We report value accrual per capita (unique NFT holders) for six crypto games, which we believe is a core indicator for community activation and economic participation.
Great article! Value accrual is a good measure of value inflows to the game platform (hence the governance token), although for the entire game economy, I think a good measure would be simply new cashflow into the game.
Also, I think it's important to distinguish, if possible, value accrual by spending purposes - 1) for fun vs. 2) for economic gains. I know that there isn't a fine line between 1), and 2), as often the two purposes are mixed. Perhaps a spending that isn't immediately tradable & does not provide continuous income stream would be classified as spending for pure fun.
The methodology may vary but it would be easy to understand that value accrued for 1) is far superior than value accrued for 2), as the latter would eventually end in value outflow. 1) would mean the value would either be sustained for a while before leaving the system and may not result in outflow at all.
A good example would be the slower decline of Axie Infinity versus Pegaxy, where the lack of gaming element in Pegaxy makes spending in the game purely for financial gains. When the financial incentives diminish (which happens new entrants slow down), the money leaves the economy quickly. There is an element of fun in playing Axie, which makes exiting the game economy more reluctant, but I'm not sure there's strong enough fun to maintain a big enough economy. Plus, the large value accruals were spent mostly by guilds, which are made with the purposes of making financial gains.
I think you can distinguish by whether players are spending on something that will help them get better in-game results and, therefore, rewards or if they are spending on things not useful in the game itself and are more of a status or a visual thing.
Great article! Value accrual is a good measure of value inflows to the game platform (hence the governance token), although for the entire game economy, I think a good measure would be simply new cashflow into the game.
Also, I think it's important to distinguish, if possible, value accrual by spending purposes - 1) for fun vs. 2) for economic gains. I know that there isn't a fine line between 1), and 2), as often the two purposes are mixed. Perhaps a spending that isn't immediately tradable & does not provide continuous income stream would be classified as spending for pure fun.
The methodology may vary but it would be easy to understand that value accrued for 1) is far superior than value accrued for 2), as the latter would eventually end in value outflow. 1) would mean the value would either be sustained for a while before leaving the system and may not result in outflow at all.
A good example would be the slower decline of Axie Infinity versus Pegaxy, where the lack of gaming element in Pegaxy makes spending in the game purely for financial gains. When the financial incentives diminish (which happens new entrants slow down), the money leaves the economy quickly. There is an element of fun in playing Axie, which makes exiting the game economy more reluctant, but I'm not sure there's strong enough fun to maintain a big enough economy. Plus, the large value accruals were spent mostly by guilds, which are made with the purposes of making financial gains.
I think you can distinguish by whether players are spending on something that will help them get better in-game results and, therefore, rewards or if they are spending on things not useful in the game itself and are more of a status or a visual thing.