When I first looked into Yield Guild Games, or YGG, what stood out to me was that it didn’t feel like a normal crypto project. It felt more like a group of gamers trying to help each other survive and grow inside a new digital world. At its core, YGG is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which just means it’s a community-run organization where decisions are made together instead of by one company or boss. The main idea is simple: YGG invests in NFTs and digital assets that are used in blockchain-based games, and then the community uses those assets to earn rewards, share profits, and build long-term value.
The story of how it started is very human. One of the founders, Gabby Dizon, is a long-time game developer from the Philippines. Years ago, he noticed something interesting. People were playing blockchain games like Axie Infinity and actually earning money from them. But there was a problem. To start playing, you needed to buy NFTs, and many players couldn’t afford them. So instead of building a company right away, he started lending his own game NFTs to other players. Those players earned rewards from playing, and they shared part of the earnings with him. That small experiment slowly turned into a system, and that system eventually became Yield Guild Games. When I read about this, it didn’t feel like a corporate strategy. It felt like someone seeing an opportunity to help others while building something sustainable.
As YGG grew, it became much more organized. The guild began buying NFTs in many different games, not just one. These NFTs are stored in what’s called the guild’s treasury. The treasury is like a shared vault owned by the DAO. Instead of one person owning expensive in-game assets, the community owns them together. These assets are then used in different ways, such as lending them to players or using them to participate in game economies.
One of the most important parts of YGG is the scholarship system. This is where the project really shows its heart. If someone wants to play a blockchain game but can’t afford the NFTs needed to start, YGG can lend them those assets. The player uses the NFTs to play the game and earn rewards. When rewards are earned, they are split between the player and the guild. The player gets income, and the guild gets a return that can be reinvested or shared with the community. For many people, especially in developing countries, this wasn’t just a game. It became a real source of income during tough economic times. When I think about web3 projects that actually touched people’s lives, this is one of the clearest examples.
As the ecosystem expanded, YGG introduced something called SubDAOs. I like to think of these as smaller teams inside a big organization. Each SubDAO focuses on a specific game or region. For example, one SubDAO might focus only on a single blockchain game, while another might support players from a certain country. This structure makes the whole system more manageable and more personal. Instead of one giant group trying to do everything, smaller communities can make decisions that fit their needs while still being connected to the larger YGG network.
Another big part of how YGG works is its vault system. Vaults allow people who hold YGG tokens to stake them into specific pools tied to certain games or activities. When you stake tokens in a vault, you’re basically saying, “I believe this game or this part of the ecosystem will do well.” If that game generates rewards, vault stakers receive a share. This connects the success of real gameplay and NFTs to the token economy, which makes the system feel more grounded than pure speculation.
The YGG token itself plays several roles. It’s used for governance, which means token holders can vote on decisions like which games to invest in or how treasury funds should be used. It’s also used for staking in vaults, for rewarding contributors, and sometimes for payments within the ecosystem. The total supply of YGG tokens is fixed at one billion, but not all tokens are available at once. Some were allocated to the community, some to the team, some to investors, and some to the treasury, with many of them unlocking over time. This is important because token unlocks can affect supply and price, and anyone interested in YGG should pay attention to that.
Behind the scenes, YGG isn’t just one or two people anymore. It’s grown into a global organization with community managers, developers, strategists, and contributors from many countries. Even though it’s a DAO, it still needs real people doing real work, like managing partnerships, supporting players, organizing events, and improving governance systems. That balance between decentralization and coordination is hard, and YGG has had to learn it step by step.
YGG is also known for its partnerships. Instead of trying to build its own games, it partners with many blockchain game developers. Over the years, it has been involved with well-known projects like Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Illuvium, and others. Early support from major web3 companies, including Animoca Brands, helped YGG grow faster and gain credibility. These partnerships allowed the guild to access new games early, invest in valuable assets, and help onboard players into new virtual worlds.
Of course, it hasn’t all been perfect. YGG’s success is closely tied to the health of the blockchain gaming industry. When major games lose players or when the crypto market goes through downturns, the value of NFTs and rewards can drop sharply. We’ve already seen periods where play-to-earn hype cooled off, and that affected YGG’s revenue and token price. There are also risks related to governance, token unlocks, and the complexity of managing so many communities at once. I think it’s important to be honest about these risks instead of pretending the project is flawless.
Still, what YGG has proven is powerful. It showed that a DAO can be more than just a voting system. It can operate like a real organization, deploy capital, manage assets, and support thousands of people across the world. It also showed that gaming and work don’t have to be completely separate in digital economies. Players can be contributors, earners, and community members at the same time.
Looking ahead, I think YGG’s future depends on how well it adapts. If blockchain games become deeper, more fun, and less focused on pure speculation, YGG could play a role similar to a publisher or gaming network in web3. If the market struggles or repeats old mistakes, YGG will need strong governance and smart decisions to survive. Either way, the experiment itself is meaningful.
@Yield Guild Games #YGGPlay $YGG
