What is the current state of Web3 Gaming?

In this episode of DeFi Podcast, Andy Boyan joins JF Saine & Morrissey to discuss the state of gaming in the blockchain ecosystem.

Read our notes below to learn more.

The Potential of Game-fi

Many traditional games already have in-game purchases.
In crypto gaming, the in-game assets could be sold.
Adoption, building the game, and design are far deeper than deciding the financial aspect of the game.

Game-fi: Gaming or Casino?

Criticism of Game-fi last year was everyone was getting funding and then deciding on what to build.
There are a lot of different types of games that crypto hasn’t gotten involved in yet.
Trading cards like Pokemon cards as NFTs are already in crypto.
There are many different experiences that people like about games that don’t have a number-go-up mechanism.

Future Game Genres in Web3

Traditional gaming companies have marketplaces where many games are sold.
Crypto needs a marketplace like the Playstation marketplace where people can buy and play games on the blockchain.
There will be a lot of room in the future for Indie games (games created by independent game developers).
When hardware manufacturers align with crypto adoption, blockchain gaming will emerge successful.

Web3's Offering Vs. Existing Game Markets

It is still unknown what benefits a marketplace like Steam would get leaving the current system to become blockchain-based.
If the players of the game demand their in-game items to be owned by them on the blockchain, the platforms could be forced to move to blockchain.
Composability is yet to be fully explored in the blockchain gaming space.

Technical Roadblocks in Web3 Gaming

There are some technical limitations but it is about figuring out the best structure that works.
Still difficult to look at the collection of NFTs a wallet holds on OpenSea.

A Web3 Gaming Standard

ERC 5050 token standard allows NFTs to be modified by other NFTs. A spell NFT can be cast on an NFT and change the state of the NFT.
This is the early stages of Web3 Gaming and everyone’s trying to figure out how to build.
Way out questions to sort out before there is a standard in Web3 gaming.

The Current State of Game-fi

Some web3 gaming studios already have communities with tokens and it gets difficult to manage decisions like should the studio focus on number-go-up or should the studio build a fun game.
Game builders are currently building for the whales who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their game.
It is easier to get funding for a game if the game’s idea is well-known in traditional gaming.

Player Ownership Games

One of the challenges is if the game has a token model and ownership of in-game items and if the point of the game is to make money that limits the number of players interested in the game.
Early-stage investors in games will have the same advantage early-day miners of Bitcoin have.

How Did Infinity Keys Come To Exist

Andy got into crypto full-time in 2020 and worked in Chainlink during the middle of DeFi summer.
Andy had an idea of creating treasure hunts, mysteries, and puzzle-related games in crypto and started Infinity Keys when he felt the time was right.
Players could be rewarded with NFTs for completing a game/puzzle.
NFT rewards could be made as a requirement to play another game and that creates composability.

Building Community

Preventing Exploits/Bots

Building a game is complicated as the team has to decide the number of activities people have to do and also decide the difficulty of the game at different levels.
Web3 games can be built to make sure that bots are not exploiting the game.

Final Words