Unlocking The Ultimate Gaming Metaverse: Secrets to Success

Moderator: Stefania Barbaglio (CEO, Cassiopeia Services)

Speakers: Robbie Cochrane (Co-founder, ChainGuardians & Cryptoverse), Saro McKenna (Co-founder, Dacoco & Alien Worlds), Robby Yung (CEO of Investments, Animoca Brands), Ian Emerson (Investment Executive, Fabric Ventures)

Summary

Gaming & Metaverse - Are they the same and is the metaverse a game?

• Games are a specific type of experience; the metaverse can facilitate a multitude of experiences.

• The metaverse serves as an infrastructure layer, with games built atop it.

• While current blockchain metaverses overlap significantly with gaming, they can be centered around various activities.

• Essential to the metaverse is peer-to-peer interaction, irrespective of the medium (AR/VR or community platforms).

• Blockchain is foundational for facilitating direct interactions without third-party mediation.

• The metaverse's defining feature is its ability to enable peer-to-peer connections, with blockchain ensuring digital ownership.

Unpacking GameFi - Entertainment or a different type of interaction?

• Gamefi bridges gameplay and decentralized finance (DeFi).

• While web3 games exemplify Gamefi, the concept isn't exclusive to decentralized systems.

• Gamers have historically traded digital items; blockchain enables decentralized, peer-to-peer trades.

• Gamefi represents the convergence of gamification and financialisation.

How do you create engagement from game dynamics?

• Engagement stems from offering compelling experiences that users want to invest time in.

• Decentralized technology has amplified user interest in gaming and metaverse interactions.

• Tokens play a pivotal role in connecting the community with the underlying technology.

• Blockchain facilitates the transparent and immutable representation of ownership, transforming consumers into stakeholders.

• Traditional games, like EVE Online, took years to foster deep community engagement, a process expedited by blockchain.

• Blockchain enhances the capabilities of traditional game economies, offering more transactional possibilities.

How do free-to-play (F2P) and play-to-earn (P2E) play a role in a game’s ecosystem?

• Financial incentives introduced by blockchain have layered meta-games atop core gameplay.

• Financialisation in games doesn't detract from enjoyment; it presents an additional gameplay facet.

• Players engage with games for varied reasons, from competition to financial gains.

• Guilds and collective gameplay have become prominent, with shared objectives and resource competitions.

• Blockchain tools have streamlined and secured in-game financial strategies.

How important is interoperability? Is the interoperability of assets across different worlds difficult?

• The Open Metaverse Alliance aims to address interoperability challenges early on.

• Interoperability can enhance liquidity but faces technical challenges across tech stacks and chains.

• Standards for interoperability should be community-driven and enthusiast-led.

• Asset interoperability is crucial for a consistent digital identity across metaverses.

• Advanced technologies, like zk bridges and AI, are being explored to facilitate seamless asset transfers.

When it comes to creating the ultimate gaming experience and metaverse community, how are you developing Mocaverse to add value to these areas?

• Mocaverse aims to integrate web3 tools within its portfolio companies to leverage the web3 network effect.

• Beyond NFTs, Mocaverse focuses on building a reputation-based identity layer within its community.

What are your views on having an in-game token listed [on an exchange], and what value does that bring the game and its community?

• Digital assets on public chains are immutable and operate on permissionless systems.

• In-game tokens can enhance player engagement and provide a stake in the game's ecosystem.

• Open markets facilitate the efficient transfer of assets no longer in use.

• Tokens can align community incentives but also risk promoting speculative behavior.

• Tokenomics in open economies presents complexities beyond traditional game economies.

• Blockchain's immutability and permissionless nature can foster diverse community interactions.

Takes

Tokens are more than value

The barrier to entry has been lowered. If you want to participate in a game or community, you can buy the associated assets and get involved. Of course, there is the delicate balancing of pay-to-win and game mechanics, but for those with the funds, why not give the option to get involved straight away? Outside of gameplay, this also means participating in ecosystem governance.

With this reduced friction (and, to some extent, commitment as you can sell if you move on to something else), you can be involved in as many communities as you see fit. With the power in the hands of owners, your wallet becomes a melting pot of communities that may have more crossover than you think.

Both Griffin and I are Gnars hodlers, a subDAO of Nouns DAO. In the group of 870ish Nouns, there was a subgroup that wanted to support extreme sports athletes, hence the creation of Gnars. I’m not a member of Nouns, but I was able to get involved through secondary market and Gnars auctions.

Interoperability needs standardization

What is ownership without interoperability? We have been asking this question for some time now, and it looks like the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3) is looking to tackle this head-on.

This section may be a shill for OMA3, but there is a definite need. For interoperability, there are a whole host of considerations to ensure asset utility across different environments. If OMA3 can lock down at least the technical aspects being solved, we stand a much better chance of seeing your favourite assets across metaverses, ecosystems, and applications.

Financialistaion or Fun Shouldn't be a Choice

As a CS case and skin degenerate, I might be biased when it comes to the financialisation of video games, as the Counterstrike skins market seems to not only be the poster child for revenue models in the traditional gaming world, but many web3 aficionados have stated that it's the perfect game to be web3 enabled. Counterstrike is a play-and-earn game, after all!

Robby made many points regarding financialisation throughout the panel, and it's always nice to be reminded that earning money while gaming isn't something limited to web3. Adding another layer of metagame allows a gaming title to have a broader reach than those interested in its core gameplay. It might be controversial, but would the Counterstrike franchise have elevated past the competitive community if it wasn't for skins? I certainly don't think so.

Tokenomics or Player Identity

We all know the feels when a new weapon is introduced into your favorite game, and the meta shifts instantly. Although quoted as nearly impossible during the talk, the ability to create a sustainable token economy for an ecosystem is a tricky feat, with many users and builders burned from the ponzinomics and grind-based games that were copy-pasted throughout the 2021 bull run.

Cosmetics and graphical utility sharing won’t have the same impact as assets required for gameplay, but this opens a whole new market dynamic with value across ecosystems. Even if we can solve the technicals of game interoperability, collaboration between game developers will be vital to ensure the scales don’t tip too far either way. People play games for many reasons, including making money, and with the access to assets and sovereignty that blockchain brings, we see the rise of new player types, such as the whale, which we dove into previously.

Conclusion

The opening of the panel set the scene very well. When many people think of the metaverse, they think of AR or VR experiences—two areas where the rate of adoption is difficult to predict. When you boil it down to peer-to-peer interactions, we start to see how many of the metaverse and the communities we participate in on the daily are not so far apart from each other.

It was refreshing to hear that giants in web3 gaming are fighting for financialisation—a topic regularly demonised in the space and followed up by the based take of “Make fun games.”