Axie Infinity is a Play-to-Earn blockchain game which was initially introduced last 2018. One can say that Axie Infinity’s popularity was just rooted to its in-game currency known as Smooth Love Potion (SLP), which provided an alternative source of income to those during the 2020 pandemic since it can be exchanged for cash. But now that everything is going back to normal and with the token price dipping, there are still some that find themselves immersed in playing Axie Infinity. So, setting aside the value of SLP, how does it really fare as a game?

Axie Infinity is a lot of things. To break it down, we’ll start with the gameplay. For me, it’s kind of a cross between Pokémon and a card game like Hearthstone. Owning 3 Axies is required for a player to start playing. Cards for each player in every round are randomly dealt. How the cards are played would depend on the player and how they think the opposing team would play based on an energy system. Almost like a mind game since you wouldn’t want your opponent guessing your next moves. It’s actually very engaging especially to those who are competitive, having to focus and carefully count your opponent’s energy and cards. 

My PVP experience has led me to believe that like other competitive PVP games, there’s real skill involved in grinding through the ranks of Axie Infinity. As someone who plays games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike, the more you focus on the improvement of your games – as opposed to just clicking your way through it all – the faster you would actually get better.  Experience playing Final Fantasy or any other classic turn based Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPG) will certainly help a player get a grip on Axie Infinity since it’s also a game of calculating numbers so you don’t end up using and wasting too many skills or cards. A player can also “pass” rounds in order to save energy points to deal massive blow the next round. Of course, predicting how your enemy plays is a big part in knowing when to deal your best shots. It’s very satisfying when you make the correct prediction and I must say that it’s one of the things that has kept me addicted and still playing. 

Elements such as “last stand” along with a timer that puts pressure on the player every round when dealing with what to do really makes the PVP mode very, very exciting. This is true if you are specifically new to card games, it’s really fun to figure out which certain skills or defensive maneuvers to use. I have found that matchmaking usually starts in a couple of seconds, but there has been some server slowdown which caused me a couple of losses due to not being able to swipe a card to play. Another thing I’ve noticed is small inconsistencies with the design like if you destroy enemy energy, there would be a message saying that the energy is destroyed even if they don’t have any left. Lastly, what gave me the most frustration is the random critical strikes that can occur in the game. 

Overall, the card-based monster fights are just one part of Axie Infinity and the value of this clash of minds provides entertainment and mental stimulation to players. This game is being marketed as a play-to-earn, however the gameplay in version 2 is restricted to PVP and now that players are getting better, it may be more of a “win-to-earn”. Some people may worry that Axie Infinity is a ponzi scheme - especially with its interplay between traditional cash economy and digital in-game economy. Well, Axie Infinity is a real game and it’s quite competitive. As from what I know, Axie Infinity also planned to funnel some of their money in its particular economy to players. I am not concluding that the Axie universe is bulletproof. If anything, it’s still a work-in-progress proof of concept for decentralized blockchain-based gaming, and who knows? The digital in-game world of Axie infinity may possibly offer more especially with the release of its 3rd version, Axie Infinity Origin.