How to pick a crypto gaming token winner this bull run: Web3 Gamer
2024.12.10 11:10
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Ape into gaming ecosystem cryptos not ‘single-player games’ tokens — YGG exec
Crypto traders looking to make smarter bets on gaming tokens should go for ones tied to entire ecosystems, not just individual games, says Yield Guild Games corporate development and finance manager Serge-Raymond Nzabandora.
“These single-player games with token launches, I think, are more likely to be forgotten, right? Compared to the likes of the Ronins of the world and the Immutables of the world, you want to look at ecosystem players,” he tells Web3 Gamer.
Ronin Network and Immutable Games are blockchain gaming platforms designed to support developers building games with player-owned economies.
Nzabandora says both are “able to sustain these higher market caps by having new content which is original.” Immutable (IMX) has a market cap of $3.48 billion, while Ronin (RON) stands at $848.38 million, according to CoinMarketCap data.
“Whether Ronins or Axies makes a return or not, it still has Pixels, right,” he says.
Pixel is a laid-back adventure game that has become one of the largest Web3 games by daily active user count. In May it crossed 1 million daily active users.
Nzabandora sees the AI memecoin surge as a sign of growing interest in narratives, which could lead to a “bigger push for gaming” as a narrative.
He believes the current cycle will play out differently, as the “market is a lot smarter than the previous market.” That said, funds and attention are now split across a lot of different tokens.
“The amount of liquidity, the increase hasn’t been commensurate with the increase of tokens, and therefore the mindshare’s split massively right,” he says.
“I think those who necessarily pick blindly, without much of a sense of the underlying tokenomics…will see red.”
Alliestrasza claims Web2 peers think she’s ‘doing something nefarious’
Popular Web3 gaming commentator and content creator Alliestrasza made the leap from traditional Web2 gaming content just over a year ago — and it still doesn’t sit right with her former colleagues.
“My peers from Web2 keep thinking that I am doing something nefarious by supporting crypto and blockchain games,” she told Web3 Gamer at the recent YGG Play Summit in the Philippines.
The YGG Play Summit in the Philippines. (Alliestrasza)
“There have been a lot of scams in the space, so their impression of it isn’t great if you don’t take the time to look at the projects that are building good stuff,” says the 31-year-old gamer from Los Angeles.
Alliestrasza switched because she wanted to be rewarded for all the time and money she invested in gaming.
“I have put thousands of dollars [into games] that I can never extract,” she told Game7 DAO back in April 2023 to explain making the leap.
Now she’s getting rewarded for playing games, unlike her Web2 gamer friends who are basically volunteering to spruik for multibillion-dollar corporations — and she’s pulling in tons of views on her content, too.
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As an ambassador for the sci-fi card game Parallel, she’s built a solid online following with over 113,000 YouTube subscribers, more than 16.5 million views across her videos, and 235,000 Twitch followers, all by making entertaining and educational gaming content.
Alliestrasza prefers making content to competing in gaming tournaments, even though she has competed at a high level.
“I do still enjoy competing, and I did it a lot in Hearthstone, but I think that I’ve come to the realization that the thing I love most is entertaining and connecting with people,” she adds.
“You get to be on camera connecting with people, and I think that’s honestly more where I shine,” she says.
Alliestrasza says that commentating keeps you in the thick of the action the whole time.
“Sometimes, when you compete, you can just lose right away, and you’re out completely. But if you’re the caster and the commentator, you get to sort of be there for the whole experience,” she says.
Web3 Gamers have coaches? It is wild, but totally true
Gaming tournaments at conventions are way more intense than you might expect. But the weirdest part for outsiders? The gamers actually have coaches — just like a sports team or your wellness-obsessed mate.
At the YGG Play Summit, Web3 gaming coach Muka describes the job as a “glorified project manager.”
“Being a coach doesn’t mean you come up with all the ideas,” says the former top 200 World of Warcraft player.
Gaming tournaments are a serious business in the Philippines. (Ciaran Lyons)
It also doesn’t seem to have a strict training schedule like, say, for the Manchester United Football Club players.
“It’s not a very formalized structure,” he laughs, explaining that it’s more of an organic process when they train together on the aforementioned sci-fi card game Parallel.
“There’s times where we’re kind of chilling out and stuff; there’s no need to hit the gas, but when we hit the gas, you know, it’s Discord calls going for hours a day, people running in and out, running scrims, playing a bunch of games, talking ideas.”
He calls it “trial by fire” and says when players have a new idea, he’d rather they just jump into the game and try it out instead of overthinking it.
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“The players are there; they all have their ideas and are experts in what they want to do.”
“It’s all about taking the ideas from a culmination of players and helping them morph those ideas together, creating lineup strategies, letting the expertise of one transfer to the others,” he explains.
Muka says that is where “the magic happens.”
“That feeling of playing with other people and coming up with a strategy and trying to pull it off, that’s always been the most fun for me,” he says.
As for how many hours gaming coaches spend a week training their players before tournaments, Muka’s not exactly keen to face that reality.
“I can’t quantify in hours; it would hurt me if I told you,” he laughs.
Other News
— The third-person battle royale shooting game Off The Grid early access has launched on XBOX Series X|S in Game Preview.
— Blockchain-based gaming metaverse Axie Infinity has launched the Axie Adoption Center; users without an Axie can now receive delegated Axies.
— Gaming giant Immutable has introduced “Perpetual Rewards,” a system that claims to ensure players are rewarded more regularly as opposed to the odd distribution.
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Ciaran Lyons
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He’s also a standup comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.
