How Web3 Is Transforming the Gaming Industry

Web3,
as a concept, is less than a decade old, but it is already catching on as a
framework for technological development. Web3 has found its most responsive
audience and developer pool in gaming, a growth industry by its own merit. But,
the Web3 decentralized approach to gaming is especially lively in the
intersection of game creation and blockchain technology.

One
of the signs of a gaming revival is the growth in independent gaming studios.
In 2022, game building is extremely active: as many as 25 new games
appear on Steam each day. There are more than 2,500 US-based game studios, but
game development is no longer regionally restricted and in the hands of a few
gaming giants. Instead, there is a variety of creative teams, taking up
multiple avenues of development.

Web3:
Create a Sandbox Experience

The
concept of Web3 brings user-generated content to gaming. Modding, for instance,
proved especially successful for creators and highly appealing for players.
Novelty demand and building on the common game framework of Minecraft was a
huge success for Microsoft. Minecraft modding
led to a billion official downloads and $350M in additional income since 2017.
Then, there is the free, open-source modding through informal channels.

Web3
expands the appeal of making your own world and actually owning it. This
concept is already built into several metaverse games on the blockchain, which
focus on providing building opportunities and then lets their players create
unscripted unique digital 3D venues. The model was successful for top
metaverse games like Decentraland, The Sandbox and other simulated worlds.

Web3
world-building is free creation open to almost anyone with the right skills,
with no limit to potential earnings and fame. In traditional gaming, the studio
would reap all the praise and income, which Web3 now releases to a whole new
scene of creators.

Alexis
Ohanian, the Co-Founder and Director of Reddit and serial Internet
entrepreneur, has noted the value hidden in incipient Web3 projects. In a recent interview,
Ohanian explained the growth of Web2 was about content – the so-called read and
write part of the Internet. “All that Web3 jargon we see, it’s about the third
part, ownership.” Ohanian sees gaming and NFTs as the beginnings of
infrastructure that will have tremendous implications down the line.

Web3:
The Key to Value Ownership

Konstantin Dinev, the CEO of TimeShuffle

One
of the concepts of Web3 is owning your own resources and value. In gaming,
there are many ways in which the player can create a scarce resource. World
creation and
metaverse land plots,
crafting, equipment upgrades or characters leveling up, are all that can be
reflected in decentralized records. Even the time spent playing the game can be
added to the balance of each individual player.

Gaming
already produces a seemingly limitless inflow of hours spent on perfecting one’s
progress. Take Elden Ring, a recent hit – almost half a million players were
spending hundreds of thousands of hours exploring the game and
testing out strategies.

Gaming activity
increased by 14% in 2021, a recent survey reveals. Players on average spend
more than eight hours and 27 minutes on games per week. Some of the gamers
tried to monetize their gameplay through Web2 channels and social media, with
over 8.8 billion hours of streamed games which are watched over the course of a year.

But,
there are many more ways to extract the value of gaming and track one’s
progress. The blockchain is the perfect tool to wrap up game achievements, so they
cannot be erased or modified. Players need not become streamers in order to
monetize the hours played. Rather, they can tokenize them on the blockchain,
with several powerful tools to turn their gaming progress into an asset. The
potential for tokenization has spread to many types of games, including
simulated sports, puzzles or even chess tournaments with NFT and tokens.

What
Are the Tools for Web3 Gaming in 2022

Web3
is no longer just vaporware but offers sufficient tools to take your value and
achievements with you. Lightweight cryptocurrency wallets can now connect to
the app you use, and almost seamlessly increase your balance in exchange for
your regular digital activities. The infrastructure is already there:
blockchains run 24/7, and smart contracts can listen for events and distribute
value.

A
blockchain can compensate users in two major ways. One, by paying out tokens,
which will work like digital money and give a certain value to the gameplay.
And two, by creating unique NFT items shaped by game experience. For instance,
the hours spent upgrading your game hero with equipment, enchantments, skills, or other items can be translated into a rare or unique non-fungible token
(NFT), which can then be resold or kept as a store of value.

What
Is the Problem with the Play-to-Earn Model

Game
and blockchain developers already had all the tools to turn a user into a point
of value generation. This translated into the simple idea of getting paid for
gaming. For a few months, the model looked very promising and sparked great
enthusiasm, especially for the Axie Infinity game. At one point, playing Axies
could produce a reasonably high monthly income, leading to a gold rush.

A
few problems immediately arose from this. Players were paid in crypto tokens,
and to spend the funds, they had to convert the tokens to fiat. But, all the selling
depressed the token price and destroyed the intended economic model.

The
second problem is that traditional gamers are sometimes averse to using crypto
assets. Even in the best-case scenario, they can have a steep learning curve to
get on board cryptocurrency usage. So, projects have to be proactive about
their user cultivation process, instead of setting up their potential clients
on a rather complicated path of learning crypto first and then come back for the
game. Projects like EVOS.gg already have a form of seamless onboarding,
with an exclusive wallet set up for the gamer to accrue any tokens and NFT
prizes. There is no need to visit a crypto exchange, understand networks and
fees, or buy anything in advance.

But,
the most important thing to avoid is to copy a model where players strip-mine
the game of value, and they play just to grind out as many tokens as possible.
This is not viable for the game, and we have many examples where the P2E model
is already depleted, while the game team is just starting out to improve their
product. The goal of Web3 should be to add value, and not to extract all value
from a game until it is no longer fun to play.

Web3
and Voting: What the DAO Changes for Gamers

Web3
can create a whole new type of community. Let’s speak of the
DAO, or
Decentralized Autonomous Organization. This is where the community can decide
for itself where the project is going. There are already multiple examples of
successful DAO where asset owners can vote and direct the project.

This
is a new form of governance, replacing the opaque decision-making process of
the corporation with a technological hub where each decision is visible and
accessible to the whole community. The access point to this structure is,
again, ownership. So, it’s double participation, once by owning a piece of
the project, and again when having the right to decide on its future.

Blockchain
voting somewhat resembles shareholder rights, though DAO is even more
democratized, with almost no geographical limitations to ownership. And of
course, shareholder votes do not happen on the blockchain and need human
intermediaries. All a DAO needs is a well-built collection of smart contracts,
where the code is entirely transparent and predictable.

DAO
is where the question of personal participation is answered. One of the
critical points for Web3 is the need to buy assets, often high-priced, with no
real game in production. This has been very worrisome for Web3 investors, and
it is true that some of the projects collected funds and proved to be nothing more
than a money-grabbing operation. But, others offered the advantage of early
access, and then went on to build a complex, stunning hub of value and
entertainment. The early investors were justly rewarded for their foresight and
patience and, of course, for taking an asymmetric risk with a high reward
potential.

It
is not always necessary to have an overpriced NFT to participate in a DAO.
Sometimes, token ownership is enough. But, it raises an interesting issue, in
Web3, each user has some skin in the game. Part of the curation and decision-making
process hinges on dedicated fans, who are willing to offer value upfront and
build their own little corner of Web3, whether it is a DAO, a metaverse
location or a game economy.

When
players produce NFT or tokens based on their gameplay, they can also show
loyalty by staking or voting. In Web3 games, they will not only be game
consumers but have partial ownership of the game.

Do Players Really Need to But In to Use Web3?

Many projects try to build themselves up as an exclusive club, requiring a significant buy-in. And for some, it worked to create a sense of exclusivity in an over-saturated information market. But there are ways to use Web3 features without requiring a big upfront investment.

Players can start achieving and building while having fun. And after that, they can wrap up the content and own it, upgrade and resell if they want. Games don’t need to optimize for token operations and value, but they may become a play-to-earn combination, which takes the full gaming experience and turns it into NFTs, short term rewards and long-term voting rights.

Projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club added a ‘cool’ dimension to the large upfront investment. BAYC avatars trading for more than 100 ETH are one of the more influential crypto societies. ApeCoin (APE) also boosted the NFT collection’s influence, tying it all together with a metaverse-based game.

It is also possible to take a game-first approach, with the value coming in as a logical extension of the game. No need to build up hype, all games have the capacity to build a dedicated community, which can then become empowered to use Web 3 elements. The blockchain gaming space has all the right tools, so it can onboard gamers that are not crypto-savvy, or are even somewhat crypto-averse.

And, while Web3 may be the future, it is highly important to have a positive onboarding experience for as many users as possible. This is the only way that users will not be overwhelmed by terminology or find the project meaningless. Our approach is to build a fun game with a rewarding progress potential, and then offer the opportunity to wrap up that progress and participate in the larger Web3 ecosystem.

Konstantin Dinev is the CEO of TimeShuffle