Lars Rensing is CEO of web3 solution provider Protokol.
The excitement around web3 gaming has sharply risen over the last few years – it’s been 7 years since CryptoKitties was released, and the popularity of web3 gaming has ballooned since. By 2022, it accounted for at least half of all blockchain usage.
Many businesses have aimed to capitalise on this trend, by introducing games and concepts like play-to-earn – pioneered by Axie Infinity – a model which involves players receiving tokens for participation, as well as contributing to the ecosystem. A lot of parties are investing heavily in the space and there is a lot of potential for it to go far. However, there are some hurdles that need to be overcome for the full potential of web3 gaming to be unlocked, and the most pertinent point to the fact that web3 has a reputation issue to tackle.
Prioritising the most important gaming feature – the player
One of the biggest criticisms is of the user experience web3 gaming currently offers. Many have criticised the games being placed on the market saying they are low quality compared with traditional web2 games. Some in the industry blame web3 games developers of ‘running before they can walk’ and not giving gameplay the proper thought or consideration, or businesses trying to ‘capitalise’ on the hype by pushing games into the market quickly.
For example, many developers a few years ago saw the potential for play-to-earn, and released their own games into the market, however in focusing mainly on offering crypto incentives to players, they lost sight of the fact that their audience is essentially a group of people who are first-and-foremost gaming enthusiasts, and passionate about the gaming experience. The retention of loyal users has unfortunately suffered because of this.
In doing this, they also alienated a huge potential audience and revenue stream in the form of the traditional web2 gamer. There still remains skepticism amongst this traditional gaming audience. A recent Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) report revealed that over half of respondents cite onboarding as the main issue impacting the industry, 70% have pointed to the pervasive misconception of blockchain gaming as a scam, while approximately 35% indicate user acquisition as a pressing challenge.
Web3 companies need to prioritise enhancing the user experience, and not treat gaming mainly as a mechanism for monetisation. By making web3 gameplay a bigger priority and focusing on creating narrative-rich and engaging games that can truly compete with web2 games developers can begin to overcome these issues. There are understandably challenges around this – otherwise it’s something that surely would have been solved a long time ago.
Many have discussed the difficulty of managing a web3 game in the market, explaining that because of the real-world value of items in a web3 game, if something in the game is wrong, you can’t just fix or reset it like you would in a web2 game, meaning you can’t be as agile and need to be really careful at development stages. However if developers are on the road to solving this, they will be able to retain and attract the gaming community far better.
Breaking down barriers for web2 users
Making the integration of web3 technology smoother is a much more straightforward journey that game developers can act on today to enhance the gaming experience without compromising on the experience of gameplay. One of the places developers should start specifically is breaking down the barriers to entry for traditional web2 users. Onboarding needs to be made much smoother for this audience, so they don’t change their minds in the presence of any friction.
Enabling multi-wallet and multi-currency support provides users with the freedom to use their preferred wallets, and the choice also provides them the ability to choose wallets and currencies that limit transaction fees.
Furthermore, entry into play-to-earn games can sometimes carry a significant cost, especially if it requires an NFT asset to enable gameplay. For traditional gamers who haven’t considered web3 games before, this might feel like a risky step to take if they are still exploring.
While the opportunity for web3 game developers is huge, this opportunity will only be released with careful consideration for the audience it serves. To overcome the reputation issue currently causing waves, prioritising user experience must be key from now on – from game design to how users engage with the functionality for P2E. The developers who think user-first will yield the best rewards long term.
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