The Good Tech Companies - Ignore The Noise: Web3 Gaming Is Making Real Progress
Episode Date: April 10, 2025This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/ignore-the-noise-web3-gaming-is-making-real-progress. Explore the evolving world of Web3 gam...ing, where blockchain promises player ownership, token stability, and decentralized game development. Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #web3, #web3-gaming, #gaming, #blockchain, #cryptocurrency, #good-company, #my-neighbor-alice-news, #alien-worlds, and more. This story was written by: @ishanpandey. Learn more about this writer by checking @ishanpandey's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Explore the evolving world of Web3 gaming, where blockchain promises player ownership, token stability, and decentralized game development.
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Ignore the noise. Web3 gaming is making real, progress, by Aishan Pandey.
Blockchain introduces the promise of a decentralized video games landscape where players can earn
rewards, own in-game assets and have a real say in the direction of their future development.
It's a compelling promise, and yet it's one that many gamers strongly resist.
Gamers have become some of the most vocal naysayers against crypto, labeling digital assets as
worthless, with many arguing that the entire industry is a scam. Given the number of hacks
and ill-intentioned social media influencers around, it's understandable that many might think like
this. WEB3 gaming is far from dead in a recent editorial in Cointelegraph,
NPC Labs co-founder and CEO Darrell Schwergs that Web3 Games have failed to achieve mainstream
adoption because they've ended up recreating many of the problems they set out to fix,
creating walled gardens that aim to keep players trapped in their gaming ecosystems.
Moreover, he claims developers tend to place too much emphasis on blockchain and economics,
at the expense of fun gameplay. But there are many reasons to believe that
decentralization can be better for gaming. One of the most compelling is the idea that
gamers can exercise control over their development. Indeed, Vitalik Buterin says that a decision by
the creators of World of Warcraft to nerf his favorite character was one of the main
inspirations that drove him to create the Ethereum blockchain.
Then there was the infamous incident with Madden NFL 23, where a data storage issue
on Oneofi's servers caused the progress of thousands of gamers to be permanently erased.
With blockchain's decentralized governance and distributed network, neither of these
things can happen.
Web3 gaming has its share of success stories too.
The rise of so-called tap-turn games on Telegram such as Hamster Combat and Notcoin, which
boast millions of players, speaks to the appeal of crypto rewards in gaming.
Then there's the case of Off the Grid, the hit battle royale shooting game that gathered
9.12 million users and processed more than 100 million transactions
within the first month of its launch. A showcase of token STABILITYA recent spate of token
delistings on platforms like Binance stoked apprehension for blockchain gamers. A number
of native gaming tokens were included among them, but this is not so much a criticism
of the value of these assets, but rather a reaction to the rise of numerous worthless meme coins, which has resulted in many exchanges tightening
their listing requirements to protect customers.
While there may be a few bad apples among blockchain games, most Web3 gaming assets
boast sound tokenomics and provide genuine utility.
Web3 games developers have put a lot of thought and effort into strengthening their tokenomics
models in the wake of what happened to Axie Infinities, whose token price crashed once
the game's popularity peaked. But that's unlikely to happen with newer games like My Neighbor Alice
and Alien Worlds. The price of MNA's Alice token has been stable since the summer of 2022,
propped up by the growing popularity of its metaverse-based farming and social adventure,
ample liquidity with more than 50 exchanges listing the asset, and its adherence to industry
compliance standards.
It's a similar story for Alien Worlds, widely regarded as one of the most successful blockchain
games.
Its native token TLM has a market cap of around $25 million, with its price hovering around
the $0.004 mark for more than three years,
in stark contrast to the usual volatility of crypto assets.
A closer look at Alice highlights some strong fundamentals. More than 90% of its total supply
is already in circulation, reducing any chances of inflation. It provides vast utility, serving
as the main rewards token and currency, for buying NFT-based virtual assets and acquiring skills.
Players can also unlock exclusive content by paying with Alice, and they can even start an in-game business and earn Alice tokens.
Alice also powers MNA's decentralized governance.
By holding Alice tokens, players are eligible to make proposals to the community and vote on those ideas, with their votes proportional to the amount of tokens they hold.
They can thus play an active role in the game's development and help shape its future.
Alice's time-tested tokenomics model is based on the idea that transaction feesare returned to the game's treasury, then fed back to players as rewards for fulfilling various in-game tasks. The game's economy is rounded out by defy features such as staking, lending and borrowing,
providing further utility. Continuous development and community engagement games must evolve if
they don't want to die, and MNA has been transforming itself rapidly with new features
such as the launch of its race-inspired NFT collection, which fuels an ongoing event called, From
Land to Track.
In the event, players are encouraged to design their very own racetrack, on Land to Yawn,
with big Alice prizes for those that attract the most community votes.
Manet also celebrating its birthday with its second Alice AirDrop, rewarding its loyal
gamers for sticking around, and has many new gaming features planned, such as an innovative new guest mode for new players and web GPU to ensure smoother gameplay.
The pace of innovation in Alien Worlds is just as frenetic, with recent examples being the
launch of its Battlefleet Armageddon and Starblind minigames.
It has also introduced community grants to help fund developers who want to create new
experiences within the Alien Worlds universe, and launched a new, 10-week community engagement program to help kickstart its expansion into China.
Stability. The key to success mainstream adoption remains a distant dream for blockchain gaming,
for the industry continues to be dogged by misplaced narratives and broader market challenges.
Nonetheless, it's encouraging to see the resilience, the ongoing innovation
and the never-ending community engagement with newer Web3 games like MNA and Alien Worlds.
With their strong token fundamentals and loyal player bases, these games have established
a strong foundation for the future that won't easily crumble. With their unwavering commitment
to continuous development, they showcase just the kind of sustainability needed by the Web3 gaming industry to further its progress.
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Tip Vested Interest Disclosure.
This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program.
Hacker Noon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author.
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