Surviving

The Role of

Ever since this pandemic struck, millions of people lost their jobs due to their employers getting forced to close their businesses due to strict lockdowns. While most people got forced to rely on monetary aid from donors and LGUs due to the widespread unavailability of jobs and opportunities during the early days of pandemic, some turned to the potential of setting up an online business or joining online rackets to earn money. Unbeknownst to many, there was also a new option that lets you earn money by playing. Introducing the world of NFTs games, where you play to earn, and how one particular NFT game helped Filipinos survive during one of the darkest times of our history.

Non-fungible tokens or NFT for short, in simplest terms, are pieces of digital content (mostly form of arts) used in cryptocurrency trading. Cryptocurrency is a type of money that only exists in the digital world. Even though cryptos are not tangible, it still has monetary values and can be traded for real life money. This is the main principle behind Axie Infinity, a NFT game that helped many Filipinos make ends meet during this pandemic. Sky Mavis, the developer behind Axie Infinity, developed Axie Infinity with a belief that blockchain-based play to earn model could create more aligned incentives between game creators and game players long term. In Axie, players control cute creatures called Axies to acquire tokens called Smooth Love Potions. Players earn these tokens thru battling other players and successfully finishing a level in adventure. Though SLP’s main function is to breed Axies, most players trade their SLP for real life money, which is a widespread occurrence here in our country. Even though Axie Infinity required players to invest a hefty amount of capital to play, a profit-sharing program called ‘scholarships’ exists to give players who want to play but don’t have the capital or opportunity to play Axie.

Philippines instantly became one of the top players of Axie worldwide due to this system, with a staggering rate of 40.73% of the population of players compared to other countries who are mostly below 10% in the statistics gathered last August 2021. Axie really blew up in our country due to its simple yet challenging gameplay, all the while earning tokens that can be traded for real money. It also only required 2 hours of your time every day to earn around 500 pesos each day.

Many of our people had already benefited from investing their time playing Axie. Most people and fresh grads who couldn’t find a job in this pandemic had turned into playing Axie to contribute and pay for their everyday expenses. Take for example Lolo Silverio & Lola Vergie from Cabanatuan City, who rely on Axie to earn extra income to pay for their medical expenses. Howard, also from the same city, frustrated

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Gaming NFT in Philippines

Victor Serrano I Creatives

fresh grad who couldn’t find a job during this pandemic, also turned to Axie to earn an income that he will contribute to the expenses of his household.

This pandemic really tanked many of our people to the point of desperation, with most resorting to do almost any type of job, even if that job will only yield a meager income. Even though many job opportunities fished out when pandemic struck, new ones sprawled up that are also much better and more rewarding than most minimum wage day jobs today. NFT games proved to many this pandemic that it is a good source of income. With this positive image of NFTs slowly getting engraved to people’s minds, more will be enticed to invest and get a piece of the cake for their own. NFTs and cryptocurrency truly is the future, and its growing trend and strength is something that should be looked out for.

ways you’ve got quarantine fashion.7

Andrei Tayag I Creatives

Do you miss the late night “gala” with friends? Or the smell of popcorn inside the cinemas? It’s been 2 years since Covid-19 struck the world. From a 2-hour commute to a second of logging-in for work. The virus really knows how to spread positivity in the things we considered negative in the past. It instantly affected us in certain ways. It may be from the way we communicate to others, the way we push ourselves to wake up in the mornings, and the way we choose our clothes everyday.

During the lockdowns, most of us stayed isolated inside our homes depriving us from the life we supposedly living outside. Have you attended a meeting that required you to wear something formal but worn pajamas below? We all know we are guilty of that but it also presents how we progress and adapt to the changing times with Covid-19 by our side. We try to make ourselves comfortable especially when we’re always inside our houses doing work, thus changing the way we choose our clothing. Now, we tend to wear simpler and comfortable clothes inside our homes that also influence the outfits we wear when there’s a need to go out. Gone are the days where we spend long periods of hours picking the perfect outfit for date nights ‘cause we don’t spend much time outside these days.

If you’re following David Guison, Brent Manalo, Bella Racelis and other local influencers where they share their comfy, minimal and neutral fits in their Instagram accounts then you know what “fits” fits the trend . This is the so-called “quarantine fashion” that most of us do everytime we need to run some errands these days.

Let’s round up the quarantine fashion statements that made everyone feel comfortable, free, and themselves most especially in these hard times. Here are 7 of the most popular fashion styles and trends that were born while we are inside our homes:

Masks-up!

Masks are the most essential thing that we need whenever we are going outside to protect ourselves and others. At first it may seem a nuisance because wearing masks makes it harder for us to breathe and it covers up our faces. But fashion rides with the changing times. Local brands like Not Cool the Label have been producing their line of mask designs protecting people from COVID-19 with style. Local personalities like Heart Evangelista also shared her hacks in making her masks fit her OOTDs.

Did you also notice that wearing masks makes you look more attractive? Researchers at Cardiff University said that they were surprised to find that obscuring half of peoples’ faces made them look more appealing. So mask up to protect and for a much intriguing look! COVID, Bring out the Classics Classic Fashion is a style that will last for many seasons or frequently will never get old. One perfect example of it is denim. We can easily see people wearing denim because it’s easy to pair with other styles of clothes. We can see the simplicity that these styles hold that made them still usable and trendy today and for many years to come. Notable shoes like Jordan ones, Chuck taylors’ and Vans are some of the shoes we considered classics and made their way back to the world. 4 it’s been a while and we’re still in it’s been a while 5 Totes If you’re a bag person, then surely you have tons of tote bags in your bag collection. Tote bags are simple, spacious, and can suit any outfit you pair with it. These bags became a STYLE “must have” because you can easily drop items inside and immediately leave the house.

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Be Minimal

Are you the type of person who tends to over-dress? Well, if you’re good at mixing and matching your clothes then good. With these hard times, choosing clothes that are full of patterns and prints can be time consuming. If you’re looking out in your closet and wondering how to be minimal in choosing clothes, well go back to the basics. Plains will be your best friend. Having a minimal and basic closet can make you easily style yourself because you can easily pair them with one another. Not crowding yourself with different paraphernalias in your body will definitely highlight your features more for a simple yet dashing look.

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Monochrome

Monochrome came from two words “mono” means one and “chrome’ means color. Having a monochromatic outfit requires you to select garments of the same color but in different tones and shades. No matter what shades of brown you pair with brown, you will look stylish because monochromatic colors compliment each other, making you decide more quickly when picking for your clothes. @davidguison

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Bags of baggy clothing

Baggy clothes became prominent even before the pandemic started with the influence of korean fashion. But who wears something uncomfortable when you’re just out for groceries? Many local influencers that showed their errand fits usually wore big sweaters, t-shirts, and jogging pants making them comfortable to move and do stuff.

Do Active!

Do you usually see people in the groceries that look like they just came out of the gym? Sometimes they do come from the gym and others may like to wear their athletic clothes when doing some errands. With gyms usually closed, home workouts and virtual fitness classes became popular making people use their gym clothes more often. Activewear is made to make you feel comfortable and also increases one’s movement.

Fashion continues to adjust with the changing times adapting to what people need and sense. Quarantine fashion is simple, just wear something you feel comfortable and confident in. But whatever style you’re wearing, what’s important is that you feel you.