P2E and a False Sense of Value

Hello everyone, I'm Byron from Canada and I draw zombies. It's my shtick and it's something I've been doing for quite some time. A year ago I started to sell my zombie themed artwork on the WAX blockchain and I've never looked back. Sure there have been ups and downs, like anything in life, but the over all experience is one I would recommend to all my artist friends.

One of the biggest struggles I face as an artist, which I'm sure others face too because I can't be alone in this, is thinking others value my work as much as I do. I have people tell me all the time that they really like what I do and I have a pretty steady sales history, so it must be true. Even so, there's something inside me that makes me question my value and worth. Something that causes me to want to stop doing what I'm doing, overthink it all, and just give up.

That feeling was bad enough before getting on the NFT scene, when I wasn't making as many sales and life was financially harder because selling original artwork and mailing it out is a whole different beast. You might think that being a moderately successful NFT artist would improve things and life should be all peaches and cream, but it's not. I mean it IS, but it's also not.

The NFT scene is all about ebbs and floes and the market is in constant flux. A year ago it was a sellers market and people were buying into the NFT craze like crazy. So much weird and useless stuff was being pumped into the market it was an amazingly fun and experimental period, but sadly it was also unsustainable. People were buying because the fomo was running rampant and everyone was hoping to buy cheap and flip for huge profits. When it didn't happen as easily as they thought, the market imploded in on itself.

One of the things I didn't understand about NFTs on WAX a year ago, is what people meant by utility or staking when discussing NFTs. I saw it being bandied about on Twitter where creators were claiming their NFTs had utility, but I didn't get it. I probably still don't fully, but I do know that a lot of people equate utility with 'how can I profit the most from this NFT' - and the same goes for staking.

I learned that staking is when people give the NFT they bought to another company or collection in order to receive some sort of reward. I don't know why they do it or how it helps the company/collection that holds the NFTs, but that's how P2E games work and apparently it's what many NFT collectors want from the NFTs they buy. So to that end, many NFT artists apply to different P2E games in an effort to get their collection staked in the game.

If you can do that ... if you can get your NFT collection that you are creating staked into a P2E game, then you have instant credibility and value. So for many NFT artists, getting accepted to have your collection staked in a P2E game, especially one that is hot and fresh and new, is like winning the lottery. At least it was for me when my collections were accepted into a game.

Sales went up, my fan base expanded and it felt like a rocket ship ride to the moon. As awesome as it was, trouble soon popped its head up and sowed new seeds of doubt in my head. I still didn't understand how staking worked and what people considered valuable for the utility of the game which they were playing to try to earn money for themselves. I didn't get it, no one really explained it to me. All I knew is that my NFTs were selling out. so I would mint a few more and put them on the market, just like I always did before.

That was the wrong thing to do.

What I learned, the hard way and with much abuse from collectors, is that my NFTs were only valuable to them because in the game, the low supply/mint number meant that the NFT had more points in the game and/or the NFT collector could resell it at a much higher price than what they bought it for.

It didn't matter what the NFT looked like. The art didn't matter one bit to them except for the fact that it was nice to look at. What mattered was how much money they could make from it. If I would mint more and sell them, people would send me angry messages about how I'm flooding the market and devaluing their investment.

It really messed with my head ... but I try to please people so I started to think more and more about what's best for the people buying my NFTs. What's best for the game that was staking my NFTs. How can I build and create NFTs that people would want to buy and use in the game so they could earn as much money as possible.

In essence, it felt like I sold out and betrayed myself by becoming so fearful of doing something wrong for the game and for my collectors that played the game, that I wasn't creating anything just for fun anymore. In the months that followed, making art and minting NFTs became a chore and the overthinking was overwhelming. I didn't realize it at first, but the value of my NFT artwork was starting to be determined by the whims of a game that I had no control over. What was valuable for one season was suddenly worthless the next.

What started out as a sweet win was starting to turn sour. I had praised the game, encouraged others to apply to get their collections staked on it and now I didn't believe in it like I once did. In fact, I kind of wanted out, but wasn't quite ready to commit because guilt kept gnawing at me. Then the new season updates rolled out and a collection from an artist I encouraged to get included in the game, got 100% nerfed. Every single NFT of their collection was tanked down to the lowest it could go. This was the games way of saying that this collection has no value. The artwork and the artist are worthless to them.

Why? Why did the game do that? What was the reason? The artist did nothing wrong, and no reason was given for this sudden turn of events. Whatever the reasoning the damage was done. The artist felt the blow like a punch to the gut and was devastated. Sales were down, artistic drive was in the toilet and over all morale for this artist, and myself was gone.

Truth be told, I was livid. I wanted to rage out and say a lot of angry things and stomp my feet ... but I learned long ago that actions like that are pointless. I was powerless to change what happened and powerless to undo what has been done. The only thing I can do, which I've always done, is take the lesson and learn from it.

My eyes are open now.

P2E games on the WAX blockchain bring a false sense of value to NFT art collections and that value is subject to the whims of those that control the game. The only way to take that power back is by not contributing to the game, which is now a really easy choice to make, given recent events.

I know some people will be angry and confused but in the long run I need to think about what's best for me and those that collect my work for the joy it brings them.

So if you have read this all the way to the end, thank you! I don't know exactly what the point of this article was except to rant about an event in my life and how it didn't work out as perfectly as I wish it would have. In my research I have learned that most blockchain games don't have the staying power. Many die out after less than a year of existence. Such is the nature of the blockchain. P2E games are not very sustainable and most people invest far more than they earn. It's a little bit like the lottery in that regard.

It was a nice ride though, being included in the game at its early stages when the fomo was strong and things were so bright and shiny and new. I am grateful for the opportunity and will take all the lessons I have learned from it and move forward.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to your comments.