As stated in my post Crypto Fun I wanted to tell the story of my adventure into the scholarship program provider / owner of Axie Infinity. This is an all text post as there no pictures of what I am about to write. I decided to venture into a scholarship program as I needed more SLP (Smooth Love Potion) for breeding more Axie. I could see with the SLP price at ~30 cents I could actually make some decent cash. I was excited that I might make some good bucks and my mind was all about that. If I had 50 members, I would pull in ~100k per year?
So off I went, created accounts, did some testing and got some teams built on each account. At the time I started the program one could make 100 SLP in what is called "Adventure" mode. If you add that up, just for playing the adventure mode you could make $30 per day. I even played a bit just to collect some SLP myself as a half hour of playing could pull in $20+. If you are thinking this is kind of unsustainable, please keep reading.
In my reading about what is was going on in the Axie Scholarship world, found some pretty disturbing things. Like one female who had applied for a scholarship was asked to dance during the interview? OMG, what kind of people are out there?? With this in mind, and to help me ensure members knew what was expected and what they were getting, I wrote a contract. It detailed everything I could think of including an anti-harassment clause. During the creation of this contract I wondered if this was a bit overboard. But there were statements of protection for both parties so I thought if someone was unwilling to agree, then I hope there would be some that would.
With 5 accounts ready to have players play them, I put up an ad on a popular site where others advertise they have scholarships available. I posted up I had 5 accounts ready to go, that an video interview was required. I did this at about 1:30 in the after noon, I went back about 30 minutes later and there were 80 responses and one direct message from one that applied that my application form was not taking one of the fields correctly. So while the form was active I made the little fix, sent a quick thank-you to the one that sent me the error notice.
At around 3:30 I checked the response level to find that 180 responses had come in. I closed the application and posted that the application was now closed. So in two hours I got 180 responses, this was way more than I thought would reply. Some 8 hours of reviewing the 180 responses I got the list down to 10. This I thought would be enough to fill 5. During the review of applications I was stunned but the stories. Everything, "I want to show my parents my gaming has not been a waste", "My house was destroyed by a volcano and I need to make money", "I need to make money to pay for medicine for my Mother". There were many more that made me sad to know all the suffering which I am isolated from. This was the first wake up slap.
I made arrangements for interviewing stating a video interview was required. I got back 6 responses and the other 4 did not respond. During interaction with one potential it was found that they only speak Spanish. This was found out when the admitted that they did not understand one of the questions and put in the bottom check. (I develop crypto applications) This was one of the reasons I picked them as these kinds of people I could learn from. But since they admitted right away what they had done, it indicated to me that they intend to be truthful, which is important to me. So, I figured out how to run the translator and began providing something easier for them to read. This was a good choice I found out later.
As it was I got 6 people that seemed to be really good and 5 teams / accounts, so I created one more of each and started with 6 players.
The first thing I had to do was to get the members to come up to my level, or to bring me down to their level by making them call me by my name. Not "sir", "manager" or "boss" which is how they address their bosses I guess. I found that the people I had on my program were basically being abused and screwed over because of the country they live in. This was the second slap of reality, when I realized that I am in a very good place compared to some that happen to be in the wrong place. Many people suffer way more than anything I could imagine.
Then the real fun began. Axie experience a huge growth spike, which caused them to have to upgrade their hardware and for the first few weeks it was very unstable. My members were good and they stuck it out and managed to make some good coin. Around that time it was realized by Mavis, that the production of SLP coin was too high and they were going to stop paying for "Adventure" mode and only pay for the PvP aspect of the game. This was a big problem because I did not build teams for PvP, as adventure mode would have enough to make it worth while for players and myself. This also made the contract I had written obsolete and I had to re-write and re-issue it. This was the start of the down ward trend.
It was hard for my players to win. I was not playing PvP and this made it so I was out of touch with current "best" Axie team content. I had grown the program to 17 players and it was very difficult for me to provide good teams. The price of SLP slid down the whole time that I have been running the program, it became very difficult for my players to justify spending 2+ hours to make $0.25.
Also the Pandemic caused many people to not have work and not be able to work. Several of the program members were in that state, and the income from their play time was good for while. Then some restrictions lifted and they began to get jobs and less time to play. This has caused several to drop from the program.
I have been running the program for almost a year now. When I started SLP was $0.30 and now it is $0.01, adventure mode payed and now it does not. The whole environment I entered into changed so much so fast that currently it is nothing like it was at the start. There is basically no income for members or myself. We all wait for the release of the new Origins release.
Currently I wait for the release of Origins to decide what I will do. If my members can not make a reasonable reward for time spent, once Origins is released, I will terminate the program. I can't stand the thought of them spending lots of time and seeing virtually no reward.
After seeing the environment that some of my program members endure, I lost my appetite for making bucks. It became a low priority and treating the members of my program decently became a higher priority. I came to realize that my little bit of cash in crypto and making some big win fall from it was not so important now. The fact that I was / am able to have positive affects on peoples lives, on the other side of the planet, makes me feel good. Some of my program members used the income to live, like to buy food. I have received nothing but thank-you's from the program members.
There you have it. For me a life changing experience.
