Thread by @nixeniego

I played a lot of Ragnarok Online from 2003-2020, and today I want to publicly write up my thoughts on $SLP in parallel to RO.

This tweet isn't financial advice, just wanted to post this since I get dozens of questions about SLP daily. Hope this helps!

Let's dive right in! 🧵

The in-game currency in Ragnarok is called 'zeny'. It's like gold, that players can earn by selling loots from monsters.

Zeny is needed to pay for basic goods like potions and basic equipment.

It's also needed to purchase higher-end gear, and pretty much ANYTHING important.

You need zeny to buy top-tier cards to equip to your gear...

You need zeny for potions so you can do boss hunts.

You need zeny for supplies for War of Emperium (guild wars).

You need zeny to get around town, to pay for warpers and butterfly wings (item to teleport).

You need A LOT of zeny to buy fancy headgears to make your characters look cool! Oh, and most of the time, these headgears also affect your character's stats!

You also need zeny to change your job, to transcend...

Basically, ZENY is needed for everything.

So what's the point?

Well—in Axie, $SLP is used only for breeding (currently).

In Ragnarok Online, zeny is used for everything to progress in the game.

The reason I'm comparing them, is because in the Philippines, Ragnarok Online was technically the FIRST #PlayToEarn game.

Some players farmed zeny

Then sold zeny to other players for PHP.

For my US/Western followers—this is not a new concept. Pretty sure the same thing happened in World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs as you would know.

But in the PH, you had people farming zeny, then selling them for every 1M zeny.

Price would vary, depending on the economy of the server. At peak, it would go as high as P200-300 ($4-6) per 1M. Normally, it would be at around $2 per 1M.

It took on average an hour to farm 1M, but at higher levels, and again based on current economy and servers, it could be—

as high as 2M to 4M per hour.

You can do the math.

But the point here is that players who preferred to grind and sell zeny instead of using it to progress in the game, got paid. They made money.

For some, it was like #AxieInfinity—it became a full-time income generator.

Players like me who either had no time to grind or was just flat out lazy lol paid regularly for zeny.

Guilds bought zeny almost daily so they would always have enough supplies for War of Emperium (WoE).

There were Zeny Farmers, and Zeny Buyers.

It was a healthy ecosystem. 📈

Now... what does this all have to do with Axie and $SLP?

If you look closely at the use case of zeny, it was basically used for everything.

This is why players ALWAYS needed it. And even if it could be farmed, players like myself would still BUY IT instead, in exchange of PHP.

Imagine a world where Axie players constantly need $SLP to progress in the game. 🌎

Whether it's to upgrade Axie stats, buy cool headgear and equipment, or for supplies to do boss raids. if Axie players constantly need $SLP, the farmed SLP rewards everyone earns won't be enough!

We would see even scholars potentially BUYING $SLP so they can unlock certain game modes, upgrade, or do whatever else we can all do once Land is out!

Now why would they buy $SLP?

Maybe to EARN more $SLP 🧪, or EARN MORE resources like $WOOD. 🪵

That being said—

I feel like the real magic to unlocking the Axie Infinity ecosystem is IF/WHEN $SLP functions like the usual gold earned in MMORPGs, where it's needed for almost everything to progress.

I wanted to be one of the best RO player in the world, so I always bought zeny!

I did that so I could always buy the best equipment! I also supplied potions for my guild during war.

Imagine if Axie players started to behave this way.

There would be CONSTANT DEMAND for $SLP.

Will this happen in Axie? Only time will tell.

For now, let's buckle up & enjoy

As the team adds more game modes and push closer towards a truly INFINITE game, then sky will be the limit.

I'm excited for the future of #AxieInfinity.

I hope you found my musings on $SLP interesting!

Let me know what you think below! Would love to hear your thoughts. 💚