Gametaverse: Twitter Space Recap (11 June, 2022)

Gametaverse frens,

This is the first and official Twitter Space Recap.

We are happy to share recaps of our discussions and update you on latest news and insights in the GameFi space.

This time we invited @hiCaptainZ, @321bigcat, @xueqiu88, @wangdadou2, @FEIlXIE, @daixiexie and @SKARKS3 to join us to explore areas including. To listen, you can follow the link here.

Q1: We all know that we are currently in a bear market, but according to statistics, there are nearly 1,000 games to be launched. So in your opinion where are we in the evolvement of GameFi?

Xueqiu: Although the current market is relatively bleak, GameFi still has a lot of potential. It can also be defined as a segment that fares well through both bull and bear. In the first half of the year, from StarSharks to StepN, the narrative has been complete, and there will still be many opportunities among plenty of games in the second half of the year. Judging from some of the games we have cooperated with recently, games launched in the second half of the year may be on a completely different path compared with those in the first half of the year. Today, in our conversation I also hope to see if we can spark new ideas and find some opportunities from the perspective of ourselves or our projects and communities. Because the importance of the Fi in GameFi has decreased, blockchain games started to attract more attention gradually. The chance of getting rich by playing the game is no longer that great. Maybe P2E games will evolve into traditional games like World of Warcraft. It may require a massive participation in the form of guilds in order to gain benefits in the future.

CaptainZ: First of all, GameFi is part of the crypto world, which also falls into the category of finance. In the case of a general bear market, this market segment will certainly not perform so well. Both the token price and the price of specific NFTs have fallen sharply. This naturally has made people a little anxious. But if we look at the price of the same time last year, starting from the same time on 19th of May, it is highly possible that we repeat the history and trade sideways at the bottom price for a while. Last year, Axie Infinity stood out in the bear market, and this time, there may be a new gaming project that will lead the whole segment out of the bear market. Indeed, GameFi projects, such as Axie and StepN, have gradually penetrated into everyday lives of the public, and many of the users involved in are not from the crypto space. I think there will be a trendy theme every quarter in crypto, and I think this trend will still start in the GameFi segment because this is the most attractive sector to users from incremental markets outside the crypto space.

Dai Xiexie: I’ll sum up in one sentence: It’s going to be difficult but worth looking forward to and “setting up an ambush.” Putting aside the fact that the market is in a real bear market, the host just mentioned that nearly 1,000 games will be launched in the GameFi field in the second half of the year, which shows that there are still many projects seeking opportunities in GameFi because of its popularity. But I want to say that it is still very difficult to navigate in the GameFi sector for both VCs and projects. Since last year, I have invested in dozens of projects with my VC friends, and now I haven’t recouped my investment. The projects are also in dire straits. Many projects invested by top investors with an investment amount of more than $3 million are also attracting little attention right now. Very few users interact with them on Discord and Twitter. Why do I say it's worth looking forward to and setting up an ambush? Because the quality of the project teams is getting higher, and there are dozens of projects obtaining financing for an amount of more than $10 million. The playability of future blockchain games is not necessarily worse than that of traditional games. Many of the teams are traditional web2 game makers, and what is needed now is time to figure out how to combine Game with Fi. If we can set up an ambush for high-quality projects now, it will be the same as hoarding ETH at a low price in the past few years.

Q2: I would like to ask: What dimensions do you usually choose to “set up an ambush?”

Dai Xiexie: In fact, I look at two dimensions: The first dimension is the financing amount. Only a well-funded team can survive, especially in a bear market. I think projects with an investment amount of more than $10 million are worthy of attention and follow-ups. The second dimension is whether the team has ever made phenomenal products in traditional gaming market.

321bigcat: I choose to invest in games that have well-known investors. Like Dai Xiexie, I have also made a list of projects invested by prominent investors before. Thanks to my work relationships, I can have direct conversations with many leading projects such as Illuvium and investors such as Animoca Brands. I think investors generally invest in two directions: One is infrastructure, and the other is the application layer. Because the market is bleak at present, most projects can’t attract many users. There are no more than 20 GameFi projects that have more than 10,000 DAU, and even fewer are token/NFT holders. Now Chinese players are facing relatively more obstacles, such as the requirement to download VPN, the ban on fiat-to-crypto transactions, etc. Mainstream players are unable to enter the market. The reason why traditional games like World of Warcraft can be popular is that it has tens of millions of players, so there are huge demands for trading. The dilemma that needs to be solved now is how to bring more non-crypto players into the blockchain gaming world.

0xKEY-FEI: The most important thing in a bear market is to survive. I can share some useful experience on how to find a high-potential project with newbies. Now I analyze a project mainly from 4 perspectives: 1) The guild. Pay attention to the official Twitter of each major guild; 2) Major crypto-focused funds, such as a16z and Binance Labs; 3) Game-related media channels, e.g., Gametaverse or DappRader, as well as some domestic media outlets, such as BlockBeats and ODaily; 4) Some launchpads, such as DaoMaker.

SKARKS3: I am still very bullish on GameFi although it is very difficult to survive now, and it is even more difficult to break through key bottlenecks. But if that day comes, games left in the end will certainly become our industry leaders. I think current projects are basically competing in terms of operation, and whoever is better at telling stories will be able to get ahead other competitors. Because the current gaming ecosystems and economic models are not perfect, most of them seem like Ponzis, and they need to constantly rely on new users and funds to keep them alive. Compared with the DeFi feature of GameFi, the playability is still too weak. I will pay more attention to and look forward to some triple A games and more traditional games moving to blockchain in the future. You should accumulate in a bear market and take profits in a bull market. Now the bear market is providing good opportunities for the gaming community. Many game makers that are relatively small and unknown take the initiative to find communities to publicize their games. It becomes easier to asks for benefits for our fans, such as free NFTs. In the bear market, game projects will also lower the requirements for players. In the bull market, the game project itself will become a platform, but it is difficult for the community to develop. The gaming community still needs to do due diligence, prepare project tutorials, and negotiate for benefits. My own approach to finding high-potential projects is also based on four dimensions: 1) Investors. I will pay more attention to traditional investors such as Sequoia Capital and some investments aimed for trading; 2) GameFi tools to search for on-chain data of each project; 3) The popularity of each KOL; 4) The community. Try your best to join as many communities as possible. Many OGs may hide in the community and do in-depth analysis.

Q3: Do you think GameFi projects can achieve sustainable development in the long run by constantly improving their economic models so that players can continue to make profits, or by improving their gameplay and playability?

Dai Xiexie: Who has put forward the three concepts of blockchain games, GameFi and Play-to-Earn? We all subconsciously feel that that both blockchain games and GameFi need to be play-to-earn. But for GameFi, the original idea was to decentralize game assets. In the future, phenomenal blockchain games will not be made by previous DeFi or public-blockchain teams. They are still more oriented towards earning money by speculation. It will be a gradual process of traditional games moving to the blockchain, and it will be phased, from the upper chain to the tokenization of game assets.

Romantic Rick: In fact, blockchain games are in their early stage, which is why I am willing to be deeply involved in it. Everyone knows that this is a Ponzi, but it's just in the guise of web3. What we all know is that we are willing to participate in this Ponzi because it is profitable for both the community and the individuals. From last year's GameFi boom to the present—many projected are affected by the bear market, people are reluctant to do anything. As it stands, I think there is no playability to speak of in GameFi. At present, almost none of the people who come to GameFi to play games. They all come to make money. If Ponzis can’t survive the bear market, more projects will spend time on improving playability and driving mass adoption outside the crypto world. If GameFi projects want to offer applications outside the crypto space, they need to rebuild their who ecosystem.

Q4: We also want to talk about GameFi review today. Are there any guests who know about this area?

Dai Xiexie: I think the community and KOLs are good candidates for GameFi reviews. I once set up a CP DAO, but then I got a little lazy, because at this moment, such a Dao doesn’t generate any revenue. In fact, there is no mature and distributed organization for blockchain game reviews now. But I think if we are bullish on GameFi, the reviewing business is worth studying and discussing.

Snowball: I'll follow up on Dai Xiexie. We have tested some products before and there is no mature review mechanism now. We met problems from touching base with team leaders and front-line testers to the final revenue distribution. But we can learn from traditional games to take their approaches. Can we take over the review task as investors or platforms, let professionals touch base with the projects, and then distribute the tasks to the community. The community will select candidates to alpha test the games and ensure that the proceeds can be successfully distributed. Most game assets are NFTs, but if the incentives are NFTs, it doesn’t mean too much. If a game succeeds, then its NFTs are valuable; if it does not, then their NFTs are of no value. It only means the community works hard for nothing. If the incentives are distributed as stable coins, it is a better approach at present.

At last.

We’re so proud of each and everyone in here, showing support and enthusiasm towards our project and the general GameFi area. Hope you enjoy this recap! Follow us on social media to receive timely news, and stay tuned:

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About Gametaverse

Gametaverse aims to be the One-Stop GameFi Portal for everyone who wants start their gaming journey. Gametaverse provides users with an easy-to-use,  real-time dashboard that aggregates all GameFi data and tracks the entire industry. It also selects individual games which you may want to closely monitor. Gametaverse keeps building customizable yield tracker for popular games, so players and guilds can track their NFT yields and game records.