Crypto Gaming Will Bring 100 Million People Into Web3

Gaming hype shouldn’t be dismissed as the unheralded catalyst for Web3 adoption

Troubled times and consumer adoption

Let it not be said that I’m always writing about the bad and taking the piss on the crypto industry. I work in gaming, and we want to use blockchain and crypto, so we have to accept that we are part of that industry.

So as I start on a title like “100 million people into Web3” I’m actually not trying to put random numbers out there. 100 million, relative to the number of gamers out there (billions), isn’t a pipe dream, is it?

Some context first.

As the crypto market is still experiencing a troublesome downtrend, many cryptopreneurs decided it was time to lay low during the incoming crypto winter.

Hard times have never been a good period to take on bold business-related moves. However, not everyone shares that opinion.

Sometimes it might not be wise to just wait for the storm to pass. A similar opinion was recently expressed by Michael Anderson, the co-founder of Framework Ventures. It was a sentiment that spread over the internet rapidly. Anderson stated that, on the contrary, this might be the best time to invest in new projects and start-ups, specifically in crypto gaming and Web3 projects. He explained it by stating that gaming is the number one category that is going to bring at least 100 million people into Web3.

While the crypto market is suffering, the gaming industry is checking out the blockchain technology and novel monetization possibilities it brings to the table. Blockchain presents a new and interesting platform to build on, and according to some, the only platform for gaming in the future.

The power of consumer adoption

The main point of Anderson’s statement can be traced to the force known as consumer adoption. As a term used in relation to marketing strategies, consumer adoption is basically a process by which consumers adapt their purchasing patterns in relation to new products or services. For example, a company launches a new product or service as an alternative to the existing ones, and people start to purchase and use it as soon as it hits the market. That’s consumer adoption indeed.

If we dig deeper into the economic sphere, we may find out that there are five stages of consumer adoption that end up with the adoption stage when users change their behavioral patterns in response to changes in external conditions.

Back in 1962, Everett Rogers postulated the diffusion of innovation theory by explaining how a particular product spreads roots in society through divergent components of the general population. Starting slowly with early adopters and innovators, a true minority of the population, it gains traction and spreads exponentially to the early majority followed by the late majority, and finally, finds the way to the last group characterized by its resistance to change. When talking about blockchain and consumer adoption, many believe that we are now in the early majority stage of growth. While the NFT hype has attracted many customers who wanted to find new monetization opportunities and revenue streams, there is no doubt that the gaming industry played a huge part in blockchain’s consumer adoption and that it will continue to play that role when it comes to the massive adoption of Web3.

The blockchain gaming alliance during the crypto winter

The gaming industry has been associated with the crypto community and blockchain tech for a while now. With the increased usage of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, many predict that the partnership will become even more connected in the upcoming year. As gaming platforms grow, they are compelled to seek and incorporate technological innovations and provide their consumers with more options.

That is to say, the widespread gaming industry has proven to be a top ally for the incorporation of blockchain technology. Even though the blockchain gaming market is still relatively small in relation to consumer adoption, a number of broad players on the gaming scene such as Ubisoft, have begun stepping into the blockchain gaming territory. Currently, the total gaming market is expected to grow $218 billion by 2023, along with Newzoo’s forecast that 77% of 2023 spending amount will be on in-game assets and the global market of gamers surpassing the 3 billion mark. The broad user base of the gaming industry could lead to the massive adoption of other tech advancements such as Web3. Just as Anderson predicted.

When talking specifically about blockchain gaming, it is obviously filled with some obstacles standing in the way of massive consumer adoption. However, blockchain technology is reconstructing the gaming industry by providing new layers of security, digital ownership, decentralization, and most importantly, a direct line of open communication between developers and gamers. Might that be just enough to pass relatively unscathed through the crypto winter?

The way I believe: Community-driven adoption

Talking to my colleagues at Cradles, I find that we all strongly believe that blockchain is giving a new definition to the gaming industry. Unlike traditional video games, namely pay-to-play games that include a central authority, blockchain games enable players to own in-game assets in a decentralized environment and to play the game securely.

While we agree that the success of a product or service is intertwined with large consumer adoption, our governance system and in-game economy have been slowly constructed around a community-driven approach. Unlike traditional video games, crypto games are established even before the birth of the game, providing community users with a voice in the entire process of creating the game. A strong community is the cornerstone of any blockchain-based game.

During our recent pre-alpha, we felt that the interest and active response from our community of Cradians, which included a whole lot of new members from existing gamer communities and guilds, only provided more evidence that community must be at the centre of our game. While others pay for testers, we had volunteers spend hours delving into Cradles, coming back to Discord to provide real-time feedback on bugs and other problems, transparently for everyone to see. We changed the design and even mechanics on a rolling basis, understanding that the experience is better when feedback from gamers improves it.

You probably wonder: what do we say we are giving back to our community?

If we want to get technical, then I point to what we call a Flatten and Income Rise Governance (FAIR-G)scheme that we hope enables community members to participate in the creation of the gaming environment, along with allowing community players to master the rules and methods which may increase profits. Further, our plan is to create an efficient influencer platform, meaning that anyone can offer game content to the game, and if approved, receive game content profit that would be distributed properly.

Founded strictly on the community concept, I hope players, developers, and designers will join our virtual space to add their own genuine touch to the game. We believe that our community-driven approach will lead to more uptaken and will help in the adoption of other technological advancements such as the Web3. Blockchain has already revolutionized the gaming industry, and there is no doubt that blockchain-based gaming will open the doors for new endeavours as our community grows.