Written by: TechFlow
"We come to the crypto to make money, who wants to play games?"
If we interpret this consensus in the hearts of the leeks in reverse, it is probably that players in the traditional gaming circle probably don’t think about making money.
But the fact is that no one doesn't like to do free stuff.
In the circle, Notcoin and Hamster Kombat popularized the "click to earn" 0-shot game mode; coincidentally, this trend of making money has also spread to Steam, the most popular platform in the traditional gaming circle.
In recent weeks, a small, free-to-play game called Banana on Steam has suddenly become extremely popular, even to an outrageous degree.
According to official Steam statistics, as of press time, Banana has more than 750,000 concurrent online players, topping the Steam platform's ranking of concurrent online players.
CS2, DOTA, PUBG and Destiny 2, which were beaten by Banana and ranked behind on the list, are classic works that you have heard of even if you don’t play games. All of them are full of playability and competitiveness.
What’s even more interesting is that this Banana mini-game is only 60M in size, making it a truly mini-game.
Why do you ignore popular games and play banana games instead?
Notcoin for Steam, earn money with just a click
The games are different, but the human nature is the same.
Banana is actually a typical free game with no learning cost. All you have to do is click like Notcoin, and then you can start to expect to make money.
In terms of gameplay and interface, this banana game is even simpler than Notcoin: you are given a picture of a banana and can click on it with the mouse; as you click, the number on the banana head continues to increase, that's all.
After you click, a normal banana will drop after 3 hours, and a special banana will drop after 18 hours. So the main process of the game becomes: enter the game, click on the banana, wait for a while, and get the banana.
For readers who are not familiar with Steam, the Steam platform itself has an "inventory" design, that is, after you play a game, items related to the game will drop into your inventory; this item may be a badge or some props. In short, it is peripheral souvenirs related to the main game to enhance player participation and stickiness.
And this fallen banana is far more fragrant with the scent of money than just a souvenir.
Since Steam has a built-in secondary market, you can directly put the dropped banana on the market to place an order. So the question is, how much are different types of bananas worth?
Does it have a bit of the flavor of the NFT market? The valuation of a virtual item is completely based on the market and supply and demand.
The most expensive banana on the market is called Crypticnana, which has a Crypto feel to it, and costs 8,300 RMB. Considering that the game is free to play, this price is very attractive.
The author speculates that some astute market traders have already smelled the scent of making money, and various behaviors of receiving, spitting out and raising prices may have already occurred.
Click, items drop, items are sold, and even dealers and market makers emerge around items. Who says there is no speculation in the gaming circle?
However, Steam will charge a high transaction tax for buying and selling bananas. For virtual items with a price greater than $10, the final commission is more than 5%, which is a bit like Opensea's 5% royalty.
The tax also means that high-priced bananas have low trading volume and poor liquidity; low-priced bananas obviously have greater liquidity and change hands faster. In addition, some special bananas obviously have more cultural value, such as the dog banana shown in the picture below, the connotation of which is self-evident.
Speculation is natural
Similar pictures in the crypto will more or less give you a layer of technical narrative to increase your faith - after all, this picture is an NFT, which is indivisible and indelible.
These bananas on Steam are not even NFTs, they are just ordinary dropped pictures. If the game itself is shut down or the Steam server crashes, this thing will disappear with it.
But even so, it still couldn't resist the momentary speculative enthusiasm.
The ancient philosopher Marx's Capital is not deceiving me:
"If there is a 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere; if there is a 20% profit, it will become active; if there is a 50% profit, it will take risks; for the sake of 100% profit, it will dare to trample on all human laws; if there is a 300% profit, it will dare to commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged."
Who cares if it’s an NFT or not, speculation is in the nature of our species.
This banana may seem like a harmless little game, but in fact it creates a good interactive interface and trading market for speculation. Virtual things can also generate high speculative value.
Therefore, when it comes to speculation, the stigmatization of the crypto and Web3 is actually inevitable, because it really creates convenience for speculation.
However, the Banana Game on Steam actually proves that the crypto and speculation are not always tied together, but as long as there is room for speculation, any platform will be tied to speculation.
No one can resist making money by clicking. On the Steam platform, which has a wider audience and is more well-known, Banana Games is still running wild.
Web2 and Web3 have never been in opposition. The world of different information structures is full of speculators.
