The State of Play2Earn
Let’s talk gaming and crypto. Two communities that seem aligned in every way. Gamers are typically a technologically adept group, there’s a lot of learning, observing and analyzing that goes into high level gaming. Everything from tweaking settings, finding optimal settings, discovering hidden metas, all of which lends well to the crypto community ethos.
In fact the history of gaming and crypto goes way back to the yesteryear of 2013 when a user reported that the anti-cheating software used by ESEA, one of the first e-sports leagues for CounterStrike, was being used to mine bitcoins without the user’s consent. Eric Thunberg, co-founder of the league, eventually admitted it was true in forum posts.
Suffice to say, the communities have like-minded individuals and thought processes. So why hasn’t crypto gaming taken off? Why hasn’t EA/Ubisoft/Steam/Epic or any of the major publishers embraced Web3 gaming?
Having tried the recent offerings by crypto projects such as Gala Games ($GALA), Sandbox ($SAND), Axie Infinity ($AXIE), they’ve all missed the take on what truly makes a game.
The core gameplay loop or what gamers call “the grind”. All the Web3 games I’ve tried are all geared towards airdrops and inundating the user with monotonous dailies, shouting out the game token on Twitter, or are glorified turn-based browser games that barely hold a candle to NeoPets. (No offense NeoPets)
We need games that keep users engaged. Let me slay a demon or an awesome RPG boss. Make it so that I can buy increasing weapons and armor with your token. Make me jealous of the other players that are wearing shiny gear that they get to parade around town.
Make them live in your ecosystem where your token is the liquidity making that system work. Look at World of Warcraft, that game is so addictive that its in-game currency has an actual exchange rate to Dollars.
One of the immediate applications when I first witnessed the rise of NFTs was, “Wow, now I can actually own and sell that MMORPG sword for money.”
Say I mint an ultra rare sword, I want to be able to hold that NFT immediately in game and watch in awe.
Because after all, games should blend the digital with reality.
