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Intrinsic Value

Watching this video about play-to-earn NFT games left me bewildered. I had to go read more to understand how the monetization worked. 

Ever since online gaming enabled shared virtual worlds, there has been some form of a real-money market for digital items. Whether the grey-market trade of potentially stolen accounts/goods, or the more official purchasing of skins, hats, or other cosmetics directly from the developer—people like to collect digital assets and are willing to spend on their hobby.

Before blockchain, though, the digital items players spent countless hours amassing weren’t technically even theirs. The items are available to use, of course, but they aren’t actually owned by the player. 

Blockchain tech, and more specifically non-fungible tokens (NFTs), have completely changed the game. Players actually own their digital items, which can be easily verified. 

So if you own things that have intrinsic value even if among a select group of people, there is a way to convert that to real money. The idea that people in rural parts of the third world having lost most of their traditional ways of earning a living will now play NFT games to make one seems wrong. If this was one of many options they had and chose of their own volition that would be fine but collecting Axies is the only way to survive that is a different matter entirely. 

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