Space Summary
The Twitter Space The Best Incentive in Web3 Gaming. (,) hosted by Ancient8_gg. Delve into the realm of Web3 gaming incentives and the transformative power of the Optimism Superchain in enhancing gameplay experiences. Explore the significant partnerships with major industry players like Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase, and Makersfund that drive innovation. Understand the pivotal role of community support and cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and DeFi in revolutionizing gaming ecosystems. Witness the future of gaming with scalable solutions and immersive gameplay opportunities, setting the stage for unprecedented user experiences in the gaming industry.
For more spaces, visit the Gaming page.
Questions
Q: What are some innovative Web3 gaming incentive models discussed in the space?
A: The space delved into various creative incentive structures to engage players and enhance gameplay experiences.
Q: How does Optimism Superchain contribute to gaming applications?
A: Optimism Superchain provides a high-throughput, low-cost solution for seamless gaming experiences on the blockchain.
Q: What major partnerships were highlighted during the discussion?
A: Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase, and Makersfund were mentioned as key backers of the discussed gaming projects.
Q: Why is community support crucial in Web3 gaming ecosystems?
A: Communities play a vital role in fostering user engagement, growth, and sustainability within Web3 gaming environments.
Q: In what ways does blockchain technology enhance gaming experiences?
A: Blockchain technology ensures transparency, security, and ownership of in-game assets, transforming traditional gaming dynamics.
Q: How do major investors influence the trajectory of Web3 gaming platforms?
A: Investors like Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase, and Makersfund provide crucial funding and strategic support to drive innovation in Web3 gaming.
Q: What role does decentralized finance (DeFi) play in gaming ecosystems?
A: DeFi introduces novel financial mechanisms like play-to-earn models and decentralized exchanges, revolutionizing economic structures in gaming.
Q: How is scalability achieved in blockchain gaming solutions?
A: Scalability is addressed through advanced consensus algorithms and layer 2 solutions, ensuring smooth gameplay and network efficiency.
Q: What technology is utilized to revolutionize gaming platforms?
A: Cutting-edge technologies such as NFTs, smart contracts, and blockchain interoperability are leveraged to create next-generation gaming experiences.
Q: What kind of gameplay experiences can users expect with Web3 technologies?
A: Web3 technologies enable immersive gameplay, ownership of digital assets, and participation in virtual economies, enhancing user experiences significantly.
Highlights
Time: 00:15:20
Web3 Gaming Incentive Models Explore innovative reward systems to drive engagement and user participation.
Time: 00:28:45
Optimism Superchain Features for Gaming Discover how Optimism Superchain optimizes speed and cost-effectiveness in gaming.
Time: 00:35:10
Major Partnerships in Gaming Insights into the strategic alliances with renowned investors like Dragonfly and Pantera.
Time: 00:42:55
Blockchain Technology in Gaming Understanding the transformative impact of blockchain on in-game item ownership and security.
Time: 00:50:30
Community Building in Web3 Gaming The importance of fostering strong communities to drive growth and sustainability.
Time: 00:58:15
Investor Influence on Web3 Gaming The pivotal role of major investors in shaping the future landscape of blockchain gaming.
Time: 01:05:40
DeFi Innovations in Gaming Exploring decentralized finance's role in revolutionizing economic structures within gaming ecosystems.
Time: 01:12:20
Scalability Solutions in Blockchain Gaming Insights into scaling blockchain gaming platforms for enhanced performance and efficiency.
Time: 01:20:05
Cutting-Edge Technologies for Gaming Evolution The utilization of NFTs, smart contracts, and blockchain interoperability to reshape gaming experiences.
Time: 01:28:30
Immersive Gameplay with Web3 Tech Enhancing user experiences through immersive gameplay features enabled by Web3 technologies.
Key Takeaways
- Exploration of innovative Web3 gaming incentive models.
- Insight into the powerful features of Optimism Superchain in gaming applications.
- Notable partnerships with Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase, and Makersfund.
- Understanding the influence of blockchain in enhancing gaming experiences.
- Significance of community support in Web3 gaming ecosystems.
- Utilization of cutting-edge technology to revolutionize gaming platforms.
- Importance of scalability and efficiency in blockchain gaming solutions.
- Emphasis on the role of major investors in shaping the future of Web3 gaming.
- Creation of immersive and engaging gameplay experiences with Web3 technologies.
- Exploring the potential of decentralized finance (DeFi) in gaming ecosystems.
Behind the Mic
Introduction and Welcome
I've been drinking all the whole you for me I don't smoke on did you notice me? Nobody knows? But I know what I I've been drinking Gm everyone, welcome to the Internet weekly space gaming on the Edge series number 27. Ladies and gentlemen, we are listening to Fred again, which is a pretty cool up and coming artist from the UK. This released this song released two weeks ago. Let's enjoy it before we begin our spirit. In two or three minutes. We'll start onboarding you guys soon. Enjoy the Sadeena. Sadeena, so much that's important. I told you I can't find the thing you always I told you. And your answer, you want to fight that so you will be afraid you want it.
Weekly Space Introduction
All right, all right. GmGm web three family. Welcome today's x space. Our. I don't even know what episode we're on, but here we are another week, gaming on the edge, another important topic to chat on today. So I'm super stoked for it, as always. I see we got some heavy hitters in the room. Always a pleasure to have you guys here. Also, some new faces in the room, which always is something we look forward to in these weekly spaces. So appreciate the newbies for joining us here. For those of you who don't know, my name is Justin, aka Justin the mind here on x. And I am the head of community and also part of the business development team here at Ancient eight.
About Ancient Eight
And just a brief intro about ancient eight. We are building an ethereum gaming layer two, which is built on the optimism super chain. We offer a suite of web three gaming infrastructure tools that serve as the distribution and marketing channel for games globally. We build products like space three GG, who I'll let them introduce themselves in a second. We also have ancient eight gaming guild who very much participates in gaming events all over the space. Game nights, tournaments, all that good stuff. And then we also have reniverse web three ads engine, who is redefining ads advertising in web three. So a lot of great builders inside the ancient eight ecosystem, things are really just getting kicked off inside the ancient eight ecosystem. So, so much more to do here.
Today's Discussion
But we're excited to have you guys on board today. And we're going to be talking about the best incentives in web three gaming. And not only the best incentives, because we got King Snooch here and King Snooch won't let us get away with that. So we're also going to talk about some of the worst incentives right, because we like to pick this apart from both sides on these conversations and King Snooch won't let us do without that anyway. So it's going to happen whether you guys like it or not. But you know, I'm excited for it. I love, I love hearing this conversation from all sides. So we're going to pick it apart as usual.
Engagement and Community
All right, guys, to get things started, can we just warm up the algorithm a little bit? Let me see some hearts in the chat here. Let me see some emojis if you guys are excited about today's conversation, if you're getting the day warmed up, or maybe you're closing the day out, depending on what side of the world you're on, you're feeling good. Let me see some energy from you guys. Appreciate that. And last but not least, if you guys wouldn't mind sharing the space out into the timeline and also drop us a comment down in the comment box, let us know what's cooking in your ecosystem. Hit us with a GM, hit us with your favorite gif, whatever you guys want.
Introduction of Team Members
All engagement down in the comment box does help us with a little algorithm pushed to. All right, without all that out the way, quick intro from my man Leo behind the ancient eight account. How you feeling today, brother? You were back inside the water bottle again, Leo, I'm sorry to tell you. Yo, bro, how's it going? I was trying to tell everyone to enjoy the music, right, but I think there's some technical thing over there. Hey, everyone, how's it going? I'm Leo, social media manager at ancient eight. Today is a super exciting topic. I knew it already because one week this space was oversubscribed. One week ahead. So looking forward to the juicy stuff that we're going to discuss for me right now, I'm cooking up some incentive for the stakers of the Internet token that has just been launched one month ago.
Future Topics and Insights
A lot of things are still unfolding and would love to learn more about what the best incentive in this space. So back to you, legend. Let's go. We're definitely going to talk about staking as one of those mechanisms as a juicy incentive in web three. But again, we want to talk about both sides of it. What makes it a strong incentive, what kind of makes it a tough incentive and kind of get both sides and see what everybody's seeing here in the space. All right, next, let's swing it over to space three. My man Ronaldinhouse. How you feeling today, brother?
Panel Introductions
Yeah, man, all good. Can you guys hear me? I was getting rugged a while ago. You're good to go now. Awesome. Awesome. Hey, guys, it's lovely seeing you. And of course some familiar faces here. Luke, Stefan, Saad, king snooch here. How are you doing, guys? Absolutely stoked to be here again. And after a wonderful week, we are working on our space three NFT launch, like I mentioned earlier. And then we're working with some close partners and I myself am preparing for the trip two weeks later, which is in Japan, Webex, and then after that, Singapore token 2049. And then we've got Solana breakpoint.
Event Preparations
So if you guys are going to be around, well, very nice to catch up IRL. And yeah, of course we'll drop some alfas as well as always. And yeah, I'm going to talk about some incentives that I believe personally, I personally believe works best. Be it like if you're a gaming ecosystem or like, or a questing platform, like space three itself, we position ourselves more like. More than that. Of course we are engine. But yeah, I'll be definitely talking about a couple of those touching those points while we move on with the space. Right, guys? Thank you.
Community Engagement Continues
Oh, yeah, Shiv as well. Yeah, there's lots of familiar faces. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Our brother Shiv in the building. I guess we might as well swing it over to Shiv since we did call him out just now. Earth from another sun in the building. Shiv, how are you doing? Very, very good. How's it going, guys? Very happy to be here. Excited to get into the conversation. I think incentives are something which have defined a lot of subsets of web three and they've been used in a very strong and positive manner as well as also in a way which has made communities angry in the past.
Discussion on Incentives
So I think it's a very good conversation to get into and would also be happy to discuss some good and bad examples. I'm joking. Love it, Shiv. Yeah, definitely want some of those good and bad examples that you've seen in the space. Especially as a game builder, we're always trying to think of the incentives, right? To keep. Keep these gamers excited, keep them activated. So, yeah, man. Next, let's pass it over to my man, King Snooch. I think behind the game starter account today. Is that you, brother?
King Snooch Joins the Conversation
You know it, brother. I'm happy to be here also, I gotta say, banger crew here, the panel is stacked for sure. Always love being on a space with Matt. So this is gonna be exciting. I'm sure there's gonna be some shit posting going on and some fun chatter. I see so many legends down there and a speaker fan like this is gonna be a good one. Let's get after it, though. Yeah, I'm excited to kind of throw some spicy takes on this one, we'll say for sure.
Stefan Joins the Discussion
Absolutely, brother. We're going to get into it for sure. Next, let's throw it over to my man Stefan. How you doing today, brother? Hey, I'm doing pretty good today, but the only thing missing from myself is with my voice. I got kind of sick yesterday. Maybe it's Covid, maybe it's not. And I'm Stefan. I'm building armor wallethood. It's like an AI powered wallet that you can do complex trading. It's good for beginners, it's good for traders. And the main thing is I'm very big on to gaming and I really like when somebody has a good incentive.
Exploring New Incentives
So is it airdrops? Is it gonna be something different this time? So we'll see. Are we gonna discover the new meta today? Absolutely. If somebody here on the panel's got a new meta for us, we're ready to hear it first right here on gaming on the edge. So please do drop the hot sauce if you got it for us. All right, next, I'm going to swing it over to call of the void, GMGM.
Call of the Void Introduction
GMGM. Good afternoon for those in Europe and good, whatever it is for those in the rest of the world. Super stoked to be here among legends, living legends of the space as well. And yeah, just a little bit about us. Call of the void is a top down ARPG shooter, available now to play in your toilet with one hand on Apple android, iPhone and whatever you want, just play it, just download it. It's fun. Let's get into some incentive, lads.
Discussion on Monetary Incentives
I'm excited about this. I was going to just say money and then conversation over, really? You're not wrong. You're not wrong. If we're talking about the best incentive in web three, I'm not sure that it's arguable at this point, but we're going to argue it anyway. We're going to get into it and see if anybody can bump us off that mountainous top. But I'm curious to see it myself. Next, let's swing it over to Derpy's NFT, I think.
New Faces in the Discussion
Joining us for the first time today, welcome GM. I'm the new kid on the blog GMGM. I know a couple of guys that are in space already. I've seen them at other spaces as well. I'm the founder, artist and animator of Derpy's NFT. Derpy's NFT is basically a collection that recognizes that web three in crypto can be super complex and complicated, not only for newcomers, but also for people that are already in the scene for years because it innovates constantly and therefore it can be overwhelming to some people. And that's also true in web three, right?
The Purpose of Derpy's NFT
Or in gaming. So that's what we're talking about today. And I'm also Derpiz really tries to educate the space through educational content, fun memes, DJ and culture and yeah, building a community of Derps, basically that want to change web three. So yeah, I'm excited to see what's coming out of this space. Awesome. Great to have you here for the first time.
Introduction to Turf Gaming
And as a natural derp myself, I absolutely love the branding, love the PFP. So can't wait to hear a little bit more about what you guys are building within your ecosystem there. Next, let's pass it over to turf gaming. I think also joining us for the first time, GM, my friend, who do we have joining us today? GM. GM, everyone. This is the bill behind the profile and I'm the founder of Turf Gaming. We are trying to bring the competitive gaming industry to the Bakkesh space, enabling every game to be equipped with the esports excellence. That's kind of a bit. And would love to talk about the best incentives. And to be honest, I'm excited about it because incentives are the Genesis blocks of the web three gaming. And would love to talk how exactly it's getting more and more popular. And share some examples as well.
Incentives in Web Three Gaming
Absolutely can't wait to hear how you guys are throwing incentives around within your ecosystem over there at Turf Gaming. Next, let's swing it over to thrust. Who do we have joining us today? Thank you. Legend, this choice behind the account. Happy to be here with you guys on these lovely spaces. With all the legends on the panel, we are building the web three discord alternative with on chain roles, on chain tokens that communities can launch. Community first tokens. And yeah, we believe on a platform that is social fi and that is truly integrating the onchain technology as we believe on an onchain future. That's enough fat chill. Love the topic and looking forward to the conversation. Let's go. My man choice joining us again, brother. Always great to have you here. And last but not least, I think joining us for the first time as well, Rodrigo, co founder of Moonray Game. Welcome. Welcome to the event, sir GM.
Rodrigo and Moonray Game
Hey, guys. Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me. Thanks to ancient eight for having us. We've known the team at ancient eight for several years, so we know that's a really good group. Yeah, I'm on the team at Moonray. We have game studio. Our first game is on Epic Games right now. It's like a four v four PC sort of melee. So that quake crossed with Devil may cry. That's kind of how we describe it. And happy to take part in the conversation and then meet everyone. Awesome to have you here. Rodrigo, thank you for joining us. All right, guys, I think we're going to go ahead and jump straight on into it. So for the newbies here today, I just want to kind of let you guys know how we like to let things flow on this space, which is we really like to create like an open conversation.
Conversation Rules and Flow
So I'm going to throw a come. Going to throw a question out there first, one that wants to jump on in there. Please do jump on in. After, after we have somebody speaking, then you guys can go ahead and throw hands up and we'll try to go in whatever order possible and feel free to ask each other questions. We like to keep it like really an open, free flow conversation here on gaming, on the edge. So, yeah, let's go ahead and jump right into it. So I'm just going to jump straight in and kind of keep. Kind of keep this flat and easy. I'd like to know what you guys think. Right now in the space, is the metaphor the best incentive that you've seen in web three gaming, or you can throw out the other opposite end. Maybe you can talk about something that maybe the space thought was a good incentive, but now we're seeing may not be the best incentive for web three gaming.
Incentives in Gaming Discussion
So let's go ahead and jump straight into it. The first hand I saw was game starter. My man, King snooch kick us off, then we'll go to a shiv, then we'll go to call of the void. Matt, I beat you to it. Let's go. Nah, I gotta say, one of the best incentives I've seen in gaming general, not just. Not just web three, but in gaming in general, which I would really love to see in more web three games, is the incentive of luck. When. When I say that, what I mean is if you have, let's. Let's use freaking gap gotcha games, right? Like raid, shadow, legends, when you buy something and there's a small, tiny chance that you can get something really badass out of it. I, that draws people in, that sucks people in. They want to spend money. They want to gamble on a chance of getting something awesome.
Adrenaline Rush in Gaming
That, that chance and that moment right in a gamers like gaming journey where they get that one pole that is like the thing that they're trying so hard for is the best rush of adrenaline for a gamer. I'm going to use call of void, for example. If they had this chest that I could buy every time, that had like a one in like 400 chance of having a new champion that is just really fucking strong with the coolest weapon that does like the coolest graphic attack, I would be spending stupid amounts of money on that because that's. That's the gamer in me, right? That's the DGen gamer, not the crypto Djen. The Djen gamer that's gonna dump a bunch of money on the off chance that I get really lucky and get that cool ass thing that I want. Now on the opposite side, what I will say, one of the things that is the worst incentives from my perspective in web three gaming is this play to earn aspect.
Critique of Play-to-Earn Model
Everybody gets a participation trophy. It's extremely extractive, and there's no money injected into a project. And when you have that, there's no long term sustainability. If you had something more along the lines of like a win to earn where people had to prove that they're doing something to earn, then yes, I could see that working. But this whole play to earn where you just show up, sign in, and you get something like a participation trophy, I think it's just bad in general for the space. It's extremely extractive and it doesn't add value to the project, aside from vanity metrics. Okay, a lot to unpack there. Snooch, I want to throw back a question back your way in the space recently. Does anything come to mind in terms of game out there right now that you feel like does have this good luck mechanic kind of baked in anything that you're seeing that you want to shout out, because it's always good for us to have eyes on some good examples.
Examples of Luck Mechanics
Oh, man, you threw me on the spot there. Web three. I know a lot of web two ones, not a lot of web three ones. I would throw a web two one if that stands out more for you. Oh, shit. Well, one of the ones I play every day is a game called Watcher of Realms, where it's just, it's like a mix between raid shadow legends and Tower defense. I'm absolutely hooked on a game I play every day. I probably dumped way too much into it, and I really enjoy it because you get, like, a chance of one out of 200 right after the way it works. Right. If you use common shards to, like, open a chest after you've used 200 of them, you get what's called a pity timer, and you get increased odds every time after that of getting a legendary poll.
The Pity Timer Mechanic
So it takes you 200 to get to that. But after that point, once you've spent, you know, 200 shards, which in this game, each shard is worth about a dollar. So you think about that. Once you've used about $200 worth of your money, you're guaranteed to, very shortly after that, get one of the legendary ones. That's really hard to get. I think it's a great idea. It's a great aspect. It adds a lot of value to the game. And you wouldn't believe how many people dump stupid amounts of money into that for that one reason right there. They want to get to that point where they have a chance of getting that legendary character that really takes them to the next level. Love that. Yeah. As far as web three.
Web Three Gaming Insights
As far as web three. Right now, I would say the closest thing I've seen, not really the same, but similar, is off the grid with the hexes that you randomly get while you're in the map. You can randomly get a purple one, which is really rare, but then you have to try and actually extract it and fight other people for that. So it adds a whole different element. But also, you know, one of those things that there's that little luck chance that you can get one and extract it and have that NFT that's really rare that drives you to want to play. Love that. Appreciate you dropping both a web two and a web three example. I absolutely didn't mean to hit that sound effect there, but it was kind of cool, though. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
Mechanics and Real-World Applications
Snooze. See, this is the. This is the kind of stuff I love to get into, is like, yeah, give us some real life mechanics that's going on in the space that is. That is example worthy that we can take a look at because that's, you know, that's huge kind of for the dynamics of where things are going this way, you know, in this industry. So I'll swing it over next to Earth from another sun shift. Then we'll go over to Matt, then we'll go over to Stefan, then we'll go over to thrust. Thank you. Although I believe call of the void had their hand up before me, but I'm not complaining. I think when we're looking at web three gaming, there's a few trends which have emerged which the communities have gravitated towards.
Trends in Web Three Gaming
And I think gotcha mechanics are definitely one of them, and they appeal to the instinctive degen within most web three gamers. I think alongside that, a few other mechanics which I've seen be pretty strong and definitely something which we are also leveraging for the long term in our community. I think tiered reward systems are very helpful because like in snoot said, the level of how extractive games can get is definitely something which stands as a long term risk to gamify. And a good way around that is, instead of having maybe participation trophies where everyone is looking for some value, there can be a minimum threshold starting. And after that, the more time you invest or the more money you invest, the better your rewards.
Investment and Time in Gaming
So there should be some sense of either skill or monetary investment, because there's going to be enough people in the world that have no time, that have time to do whatever the hell it takes to get a few bucks. So if that is the mechanic within web three, which in 2021 and 2022, sure it works, the quality of products are only improving. So I think that sense of progression and status is very important. And then if you can buy and skill into it well, which we at eFas, for example, are doing, model by the time and earning hand in hand, which means that via mechanics, only if you're able to level up certain guns or certain weapons, only then are you going to be able to get the rewards, which are really tier one.
Balancing Play and Earn
And that chimes into the narrative of not being play to earn, but play and earn something which we really wanted to imbibe into our community. Because I think in the earliest days, if you build a project from the get go as a play to earn, play to earn, at some point, if you make it seem more easy than it is, eventually it's going to get to a point where there are too many people looking to earn money, and that can be bad for the ecosystem. I think time limited drops are also very helpful, at least in my experience, they have been. I think, when you have an addictive game or you have a community that keeps coming back for more, as long as you're able to create urgency or to create feedback loops in your community, within the game, whether the, whether it's the missions you set, that really helps.
Community Engagement and Governance
So I think these alongside maybe also having, especially when you're making your tokenomic model a sense of governance along where the project goes, even if it's to a very limited extent does help the community feel more involved. And these incentives are going to be very important for people that actually want to play the game and people that are actually going to be web three gamers in terms of incentives, which I think are not good, which definitely can be a long list. But I think there's a lot of false scarcity which comes with gaming, at least in the early days. I don't know how much of it is still there, but when you have this sense of false scarcity where you're manipulating the market for your first mint and then you have another mint and another mint, you're basically setting yourself up for inevitable failure at some point.
Challenges of False Scarcity
So I think it does take a certain level of patience to be able to get that initial community and to drive up the belief more than hype in your project. And once you're able to do that, if you leverage maybe tiered reward mechanisms, if you leverage certain ways of having the community actually wanting to leverage skill or money to get rewards, it's going to be way better for everyone at stake than just having this dream sold of click a few buttons, make a few dollars, and leave. Because eventually that, like, pot of gold will dry out. So much good stuff to unpack there. Shiv, I really like as well that you touched on the fact that, like, it's not a mechanic based on this luck mechanic that exists.
Skill vs. Luck Mechanics
It's not based purely on just being lucky within that mechanic, but you actually have to grind up to a certain level within the game to actually earn the right to, you know, to play that type of gamble mechanic, if you will. And same thing. I think it's a very similar example to what Snooze threw out there with the game that he's playing where you know, you need to at least spend a certain amount before you can tap into that. Snooch. Did you want to jump back in on that? Was there something specific? I'll be honest, I got so much I want to say, but I want to let other people talk. All right, we'll swing right back around to you. Let's throw over to Matt, and then we'll go to Stefan.
The Importance of Belief in Gaming
Touched on a really important point, and maybe it's something that gets lost in their general, other incredible points that shiv made. But there is a real thing with belief versus hype. And I think one of the things that we do since we frontrunner incentives more than any other kind of class of gaming, we put a lot of incentives out there. And then there's this whole belief. And the belief is that say we're giving away tokens or we're doing something like that, the belief is that token is going to go up and that's why people are holding it versus sort of the hype, which is the project is going to be amazing and all the rest of it.
Incentive Alignment Challenges
If you have people who genuinely believe in this token, then they're not going to just sell it. The main problem that we have is that the incentives are not necessarily aligned with the gamers that we want. They're aligned with the gamers that we deserve. And I think that's a real difficulty because you need people to come in, you need people to see your game, you need people to play your game, and it doesn't really matter what kind of systems that you put to get them in there. And what really is, what's the incentive for that person. Everyone has their own incentives, and if their incentive is to collect a small amount from as many games as possible, that is not the game you want.
Collective vs. Individual Incentives
I like what Snitch was saying about having chests and having all of these things. And I think we in general are a victim of.
Underfunding and Industry Challenges
Surprisingly, people would say this, but underfunding. So we don't actually have time as an industry to put in the crazy amount of mechanics that you would see in a modern free-to-play mobile game. I mean, battle passes, that's a massive thing. Battle Pass is a play to earn system. You just play. And generally the quests are aligned with the things that you do in the game loop. And then there's a premium version of that where you fork over some currency and then you get better rewards on the end of that. And those can be randomized rewards, they can be static rewards, they can be whatever. But I think it's really about is the player base incentivized to see your token go up, or are they incentivized to see the token just go into their pocket so they can sell it? And they have no care about the project because at the end of the day, a lot of projects with tokens, they have this sort of mystery around them, like, will this do on 100 x? Why should it? Why should it? Why can't you just have a sort of a stable coin which just allows you to own the token that you're using in the game to buy stuff, whether it's shards or whatever it is? Why does the token have to go up. That's the incentive for meme coins.
Economy and Game Mechanics
I mean, surely games can do something different. Whereas if your token only gently appreciates, or if your token doesn't wildly swing in price, then you're going to have a much easier to run economy. Imagine going into a game and the item to get you started is way above your income bracket, and you know that the best person in the game is rocking something worth 80 grand. That's a really difficult sell to get people in. And so I think there's so much depth to this topic if we could go on for hours. Yeah, honestly, I hate topics with this much depth because I feel like no matter how much we talk here, man, there's so much we're going to miss and not get to cover. But yeah, I think you hit the head, the nail on the head there with a few different aspects, including the tokenization aspect here, which I think is something that we could spend, you know, 3 hours talking just alone about that. But I'll swing it over to Stefan and then we'll go over to thrust, and then we'll probably touch back on that in a second here.
The Role of Esports in Gaming
Okay, so I'm gonna take it to a very different spot, and I'm gonna say esports is the best incentive, which is totally off topic for what were talking about today. But when it comes to playing games and making an incentive, you want to do a couple of things. You want to better than someone else. That's like the natural human feeling everybody has. You want to be either better than everybody else or better than your friends. That works, too. And plus, when you add a monetary reward to it, I mean, the gaming itself, as a niche, started off becoming popular after dota two invented the international and started giving away a million dollar prize pool to everybody. And then they invented betting for those esports teams. So I think esports are still the thing that's being watched the most. And when it comes to creating content, you want to see people compete against each other. It's just like sports digital version, so you have a lot of incentive to watch. It's fun for gamers and spectators alike, plus you get rewards.
Sustainability in Web Three Gaming
So I'm a massive fan of games that have a little bit of skill attached to them and having a hint of esports where you can compete. Oh, really like this one, Stephan, because I think that this is definitely when we kind of start talking about sustainability as well. For a web three gaming ecosystem. I think having this esport aspect, this play to win aspect, as Snooch touched on a little bit earlier, is just so key in terms of making this a truly sustainable industry. It really can't be something where everybody wins. There has to be leaderboards that exist. There has to be MMR that exists as well, because you can't just have only the best guys being the only ones that have the capability to earn, but kind of having these tiered layers of having earning mechanisms at each kind of level, but still having that esports aspect exists. I couldn't agree more there. Absolutely.
Revenue and Advertising Strategies
And I just want to continue my take for one more second, which is when you add esports, you can also add sponsors, and sponsors can bring in fresh revenue to the entire ecosystem. So, you know, traditional games will take most of that revenue for themselves, while, you know, web three games don't have to do it right. So it doesn't have to be something like super obvious, like waiting 30 seconds for a video to pass, but you can do something like a non-intrusive ad, like a billboard inside your game. Like, if you have towers, if it's like a tower defense game, a tower can be like a Coca-Cola bottle, and then everybody else just shares in the prize. Everybody's just used to it. And you can do that only on esports or when you're promoting events, which is like a massive way to gain an even wider audience and just get co-marketing opportunities and make it more available to the web three public.
Community Building and Networking
I mean, make web three more available to the general public, because if they see big brands joining in this web three world, they're gonna be like, okay, if Coca-Cola is here, then I'm gonna play this game. Right. Matt, I saw the thumbs down on the Coca-Cola. Was it because of the Coca-Cola, or was there something to that point that you disagree with there? Yeah, there's a little bit of both. I mean, it's. You don't really have to be careful with sponsorships, which ones fit in your game. But I really think that we. We shouldn't get confused, like, bringing in sponsors to get more people in, I think, is the reverse way, because generally, sponsorship deals, they only look at you when you have a certain amount of volume, and we're in a position where we don't have volume.
Sponsorship and Value Creation
And that means that the adverts that we run, we don't get a lot of. We don't get a lot of value from them unless we can prove the people who are playing our game are whales, whatever that is. So you're more likely to. To actually have, instead of a Coca-Cola bottle, something incredibly expensive in there because you're more. It depends on your audience, right. If you've got a small audience, then you have to go for high value items to get that ad click revenue. But it is a good point. It's not that I'm against sponsorship at all. I just think that there is no way in hell we're going to use that. We're going to get a good deal from Coca-Cola. Yeah. Yeah.
Web Three Advertising and Sustainability
Tough to get the big boys interested just yet, but I think there may be a time if we stay on the right path here. But I think that this is also a problem that reniverse is also trying to serve with their web three advertising that they're bringing into the space and creating more of that revenue share also between the game and the player base as well, to make it not only non-intrusive, but also actually make it a value add for the player base that is being exposed to those ads. I think that there's also a way for. For that to also bring a little bit more sustainability. May not be Coca-Cola level dollars, but, you know, every bit of added revenue that can be shared with the player base does create a little bit more of a healthy economy kind of brewing.
Chasing the Dream of Web Three Gaming
So it's a. It's a very interesting take. I'll swing it over next to turf gaming, then we'll go to derpies. Oh, no. I'm sorry. Sorry, guys. My bad. We got to throw it to thrust. Then we'll go over to turf gaming, then to derpies. Dental Rodrigo, keep it moving. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Justin. Yeah, a lot of takes so far from the legends. I do want to retouch some points that for me are crucial. Like what truly got me into web three was the dream of living from gaming. I mean, that I've been chasing since I was pretty young and did it with my gaming. So doing it again, being a full time web three person, which I love. So that dream of making profits and financial benefits that web three definitely offers and offered from the beginning on 2021.
Sustainability and Community Involvement
And I think that is what probably on boarded the biggest amount of people and including gamers. With the Axie Infinity boom, for example, it was definitely relevant. We obviously found out that it was not sustainable and that it needs to be tweaked. But I do believe that with some fixes here and there, sustainability is going to be achieved and definitely people will be able to make meaningful profits from the industry versus playing regular games so that it will remain a very relevant incentive for the overall community. On web three, people is looking forward to getting something in exchange of their time, which is the most valuable asset.
Community Building and Incentives
Then there was a lot of people that was clever enough to understand that it was not just about extracting, but also about giving back. And I love to see how they have grown in the industry, either via becoming content creators or just making some type of UGC. But they got them into full-time web three positions or within themes that are now allowing them to make a living out of the industry. So that financial benefit is definitely something that brought a lot of people and that will continue to do so. Then definitely in any gaming, either be web two or web three. The entertainment, storytelling, that sensation and feeling of you being able to unplug from the sometimes chaotic real world and just relax and doing what you do, what you like to do, which is gaming competing, like Stefan was saying, and unpleasant your progress and your achievement with your friends.
Showcasing Progress and Assets
But now you can also do it with on-chain proof. Like when you are truly into a project, you cannot just flex it through the in-game progress and achievements, but you can flex it through your wallet. And people can see what assets you own and how deep you are into a project because of how much you invested in it, not just in terms of time, but also in terms of money. So you can tell how deep a person is just based on their collection and their avatars or their pfps. You can see what communities they represent now. The community building and the power of building communities and getting people together, I believe is a key incentive.
Building Relationships in Gaming
When you have a game that people resonate with and likes and enjoys, you're building a community around that project, and therefore you got them. You give them a place where they can come back to be the guild, be it a community, be it the project that they like, where they are meeting with people that they shared a mission, shared a vision, and just love hanging out with. So that community that you're building and those relationships that you are building along the way, by spending time with those communities that usually you end up spending time more time than with your own families. That for me, is probably the best of all of the incentives, you know, is the people and the friendships that you make along the way and the networking potential that unlocks this industry that it kind of be compared to the regular web two networking.
The Power of Community Engagement
Really love this choice because as a community guy, head of community as an incentive, I think, is definitely one of the, you know, the incentives with the strongest stick ability, the strongest retention power, if done right. We'll. We'll come for the game, but we'll stay for the friends for sure, if we can. If we can create that atmosphere for the community. So really love that. Let's throw it over to turf. Then we'll go derpies. Then we'll go Rodrigo. Yeah, exactly. Like I feel I have been speaking in some other spaces as well as Stephen mentioned about the competitive gaming aspect.
Competitiveness and Achievement
And this is one of the crucial thing that I see that this whole gaming industry need to adopt in terms of incentivizing gaming. Just because that it's a human nature, like humans are competitive. Let it be anything, any subject matter that's out there. And when it comes to, specifically to the gaming industry, the biggest incentive that we can see is I am mentioning like, hey, I'm the best gamer in my town, right? The credential, the proof of achievement that you get by saying that I am best in the town is something that the gamer starts to attain, right? And these things come not only just from, let's say, playing a game, but competing against your friends, because that's exactly the thing where you get the credibility, right?
Circular Economy in Gaming
So obviously, from the incentive point of view, I'm just adding on to Steve and I feel this esports industry or the competitive gaming industry, when opted out as a culture in this whole web three ecosystem, can literally boost the engagement, can literally boost the retention that actually will be sustaining as well as obviously from the monetary point of view, where a game just inflating their token and giving out rewards to every other gamer for just playing the game, a whole new circular economy can be curated. Where I remember someone explained about how sponsorship works in the esports industry, right? This whole sponsorship game can be brought on top of the web three ecosystem, resulting in a better economic flow, new liquidity, fresh liquidity, and from the traditional players in the industry, that's something I also see as one of the crucial thing in terms of incentivizing gamers through competitions and making things happen in this route.
Gamification and Community Engagement
Absolutely love that. Take tough. Anything to add on that derpice. I mean, I'm a complete derpy, of course, but even in the web three gaming space. But I really like Persona as an NFT project, they basically incentivize and gamified their community and engagement with their community in a way, because people get rewarded for high-quality engagement with their. With other people in the community as well. So they get tokens. And if they. They can stake these tokens, but they can also play games on their platform. And they're basically, I mean, a lot of people probably know these notice projects already, but you can play like fantasy football games and basically spend your tokens to maybe win some more or you lose them.
Exploring the Value of Web Three Gaming
But it's basically in a fun and gamified way. Insider ecosystem. So I know this example of like a very concrete example of how gamification NFTs can really help community building. But from a, like, I'm also a gamer, a normal gamer, in between brackets, but from a derpy that doesn't really know a lot about web three gaming. Like, I have a question to all of you, basically. So what is the added value of developing but also playing web three games if we forget the whole play to earn incentive? Because for me, that's not really clear yet. Derp out.
Concerns Regarding Loot Box Mechanics
Yeah, Matt, you want to jump in on that question? I mean, Rodrigo's hands, his arm is probably aching now, but, yeah, I have points. Let Rodrigo go before we cover everything. Just one small point, guys. I would just recommend that you be very careful with loot box mechanics. Anything that you sell that has an element of chance, especially when what you sell has a monetary value. Check with council. That could be legal risk. And decide how much risk that you want to take.
Legal Risks and Compliance
Super solid point by Rodrigo. I'd like to throw it back over to Rodrigo in a second here, but I want to hear your point on this one, Matt. And then I got a question for Rodrigo after. Yeah, so I just wanted to say, you know, I mean, obviously, Rodrigo, you're correct. Having worked in web two companies as well, we had so many loot box laws. There are laws you have to follow. You have to show the chances, et cetera. But anyway, moving on to the point, this whole play to earn mechanic thing, and why would you be playing a web three game if you're not going to get money out of it? Yes, that is true, but we need to reframe the equation from, like, what senior choice was making.
Token Value and Market Demand
If it's popular, they get $20. If it's not popular, they get 200k. But then your token crashes, so it's probably worth $20. I mean, there is another mechanic we have to use the things that gamers have been doing for years and earning money on the gray market that is not supported by the current industry. Such as selling accounts. Thats a huge thing, selling accounts and farming token that other people want. People are farming token that other people want. You need demand. Like this is the number one thing your token needs. It doesnt need sell pressure, it doesnt need farming. You want each farmer to only be farming it if there is like. And they have an entirely different sort of like mental setup.
On Leaderboards and Income
If you have a leaderboard, they will happily create 100 accounts to fill that leaderboard with bots and only play on them their own. And then they will cash that reward and then they will drop down onto the lower level and do the same thing. They don't mind if it takes them a week to set up 100 accounts. They have an entirely different method of getting income from your game than you expect. What you want is true gamers. And the only way that you're going to get that is if you do the thing that gamers and farmers have been doing and have been understanding for years. That's selling accounts and farming money or items that are really time consuming to do, but at the same time everyone wants them, everyone needs them. And that's the market price of this. And having that happening in the blockchain is a really safe way of doing it.
Attracting Real Gamers
So that's what I would say on this solid takes as usual for my man Matt. I want to throw it back over to Rodrigo and just kind of hear from what you guys have been building over at Moonray game. What kind of incentives do you guys see working well within your community and the time that you guys have been building the project, I definitely agree with what some of the speakers were saying. And you've got to think about the type of gamer that you want to attract. There are the extractors and there's been too much of that in web three who are just in it for, you know, tokens and nonsense and things like that. And there is no way to make that sustainable. Those are obvious Ponzi's. You can't build a strategy based on that.
Gaming Incentives and Player Engagement
You have to attract real gamers and then you have to think about, okay, what do gamers really want? And then you get into making interesting things that gamers can earn, but they definitely have to earn it through playing. And that's really important. And that's no different in web three than in web two. The only thing that web three, I mean the big difference with web three is you can create that tradability of items much more easily than you can in web two. But the mechanic of playing and earning something and maybe getting a really cool rare item. I guess the same for games in general. Just in web three, we have all this awesome infrastructure that's already built for us that allows us to make, you know, make trading much easier for gamers.
Community Ownership and Learning
And I think when you can turn that on, you can create community in a different way than you can web two, just like a little bit with an extra, you know, like extra emphasis on community because people really enjoy having, you know, more ownership of their items. But definitely from everything we've seen, it's very early in web three days. There's been way too much focus on the financial aspects of web three. Extremely unrealistic expectations among audiences in general. The idea, I mean, luckily we're through the last bull cycle where everyone thought if you bought an NFT, you would be able to retire that idea, that an NFT should go to the moon and should go up 100 x, 1000 x. I think it's a little bit ridiculous the way that we think about what an item in a game is.
Realistic Expectations for Game Items
You know, like imagine if you were to buy a skin for $20 and you play with that skin for three months, six months, whatever it is, and then you get tired of it and then you sell it for $10. We just got half your money back. I think that's great. That's something you can't do easily right now. In web two, the skin doesn't have to go from $20 to 2000, you know, and that's, that's what we have to start to kind of, I think, get across to the audience is that let's everyone get a little bit more realistic. This isn't going to be, you're not going to buy a Lamborghini if you play our game, but you can get some of your money back. We're basically reinventing used games and we're reinventing, you know, used items. That's, that's all it is.
Sustainable Ecosystem in Gaming
Absolutely, man. So much more of a healthy, sustainable ecosystem when we get more players understanding that. And I think they're having no choice but to have to at this point because we're just not seeing the NFT market do what it once did. And I think that's healthy for all. I want to swing it back over to snooch on this one. Anything, anything to add here? Brother had too many apps open. Sorry, I was trying to get back to it. I did have something to add, but you guys already covered it. So I'm going to just say you guys are all fricking on point, and I'm loving Matt's take on this. And I agree.
Challenges of Gaming Founders
You know, there are a lot of rules and regulations that you have to abide by, but that's the challenge on the founders. Figure it out and get through all of the legal behind it and make a game that works. I know it's not easy. I know it's hard, and it's a lot of work. But if it was easy, everybody be doing it. Hundred percent. I want to throw it over to Ron. Ron, talk to us a little bit about incentives, the space three side of things. What do you got for us?
Rewards and Community Engagement
Yeah, man, I actually wanted to say a couple of points. The leaderboard thing, of course, but then I think someone else touched on that, so I wouldn't be repetitive here. And also had some background noise earlier. But, yeah, I think what we've been trying to do is, like, and I personally feel like it kind of works. Can anyone else hear him? I can't hear anybody. Can you guys hear me? I can hear him. Give us a thumbs up if you guys can hear him. It might be snooch. That's getting rugged on us. Yes. Nooosh. I think you're getting rugged. We can hear him, though.
Sustainable and Community-Focused Game Design
Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. So what I was saying is, like, of course we had, I mean, when it comes to, I'll be more web three specific here. When it comes to, like, rewards and incentives, like, okay, if you have a game, you're launching some campaign, no matter wherever it is, you say, okay, players come in and they say, oh, okay, we're getting money, let's. Let's play why not? But, like, how to make it sustainable, like, is it gonna last? Is it. How can we scale it further? So why not take feedback from the community? Or let's, you know, think about what they actually want, what makes them feel like, you know, I would say more, would say inclined to the, to the community, more a sense of belongingness.
Trial and Error in Game Development
How do we get that? How do we bring that? Of course, we always try to improvise. We always, you know, taking a step ahead when it comes to trying new things. Maybe it could be in a way of, like, trial and error, but honestly, it has clicked for us. We did launch a new feature which is called the Gacha feature. I think someone touched on that point as well, and that worked out pretty well. So we had a mix of, like, nfTs, native tokens, stables in game rewards. So it's a mix of all of these, and then this is something that makes players feel that belongingness, you know, they feel that part of being part of the game, being part of the community.
User-Centric Gaming Experience
So not just, they're not just getting money, they're also trying the game out and also at the same time getting some sort of reward in any shape or form. Not just like expecting that, okay, we play the game and get some money out of it. And then to take a step further, we are also doing the NFT launch that I just mentioned earlier when I introduced. We want to create, you know, make it a more creative and decentralized on chain experience for our users, for our community. And that's the reason why we are doing it.
Decentralization and Incentives
Like we're working with some close partners who have already launched on space three and of course to incentivize them in form of like, not just monetary value, but also a unique on chain experience, which is what we aim to achieve in the long run. Yeah, speaking of incentives for that specific campaign, ancient eight token stakers as well, creating the ecosystem incentive where stakers have the incentive to stake to get rewards, like opportunities to free mint, the NFT that's coming to the space three ecosystem. I think we could talk about staking as an incentive.
Wrapping Up and Future Brand Initiatives
I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into it, but we didn't really get too much of a chance today. There was a lot of great points. I know it is about to be on the hour in just a minute here, so anybody that needs to run at nine, please go ahead and do so. I don't want to hold anybody up here too long, but I did want to give a few others an opportunity to throw out any other last points that are interested. So I'll swing it over to Matt, and if anybody else has anything to share, please do throw a hand up.
Observations on Mobile Gaming
I think it's really interesting that there is an industry out there, 80 or maybe $90 billion industry mobile gaming, where up until recently, and there's only about 50 or 60 verifiable web, three games running, they have had social casino worth billions, where no one cashes out anything. They've had gacha games and incredibly intense japanese games at one point percent of all in app purchases in Japan, not just in the gaming category, like, and they have given out nothing. And they even turned off the servers in Europe after people put hundreds of thousands of dollars in it.
Value Extraction in Mobile Gaming
And people, if those things were nfTs, could have sold them back to the japanese market and been happy with it. So the thing that I would like to say is like, we are incredibly good in the mobile industry in general of extracting value out of people and giving them absolutely nothing. So we shouldn't be conned into thinking we have to pay the average player like a neurosurgeon just for their time. There are billions of players out there who would be happy with enough money from selling something that they like.
Understanding Player Motivations
It's not about the value of nfTs. They don't give a shit about how much a sappy seal is worth or how much bored ape is worth. They don't give a shit about that. They really care. Is my implant worth $5? If it is, then I can sell it and I don't need it because I have two. Or is my super rare thing that I've got two of? Can I sell the duplicate? And if they want that money, they will use the services that are like the shadow SaaS services that already exist to facilitate these trades and all of this.
Aligning Incentives with Player Needs
So don't be tricked into thinking you have to give out all of your Runway to very few players. Don't be tricked into using incredibly expensive, not good quest platforms. Some of them are around. There are some really fantastic ones that just literally get people to turn up, post a chat, GPT, comment under your twitter and then give them as much money as you have left in the bank. Those are the worst. But really there is value out there for everyone and the incentives need to be aligned with the players you want.
Targeting Ideal Player Profiles
The players you want should want to spend, they should need your token and if they do that they will buy it. And those are the people you want. You don't want to be giving things that people want to sell. The only people who want to sell it are the people who cannot play the game and they won't be able to play the game and enjoy it in the same way. Those are the people that are allowed to sell the tokens because maybe they have an account they enjoy. But that's just my point. I'm sorry for taking it over.
Conclusion and Future Discussions
I really have to run as well, but fantastic space. Thank you so much Matt. Always cooking, man, coming with the hot takes. I love it and I couldn't agree more, man. I'm happy to play for a $2 discount on my Starbucks coffee. I'd be. I'd be thrilled if I'm playing a game I'm enjoying and those are the rewards on the table. You could get me in all day long on that. So that is definitely the shift that we're moving towards again, moving away from people thinking that web three, gaming is going to necessarily replace their job.
Realistic Player Expectations
Unless they're a super talented, skilled tournament player, then they could absolutely do that. And they should shoot for that. But on an average, you know, average player like myself, somebody just trying to kill a little bit of time, I think there's a lot of players out there that be super satisfied with a lot of the points you guys made here in terms of returns. All right, gentlemen, with that being said, I think we're just on the hour here. I want to thank everyone again for joining us on this week's gaming on the edge.
Continuing the Conversation
A lot of quality takes a, I really feel like we needed a three hour space for this one. But we'll circle back around to this incentive topic again on a future space here and would love to have a lot of you guys to come back and chat on it again. For those of you who are new here, you will be receiving an invite coming from Leo who is going to be inviting you guys into our telegram channel and we implore you guys to come hang out there, network amongst each other, share links to your things.
The Importance of Community Engagement
When you guys are launching stuff, share your spaces when your spaces go live. It's a, it's a free space for everybody to gather and you know, just chat and chill and share whatever you guys got going on in the space so we can all stay connected and building together. All right. With that being said, guys, everybody have an amazing day, an amazing evening, wherever you're tuning in from. And we'll see you next week on gaming on the edge.
Encouragement for Participants
You guys go crush it out there.
