The Background: Axie Infinity Mania
Recently we have seen a spectacular increase in the interest of gamers and non-gamers alike on play-to-earn gaming sites thanks to the popularity of Axie Infinity. Just this year, we have seen an amazing price appreciation of AXS, the native governance token of this game, from $2 to $75 or 3,650%.
This game which started in Vietnam has a lot of user base in South East Asia, particularly in the Philippines and it might not be far-fetch to imagine that the Filipinos played a large part in promoting this game. In an article by Coindesk which was published last April last year, at the height of pandemic in the Philippines, the writer featured a lot of Filipino gamers whose families were able to survive the quarantine because these gamers were able to earn money from playing Axie Infinity.
This is not to overestimate the contribution of Filipino gamers in promoting Axie Infinity as a legitimate play-to-earn game. The hype of Axie Infinity became possible because of many Filipinos playing it very early on and the game just got so much momentum that the hype got a life of its own. Because of the popularity of Axie, Binance even made a blog tutorial on how to encash the Smooth Love Potion (SLP) into Peso, the native currency in the Philippines.
But with the steep price of Axie, many new players who want to join the bandwagon of play-to-earn sites found it very difficult to join the platform. Many are looking now for cheaper and better alternatives. Just like me, many have found that the Splinterlands has low barrier to entry (at Php 500 or $10 which is very affordable) but lots of potential and a very strong community. I would like to emphasize the last because, any crypto project needs a strong community support so that it will become viable and sustainable crypto project.
The Game
For those who are unfamiliar with Splinterlands, it is a card game similar to the Magic the Gathering or Yugi-oh Anime where players use cards that contain monsters to battle with their opponents. The winners get rewarded with Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) which are also crypto currency which can be traded to other crypto currency or fiat money. The game also recently launched their governance toke called Splinter Shards (SPS) which can be staked in-game.
There is a free-to-play option but to earn in-game rewards, you must buy the spell book which allows you to earn DEC, daily rewards and participate in other in-game activities like guild, events, and the renting, buying or selling of the game cards which are considered Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
When fighting opponents, you must have summoner and cards. Each summoner and card has unique characteristics. You can organize your line-up or combine cards in a single line-up in countless ways. Sometimes how you sequence your cards can have an effect on whether you will win or lose. So the Splinterlands is not a pay-to-win site, I even beat a $700 worth of deck with $20 worth of cards. That really makes Splinterlands addictive and challenging because the game has a psychological aspect.
Splinterlands is gaining massive following
Couple of days ago, I posted that I volunteered to be a moderator of a Splinterlands Facebook Group called Splinterlands Unofficial Philippines which just a week ago just hase 50 members. After few days, it has grown over to 1,300 members. That is a whooping 2,500% increase in membership and many of those who joined a new members who eventually bought their own spellbooks, cards and potions.
Out of curiousity, I also search for other Splinterlands groups in Facebook and I was impressed that there were a lot out there. I will not mention all those groups that I have found out. I will just mention the Top 3 and these are:
1. Splinterlands Ph with 10,000 members
2. Splinterlands Marketplace with 6,500 members
3. Splinterlands Unofficial Philippines with 1,300 members
I will not make a summary of the members because it could be possible that some members belong to more than 1 group. I can just conservatively take 10,000, the total membership of the group which has the largest membership, as the minimum number of gamers of Splinterlands in the country. I am just making an estimation because currently I do not see any statistics yet about number of gamers per country No matter inconclusive my data, 10,000 users is still a a huge number, right?
I saw a post before from the Offical @Splinterlands hive account about statistics of daily active users in the game. In his post, he said that there are about 50,000 daily active users. Taking the numbers from Philippines (10,000 users minimum) that translates to 20% which is indeed really high.
I believe my country will play a big role in increasing the numbers of users in Splinterlands just as it did with Axie Infinity because of the following reasons:
Our demographics is very young and internet savvy. Just look at different social media platforms, the presence of Filipinos are everywhere.
Filipinos really love to play online and are competitive at it. Before Splinterlands became popular, Pinoys are playing different genre of online games like MMOs, Online-RPGs, DOTA and MOBA. Our Pinoy Gaming Teams (TNC, Mineski, Execration) even won competitions in DOTA 2 Tournaments and ML during the last South East Asian Games. It was just a matter of time that Filipinos discover that they can also earn while playing.
During this pandemic, Filipinos got a lot of spare time. And what better way to spend your time productively by playing Splinterlands. I know some people have multiple Splinterland accounts and they allow those accounts to be rented by other players for a Dark Energy Crystal Fee.
Pinoys want financial independence and passive income. The game Splinterlands offers this possibility and opportunity.
Filipinos love to share opportunities and blessings. That is the reason, many FB, Discord and Telegram groups sprouting like mushrooms because Pinoy players love to share their strategies and tips on how to be good in the game and make profit.
If you like to try this game and check if it suits your personality, try the free option. If you want to be serious about it and invest an amount you can afford to lose, I would appreciate if you use my referral.
**Disclaimer: **
This post has been originally published in Read.cash/@cryptoph.