A VICE documentary sheds some unflattering light on play-to-earn games, particularly Axie Infinity, and how they can be exploitative.
In 2021, many people earned a lot of money from play-to-earn games. Leading in this landscape is the title Axie Infinity, developed by Sky Mavis, and many who took part in the NFT game earlier than others made fortunes as they sold the SLP they made in the game for real money for thousands of dollars. However, for a vast majority of players, the story isn’t the same. With Bill Gates calling crypto and NFT “100% based on the greater fool theory,” attention from mainstream media has arrived on the NFT gaming space. This Vice documentary (aired on Showtime but also summarized in this Field Notes episode) explored the darker side of NFT games through their case study of Axie Infinity, interviews with its CEO The Jihoz, and their insights on how the NFT gaming and cryptocurrency economy in general works, and how it could be used to exploit unassuming actors.
The journalists in the video admitted that they did meet people who earned fortunes from the game, becoming overnight millionaires in some cases. But the game’s ecosystem has also been compared to a pyramid scheme, where people who adopted the game earlier are the ones who earned a lot, but those who joined late and are doing the brunt of the work are the most exploited, as they do not earn as much as they’ve invested into…
