Work or play? The Gaming Episode (feat. Robinhood, Netflix, Sorare, & Axie Infinity)

Community x Capital

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he appears to be doing both.” - Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.

What is work? What is play?

What if people could live in a world where their play is their work, where their work is their play?

Gaming may crystallize that future.

Thanks in large part to advances in consumer social applications, we have entered the age of the Gamification of Everything.

Companies and platforms are currently competing for everyone’s attention. Because it's all about monetizing engagement.. But will that last in a world where the platform vs. participant relationship is being stressed?

We explore different industries where gamification of everything is occurring. And it’s going to create a future world where people want ownership - and monetize that ownership - within the games that they play.

We start with Robinhood - the gamification of investing. When a meme coin (Doge) represents roughly 6% of Robinhood’s first quarter revenue, it’s clear that the stock market (and crypto market) is being gamified.

We move to Netflix - the gamification of entertainment. Netflix announced last week that they are going to become a gaming publisher. This shifts Netflix from a lean back entertainment provider to a lean forward gaming publisher that engages consumers in a different way. Netflix has the chance to create a profound shift in their network - they go from a single-player experience of consuming content to an engaging multi-player network that enables them to unlock so many other experiences for their subscribers, from creating virtual worlds, to live-streaming gaming events, to creating a virtual currency within the Netflix ecosystem.

We land on gaming platforms Sorare and Axie Infinity - the gamification of work. We’ve entered the next stage of the gamification of the internet. It’s now become the gamification of work.

With games like Axie, a Pokemon-like game built on the Ethereum blockchain where people breed, battle, and trade digital pets called Axies, users may be playing a game, but they might also be earning a living.

There are countless people making more money breeding Axies than they are in their current jobs. Heck, many people in the Philippines and Vietnam have quit their jobs because they make a better living playing Axie. And tens of thousands of new players are joining the game each day, in large part because of the community and the Axie economy.

We talk about the implications of people playing a game to earn a living. And those implications are profound.

What does it means for the future of work? What does it mean for education? How do we prepare for a future where people can own their life - in a physical or virtual world?

So, now, what’s the distinction between work and play?