Why Web3 Games Need Strong Communities to Succeed

This article was written by Cryptopia's Philippine Ambassador Joey Alarilla – a Palanca Award-winning writer and founder of the online publication DigitalLifeAsia.net. Joey is a strong advocate for using blockchain technology for good and is active in the Web3 community. He has a long history in the tech industry and can be found on Twitter —> @joeyalarilla.

Whenever I talk to traditional game developers who are trying to make the leap to web3 game development, one of the things they emphasize is culture shock.

The traditional model is to focus on developing their game, and then build a community around it once it’s finished. Much to their bewilderment, however, in web3 you must build your community first and gather support, before you even launch your game.

Making games is already hard in the first place, but now traditional game developers who wish to transition into blockchain gaming need to master new technology and skill sets. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have web3 companies that are blockchain-savvy and want to create their own games, but lack the game development background and skills.

For both camps, however, one X factor makes web3 gaming truly complicated and disruptive: community.

“‘If you make a mistake, they’ll come after you. But if you’re honest, and you come there, and show them it’s an honest mistake and forgive us, they will actually listen and rally around you. But the key thing with web3 is that there’s still no loyalty. People jump from project to project very, very quickly, and it’s up to us now to kind of build that [loyalty], both online and offline, since we’re now living in a post-pandemic world, and that’s one key thing that we see,’ he said.”

“Blockchain games flip the script on traditional gaming by prioritizing player value creation, doing so by leveraging blockchain technology — predominantly in the form of non fungible tokens (NFTs).

“An NFT is a tokenized, digitally secured claim of ownership for a unique, non-interchangeable digital asset. NFTs have a wide case use in virtual gaming worlds, be it as characters, items, virtual plots of land and even digital clothing for avatars.

“Thanks to the immutability, and veracity of blockchains, every tokenized in-game item acquired really can belong to the players themselves. In blockchain gaming, users do not have to rely on the permissions or rules of game publishers and creators, and any NFT’s they own can be sold freely on secondary marketplaces both inside and outside of the game.”

In a very real sense, community is the lifeblood of web3. The success or failure of a web3 game is not solely dependent on cutting-edge technology and engaging gameplay, but also – and perhaps more so – the loyalty of the community that it has built.

Some brands may have gotten away with just paying lip service to community in web2, but this will no longer fly in web3.

In the age of decentralization🥚, communities are the ones who will decide which web3 project to support, shaping the development and ultimate destiny of a game, NFT collection, and other digital assets.

In Cryptopia, content is created not for the sake of creating content, but to encourage the kind of behavior that will make the community grow and attract more people to play the game.

In turn, the community co-creates Cryptopia content, in the form of user-generated content, participation in events and contests, and discussions on social media and other channels.

Moreover, apart from content and community, Cryptopia also makes use of a third C as an ingredient for success: collaboration.

“Partnerships and collaborations, from Twitter Megaspaces, to Discord Stages to even cross posting of tweets and whitelist partnerships, help projects expose themselves to already existing communities. When exposed to already existing communities, projects in turn, are also able to absorb fans from said community who may also be interested in the partner project.”

At the end of the day, Cryptopia is so committed to the community that once the game is completed, it will be turned over completely to the players. Since it's built entirely on the blockchain, Cryptopia embraces the web3 ethos of decentralization, and has no servers that can be shut down.