TLDR: Web3 has extreme messaging, misleading economic features, and bad games. To solve this, tone down the messaging and make it positive, focus on the gameplay and story, and finally… make actually good games.
Web2 gamers think web3 is stupid because web3 gaming studios/platforms use exaggerated claims to try and convince people to play their games based on everything except good gameplay. I myself do believe in the web3 vision, but at the same time I do not drink the Kool-Aid on web3 and have a balanced view on web2 vs web3. In this article, I attempt to first call out some nonsense from the web3 side and convert it into language that web2 gamers won’t find repulsive. I think that once explained properly, web2 gamers will much appreciate the web3 features in their beloved virtual worlds.
First let’s point out the biggest, most obvious thing that web2 gamers will point out about web3: there are no good web3 games. I will come back to this point throughout this article because it’s honestly the biggest point out there. All of the aspirations of web3 gaming mean nothing if the games are bad. What web2 gamers want are compelling, immersive worlds and adventures, not some AI-art turn-based card game that is actually thin veil for a marketplace that only crypto-natives understand. Truly sit there and compare what has been released in web2 vs web3 in terms of immersive storylines and gameplay - it isn’t even worth mentioning the web3 games the divide is so wide.
At this point you may think I hate web3, but I don’t! The concept of owning your items and being able to trade them is truly interesting, but I don’t think your average user will earn more than $1 a day playing. The concept of an evolving NFT profile picture that links to your character in-game with achievement-based backgrounds and borders is amazing, but I don’t think people will be paying thousands of dollars for them as a norm. In-game guilds that take on DAO concepts and pay out for guild-based activities is an incredible step up for in-game player management, but allowing players to take over creative control of the game with DAO-based votes might be taking it too far. People pay others to be creative! My overall point is to tone down the messaging from “I’m saving the world with web3!” to “Web3 has some really awesome features that can add to the intensity of storytelling!”.
Let me give some concrete examples:
Don’t: The web2 ecosystem is unsustainable and gamers need web3 if they want gaming to exist in the future.
Do: Gaming has boomed over the past few centuries like no other industry and we feel like we’re ready to open the gaming industry to new economic models that will continue this growth in the decades to come.
Thoughts: Web2 doesn’t need web3 - see the chart below. I’ve actually heard and read this sentiment from web3 before, so I’m not exaggerating here. When web3 game studios and platforms speak like this, they’re wrong and sound extremely out of touch. Instead of saying you need web3 and will die without web3, take the VR approach that says we have something special that we think you’ll love!
Don’t: Web3 enables people to earn a living by playing games!
Do: Web3 enables the potential to recoup your subscription or battle pass cost if you play well and are intelligent with your earnings.
Thoughts: Yes, many people in the Philippines earned a legit living by playing Axie Infinity in its prime, but that is not what it’s going to be like for most gamers. Especially if you’re talking to US gamers. Gamers playing in countries with strong currency values shouldn’t expect to earn more than a dollar a day. They’re playing a game to have fun, not work. Game studios want players to spend more money - that won’t change with web3. Web3 will give gamers the ability to earn more money, but they are probably in the top 5% of gamers in their servers - think streamers, esports, and modders. So by attempting to sell your average web2 player with the fantasy that they can make a living playing games is basically lying to them… something they’ve come to expect from web3 unfortunately.
Now where I think web3 should pivot their messaging to is the creators of web2 - streamers, modders, and community builders. This is where web3 truly has potential to shine in my eyes, not the end users who want to just play, but those who want to make a living in the gaming ecosystem. These are the people adding direct value to the ecosystem by bringing eyes to the game, enhancing the core game with mods that players couldn’t live without, and people who build community events and tournaments.
Don’t: Web2 games have been ripping you off because they don’t allow you to own your game assets - you can’t do anything with them besides rent the ability to use them!
Do: For all the skins you earn in-game, you are able to reuse them in many ways that weren’t before. For example, many web3 websites allow you to integrate NFTs as profile pictures. Let’s say you earn Platinum rank in a game, that achievement would be automatically linked to every website that you are connected to.
Thoughts: Ownership is cool, but not as revolutionary as you think. Keep this as a feature, but don’t sound so extreme with the messaging. Now that I’ve rabbit-holed into crypto for a few months, I do feel less incentive to play World of Warcraft knowing that I won’t be able to keep cool weapons and armor in my wallet. I think once players taste this aspect of the web3, they will genuinely “get it” and won’t want to go back. But again, the extreme messaging is super off-putting to gamers, so even if web3 is better, they won’t want to hear it.
Don’t: Magic Kingdoms is a fully-onchain game with a token that you can make real money world with in addition to selling your in-game assets on 3rd party marketplaces.
Do: Magic Kingdoms is a MMO set in the dark-fantasy world of Hystericc where the chosen champions engage in 50-person raids, open-world pvp, and have player housing.
Thoughts: Stop advertising web3. This is the equivalent to marketing technical aspects of web2 games like internet, microtransactions, and friends lists. All of those things are expected and are not interesting gameplay themselves. So when web3 games advertise NFT in-game assets, the gamers don’t care. Again, web3 is missing the point: gamers want to play incredible games; they don’t care about the underlying technology.
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