What are they, what do they do, how to they work for P2E games? Should I join one?
Ever since games were invented, so, too, were gaming guilds. Broadly, gaming guilds refer to groups of players who share an interest in and play the same games together. Whether it is in a casino or in an esports arena, sharing data and collaborating in-game can lead to greater benefits for the members of the guild compared to just playing solo. With the rise of blockchain-enabled games, however, the definition has started to take on a new meaning. Now, gaming guilds are not just groups of players who play the same game; but also groups of players who pool together capital in a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO) in order to purchase in-game assets and provide financial services to players (or “scholars”) who would otherwise not have the resources to be able to participate in the game. In this article we will explore some examples of some of the biggest gaming guilds and what they mean to a game.
The most prominent crypto gaming guild has to be Yield Guild Games. Yield Guild Games was started in 2020 after founder and Axie Infinity player Dizon realized a gap in the fledgling market: some players wanted to play, but didn’t have the funds to do so, while other players had enough funds to purchase many Axie, but found themselves unable to fully utilise all of them to their full potential. Dizon would rent out his Axie’s to eager players; in return the revenue would be split between the scholars (players), community managers, and the guild. In this way, players who would otherwise not be able to participate due to the increasing cost of an Axie would be able to play, and Axie’s that could feasibly not be used due to time constraints could be utilised, with rental income derived from them. The model was quickly adapted to other play-to-earn crypto games, with Yield Guild Games now supporting a variety of different games across many different blockchains. Others quickly noticed this ingenious strategy, and many other crypto gaming guilds would form soon thereafter. Even still, Yield Guild Games is still the largest, with a market capitalization of $255M at the time of writing.
Another crypto gaming guild with a wide variety of supported games is Merit Circle. Merit Circle is operated by a DAO utilizing a subDAO structure — each game has its own individual subDAO. If one of the subDAOs is compromised, the others are unaffected. Merit Circle currently has live support for Axie Infinity, Sidus Heroes, and Vulcan Verse, with a number of upcoming projects such as Illuvium and Sipher to be added in the near future. The native token, MC, has a market capitalization of $150M at the time of writing, and can be staked on the Merit Circle dApp for passive rewards.
Blockchain-enabled games create the potential for an exciting new world where people from all over the world can earn income doing something that they love: playing games. While play-to-earn games have just started to emerge; so, too, have crypto native gaming guilds. In the future, the utility and diversity of services offered by these platforms will continue to grow along with game development. Some even speculate that there will be a point in the future where some individuals’ income inside the metaverse will surpass that of their real-world income. Sounds exciting? Don’t miss out. Join us at GamiFi.gg as we GamiFi Everything!
