What role does the guild play on the Chain Track? Changemakers

Title: Game Guild: The Game Changer of the Chain Game Economy

In 2021, the explosion of Axie Infinity has driven the "gold" craze of P2E games, and the game guild is an important driving force behind it.

According to the data released by YGG, the game guild with the largest number of players, YGG's Axe scholarship players have exceeded 20,000, which is comparable to the 24-hour user volume of Axie Infinity yesterday.

In addition to YGG, game guilds such as Merit Circle, GuildFi, and Unix Gaming also gather a large number of Axie Infinity players.

The Game Guild provides players with a low-cost, fast opportunity to play the chain game.

Taking YGG as an example, YGG's market is mainly in Southeast Asian countries, the epidemic has made the unemployment rate in these countries high, the unemployed want to get benefits through P2E games face the lack of encryption knowledge, high game costs and other obstacles, YGG for these players to provide training services, "gold" strategy, to help them quickly enter the game.

Through the Axie Scholarship Program, novice players can get 3 Axies for free, which greatly reduces the economic cost of playing the game. To a certain extent, the game guild will introduce crypto novices into the chain game and encryption world.

Up to now, there are more than 40 game guilds around the world, and the members of the head game guild are concentrated in Southeast Asian countries, and the game guild helps the people of Southeast Asia to increase their income. The service group of the game guild is centered on Southeast Asia and spreads to the world, and South America, Africa, and South Asia have become the new markets for the game guild.

As a new track in the field of encryption, the game guild ecology and game guild functions are gradually improving, the main functions of the game guild include DAO, investment, pledge, LaunchPad, etc., and new functions will be added according to the development of the industry in the future.

The game guild is an important part of the gameFi field, and under the premise of reaching a virtuous circle with online games, players, investors and other elements, it can be continuously optimized and improved in order to achieve sustainable development.

This article will discuss the development of game guilds in detail from four aspects: introduction to the game guild, the ecological status of the game guild, the introduction of the game guild project, and the prospect of the game guild.

Introduction to the Game Guild

(1) Definition of a game guild

The game guild is the product of the development of the game, which refers to the game player communication platform formed in the game, with the main purpose of playing the game, the core members are stable, have a clear organizational structure, division of powers and responsibilities, and rules and disciplines, and have at least one means of communication independent of the game, with a specific name or logo.

The game guild in the chain game field is a combination of GameFi and DAO.

Guilds form a purpose level, and the chain game guild provides players with low-cost opportunities to participate in P2E games, and players receive rewards by participating in P2E games.

At the level of the organizational structure of the game guild, the organizational form adopted by the game guild of the chain game is the DAO, and the player joins the DAO and has the right to participate in governance by holding NFTs, tokens, etc.

(2) Why do you need a game guild?

1. Provide a chain tour entrance for players outside the circle

The game guild will introduce outsiders to the crypto world through chain games, the most typical case being Axie Infinity players in the Philippines.

YGG's documentary shows people in the Philippine city of Konawanduan earning two to three times the local minimum wage by playing Axie Infinity. At the same time, the cooperation between YGG and Axe Infinity has greatly lowered the threshold for Filipino users to enter the game.

The Axie Infinity community launched the Axe Scholarship Program, which offers 3 free Axes for newcomers. There are managers within the YGG Game Guild who provide training services for newcomers to help newcomers get started with the game at low cost and quickly.

In addition to lowering the threshold for newcomers to enter the chain game, the game guild is a one-stop platform for newcomers to quickly understand the popular chain game.

Taking Merit Circle as an example, Merit Circle has a special section to display the games that have been launched and the games that will be launched soon, with a detailed game introduction for players' reference. Some game guilds will attach a link to the game on the page, and the player can directly access the game. By aggregating information, game guilds greatly reduce the time cost of player searches.

2. Help chain game pull new

As you can see from the example of YGG and Axe Infinity's cooperation, the game guild has cultivated new players for the chain game. Game guilds and chain games are mutually reinforcing. On social media, you can often see the news of cooperation between the new chain game and the game guild, and the new chain game has reached a cooperation with the well-known game guild to provide a new place for the members of the game guild to "hit gold". While enhancing the stickiness of users within the guild, it also introduces high-quality players for new chain games.

With the gradual increase in the number of game guilds, game guilds have become a new position for chain game promotion and competition for high-quality players. To a certain extent, the new game guild has reduced the promotion cost of the game guild.

3. Aggregate player resources

The Game Guild brings together chain players in the form of a DAO, and the key values lie in information sharing, DAO governance, and collective intelligence.

The GameFi track is on fire, so that there are more and more opportunities for "gold" in the chain game field, and the information sharing among the members of the game guild is particularly critical at this time. The game guild has veteran players as well as newcomers. Veteran players have stronger ability to screen and process information, and disseminate information through the internal communication platform of the Game Guild. The value content of the source information is enhanced through the dissemination and layer-by-layer interpretation of the members of the game guild and the addition of information.

DAO governance can reflect the collective wisdom, the members of the game guild have the right to vote, have the right to decide the important matters of the game guild, through the DAO governance to optimize the organizational structure of the game guild, improve efficiency. Forming a virtuous circle helps to increase the game earnings of guild members.

The current state of the game guild ecology

(1) Overall situation

According to the ecological map of game guilds produced by investment research institutions and the estimation of various parties, as of now, there are more than 40 game guilds in the world. The study selected 30 game guilds as a sample study.

1. Number of users

In terms of Twitter attention, as of March 9, of the 30 game guilds, 9 game guilds exceeded 50,000, of which 3 game guilds exceeded 100,000, namely YGG (171,000), Good Games Guild (146,000) and GuildFi (111,000).

In terms of the number of players, YGG is the game guild with the largest number of players, with more than 20,000 members. In the head game guild, guildfi, merit circle, Avocado DAO and other players number more than 1,000 people.

2. Token ecosystem

Of the 30 game guilds, 16 have launched tokens and launched online exchanges. Among them, the top 3 in the number of holding addresses are YGG (15666), Good Games Guild (11777) and Merit Circle (6772), merit Circle ranks fourth in the number of Twitter fans, and the number of holding addresses and Twitter fans is positively correlated.

Of the 16 game guilds that launched tokens, 5 game guilds allowed users to receive rewards by staking tokens. Taking GuildFi as an example, users can pledge GF tokens to get rewards such as GF, GXP, NFT airdrops and so on. As of March 10, more than $40.28 million in tokens had been pledged.

3. Location distribution

The headquarters location and service objects of the Game Guild are concentrated in Southeast Asian countries. GameFi Drops lists nine Southeast Asian game guilds from the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. With the exception of Singapore, the other five countries have underdeveloped economies. The pandemic has led to an increase in unemployment in these countries, and the emergence of game guilds has allowed the unemployed to obtain a source of livelihood through "gold".

The three gaming guilds with more than 100,000 Twitter followers are from Southeast Asian countries, namely the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. These game guilds have the largest membership in the Philippines, followed by Vietnam.

The Game Guild spread around the world centered on Southeast Asia. China, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries also have game guilds, and YGG has promoted game guilds to India by establishing its SubDAO IndiGG.

4. Cooperation with head chain game

The Game Guild has reached a cooperation with the Head Chain Game to win more high-quality players for itself by launching more games in the Guild. In turn, the head chain game can absorb the high-quality players of the game guild and increase the interaction volume and influence of the game.

According to information compiled by Momentum 6, the Head Game Guild has a partnership with Axie Infinity. It's worth noting here that Axie Infinity is the most played game by YGG members, and YGG and the Axe Infinity community have a deep cooperative relationship.

In addition to Axe Infinity, the chain game projects that cooperate more with the head game guild include the multiplayer action role-playing game Big Time, the metaverse game Star Atlas, the metaverse game The SandBox, and the MOBA e-sports game Thetan Arena.

5. Investment Institutions

A number of well-known investment institutions have set their sights on the game guild. Among the investment institutions, Animoca Brands is the most active, and among the 10 game guild financings compiled by Coinko, Animoca Brands participated in the financing of 4 game guilds. Of the 3 most valuable game guilds by market capitalization, Animoca Brands invested in two of them.

In addition, well-known investment institutions that invest in game guilds include a16z, Coinbase Ventures, AU21 Capital, Hashed, Three Arrows Capital, etc. From the perspective of investment lineup, the game guild has become a hot track for financing.

(2) The function of the game guild

At present, the game guild has four main functions: DAO, investment, staking and the game's LaunchPad.

1.DAO

Dao is the most core feature of the Game Guild. Game guilds create PLAYER-BASED DAO, DAO sets different characters, players have different role divisions in the DAO, and have decision-making power over affairs within the DAO. Astra Guild Ventures and Merit Circle are both examples of player-based DAOs focused on building.

2. Investment

As the main body of investment, the game guild participates in the investment of some projects while cooperating with the chain game, and wins more rewards for the members of the guild. Ancient8, vietnam's largest game guild, invests in games that are in the early stages of development, participates in NFT pre-sales, participates in game testing, receives early game rewards, NFT airdrops, and provides these as rewards to guild members.

3. Pledge

The game guild issues tokens, allowing coin holders to obtain tokens, NFT airdrops and other rewards through pledges, bringing more real benefits to coin holders. As mentioned above, GuildFi users can pledge GF tokens to receive rewards such as GF, GXP, NFT airdrops and so on.

4.LaunchPad

The Game Guild provides a publishing platform for the new chain game, and the new chain game attracts guild members to experience in the early stage of game release by releasing in the game guild, forming a high-quality player base. Raise funds through the features of LaunchPad to provide financial support for game development and optimization.

Introduction to the Game Guild Project

1.YGG

The Philippine-based gaming guild YGG is currently the largest game guild and was a major driver of last year's Axie Infinity outbreak. Axie Infinity is the most played game by YGG members, and as of now, the number of YGG's Axe scholarship players has exceeded 20,000.

With the exception of Axie Infinity, YGG is gradually expanding its gaming footprint. From October to November last year, YGG has reached cooperation and investment with 8 online games, including CyBall, Thetan Arena, MOBOX, Aavegotchi, DeHorizon, etc.

YGG expanded its user base by establishing SubDAO. YGG established YGG SEA and IndiGG, targeting the Southeast Asian market and the Indian market outside the Philippines respectively, and participating in the investment in the new chain tour through SubDAO.

YGG's operating model:

(1) Establish a global community for players to play and earn (P2E), players through playing the game to get rewards;

(2) to obtain income by leasing or selling NFT assets owned by YGG;

(3) Allow communities to participate in the governance of the DAO through proposals and votes;

(4) Coordinate the research and development of gamers in the DAO to obtain benefits by maintaining competitiveness in metaverse-related games.

Evaluation: The organizational structure of YGG has been relatively mature, and after the gradual reduction of Axie Infinity fever, the activity within the game guild is maintained through the cooperation of YGG and other head chain games. The number of users and activity of all game guilds is the best performer, and it has a broad prospect under the GameFi boom.

2.Merit Circle

Merit Circle creates a DAO based on on-chain players, and MC holders have the right to participate in decision-making. Merit Circle has a SnapShot voting page and governance forum through which MC stakeholders can express their views on proposals.

In addition to decision-making, Merit Circle's chain players can earn money by playing games. Merit Circle sets a 70/30 payout ratio. The project side receives 30% of the game's revenue, and the player receives 70% of the game's revenue.

Merit Circle has ample funding. Up to now, Merit Circle has made more than $2 million in profits through chain games, and has managed $113 million through investment in NFTs and participation in pre-sales, and the capital reserves will be used for DAO operations and project optimization.

Merit Circle's operating model:

(1) Establish a global community for players to play while earning (P2E), players get rewards by playing games, and the guild will get a certain amount of income from it;

(3) Allow the community to participate in the governance of the DAO through proposals and votes.

Evaluation: Merit Circle's DAO governance is relatively mature and has a relatively complete governance mechanism. Merit Circle actively participates in the purchase of NFTs and investment projects, and has a certain asset management scale. DAO governance and game links are easy to use and the user experience is better.

3.GuildFi

GuildFi offers players three ways to play.

(1) Obtain income by playing online P2E games on the platform;

(2) Regular release of NFT blind box airdrops;

(3) Pledge GF tokens to obtain income.

GuildFi's operating model:

(1) Players earn income by playing P2E games online on the platform;

(2) Integrate game and player data, and provide additional benefits for players by analyzing the performance of ID accounts;

(3) GuildFi works with game developers to provide early investment opportunities in NFT assets or tokens for new games, and the quota is determined according to the player's level and participation in GuildFi.

(4) GF coin holders can obtain benefits through pledge, participate in DAO governance, and participate in meta-universe games.

Rating: GuildFi provides additional benefits to players in three ways, helping to enhance the user stickiness of the platform. The platform participation method is more direct, and the sense of experience is better. The fly in the ointment is that the player's sense of experience participating in community governance is not strong.

4.Ancient8

Ancient8 is the largest game guild in Vietnam, with features including chain game scholarships, game community, and investment.

The Chain Game Scholarship refers to the fact that Ancient8 purchases the NFT of the Chain Game as a reward to the player through cooperation with the Chain Game. Currently, Ancient8 supports players to apply for scholarships from Axe Infinity, CyBall and Thetan Arena, which allow players to invest in the game for more benefits after receiving the scholarship.

The gaming community and investment are not too much to repeat. Vietnam is an important market for chain games, and Ancient8, as the largest game guild in Vietnam, provides Vietnamese players with a local chain game exchange platform, which is also an important condition for Ancient8 to gain a foothold in the competition. The investment mainly focuses on NFT pre-sale, NFT secondary market purchase, and P2E game revenue, providing financial support for community operations.

Ancient8's operating model:

(1) Players earn income by playing online P2E games on the platform;

(2) Through cooperation with chain game, the NFT of the purchase of chain game is issued to players as a reward;

(3) Obtain NFTs through NFT pre-sale and NFT secondary market purchases, obtain benefits by playing P2E games, and increase the scale of asset management.

Evaluation: Ancient8 is based on the Vietnamese market, supported by Vietnamese capital such as Coin98, combined with the characteristics of the Vietnamese market, to provide Vietnamese players with a chain game revenue increase program, and the development is more mature.

5.Avocado DAO

Avocado DAO is a DAO based on the P2E chain player, Axie Infinity is the core game of Avocado DAO, and the two have reached a cooperation, and Axie scholarship players can get more rewards. As of now, there are more than 11,000 Axe scholarship players on the platform, with a total of more than 95 million SLP awards.

Avocado DAO is about to launch a staking service where AVG holders can earn additional income by staking tokens.

The portfolio of investment institutions is strong, including Three Arrow Capital, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Solana, Hashed and so on.

Avocado DAO's operating model:

(1) Invest in NFT assets of different games, and establish a scholarship NFT lending system to create income;

(2) Train the members of the Game Guild and provide them with game strategies;

(3) Organize offline/online community activities;

(4) Invest in high-quality chain tour projects.

Rating: Avocado DAO sets up an increase in revenue feature around players, connecting players, investors, and games through the DAO. The platform features have a sense of hierarchy, and the AVG token economic model is clear. The fly in the ointment is the lack of new features that set them apart from other competitors.

Game Guild Prospects

The combination of GameFi with DeFi, NFT, DAO, and SocialFi is an important trend in the development of GameFi tracks, and game guilds are comprehensive platforms that can combine multiple players well.

Therefore, if the game guild wants to achieve rapid development in the future, it needs to do the following: the game guild needs to cooperate deeply with the chain game and the NFT project; improve the construction of the DAO organization; enrich the play of DeFi in the game guild; and avoid excessive homogenization.

(1) The game guild cooperates deeply with chain games and NFT projects

The relationship between the game guild and the chain game and NFT project is complementary, and at present, the game guild obtains benefits by participating in the early chain game project and NFT pre-sale, providing additional benefits for the guild members.

In order to make this model sustainable, the game guild can consider reaching in-depth cooperation with the chain game and NFT project in the future, and the game guild members have the opportunity to participate in the decision-making of important matters of the chain game and NFT project, improve the interaction and participation of the game guild members and the cooperative project, and connect the development of the game guild, the development of the chain game/NFT project and the promotion of the income.

At present, Axie Infinity's scholarship program is an excellent practice, optimizing the scholarship program and being promoted among the chain games and game guilds, which is a good strategy for players to benefit sustainably and enhance the user stickiness of the chain games and game guilds.

(2) Improve the construction of DAO organizations

Dao is an important organizational form in the Web3 world and an important trend in the future development of organizations. Among the game guilds, YGG and Merit Circle provide excellent examples.

The lesson that YGG offers is SubDAO, which is like a company opening a subsidiary. The subsidiary not only owns the business of the head office, but also expands the business to places that the head office cannot take care of, and launches special services according to the characteristics of local users.

SubDAO enriches the organizational structure of the game guild and can have the energy and strategy to refine and adjust to specific groups of people, which is the experience that the game guild can refer to when expanding its business territory.

Merit Circle's lessons to learn are the more mature DAO governance. The game guild should avoid THE DAO and not rule, and the game guild will provide members with the opportunity to propose, the platform for discussion, the voting channel on the basis of building the DAO, and clearly give the port of governance. In dao governance, it is more scientific and efficient, and the efficiency of information access is improved, which will help enhance the sense of responsibility of DAO members and enhance the cohesion of DAO organizations.

(3) Enrich the gameplay of DeFi in the game guild

At present, 16 game guilds have launched tokens, and these game guilds can consider upgrading the use cases of tokens and launching more Applications related to DeFi and NFT around tokens, rather than being limited to the current pledge, lending NFT and other gameplay.

In addition to chain games and NFTs, DeFi is the field to be mined by the game guild, how to use the important tokens of the game guild members, circulate them, and enhance the economic value of the token is an important issue that the game guild needs to consider about the token.

Due to the deep-seated cooperative relationship between game guilds and NFT projects and chain games, tokens can become a link for deeper cooperation and mutual penetration between game guilds and these projects.

(4) Avoid excessive homogenization

As the number of game guilds gradually increases, the competition between game guilds for users becomes more and more intense. Newly established game guilds that want to gain a place in the competition need to consider introducing differentiated features.

At present, the function of the game guild is relatively single, and there is still a lot of imagination in the combination of DeFi and NFT, and the new game guild can consider launching its own distinctive features and design platform use cases on the basis of determining the target group.

Game guilds that have been developing for some time need to consider introducing new features that combine the current hot gameplay to optimize the user experience while giving users a sense of freshness.

(5) Summary

The boom of chain games and NFTs will continue, and game guilds have become just needed by the market. The game guild is created based on chain players, and constantly improves itself through DAO governance and investment, etc., and consolidates the foundation of guild members.

As mentioned above, the game guild is a bridge connecting chain games, players and investors, in the context of the gradual intensification of chain game competition and forcing each company to innovate, the game guild provides an information dissemination platform for the chain game and a position for players, which is the advantage of the development of the game guild.

Under the premise of making good use of the advantages of the background, the game guild optimizes itself in the above four aspects and strengthens the ability of differentiated competition, and we will see more high-quality guild operation templates emerging in the fierce game guild competition.

Note: This article does not make investment advice, please pay attention to protect against investment risks!