A Filipino gamer known as “Ryu” is leading the surge of play-to-earn (P2E) and play-and-earn (P&E) gaming in the Philippines where gamers could now earn money from playing video games.
Singaporean gaming company Affyn held a soft launch of its mobile brawler game, Buddy Arena, in the Philippines over other markets. Affyn utilizes both P2E and P&E elements for its mobile game.
“Ryu” has become “mayor” for his community in Muntinlupa, and is organizing the gamers in his designated area, Affyn said.
Ryu will also be offering the game’s currency at his soon-to-open hobby shop, illustrating how Filipinos are quickly adopting the online-to-offline elements of Buddy Arena and its metaverse, Affyn revealed.
For most Filipinos, the advent of play-to-earn (P2E) and play-and-earn (P&E) genres is a childhood dream come true: gamers could now earn money from playing video games.
Some supplemented their income with P2E, while others actually quit their normal jobs and went into gaming full-time.
Ryu was one such early adopter. After investing into cryptocurrency in 2016, he latched onto a massively popular P2E game when it emerged on the scene, just before its native token took a rapid upswing in value.
However, Ryu also anticipated that this growth was unsustainable given that the earning mechanism relied on infinitely more players entering the game, so he sold off his in-game assets as the game’s token cratered in value, and in turn, its popularity.
Ryu was disenchanted by the inherent model in the game that resembles pyramid schemes, and his first foray into the world of Web3 gaming left a sour taste in his mouth.
“The earlier you get involved, the bigger you get. If you’re late, however, you’re just going to waste your money. Web 3.0 was clearly not the economy that people were promoting it to be. It felt like a lot of hype,” he said.
Ryu maintained this view until he serendipitously came across Affyn, a metaverse gaming company that promises a sustainable token economy and real-world applications for its native FYN token.
In its white paper, Affyn proposes a model where gamers would be able to shop, dine, stay, and experience a breadth of lifestyle products and services using FYN tokens — similar to how rewards programs with credit cards work. These outlets would transform the system reliant on ever-more new users to one that is self-sustaining with organic inflows and outflows.
With real-world utility, players would have a reason to acquire FYN for reasons more than speculation, which is the case with many crypto tokens in the market.
Ryu is eagerly awaiting Buddy Arena, Affyn’s first game in their NEXUS World metaverse. At its core, the game is a mobile arena brawler game — but what sets it apart from the other existing games is its inclusion of Buddies that open up a plethora of strategic permutations.
Buddy Arena has already launched in the Philippines, the first region in the world to get the game ahead of an expansion roadmap that will lead to a global launch.
Ryu has formed his preferred squad of buddies: defending with Gagamaru, attacking with Pigasus, and harvesting crystals with Lapis.
“The game is really fast-paced. Unlike Mobile Legends, where you’re stuck in a game for 30 to 40 minutes at a time with allies you may not like playing with, a match in Buddy Arena can take as little as five minutes. You can play with so many different players because the game is so quick. That’s what keeps it interesting,” he said.
Beyond the engaging game mechanics and replayability, Ryu was most drawn to the real-life aspect of both Buddy Arena, which also includes utility of the Buddy and Land NFTs when the game is launched globally.
This emerging model of play-and-earn that focuses on utility and fun instead of solely on earning is an attractive proposition for Ryu, who seeks to build on the ecosystem.
He believes that he can build on the idea of intersecting real life with the metaverse: with his very own shop. As a lifelong fan of games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ryu is on the verge of opening his own hobby shop in his hometown of Muntinlupa, and he plans to use it to grow a community with his shop as a gathering point.
As mayor for the Muntinlupa region in the NEXUS world, Ryu has used this role to grow a tribe of other like-minded enthusiasts — all of whom are eager to experience the online-to-offline connection that the metaverse will enable. To add on to the real-world utility factor, Ryu will offer FYN tokens for sale at his shop, and allow purchase using FYN tokens.
By strategically using his hobby shop as a real world touchpoint for the NEXUS world, Ryu is positive that the manifestation of the metaverse in real-life is the next step forward.
“In both gaming and entrepreneurship, timing is everything. Introducing my hobby shop as a hub for the NEXUS world will bring in the patrons that every small business needs during the crucial start-up stage. While I know the metaverse is an abstract concept for many, to me it’s more tangible than ever: It’s the feeling of a business full of just the right audience,” said Ryu.
