First, I love playing video games, not just competitive video games such as Dota/Dota 2 or CS but solo RPGs when I was little such as Fable Quest. The most crucial aspect of a video game isn't monetization but the enjoyability of playing said game. That should always be the primary focus of a game, no matter if it is web3 gaming or not. Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne is one of my all-time favourite video games; the core campaign following Arthas Menethil is one the most remarkable storylines in all gaming. This core campaign was my introduction and is the core gameplay element of Warcraft 3. However, once I could log into Battlenet and join Warcraft 3's online world, I was dropped into a world of custom game lobbies that made Warcraft 3 one of my favourite games. Using Warcraft 3's custom map builder, community-made custom games allowed the community to run wild with ideas, with some of the most prominent MOBA's originating from these custom games themselves (DOTA). Even though Warcraft 3 is meant to be an RTS (real-time strategy) game at its core, the community was able to build so many fascinating mini-games that were completely outside the genre. I remember playing maze-style games that revolved around mainly weaving your character in and out of obstacles ( people may remember games such as Slide Ninja Slide or 100 Rounds), to hide-and-seek games such as Trolls and Elves. A whole ecosystem of video games being built on top of Warcraft 3 deviated so far from the original vision of the game that they would even branch into their own completely separate games (Dota → Dota 2).
This magic of modifications in video games exists outside of just Warcraft 3 but in other genres where modifications of the existing core game spawned some of the biggest titles in gaming. Another example is Counter-Strike being originally a Half-Life mod or Dota 2 Auto Chess, an auto battler game ( I know the roots of the auto battler genre can be traced back to Pokémon; however, Auto Chess seemed to be the spark that started this new wave), would bring in players outside of the MOBA franchise to play this particular custom game, with later LOL even adopting their version (Teamfight Tactics). These mods that are built on top of the core game I believe are something that Web3 could enhance this process in particular, similar to the method of how layer 1s accrue value from the dapps built on top of them. However, the main difference to existing sandbox/metaverse models, such as Sandbox or Decentraland, would be there is a core game that is at the centre, playable and enjoyable on its merit that would act as the initial hook for not only players, but game developers to expand upon. Unlike in the previous scenarios in web2 gaming, where these standalone game modifications become independent with very little ties to the original. In the spirit of blockchains and composability, it would sit as an application on a layer 1; cosmetic/microtransactions in that game would trickle down to the base layer accruing value to the core game.
In Web2, unless the game studio provided early support for these modifications, it would likely end up spinning up into its own individual game. There was friction in providing support since if they weren't playing the base game anymore, it could lead to large amounts of value being extracted the game itself could acquire that. This is where web3 provides a huge benefit; both can work in synergy since both are necessary for the overall ecosystem; the success of the modification will benefit the base game and vice versa.
Thus, web3 games looking to build with this mindset could be able to create a game which inherently appeals to the ethos of crypto.
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