Imagine that the spaceship engine you drove in (Interstellar Atlas) last night can be disassembled today and installed on the mech in (Phantom Island); the character skin you designed in (Sandbox) can be worn while shopping in (Great Era); and all these assets truly belong to you — not the kind of 'belonging' dictated by the game company.
This is not a science fiction novel, but a reality that is happening. And what ties all of this together is a 'behind-the-scenes operator' that you may not have fully noticed yet — Yield Guild Games (YGG).
From 'Moving Bricks' to 'Building Cities': The Quiet Revolution of YGG
In 2021, when the world was shocked by Axie Infinity's 'play-to-earn', most saw it as a story of overnight riches or 'game workers' in developing countries. But YGG saw a whole new possibility: if game assets truly belong to players, then why don’t players organize themselves?
The first thing YGG did was very simple: lend money to players who could not afford Axie, allowing them to enter the game and then recoup costs through profit sharing. Sounds like a 'microloan' in the gaming world?
But then everything became interesting.
Players in rural Philippines are no longer just lone 'gold farmers'; they are starting to form communities, share strategies, and even create 'Axie nurseries' (players specifically cultivating quality Axies). YGG quickly realized that the real value lies not in 'lending game assets', but in 'organizing player networks'.
Thus, sub-DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) were born.
Five dimensions of game 'deconstruction techniques'
1. Economic model: The subtle shift from P2E to P&E
Early critics always said: 'These games aren't fun, they are just money-making tools.' However, YGG's player network has provided a different answer in practice.
Taking Splinterlands as an example, the economic model of this card game is as complex as a small economy. Experienced YGG players have found that merely competing in matches is not very efficient for making money, but if you specifically collect cards from certain series and wait for official tournaments, the value of those cards skyrockets.
A sub-DAO in YGG Philippines even developed a 'card hedging strategy'—rotating between different types of card combinations across seasons. They are not 'playing games for profit', but 'profiting through professional game asset management'. This subtlety is the core of the evolution from P2E (play-to-earn) to P&E (play-to-earn, but 'playing' itself has value).
Data shows that players participating in the YGL sub-DAO of Splinterlands have average earnings 37% higher than independent players, yet their average gaming time is actually less—because they understand game economics better and do not blindly invest time.
2. Governance experiments: When game guilds become 'digital city-states'
Aavegotchi introduced an interesting mechanism: the higher the value of your little ghost (Gotchi), the greater your voting power in the DAO. This could lead to 'whale monopolies', but YGG's community practices offer another possibility.
In YGG's Aavegotchi sub-DAO, members spontaneously established a 'delegated voting protocol': high-value holders delegate part of their voting power to members who have researched specific issues. A player skilled in game balance analysis, despite only holding a medium-value Gotchi, gained a lot of delegation and exerted influence far beyond their asset weight in key votes.
This inadvertently addresses a core dilemma in the DAO realm: how to ensure that professional opinions are not drowned out by capital voices. The governance experience YGG has accumulated through these practices may be richer than many specialized DAO projects.
3. Asset interoperability: YGG's 'cross-game pawn shop'
This is the most imaginative part and also the deepest direction for YGG's layout.
Imagine a scenario: Pixels is a farming game, and Big Time is an action RPG, seemingly unrelated. But YGG players have discovered that certain rare crops in Pixels are high-level potion materials in Big Time's alchemy system. The question arises: how to trade safely?
YGG is testing an internal solution: 'cross-game asset custody and conversion protocol'. Simply put, you 'deposit' crops from Pixels into the YGL system, receive a certificate, and then exchange it for corresponding materials in Big Time. YGG collects a small fee from this, but more importantly, it accumulates valuable cross-game asset flow data.
This sounds technically complex, but the underlying logic is quite old—just like medieval merchants transporting silk from China to Europe, which required a whole logistics, exchange, and trust system. YGG is becoming the 'Silk Road Merchant Guild' of the gaming world.
4. Sustainability paradox: When 'being too fun' becomes a problem
Illuvium faces an interesting challenge: the game is too much fun.
This sounds like a Versailles-style question, but is serious for game economics. If players play purely for fun and don't care about asset trading, the in-game economy may lack liquidity. YGG's test players reported a subtle observation: economic incentives do not make players 'play for money', but rather allow players to 'play without worrying about money'.
Specifically, YGG assisted Illuvium in designing a 'layered incentive': core players can pursue high-value asset trades, while casual players earn stable but smaller rewards by completing daily tasks. The two interact in the game, with the former providing economic vitality and the latter providing player base and game popularity.
This balancing act is something traditional game design rarely considers, but blockchain games must face.
5. Technological integration: AI coaches and blockchain ledgers
The most cutting-edge experiments are happening in Star Atlas. This space simulation game is so complex that players need a basic understanding of astrophysics. One of YGG's sub-DAOs did something really cool: they trained an AI assistant specifically to help new players understand orbital mechanics and fleet formation.
But the uniqueness of this AI lies in the fact that it is trained collaboratively by DAO members, with ownership belonging to the DAO, and the revenue from its use also going to the DAO. Players can use in-game tokens to purchase AI services, with a portion of the income used for AI maintenance and a portion allocated to members who contribute training data.
This creates a new paradigm: players not only create value within games but also create tools that enhance game experiences and benefit from them. Blockchain ensures transparency of ownership and distribution, AI provides actual value, and YGG's network effects allow this model to be rapidly replicated in other games.
YGG's true ambition: not just a game guild, but a 'player cooperation network'
Reflecting on these five dimensions, you will find that what YGG is doing goes far beyond 'organizing players to play games for profit'. They are in:
· Establish cross-game asset liquidity protocols (technical level)
· Experiment with digital democratic governance models (social level)
· Balance game fun and economic sustainability (design level)
· Cultivate a community of professional players and analysts (human level)
· Create a player-owned tool and service ecosystem (innovation level)
Traditional game companies see players as consumers, traditional game guilds see players as team members, while YGG is trying a new model: players as stakeholders, builders, and residents in a community.
Where is the key to the future?
YGG faces significant challenges: regulatory uncertainty, varying game quality, the risk of economic model collapse, and technical barriers, among others. However, their practices have pointed to several key trends:
1. Specialization: Future YGG sub-DAOs may be divided not by game but by function—'economic model analysis DAO', 'PVP tactics research DAO', 'cross-game arbitrage DAO', and so on.
2. Identity overlay: Your gaming identity may no longer be tied to a single game. Your achievements in Game A can serve as credit in Game B; your governance experience in Game C can earn you more voice in the DAO of Game D.
3. Symbiosis of reality and virtuality: Players in YGG Philippines have begun using game income to pay for real-world education, learning programming, and then improving game tools in return. This 'game-reality' value cycle may reshape our boundaries between work, learning, and entertainment.
Forty deconstructions, one reconstruction
(Guild Epoch) proposed 'forty deconstructions', essentially answering a question from forty different angles: What happens to games when game assets truly belong to players?
YGG's practice provides the answer: games may no longer be just 'games'. They may become testing grounds for new economic models, training camps for digital governance, and incubators for cross-border collaboration. In this process, organizations like YGG are no longer just 'game guilds', but new collaborative platforms in the digital age.
Next time you hear the term 'game guild', consider: is it really about games? Or are we witnessing the birth of a completely new organizational form—starting with games, but potentially leading to how we co-create, own, and manage everything in the digital world.
And what YGG holds is one of the keys to unlocking this future world—not one, but forty.
