Play-to-earn games have a future?

A few years ago, the world of cryptocurrencies and digital entertainment was shaken by the promise of play-to-earn (P2E) games. Under the premise of "play and earn money," they managed to attract millions of users with the vision of a future where leisure time can be easily monetized.

However, behind this brilliant showcase lies a flawed economic and philosophical model. Play-to-earn games, in their current state, have become a ticking time bomb, ready to leave a trail of loss and disillusionment in their wake. Far from being the playful revolution that P2E games promise, they are more like an unsustainable mirage...

The fundamental fallacy: confusing play with work

The first mistake is focusing the design of an activity born for fun on profitability. The essence of a video game lies in fun, narrative and challenge. People play games to be entertained and have a good time.

The traditional market takes advantage of this to extract money from users using the play-to-win principle. P2E models corrupt the essence of gaming by turning the experience into a labor-based task, causing players to make decisions based not on enjoyment, but on revenue optimization. When in itself, this should be a residual reward.
What is presented as "playing" actually becomes "working" for an uncertain reward, with the added stress of the volatility of crypto assets and the frustration that these types of games are often not something you would play "for free."

The Hidden Pyramid Scheme
The sustainability of any P2E economy depends on a constant and growing influx of new "player-investors." Yes, most P2E models require an initial investment, so the correct term would be Invest-to-Play-to-Earn.

And this is where one of the crux of the problem lies. The income of current users depends on the users who come later. Well, if there's no demand for the game token, its value plummets to almost zero, causing revenue (calculated in FIAT) to fall to levels where it's no longer profitable to continue playing, nor is it possible to recover a potential investment.

The cycle is always the same:

Hype Phase: A project launches its tokens and NFTs. The first players invest, and as more people join, the value is artificially inflated.
Saturation Phase: As time progresses, the supply of assets exceeds demand. For prices to remain stable, an infinite flow of new players would be needed.
Collapse Phase: When the influx of new users slows, the bubble bursts. Assets lose their value, "returns" evaporate, and the majority, who arrived late, are left with worthless digital assets.
This model doesn't create real value; It only redistributes it from the bottom (the last to arrive) to the top (the creators and early investors). And this is where the mistake lies.

_{Posted using SteemX}