YGG at TOKEN2049: Gearing Up For The Future of Work

Yield Guild Games
Yield Guild Games
Published in
6 min readSep 27, 2024

Yield Guild Games (YGG) wrapped an eventful week at TOKEN2049 Singapore, one of the most important web3 conferences of the year. TOKEN2049 gave builders and leaders from all across the world the opportunity to share their latest projects and discuss the direction of the industry.

YGG’s lineup of events throughout TOKEN2049 drew some of web3’s biggest names, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Axie Infinity and Ronin Network co-founder Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin, web3 gaming content creator Sam Steffanina, Parallel co-founders Kalos and Kohji Nagata, The Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget, and more, all joining YGG’s founding team at panels and mixers over the week.

Web3 Transitions Summit

Gabby delivered the opening address at the Web3 Transitions Summit co-organized by YGG, LongHash Ventures, and web3 infrastructure provider Kakarot. He joined LongHash co-founder and Managing Partner Emma Cui onstage welcoming attendees to the event and took the opportunity to introduce YGG’s new Future of Work program which seeks to uncover gamified learning and earning opportunities for the YGG community in AI, DePIN and other emerging technologies.

Later, Gabby spoke on the panel “Next Gen Apps: Catalysts for Mass Crypto Adoption,” with Ray Chan, CEO and co-founder of the web3-focused venture studio Memeland, and Calvin Chu, core builder of DeFi platform Impossible Finance. The group explored the social elements of web3 including the idea of memes as a universal language, the perils of community building, and how to identify a loyal community member versus a speculator.

“The large internet companies have lost the human element, reducing us to data points,” Gabby said during the panel, explaining how a lack of digital property rights renders web2 users powerless in the internet economy. “YGG brings that back through our active community.”

The Web3 Transitions Summit was filled with high-level insights on the industry, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin taking the stage to discuss the need for web3 to be able to deliver on its promise to trustlessly verify humanity.

With the launch its Future of Work program, YGG unveiled how it plans to unlock new economic opportunities for the community. During Season 6 of the Guild Advancement Program (GAP), questers had the chance to help train AI models and refine data sets through gamified experiences.

YGG’s Future of Work booth featured a series of video case studies featuring it’s key partners, including the web3-native data platform Navigate, the AI data labeling provider Sapien, the micro-task app Synesis One, and the AI robotics company FrodoBots. Frodobots also had one of their physical robots at the Web3 Transitions Summit, giving attendees a chance to test drive their teleoperated “Earth Rover.”

YGG co-founder Beryl Li joined the Milken Asia Summit, where she spoke alongside Jeff Chau, Global Esports Director for gaming lifestyle brand Razer, Brett Krause, Managing Director for gaming venture fund Transcend, Maureen Fan, CEO and co-founder of digital animation studio Baobab Studios, and Gregory Milken, Managing Director for the gaming-focused venture fund 1AM Gaming. During the panel titled “AI-Powered Gaming: Redefining the Global Landscape,” the group honed in on different ways that AI stands to impact the gaming industry and beyond.

Beryl used this platform to contextualize YGG’s Future of Work within the broader gaming landscape. She commented that in light of growing concerns about AI making millions of jobs redundant in the coming years, the technology also has the power to create millions more as industries continue to adopt it.

“There has always been fear that AI might take away jobs. But in our case within YGG, I really believe that there’s going to be a shift, with tasks,” said Beryl at the Milken Asia Summit. “What we want to do is really gamify the experience of sorting out data, labeling data, and providing people this experience to upskill themselves.”

Beryl also represented YGG’s ongoing mission of empowering guilds all over the world at the Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance event INNOBLOCK 2024. She spoke on the panel “Transformation of Gaming Guilds,” joining BBS core team member Louis, Avocado DAO co-founder Brendino, Ancient8 core contributor Zane Nguyen, and Zentry co-founder Kit.

Web3 Gaming’s Continued Surge

YGG and Ronin Network also came together to co-host the Ronin After Hours: Founders Forge Night. Ronin provided a major update on the progress of Ronin Forge, a platform designed to make it easier for game developers to build and launch new titles on the network. Eight new games were unveiled to be coming onto Ronin, including the web3 MMO Cambria, the mobile MMO Pixel Heroes Adventure, the Telegram-based pet sim Kuroro Ranch, battle royale Party Icons, third-person shooter Battle Xtreme, and the browser-based creature battler Infomon.

At the Double XP Gaming Night, co-hosted by the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) and PlayToEarn.com, Gabby joined the panel “Web3 Gaming Success: Activation & Retention Tactics.”

Moderated by Flavien Defraire of the BGA, Gabby spoke alongside The Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget, Ava Labs Head of Asia Justin Kim, and Coliseum CEO Thomas Zaepffel discussed different methods of fostering player retention in web3 games. On the topic of tokenization, Gabby said that tokens give founders special powers, like casting magic spells — which can create something magical or backfire.

YGG also sponsored the Uplink event powered by Echelon Prime, where the Parallel TCG team invited Gabby and other web3 gaming experts to discuss how web3 is revolutionizing in-game economies.

On the panel “Leveling the Field: Web3’s Realignment of Gaming Economics,” Gabby spoke with leading web3 gaming content creator Sam Steffanina, Sky Mavis co-founder Jihoz, and Parallel co-founder Kohji Nagata. The group weighed in on how Parallel and other leading web3 gaming titles approach user acquisition and build out their in-game economies.

“Now there’s a lot of games that have evolved, there’s a lot of things that you can do. You can be a content creator, you can be in esports, you can be a UGC creator,” Gabby said during the panel. “You have to give the communities and the guilds tools that they get to work with. The core principle of people congregating together to achieve a goal larger than they could do themselves like that will never go away.”

Given Parallel’s popularity in the competitive scene, YGG Esports represented in full force. Star player Sequinox, Captain Disi, and others on the YGG Esports team all caught Parallel co-founder Kalos’ live reveal of the IP’s next big project: the third-person shooter Project Tau Ceti.

The Community Comes Together

YGG’s time at TOKEN2049 came to a close with the Sapien x YGG Happy Hour, where the YGG community spent some much-needed time unwinding after a long week. Community pillars from YGG Global and YGG Pilipinas were all in attendance, mingling with the web3 gaming community in Singapore.

Members of the YGG team flew into Singapore including Head of Community Operations Sam Cruz, YGG Pilipinas Country Head Mench Dizon, Future of Work Head Trish Rosal, YGG Community Marketing Lead John Sedano, Web3 Metaversity Co-Lead Bianca Cruz, YGG Social Media Manager Stephy, Head of YGG Game Testers Program Mae-zing, Web3 Metaversity Product Manager Jenna Ilao, and more.

The happy hour also welcomed Axie Infinity Superquests mentor and Sando founder Kookoo, recent YGG Esports recruit Syl, YGG Head of Guilds Kyroh, YGG Game Testers Program Quest Master BOKUNOGATARI, YGG Esports Social Media Manager Big Gabbie, YGG Esports Talent Manager Excelsor and KOLs Miccolo, Ruth, capping off the week with a relaxing evening with new and old friends.

Building off of a very productive week at TOKEN2049, the YGG team and the wider web3 gaming community are preparing for the upcoming YGG Play Summit in Manila, Philippines, this November 2024.

Pre-order your YGG Play Summit tickets now.

Join the YGG Discord or follow YGG on X for future updates.

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Yield Guild Games
Yield Guild Games

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a web3 gaming guild where players can enrich themselves as they find their community, discover games and level up together.