As the gaming industry continues to grow, the way we think about game economies needs to change. That’s according to Immutable co-founder and CEO, Alex McCaw, who says that the current web3 gaming landscape is too focused on speculative economics.
“I think a lot of people in the web3 space are still building towards that hype cycle of getting people in, making a quick buck and then moving on to the next project,” McCaw told The Block in a recent interview.
Instead, McCaw believes that developers should focus on building sustainable gaming economies that last.
“If you want to build something that’s going to have LTV (lifetime value) players, you can’t just be thinking about the now, you have to be thinking about five years down the road,” McCaw said.
To that end, McCaw said that Immutable is working on a number of features for its flagship blockchain game, Gods Unchained, that will help to create a more sustainable economy.
One such feature is a “trading floor” where players can buy and sell in-game items in a safe and secure environment.
“The thinking there is that, if you have a place where people can buy and sell items, it allows for a much more stable economy because people can cash out when they need to,” McCaw explained.
Another feature that Immutable is working on is a system that will allow players to pool their resources in order to buy items that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.
“We’re also working on a ‘community chest’ system where players can pool their resources together to buy items that they wouldn’t be able to afford on their own,” McCaw said.
“The thinking there is that, if you can get a community to self-regulate and manage its own economy, it becomes a lot more sustainable.”
Ultimately, McCaw believes that the key to building sustainable economies in web3 games is to focus on giving players what they want.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about giving players what they want,” McCaw said.
“If you can do that, and you can do it in a way that’s sustainable, then you’re on to something.”
Web3 gaming needs to focus on sustainable economies, Immutable co-founder says
By Jeremy Johnson
The gaming industry has long been a hotbed of technological innovation. From early console systems to the massive online multiplayer games of today, innovation in gaming has often led the way for other industries to follow.
Now, the gaming industry is on the brink of another major shift with the rise of Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 is the next generation of the internet, where users have more control over their data and can interact with decentralized applications (dapps).
This new paradigm presents a major opportunity for gaming, particularly in the area of game economies.
In a recent interview, Immutable co-founder Jacob Horne told me that he believes Web 3.0 gaming needs to focus on sustainable economies.
“One of the key things that I think is missing in Web 2.0 games is that a lot of them have sort of broken economies,” Horne said. “You have things like item selling and gold farming, which create these sort of perverse incentives that are really bad for the players and bad for the game.”
Horne believes that Web 3.0 gaming can address these issues by focusing on sustainable economies.
“I think there’s a real opportunity to create Web 3.0 games with economies that are designed to be sustainable, and that are designed to be good for the players,” he said.
One way to create sustainable game economies is to focus on in-game content creation.
“I think you can have a much more sustainable economy if you have player-created content,” Horne said. “And I think you can have a healthier economy if it’s not just focused on speculation and trading, but is actually focused on creating something of value.”
Another way to create sustainable game economies is to use cryptocurrency or other blockchain-based tokens.
“Using cryptocurrency in games can help to create these sustainable economies, because it can help to align the incentives of the game developers with the players,” Horne said.
And finally, Horne believes that game developers need to focus on creating dynamic and ever-changing game worlds.
“I think one of the things that’s really important for Web 3.0 games is that they have to be constantly changing,” he said. “If you look at a game like EVE Online, it’s been around for 15 years and it’s still going because the game world is constantly changing.”
So, if you’re a game developer, what can you do to create sustainable game economies?
Here are three things to keep in mind:
- Focus on in-game content creation. Player-created content is a great way to keep game economies healthy and sustainable.
- Use cryptocurrency or other blockchain-based tokens. This can help to align the incentives of game developers with the players.
- Keep game worlds dynamic and ever-changing. Dynamic and ever-changing game worlds are more likely to keep players engaged over the long term.