain gaming guilds represented by YGG initially focused on "people," i.e., "players," and later expanded their scale by emphasizing "assets."

If we further scale up, some powerful guilds like YGG already possess the two core foundations of the metaverse: "people" and "assets." They can then work on productizing "platforms" and even formulating future "standards" for the metaverse.

Play-to-Earn Can Generate Real Cash Flow and Support Future Development

Firstly, although the "number of players" mentioned above is a vague concept, the real cash flow generated by blockchain gaming guilds does not lie. Starting with Play-to-Earn, many grassroots blockchain organizations, including MaoDao, have gradually begun to generate real cash flow and core communities. Here is the data for MaoDao's gold mining guild since May 30:

From the beginning of Play-to-Earn gold mining to subsequent community building, future actions we can take include:

• Expanding the scale of community building around game players
• Developing NFTs or game tools for players and productizing them
• Enhancing decentralization around DAO governance
• Capitalizing on investment configurations of blockchain gaming assets

Play-to-Earn Makes Us Reflect on the Meaning and Future of the Metaverse

The concept of Play-to-Earn (earning while playing) emerged with Axie Infinity and became a global sensation, allowing players from both the East and West to join games like Axie, either by investing time, money, or skills, creating and exchanging value in this new internet that is closer to reality, bridging differences.

What has been mentioned above represents the positive side of Play-to-Earn, but does this mechanism also have flaws that need improvement? In fact, we encountered some confusion during our early participation in gold mining, and here are our self-posed questions and answers:

Q: First, why did we choose Axie Infinity as our primary blockchain game? Is it because of the game's high playability?

A: We chose Axie Infinity mainly because of the commonalities of blockchain games—blockchain and crypto economic models, which can construct a set of endogenous assets containing scarce resources. This is reflected in the fact that in the game, whether it is the pet characters themselves, land, equipment, or currency, they can freely circulate around DeFi's secondary market, meaning they can bring actual income to players. Additionally, Axie Infinity has a mature Scholarship model, making it convenient for players worldwide to organize for gold mining.

Q: What is the true meaning of Play-to-Earn? If there were an AI that perfectly mimicked human behavior for gold mining, what significance would our (including guilds or players) current activities hold?

A: Play-to-Earn has brought a new narrative to the blockchain gaming industry. It is widely known that for some residents of developing countries, it is a great way to make a living. For example, the main player base of Axie Infinity is in the Philippines, where players spend time in the game to earn a living, far exceeding the average wage level of local residents. Virtual gaming has become closely intertwined with real life.

In our view, every attempt to bridge the boundaries between the virtual world and the real world is an exploration of the embryonic form of the metaverse. For instance, VR bridges the boundary of human sensory perception, NFTs bridge the boundaries of identity and asset attributes, and Play-to-Earn bridges the boundaries of time and income. After long-term development, all these dimensions will eventually form a completely independent and closed-loop metaverse ecosystem.

Moreover, we believe that the significance and innovation brought by Play-to-Earn include:

• Play-to-Earn brings a highly scalable gaming and social ecosystem, creating a new narrative of gaming in the context of the metaverse, distinct from the traditional model that attracts players through gameplay.
• Play-to-Earn is based on permissionless crypto financial infrastructure, creating a new type of gaming incentive model based on traditional gaming gold mining. However, it still bears the shadows of traditional games due to the current level of blockchain gaming development.
• The Play-to-Earn model attempts to bridge the boundaries between the virtual world and the real world in terms of income and time. Currently, the simple "time for rewards" model is an early form of the "income and time" closed loop in the future metaverse and real ecosystem.
• The scaling process of Play-to-Earn is also a process of consolidating player-centric communities and consensus. The real cash flow and asset operations generated during this process can allow the entire gold mining organization to attempt DAO governance, asset allocation, and the building of platforms or tools, all of which are wealth accumulated through community-driven efforts. Looking further into the future, formulating "standards" for the metaverse may also be promising.

Regarding the significance of AI in gold mining, this is a question we have discussed with our good partner RCT AI. MaoDao believes that regarding the current Axie Infinity model, while AI gold mining can produce good data and generate decent income, it cannot attract players (excluding AI players) to invest more, including time, social engagement, and new assets. Excessive AI gold mining may also disrupt the balance of the current in-game economic model. However, this does not mean that AI gold mining is meaningless; in the future, there will certainly be types of games suitable for AI participation. Due to limited imagination, we have yet to envision specific game mechanics.

Q: More and more so-called "gold mining studios" are starting to participate in Play-to-Earn and issue tokens. Is a lower threshold for gold mining better? How will it develop in the future?

Firstly, we do not believe that the current Play-to-Earn model, which is primarily labor-intensive and based on time-for-reward, is the ultimate form of gold mining. The future "gold mining" in the metaverse will encompass more than just playing games; it may include building structures, using technology to develop gaming tools, and other elements.

At the same time, we do not believe that expanding the scale of gold mining and issuing governance tokens is the only form of gaming guilds. MaoDao is attempting to use RPC NFTs for fund pool governance and will continue to explore new gaming guild models, such as incorporating a model similar to BlackPool's game managers.

Currently, we have temporarily paused gold mining in Axie Infinity for adjustments and are actively seeking collaboration with other promising blockchain games in the near future. Finally, we believe that the foundational construction of the metaverse still centers around "people." MaoDao officially announces that 100% of the funds from the past six months will be used to establish a DAO fund pool and initiate RPC NFT governance, along with other innovative attempts centered around the community.