This afternoon, I came across an old thread on Reddit about YGG while holding the remote control and changing TV channels. I suddenly stopped at a clip of an interview with Gabby Dizon – co-founder – talking about the early days of the guild's founding in Manila when Axie was booming and they had only a few dozen scholars grinding together. "Who do you think creates value for YGG?", my friend pinged a message, I replied, "It's not the devs or whales, but the players – people like me back in the day, grinding quests until our hands hurt". That's right, in this chaotic web3 gaming ecosystem, value doesn't come from the code or the $7.5 million NFT treasury pool from August, but from the scholars – ordinary players who grind to create a vibrant economy, provide feedback to devs to improve the game, and vote in the DAO to shape the future, turning the guild into a self-sustaining network instead of a hype machine that dies out after a bull run.
I've been thinking about that for a long time, lying on the sofa, not in a chart analysis or lengthy whitepaper way, but recalling those sleepless nights farming SLP back in 2021, when YGG was just a small guild in the Philippines, borrowing NFTs from the treasury to play Axie, earning a 70% share for the guild, but that grind created data – meta tips, bug reports, community voice – helping Sky Mavis update balance and retain players. Damn, I didn't realize it at the time, but scholars like me were the "blood pump": not coding, but thousands of hours of play creating in-game liquidity, increasing quest volume, revenue flowing back to DAO vote buyback YGG token, tightening supply from 680 million circulating. Now YGG has 80 game partners like Pixels or Parallel, but who drives? Scholars test the beta LOL Land – the first game YGG publishes in May 2025, generating 4.5 million in revenue from casual degen mode, thanks to feedback from SubDAO SEA, who voted to allocate local treasury for the IRL event in Manila, onboarding 631k peak MAU. Suddenly I remember, the value here is bottom-up, not top-down from VC or founder.
Speaking of this, I just realized the Guild Protocol, the reputation system soulbound badge wasn't just thought up by developers alone, but evolved from scholar proposals through DAO votes – like season 10 GAP ending in August, redesigning quests to be skill-based across games, proving loyalty through ZK proof without leaking play habits. Back in October, the YGG Play Launchpad was launched with Pirate Nation, staking over 1 million YGG to access, but who calibrates difficulty? Community scholars, grinding experiments, sharing strategies on Discord, creating viral TikTok content to drive adoption, not a marketing agency. I once participated in Superquest on Illuvium, grinding 50 ranked matches to claim the Silver badge, unlocking a role in SubDAO VN, now voting to allocate 50 million YGG into the ecosystem pool for yield farming, pushing TVL to creep to 200 million according to DefiLlama Q4. That's the loop: scholars contribute by grinding, creating verifiable data, protocols reward consistency, and the ecosystem expands to a network of 7 million users, not from hype listings on Binance or Upbit.
The more I ponder, the more I see developers as facilitators, the real value comes from player human touch – grinding tournaments creates a competitive edge, feedback loops make games evolve like Gods Unchained's skill-based rewards stable through the bear market. Suddenly thinking about the Ronin Guild Rush Program in November, supporting the Cambria Gold Rush season 3 with a 50k reward, granting Royal Charter Energy Orb, but who competes? Local YGG scholars organize team voice chats, driving engagement, not developers dictating meta. According to Messari, YGG has shifted from guild to publisher with YGG Playpad in October, scaling go-to-market for GIGACHADBAT Delabs Games, but the success of LOL Land generating 5.6 million in revenue in 5 months is thanks to scholars testing, reporting bugs, creating internal guilds to boost volume. I brought my 22-year-old shipping cousin to join the Big Time SubDAO VN scholarship, he grinds quests to earn shares, now creating YouTube tip meta, attracting 500 new subs, spreading organic value, not paid promotion.
But hey, scholars aren't always recognized, right? Back in 2022, the Ronin hack wiped out 600 million, SEA scholars lost Axie scholarships, many quit thinking guilds only extract value, not share real. I almost gave up too, farming Splinterlands instead of Axie, but the community rallied on X, scholars shared stories of resilience, voting to rebuild the treasury from NFT appreciation, pulling in a new dev partner, Animoca Brands. On Discord, a recent thread about the FoW initiative in March collab with Ta-da OORT AI gig economy quest, scholars earn from content creation, not just game grind – who proposes? Player creators, voting DAO to approve, creating use cases to diversify beyond gaming. I checked CoinGecko, YGG down 11.7% last week but high retention thanks to 45% token allocation for community incentives, airdrop staking boost from scholar participation.
Suddenly I was surprised, in the fragmented web3 gaming of 2025, value doesn't come from whale investments or developer roadmaps, but from scholars voting for the Guild Protocol to expand content IRL in 2026, like the Sui Builder Program in Palawan in November training young developers in Move language, participants from YGG local build dApps on Sui to contribute back. Many guilds collapsed due to being extractive, YGG thrives bottom-up, scholars driving 45% of the token community, from airdrops to a 50 million YGG liquidity pool enhancing partnered games. Back in December, the Ronin Guild Rush went live, scholars competed on the leaderboard, stacking VIP Pass multipliers, not just spectators.
And zooming out a bit, the regulation tightening gaming tokens this year, YGG's trajectory from guild to coordination layer sector-agnostic by 2026, Onchain Guild for content creator AI data labeling for real-world organizations, but who holds? Scholars through the YGG Play Summit Q4 2024 share vision, not founders dictating. Gam3Girl Ventures invested strategically in February to empower the Web3 community, but for scholars to build, not flip for profit. I think, the real value is portable reputation through badges, scholars grinding across games prove versatility, unlocking opportunities for tournament lending protocols for in-game item credits.
Personally, I now stake in the YGG vault, not chasing the 9.61% pump in 24h CoinMarketCap, but to vote for the DAO yggplay.fun hub news in November, consolidating the Casual Degen community. In this crypto gaming, who creates value? Players grind from the bottom up, developers just build tools, whales just fuel it initially. Try grinding quests and see, maybe you'll find yourself as the core part, accumulating rewards through real contributions. @Yield Guild Games #YGGPlay $YGG
