How Play-to-Airdrop Gold Rush Is Killing Fun for True Gamers

cryptonews.com:

Jeffrey Gogo is a journalist with 20 years of experience in business, finance, cryptocurrency, and climate change news and analysis.

Elena is the Features Lead at Cryptonews.com. With a Master's degree in science journalism from City University, London, she is passionate about exploring complex topics in the world of technology.

Key takeaways:

Play-to-airdrop (P2A), the latest iteration of web3 gaming, has come under fire for attracting profit hunters.

Play-to-airdrop is a strategy to attract users by giving away crypto tokens—called airdrops—directly to their wallet addresses. Users can then sell these tokens for cash on crypto exchanges. To receive the tokens, they must complete certain activities in the game.

People who have been in gaming for a long time believe that P2A games are replete with players who are looking to make a quick buck rather than enjoying the game.

These so-called degens typically use bots to autoplay games, accumulate points, cash out, and chase the next token. According to developers and players, the gold rush is crowding out traditional gamers—who value the fun of playing and the social aspects of the game—from web3’s airdrop era.

Mohsin Waqar, CEO of the game development platform Senet, said the play-to-airdrop model offers developers “significant benefits” for building player engagement and “fostering a sense of community.” However, he said the model is also prone to exploitation by bots and profit-hunters.

“Bots can be programmed to complete simple tasks or farm rewards automatically, undermining the integrity of the game and the value of the airdropped assets,” Waqar told Cryptonews, adding:

“Profit-seeking players may engage in strategies like creating multiple accounts (sybil attacks) or using