5 Big Themes That Will Define Web3 Gaming in 2024
Yield Guild Games (YGG) has just wrapped up the YGG Web3 Games Summit (W3GS) — an exhilarating week of game demos, epic announcements, a high-stakes tournament, an innovative Game Jam, countless unforgettable moments onstage, and so much more. The energy at W3GS was electric, with community members eager to reconvene IRL at the epicenter of web3 gaming adoption, the Philippines, and hear industry leaders share why they believe that the future of gaming has already begun.
Over the years, YGG has remained at the forefront of the web3 gaming space, where new trends and narratives are constantly emerging. On Day 1 of the two-day conference at W3GS, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon shared his thoughts on the five big themes he believes will make a huge impact on web3 gaming in 2024 and beyond.
Theme #1: The Future of Gaming Is Now
Three years ago, there were very few web3 games for players to discover and explore. In 2023, more than 40 playable web3 games were exhibited at the YGG Web3 Games Summit with over 5,300 gamers who came through the door at the event and thousands more who joined online.
During his fireside chat, Gabby referenced an article by BitPinas, the Philippines’ leading crypto and blockchain news publication, that listed eight fun web3 game titles that are all playable now. With many web3 games now incorporating a free-to-play (F2P) model with blockchain elements, games like Ragnarok Landverse, Mighty Action Heroes, Anito Legends, Axie Infinity: Origins, Pixelmon, PROJECT XENO, Parallel and MetaCene, are lowering the barriers for players to get started as they prioritize user experience and easy onboarding.
A lot of funding flowed into web3 games at the height of the 2021 bull market, and now, after two years of development, these web3 games are launching and demonstrating that they are fun, accessible and appealing to a broader audience beyond web3 natives.
“We do want the games to be fun,” said Gabby. “We want them to be very accessible to normal gamers. And then when they get deeper, that’s when we introduce the web3 elements.”
Theme #2: Guilds 2.0
Web3 gaming guilds have evolved to deliver more tailored experiences for their members, with each guild honing its offering around a specific focus. The core objective is still similar across most web3 guilds — enabling players to find their community and achieve their personal goals, to level up in the open Metaverse.
Inside YGG, specialized guilds demonstrate the diversity of the communities within the ecosystem. One example is the Sando Metaverse. Spearheaded by YGG GAP Ambassador Kookoo, Sando Metaverse has earned a strong reputation for its members’ excellence in moderating Discord servers and onboarding new players into web3 gaming. Another notable YGG sub-guild is The Guildhouse, which has consistently ranked top of the leaderboard for games including Big Time, EV.io and Castle Crush.
Other YGG-partnered guilds, such as Rome, a guild focused on the space exploration and strategy game, Star Atlas, as well as Wardens, a guild outside YGG that is a collective of professional gamers, content creators and web3 leaders co-led by global KOL, yellowpanther, show how guilds are finding their strengths and establishing their unique identities within the broader web3 community.
“What is a guild but a collection of players who are doing something together?” Gabby emphasized. “I don’t think that concept will ever really leave. People want to get together and play games. I think guilds will be here to stay.”
Theme #3: Web3 Quests as User Acquisition
Traditional user acquisition (UA) strategies follow a top of the funnel approach to put a game in front of a very wide audience that includes anyone who could possibly be interested in playing a game, by utilizing advertisements on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch.
In web3, a bottom of the funnel approach has emerged to put games in front of a much more targeted audience of known gamers, who possess the requisite attributes as well as skills and achievements that are all verifiable on-chain, to demonstrate that the player would be well-suited to the style and requirements of the game, and more likely to become a fan — rather than downloading and playing only once. One way that players can build their on-chain reputation is by completing web3-native quests.
“Quests are now the bedrock of user acquisition for web3,” Gabby said during his fireside chat. In YGG’s own questing solutions, the Guild Advancement Program (GAP) and also Superquests, players discover and learn about web3 games while acquiring and developing skills for participation in web3. With 6,184 YGG account sign-ups in GAP Season 4 and the first Superquests campaign onboarding 4,322 players into Axie Infinity: Origins, YGG is defining web3-native UA with a focus on bottom of the funnel targeting to convert highly engaged, skilled players.
Moving away from purely token-based incentives, web3 games are now leaning toward systems like YGG’s Reputation and Progression (RAP), which offers participants the opportunity to build their web3 reputation based on their on-chain achievements, all without revealing personal user data.
“Having all of these different reputational programs means that I, as a web3 community member, can be part of a DAO, part of a game, do a quest, and build my reputation,” Gabby explained. “And having these on-chain can actually triangulate who I am and what I’ve done with the achievements that I choose to share. And, importantly, this doesn’t mean that I have to give up what my real name is or what country I’m from. So it’s really building up my on-chain reputation — which the user owns, which is very important,” he added.
Theme #4: Esports and Content Creators in Web3
Esports has emulated much of the traditional sports industry, including its cost model. Unfortunately, this approach has not been easy to maintain. “I think web2 esports is having a kind of winter right now,” said Gabby. “There’s a lot of money that has poured in, and it hasn’t been very sustainable. And now, people are searching for a new business model.”
Rather than big arenas or expensive paid partnerships, web3 esports is about aligning incentives with the community, and giving the community ownership early on, so that the true believers can grow with the game. Gabby emphasized building esports communities from the grassroots level, with YGG prioritizing support for smaller content creators so they can share in the upside of the games and communities whose growth they are driving.
The shift from token rewards to a more novel engagement model also prioritizes long-term commitment and meaningful contributions over grinding. Dedicated contributors receive rewards over an extended period of time, aligning their success with the game ecosystem’s overall trajectory.
Esports media house MetaSports, backed by guild and game infrastructure BlockchainSpace, serves as a prime example as they collaborate with both established and rising content creators, including yellowpanther and Kookoo, as well as with brands, communities and DAOs like the esports-focused Paladins DAO. These collaborations foster a competitive but welcoming community aimed at any gamer willing to participate in the next wave of gaming.
“I’m a big fan of grassroots, community-based tournaments,” said Gabby. “Let’s see if players really like the game. Let’s see if the game is viable for esports. Then, in the long term, let’s have a program where the game is partnered with different organizations to grow the sport. I think we’re starting to see the beginnings of that, and we’re hoping to participate and also stage a lot of these tournaments in the near future.”
Theme #5: AI NFTs and ERC-6551
Gabby also pointed to new technical standards such as ERC-6551 that are pushing boundaries in web3 game development. With ERC-6551, also known as Token Bound Accounts, NFTs are able to own other NFTs, so that an NFT can act as a wallet with the ability to transact. Coupled with AI, ERC-6551 NFTs can be directed to gather other NFTs, tokens, and other resources within a game, among other possibilities.
This kind of experimentation can lead to the creation of entirely new gaming genres. Spacebar, a fully on-chain game exploring web3 identity applications, as well as the upcoming sci-fi game, Parallel Colony, are two examples of games leveraging both ERC-6551 and AI elements to enable new experiences, such as AI characters with their own NFT wallets that can interact and even transact with other human and non-human players.
“There’s also different ways that we are looking to take advantage of Token Bound Accounts,” said Gabby. “We want people to be able to register guilds and then have their own guild badge. That guild badge can have its own wallet. And now we can do quests and then earn reputation and rewards as guilds instead of individuals. That’s something that we’re looking to do sometime next year.”
The Philippines Will Remain the Epicenter
To close the fireside, Leah asked Gabby, “What region in the world do you think will lead the way in terms of web3 gaming adoption?”
“You have a lot of good developers from all over the world, but it seems like, for the next two years at least, the go-to-market will still be in Asia,” Gabby answered. “All of these games are launching first in Southeast Asia, but the country that leads in terms of web3 gaming adoption is still the Philippines. So for the people who are here — you’re seeing the future of games in real time brought to you by the best developers around the world. Thank you!”
W3GS has served as a gateway to the future, with Gabby’s vision setting industry expectations for the months to follow. YGG has been building nonstop through the winter, and as the market begins to heat up, the guild has never been more prepared to show the world the fruits of its hard work.
Visit YGG’s Facebook page to watch Gabby’s fireside chat at W3GS, along with other recordings from the event.
Follow YGG on X and Discord for real-time updates on guilds and web3 gaming.
