Folius Ventures proposes ten P2E game design ideas
Folius Ventures, in this report, attempts to propose ten design ideas for the economic design of P2E games, aiming to achieve a more stable exchange rate, a more sustainable economic model, and the long-term development of the game.Author: Folius Ventures
Below are selected contents from this report. For the full report, please click the link above.
Preface
After two months of questioning and deliberation, the ten recommendations regarding P2E games compiled by MapleLeafCap and myself have finally been completed.
This process was accompanied by the continuous emergence of new things and signs of paradigm shifts. We debated repeatedly and wrote these contents as cautiously as possible, hoping to provide some inspiration for developers to explore the possibilities of blockchain game economies together and venture into the unknown.
Compared to traditional games, the virtual currency game economy lacks foreign exchange controls and has a stronger asset rent-seeking attribute. However, we can still avoid excessive dependence on external resources and build a stable and independent game ecosystem through in-depth designs such as multi-factor ROI models, foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate controls, infrastructure, and governance tokens.
1. Set potential return limits or permanent reinvestment cycles for assets:
Whether it is Axie's endless output or Thetan's limitation on hero usage, both lack sustainability and deviate from the original intention of the game.
Instead, various basic consumptions such as upgrades, forging, and repairs should be introduced under the premise of moderate negative feedback, setting utility decay curves, and designing income-generating asset models based on unpredictable return formulas.
Naturally, all things exist with increasing entropy. We believe that return decay or lifecycle in the virtual economy requires specialized mechanism design:
The loss of income-generating assets in NFT games should naturally exist, and its impact on net income should be invisible rather than explicit;
The repair, abandonment, recycling, and upgrading of income-generating assets should cause the consumption of the game's basic currency;
The return ratio of income-generating assets based on the game's currency should be limited and should be based on complex, hard-to-predict multi-factor cost-output models, making simple and crude rent-seeking difficult to achieve.
Income-generating assets should have return decay or lifecycle. If the yield of income-generating assets in the game has no upper limit, the economy will struggle to remain stable in the long term.
2. Diversify the investment and return of income-generating assets
If income-generating assets are designed solely based on a simple quantitative APY approach, the game will inevitably become a one-time gold rush mine.
The design of investment demands and return outputs for game assets should be more complex and diverse, abandoning tiered reward models, and should follow a pyramid structure: the higher the quality and utility of the assets and returns, the more difficult it becomes for simple and crude rent-seeking.
3. Keep as much value as possible within the game ecosystem
In the capital-flow-free Web3 games, we believe that games should maximize the retention of economic resources within the ecosystem in at least the following three ways, buying time for future external cash injections, ecological rent-seeking, native growth, and establishing emotional connections with users.
Appropriately raise the threshold for capital outflow
Provide value-saving products
Open internal circulation returns
Whether setting exit taxes or designing value-saving assets, or promoting internal resource exchanges, all can promote the long-term retention of value within the ecosystem. The flow and sustainability of this value will create more contributions and value for the ecosystem over a longer lifecycle.
4. Recognize the profit-driven user profile and attempt to educate and convert them
We should change the traditional classification of players and face the reality that the P2E game field is filled with ROI-driven players. We must fully recognize the risk of capital outflow caused by user inertia and guide them to become contributors to ecological value through meeting demands such as community, identity recognition, and playability.
5. Have autonomy over infrastructure and stabilize the economy through its revenue
Compared to selling game assets themselves, taxing FT+NFT trading/borrowing behaviors is simpler, more sustainable, and yields more considerable returns.
Encouraged teams should have autonomy over ecological infrastructure and financial components and collect fees from them to stabilize the ecosystem.
We believe that core open financial components include:
Fungible Token Trading Platform (AMM DEX, similar to Uniswap)
General trading fees are 1-30 bps, and additional rent-seeking of 5-100 bps can be achieved by controlling user entry, which goes to the treasury.
Due to the difficulty of routing links with on-chain ecosystems and obtaining liquidity for ecological tokens (like USDC), front-end connections may be better.
Fungible Token Lending (similar to Compound)
The general net interest margin is 100-500 bps, and due to controlling user entry, self-operated or requiring 10-80% can be demanded, which goes to the treasury.
USDC liquidity is challenging to obtain, and separate financing or leveraging investor injections may be better.
NFT Trading Platform (similar to OpenSea)
General trading fees are 200-600 bps, and self-operation can be conducted due to controlling user entry, which goes to the treasury.
The metadata of NFTs can showcase dimensions far beyond the JPEG itself, and due to the relatively closed-loop ecosystem, there is no need to rely on external exchanges.
NFT Lending (not yet existing)
Whether leasing NFTs themselves or mortgaging NFTs to borrow game-native tokens or USDC, these should be considered in future game designs. The EVE leasing system design can be referenced to avoid unrestrained gold farming through collateral and time limits, and rent-seeking taxes can also be captured by the treasury and users themselves.
6. Build a more robust and complex game commercial system and tax to stabilize the economy
For open-world/MMORPG games, there are many ways to create profit space for players in games with diverse resource systems. Designers should create a more robust commercial environment, encourage trading behaviors among players, and appropriately tax to stabilize the overall economy.
7. Create more emotion-driven consumption after user stabilization
When the fake becomes real, the real also becomes fake. Based on narrative-driven game immersion, the utility of virtual assets naturally exists.
Whether it is rare weapons or limited edition skins, guilds or home achievements, guiding players' value recognition and emotional binding towards non-profit-driven investments and accurately rewarding players to express gratitude for their trust is the closest to fair value exchange in the essence of the game.
8. Attempt to introduce external cash flow
Relying solely on internal consumption to achieve economic balance is very difficult. The introduction of external cash flow not only avoids excessive consumption mechanisms within the game but also prevents ROI-driven speculative behavior, serving as a good economic adjustment mechanism. In this process, the team can obtain stablecoin foreign exchange revenue or guide external resources to sink internal currency. The following ideas are proposed:
Direct advertising revenue: User attention is more scarce in the web3 era of channel merchants, and marketing among communities can more accurately target users.
Product resource cooperation: After the community ecosystem grows, it can choose to cooperate with teams of similar tone, exchanging product resources as scarce rewards to stimulate participation and achieve consumption of the game's currency.
Esports broadcasting and event betting: Limited to high-intensity, high-viewability, and high-competitiveness PVP scenarios, obtaining broadcasting rights and betting revenue.
Peripheral issuance: Collaborating with fashion brands of similar tone or independently releasing clothing, sneakers, and other trendy products.
Authorized IP copyrights: Promoting IP derivative products or even film and television works, with royalties serving as direct income to enrich the treasury.
9. Correctly allocate and manage governance tokens, and organically integrate them into contributions to the entire game ecosystem
Purely organizing token rent-seeking or speculation does not benefit the game economy. The team should distribute tokens more scientifically and determine the utility of the currency itself in the game economy, more cautiously measure holder qualifications, plan participation methods and power radius, and encourage holders to continue contributing to the ecosystem.
10. Learn to manage a country
Although this may sound unrelated to game design, this is precisely what we hope game teams can try to understand------
Today's games are like a country with freely floating foreign exchange and freely circulating currency. Preventing financial crises/minimizing financial risks is just as important as providing a better gaming experience. Apart from managing expectations, formulating policies, and preparing intervention measures, there is no other way.
Finally, thanks to MapleLeafCap for their wisdom and patience in tirelessly managing my trivial and obscure thoughts, ultimately refining them into methodological guidance.
At the same time, thanks to all developers dedicated to the Web3 interactive entertainment field. If you have different opinions or better ideas, or if you want to join the economic design of P2E/PnE games, please feel free to contact us.
