I didn't realize this right away.
At first, it seemed like the issue was with the tokens. Then it was about marketing. Later, it was that 'we missed the boat.' But the longer you look at Axie, STEPN, and all those old P2E games... the harder it is to ignore one thing.
They all fizzled out in the same way.
Not due to a lack of players.
But because of the oversaturation of those who came to cash in.
And here I really get stuck.
Because Play-to-Earn sounds logical only on the surface:
you play → the system pays.
But if you stop for a second...
where does this money come from?
Because if: — most players cash out
— new ones are coming in slower
— the token is worthless outside of the game
so the system doesn't 'drop'.
It just ends.
I’ve been mulling this over for a long time and couldn’t piece it together properly...
but at some point, I caught a very unpleasant thought:
most P2E don’t model an economy
and the liquidity distribution among players
And all of this breaks.
Because the economy is when value is created.
And here, value does not emerge.
It simply transitions from one to another.
And then a deadlock arises.
If the system pays everyone — it dies.
If not everyone — it looks 'unfair'.
And it looks like there simply isn’t a right option.
And at this point, I felt a bit uneasy.
Because then the problem isn’t that P2E was 'badly done'... but that the very idea of mass earnings in a game is flawed. Because earning cannot be the core function for everyone.
Someone is always paying.
And then the whole GameFi starts looking different.
Not like 'a game where players get paid'
and like a system that very precisely determines:
who to pay
and to whom — not
And here Pixels looks… weird.
They are not trying to pay everyone.
And it seems they are not even trying to hide it.
It’s like the system constantly: — restricts — filters — doesn’t give the same results
And it looks weird...
until you remember what happened to everyone else.
I’m still not sure if this is 'right'.
But it’s increasingly looking like there’s just no other option.
And here I have my last question hanging...
How was Play-to-Earn supposed to work at all?
or are we just trying to build something that mathematically cannot exist