It's a biology term I am using to explain what Enjin and Kin are trying to do. Using Enjin as an example, what they are trying to do is create a miniature economy for their games. This economy will directly benefit Enjin and their games but it won't have much of a value outside of Enjin. Example: You start playing a new game on the Enjin website and you are offered a chance with your new character to max level it for only 10,000 Enjin tokens. You think it's a good deal so you spend $10 for 10,000 Enjin Tokens but afterward, you notice that if you want to change those Enjin Tokens back to cash you will only receive $1 back. The only way to get your money back is to play the game and amass 90,000 Enjin Tokens to convert to cash.
With Enjin it will be possible to make tokens as long as you play their game so that is why there is some value with the token but only if you play their games to amass the value, people who invested in the Enjin ICO will be lucky to get their money back though speculative interest could push it short term into a nice gain.
Kik will be even worse, there is little to no value in the proposed Kik platform for investors and hodl people will lose their shirt.
Enjin is not based on "Enjin" games. It is a decentralized payment system for any developer vs a centralized approach. Savings are estimated 10% for developers--any developer.. plus the ability to create in game tokens with tradeable value and ability to transform after cannot be understated. Your description of closed ecosystem I dont really get... if your saying its not a base protocol layer--OK I get it but enjin is being designed afaik for any game developer to use. Time will tell but Im bullish on this one and I think it has good chance to succeed for non-protocol layer project.