A comprehensive inventory of popular blockchain game guilds that may emerge in 2022

Source: D-Tiger Research Institute

1. Introduction

Play to Earn, abbreviated as P2E, also known as "gold farming," is a concept of earning while playing. With its quick accessibility, low entry barriers, and ease of dissemination, it has rapidly entered people's view by riding the fast train of Gamefi. It has transformed the traditional gaming industry's Pay to Play and the notion of "spending money" in games, providing players with a brand new perspective.

For every gaming enthusiast, this new gaming model that achieves "low/no investment, high returns" has quickly gained widespread recognition, especially in developing countries like Southeast Asia, where more and more people are starting to try this "gold farming" model to earn profits.

When it comes to "gold farming," one cannot help but mention Axie Infinity. Its game mechanics are very simple, with a cute art style, requiring players to own at least three Axies (game characters) to form a starting lineup to participate in adventure or arena modes to battle and earn SLP (the token of Axie Infinity), which can then be converted into cash for profit.

Each Axie is a unique NFT that can also be traded and bred. During the peak popularity of this game, the price of Axies remained high, making it very costly for some players to buy Axies to form a starting lineup. For another group of players, they own many Axies but lack the time to earn SLP with them, and playing on multiple accounts may also lead to being banned by the official.

Game guilds have emerged as a solution. Players who want to play games but lack resources are called Scholars, and guilds gather resources for them. Scholars assist the guild in earning tokens and receive a share of the profits. Additionally, with certain community management tasks, this mutually beneficial and collaboratively developing relationship between Scholars and guilds may play a crucial role in the Play To Earn economy in the long run.

Next, D-Tiger Research will interpret the current status of popular gold farming guilds:

2. Detailed Analysis of Popular Guilds

Guild Information Overview

2.1 Yield Guild Games

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is currently the leader in the gold farming guild sector of blockchain games. It operates and governs in the form of a DAO, investing in NFTs based on virtual worlds and blockchain games. YGG's goal is to maximize the value of NFT assets used in blockchain games, and its protocol achieves automation through smart contracts, reaching consensus through governance proposals and a distributed network of token holders.

YGG was founded in December 2020 by three co-founders: Gabby Dizon, Beryl Li, and Owl of Moistness. Gabby has been deeply involved in the mobile gaming industry since 2004 and entered the blockchain space in 2018, having released the blockchain game Battle Racers, recognized as a leader in the blockchain gaming industry.

YGG has disclosed three rounds of financing, totaling $20.925 million. Its token $YGG was launched in July 2021, having raised $12.5 million during its IDO on the SushiSwap MISO platform.

YGG has maintained high social activity, recently hosting multiple Twitter spaces to answer community questions. The channel and role settings in Discord are also very comprehensive, with many popular game channels set up in addition to the games YGG participates in and invests in, allowing members to freely choose channels of interest for discussion.

The governance model of YGG DAO is based on participating games to customize SubDAOs (sub-DAOs), such as Kingdom Alliance (YGGLOK) and Splinterlands (YGGSPL). Each sub-DAO has its own independent economic and governance model but still contributes revenue to the overall YGG DAO.

Each sub-DAO has a dedicated player manager to manage the corresponding game assets and tokens and can borrow NFTs from the YGG treasury. However, YGG's management approach is still relatively centralized, requiring at least two of the three co-founders to co-sign for asset transfers.

As a leading project in the blockchain gold farming guild sector, YGG initially filled a significant gap in the industry. YGG has evolved into not just a gold farming guild but a multifaceted entity, part NFT foundation and part NFT farming. It can even be seen as a recruitment agency for the virtual world, providing players with scalable access to blockchain and crypto assets.

2.2 Merit Circle

Merit Circle is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in the metaverse, aiming to build the metaverse by changing games and empowering people to be part of it. The organization is incubated by Flow Ventures, primarily investing in the metaverse, including scholarship programs, purchasing metaverse land, and providing educational services for its community.

The team CEO is Marco van den Heuvel, who has been involved in marketing investments, and the other two co-founders are founders of private investment funds, indicating that the team has rich experience in investment. Team members are distributed worldwide, including elites from the crypto industry and other sectors, providing better support for building the Merit Circle organization.

Merit Circle adopts a transparent DAO governance model, structured into MainDAO and SubDAOs, with a VaultDAO. Users can join the game guild by applying for and obtaining Axie Infinity scholarships or purchasing MC tokens.

MainDAO primarily handles operations; SubDAOs ensure continuity and scalability of in-game strategies; VaultDAO mainly deploys different uses of revenue.

This model allows token holders to create and discuss proposals and vote on the governance forum.

The token of Merit Circle is $MC, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Apart from the tokens publicly sold, other allocations have lock-up or linear release mechanisms, with an initial circulating supply of 79 million MC. The tokens will be distributed to the following stakeholders in the DAO during the token generation event (TGE):

Currently, the main use of the token is for DAO governance voting. As of 2022/03/03, the token was priced at $2.33, with a market cap of $154,715,889, and the Web3 gaming community has staked over $156 million.

The income of the Merit Circle guild is generally used to buy back MC tokens, with part entering the treasury and the rest being burned. This approach better supports the development of the ecosystem, increasing player confidence and user stickiness.

Merit Circle can generate revenue through the following methods:

Building products and services;

Lending NFTs to players to earn a share of game rewards;

Early investments in games and infrastructure;

As of 2022-03-02, the guild's featured games include Vulcan Verse, Axie Infinity, Sidus Heroes, etc. The official Twitter account has 97.4k followers, and the Discord community has over 28k members, with daily online numbers not less than 4k.

Currently, it has received support from many large institutions and has established strategic partnerships with well-known partners as follows:

So far, Merit Circle has invested in over 30 projects, achieving millions of dollars in profits and unexpected revenues, and will continue to explore various Gamefi games for investment, establishing good relationships. In the future, it will further develop the Merit Circle ecosystem and brand.

Additionally, dozens of games are set to release playable versions this year, aiming to attract more gamers.

In just a few months, Merit Circle has risen to join some of the industry's major players, forming a large community due to its scholarship program. In the Merit Circle DAO, one can truly feel the charm of a decentralized community, which is key to distinguishing between closed Web 2.0 enterprises and open Web 3.0 crypto metaverses, and it is believed to bring a different future and development prospects to the gaming industry.

2.3 PathDAO

PathDAO is a decentralized community gaming guild aimed at providing Scholars with career development and earning opportunities, supplemented by in-depth research and community participation and operations, becoming an investment and management organization in the metaverse.

Since its founding in October 2021, the PathDAO founding team has become relatively complete. Team members mostly come from Malaysia and Singapore, with expertise in cryptocurrency, blockchain, gaming, and computer fields, and have rich work experience.

CEO Jansen Teng mined his first blockchain in April 2016 and was also an early user of Axie Infinity, having established a P2E guild in Malaysia with about 50 Scholars. COO Weekee Tiew and Chief Gaming Officer Wei Der Lim have both invested in DeFi, NFT, blockchain, and cryptocurrency.

Achieving portfolio returns of 15-40 times in six months, CTO Wei Xiong graduated from Imperial College London with a master's degree in computer science. He has worked as a developer and data engineer for tech giants, leading the design of NFT art ports.

Its advisors mostly come from the fintech industry, helping the guild develop into a pillar in the Malaysian and Indonesian markets.

As of February 2022, PathDAO has over 5,100 "Scholars," mainly from six games: Axie Infinity, Vulcan Forged, League of Kingdoms, Thetan Arena, Mini Royale, and Pegaxy. It plans to collaborate with 21 other games, including Illuvium, EmberSword, and Angelic. The community has about 41,000 members.

Seed round financing from Defiance Capital, Merit Circle, LVT Capital, Stakez Capital, Master Ventures, and NewTribe Capital has been completed, with specific financing amounts undisclosed.

PathDAO has issued a total of 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) $PATH tokens, which will be distributed to stakeholders in the DAO, giving token holders a say in the future development of PathDAO. The founding team will guide the DAO's development with the help of advisors until the community is fully formed, achieving true decentralization.

PathDAO released its genesis NFT: OurPath. In East Asian philosophical context, "Path" expresses understanding of life through personal experience. Following this concept, the generation method of OurPath NFT is very innovative, allowing users to input insights within 50 characters to determine the final illustration of the NFT.

A total of 1,875 pieces were issued, and as of March 3, 2022, the total market value was 10.2 ETH, with a floor price of 0.012 ETH. As the genesis NFT of PathDAO, OurPath conveys the idea that PathDAO is committed to seeking development for guild members and exploring forward.

Additionally, PathDAO has positive interactions with other NFT communities, such as Punk, BAYC, genesis Cyberkongz, and mysic axie, where community members participate as early builders.

Currently, PathDAO has announced plans for the first three quarters of 2022, focusing not only on game services but also on community building, consulting, and incubating investment institutions, ultimately hoping for a global transition from Web 2 to Web 3.

However, its main markets are still in Malaysia and Indonesia, and the guild's scale and influence currently cannot match YGG and Merit Circle. Whether PathDAO can maintain a positive cycle with Scholars and gradually expand its global influence for "multi-faceted development" remains to be seen.

2.4 GuildFi

GuildFi is a project that combines games, communities, and NFT assets into an interconnected ecosystem gaming guild. Its philosophy is to create a community that maximizes player benefits and achieves interoperability across metaverses. In GuildFi, players can participate in high-quality games invested in by the guild, experience different modes, and use guild tools to earn rewards.

The GuildFi project was established around August 2021 and is headquartered in Thailand. The team includes Kenneth D. Cron, Mirza Uddin, Thuat Nguyen, Ronald Koo, Calvin Chu, and Tascha Punyaneramitdee, each from different well-known teams. They are currently building Thailand's largest gaming community network as the foundation for developing the GuildFi project.

As of March 2, 2022, the guild's featured games include CyBall, Axie, Summoners Arena, etc. The official Twitter community has reached 111.4k followers, and the Discord community has over 58k members, with daily online numbers not less than 6k, and the project's popularity continues to grow.

The guild's innovation lies in having its own Treasury Zone (accumulated wealth section), which is further divided into growth funds, development funds, risk funds, etc. Additionally, the guild has a Tool Zone for users to track relevant game data and results.

The Launchpad is currently the first product in GuildFi's NFT section. With high-quality game partners, the Metadrop Launchpad will provide users with many limited NFTs or initial game products. More related assets will be launched in the future.

Regarding future plans, GuildFi has completed phase 1 and phase 2, including launching a successful minimum viable product (MVP). The initial platform and tools were developed by Thailand's largest GameFi guild.

• GuildFi ID: GuildFi ID is the foundation for creating an upgrade system for players and games. It tracks players' footprints and rewards them based on their participation in the metaverse. In the long run, games can select relevant users based on different rankings.
• Guild Network Phase 1: GuildFi will start from multiple guilds in its network to create broader asset distribution, treasury deployment, and coverage.
• GXP Rewards: Players can earn GXP by participating in games and tasks available on GuildFi, which can lead to various benefits from token rewards to NFT Metadrop allocations. GXP will also help with the upgrade system and determine player rankings.
• GameFi Tools: The tools are designed to help players worldwide easily participate in the GameFi ecosystem. Players can use features like account management, seamless payments, and team management. At the same time, game creators can easily integrate their games with the platform and enter the player community from the start.
• Metadrop Launchpad: GuildFi plans to collaborate with GameFi projects to support game launches. GuildFi members will gain exclusive early access to a range of selected games and get a head start in some of the most promising GameFi before public release.

Future upgrades and developments include advanced upgrade systems, guild networks, scholarship portals, BOY sections, and most importantly, DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).

GuildFi has issued a total of 1,000,000,000 project tokens $GF. Its main uses include governance, staking mining, and participation in activities. The token has already been listed on well-known centralized exchanges such as Huobi, OKX, MEXC, and Gate.io.

As of February 21, 2022, the Web3 gaming community GuildFi GF has over 10 million tokens staked, with a TVL of $48.804 million and an APR of 374.82%. The $GF staking amount previously broke through 25 million tokens on February 20, 2022. The community encourages players to stake for long-term investment in the GuildFi project, achieving mutual growth.

Initial circulating supply: the amount sold on TLA

Overall, GuildFi, as a gaming guild, has achieved such a scale in less than half a year of development, focusing on screening and exploring high-quality games and committing to building a highly consensus community ecosystem. Although there is still a gap compared to the total volume of YGG guilds, in terms of functionality and popularity, it is not inferior to the former, and its potential should not be underestimated.

2.5 Avocado Guild

Avocado Guild is a P2E gaming guild that provides NFTs. By lending NFTs to bounty players, it allows players to earn income through gaming and share profits with the guild. At the same time, the guild also provides education and support for all bounty players.

Avocado is the first guild to reach 10,000 bounty players and places great emphasis on community, aiming to contribute to local people. When new bounty players join the guild, the player and the guild share profits 50/50.

As players contribute more (SLP income, supporting community activities, education, and contributions to guild management), the guild increases the player's profit-sharing ratio. Avocado's current goal is to improve the lives of bounty players within the guild.

The token of Avocado Guild DAO is $AVG, with a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, which launched its first issuance auction (TLA) on Copper Launch at a price of $1.43 on December 27, 2021. The tokens are released linearly, with the circulating total increasing year by year over time.

2.6 Good Games Guild

Good Games Guild is a blockchain gaming guild located in Southeast Asia, aiming to create the largest virtual economy by sponsoring players to participate in games, investing in games, earning in-game assets, and creating tools that enhance future games and the metaverse.

The guild's goal is not only to invest in games but also to build some blockchain gaming tools to help players manage their assets scattered across various games, becoming a gaming hub that provides a series of services from entering games to monetizing assets after gaming.

Good Games Guild carries an important mission: to become one of the largest gaming guilds in Southeast Asia and create a "play to earn" ecosystem for all guild members, growing into a pioneer in "metaverse" development.

Known team members include the three co-founders of GGG guild: Aditia K., who previously worked at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Bank Negara Indonesia, B.E. Suryadi, and another co-founder and COO Wilsen T., who previously worked at Commonwealth International Finance.

In terms of financing, Good Games Guild has gone through three rounds of financing, with investment institutions including NGC, OKEx, Chromia, LD Capital, etc. These financings not only provide strong economic support for the GGG guild but also establish investment and partnership relationships with multiple games, striving to further expand the community and guild.

As of March 2, 2022, GGG guild has been operating for 5 months, covering over 30 games, with more than 400 active guild members and a total membership exceeding 100,000. It is believed that it will soon enter a new phase.

1. NFT asset usage and monitoring: The funds collected by GGG guild will be used in the form of game assets to generate income for the guild. Some special projects related to game assets will be listed separately, such as in-game scholarships, in-game asset purchases/rentals, etc. GGG guild will closely monitor and review these assets.
2. NFT trading market: GGG and guild members can buy and sell game-related assets in the NFT trading market, ranging from art items to in-game virtual assets.
3. Good Games Mobile App: This is a mobile application developed by GGG guild, designed to help guild members check player achievements, rankings, and rewards in real-time. In this app, players can also convert their rewards into fiat currency-based assets, which can be immediately withdrawn and deposited into their cryptocurrency accounts.

During the development phase, GGG will continuously monitor market and community responses to ensure that the developed products meet the needs of the market and guild members.

Good Games Guild issues a governance token $GGG, with a total supply of 100,000,000 tokens. The tokens can be used for event rewards, platform payments, and guild governance (participating in community voting governance, initiating community proposals, etc.). The $GGG tokens will complete linear release within 48 months after the TGE.

Additionally, $GGG has launched staking pools based on its tokens, allowing users to earn more token rewards by staking $GGG tokens. Currently, there are two staking pools: $GGG single-token staking (33.01%) and $GGG-$BNB LP pool staking (188.2%).

Unlike other guilds, GGG guild has introduced real-time monitoring features on mobile, allowing players to check their in-game account rewards, achievements, and even rankings anytime, anywhere.

2.7 BlockchainSpace

Blockchain Space was established in April 2021. In November 2021, it underwent two rounds of financing totaling $6.15 million. In December, it conducted a three-day public token offering on the Copper Launch platform, raising a total of $14.32 million.

On January 2, 2022, the P2E gaming guild BlockchainSpace partnered with ImmuneFi to launch a smart contract and blockchain vulnerability bounty program, with rewards up to $50,000.

2.8 GameFi Guild

GameFi Guild was established on December 23, 2021, as a cryptocurrency-driven community decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The community has a relatively complete guidance system and governance capabilities for empowering guild partners and participants, regularly seeking high-quality game projects for interoperability and guiding users in the guild.

Its philosophy is to help users participate in Gamefi games without barriers, reducing participation costs while enjoying the fun of gaming and potentially earning game rewards as incentives.

Compared to other popular guilds, this guild was established later, and as of March 2, 2022, the project's popularity is still low, with only about 500 Twitter followers. Additionally, the Discord community on the official website has fewer than 100 members and low activity.

There is currently no Telegram or Medium media community. The last update on Twitter was over a month ago, and there have been no related financing news online, with team information yet to be disclosed.

Given the current situation, we hold a skeptical attitude about whether this project will continue to operate, as poor publicity has led to a decrease in popularity and followers.

3. Development and Future

The concept of gaming guilds has actually existed for a long time, especially popular in early online games. Just as people always crave collective living, guilds initially formed as groups of players communicating through text and voice, creating a community.

Adhering to the philosophy of "helping each other in battles," many gamers spontaneously formed and joined guilds, dividing roles and jointly maintaining community development. At this stage, players' attachment to guilds was mostly based on gaming aspects (cooperation, teaming) and emotional needs (communication, resonance).

However, as games themselves developed, the nature of guilds gradually changed. As guilds grew, issues of interests began to mix in, particularly regarding the inflow and distribution of funds. Over time, conflicts over profit distribution between guild leaders and members intensified. From once fighting together as brothers to now being "cut as leeks," members became unwilling and began to think about how to solve the overly centralized organizational issues, leading to the emergence of GameFi guilds.

Web3 advocates "co-building, sharing, and mutual benefit." Following this idea, GameFi guilds adopt a DAO governance model, provide cryptocurrency education services, offer "scholarship" programs (i.e., game item rental services), and issue their own tokens.

Token holders have the right to propose and vote on community development, with information being open and transparent, sharing development dividends. This is the essential characteristic of GameFi guilds and distinguishes them from traditional Web2 gaming guilds.

For players who want to play and love games but lack early startup funds and resources, the relationship between guilds and them is complementary. Guilds gather resources for them, provide rental services, and increase employment opportunities.

If long-term healthy development can be achieved, guilds will grow, and each individual within them will be a beneficiary. Players can enjoy games at a lower cost while earning tokens, solving their employment issues by working in the guild, and ultimately sharing profits by holding tokens.

Moreover, the relationship between guilds and games is also mutually beneficial; the development of guilds cannot be separated from the overall development of the GameFi sector. Unlike traditional gaming guilds, GameFi gaming guilds generally have substantial financial reserves, allowing strong guilds to directly invest in, incubate, and support the operation of entire games.

Compared to the traditional gaming industry, which primarily focuses on games and profits from players, GameFi gaming guilds allow players to participate more in game design, enhance player experience, and improve the stickiness between players and games, thus achieving a certain balance in economic benefit distribution.

However, at this stage, it is also difficult to avoid the need for long-term user acquisition to maintain token circulation, the overly singular valuation of NFT assets, the dominance of large holders in community voting, and unclear guild career planning.

In the future, to meet the growing demand for participation in blockchain games, metaverses, and other virtual economies, the Play To Earn model may continue to evolve. The essence of the emergence of GameFi guilds is to hope to establish a DAO organization that can reduce the drawbacks of centralization to some extent.

However, if we only talk about organizational models and economic distribution without the support of quality games, gaming guilds will ultimately struggle to avoid becoming "a facade for cryptocurrency gaming guilds."