The Financialization of Fun: Crypto Gaming Thesis

So the question for crypto gaming is: how to create a game that is fun to play, rewards gamers for their hard work, and generates enough revenue to fund continued development? 

Immediately upon entering the Web3 rabbit hole, one realizes that it’s hard to talk about crypto without also talking about gaming — specifically a highly financialized form of “gamification” revolving around microtransactions and “play-to-earn” (P2E) incentive design, whereby players win real tokens with real financial value for specific behaviors... See more

Crypto gaming and play-to-earn is a misnomer. “True” gameplay is expenditure of time by the player for sacred entertainment value, not secular economic value. That sacred value can later be monetized, but by being financially motivated first, the atomic value swap of the “game” is polluted and becomes more akin to Mechanical Turk than gameplay. To ... See more

More fundamentally, if money is the end point, is it truly a game or just a gamified micro-economy where “farming crypto” is a core game mechanic?

The proliferation of crypto guilds, communities and esports leagues around these earn-first games are evidence that earning opportunities are key to these games. Guilds like YGG and Merit Circle (which just raised $100m+) only exist and are trading at large premiums because of the earning opportunities that are offered within the earn-first games t... See more