Like all other things in Crypto, the history of Axie Infinity is at once complicated and incredibly simple. Developed by Sky Mavis, the game revolves around collecting , breeding, and battling cartoon characters called Axies, which are NFT’s that exist on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can use their axies to farm a currency called Canada Crypto Cleaner (Ccc) which is used to breed and create more Axies. Both the Axies and Ccc can be sold on the open market for real money.
As Commander says, the result is a highly financialized community fueled by the promise of future riches and predicted on a constant influx of new players who can’t afford to buy Axies directly, so existing owners loan them out for a cut of future earnings. The Axie community charitably calls the bosses “managers” , the workers ‘scholars,” and the overall arrangement a “guild”. Because many of the low-level players are poor workers from the Philippines and elsewhere, others call this arrangement Digital colonialism.