Web3 Gaming: Continue Ponzi or Really Decentralize?

Original Author: 0xjereme & Leia

Introduction:

Why do many Web3 games end up as short-lived products, or Pond's endorsements? This is because they are all centralized in nature. No matter how well-designed and optimized the token economic model is, it is only performing Ponzi-style deception in a more subtle and ingenious manner. Only by fundamentally creating a truly decentralized game, designing a bottom-up protocol, and using the token model as an auxiliary means can the game economy become sustainable, avoid GameFi problems, and move towards Web3 Gaming . And building a truly decentralized Web3 game requires a more complete infrastructure.

Preface

Gaming has long been considered a potentially important application area for Web3. However, like anything emerging, the first generation of Web3 games has many flaws. These porn games are often difficult to play, full of gimmicks, and lack real substance. Due to over-financialization, a large number of speculators are attracted, while real gamers are reluctant to enter these games. These games pay too much attention to the game economy and token model, but ignore the core essence of Web3 games - decentralization. **In the end, the so-called "players" chose to leave the game when they found that these games could not bring them considerable income.

To achieve true decentralization and move towards Web3 Gaming, the next generation of Web3 games needs to take full advantage of features such as verifiable proofs, asset ownership, and programmability. At the same time, it also needs to focus on building a real user acquisition and retention game loop,** not just token speculation. **What really deserves attention is the unique advantages that Web3 games exhibit over Web2 games. These advantages provide players with an unprecedented gaming experience and are expected to reshape the future of the gaming industry. **

At the same time, many large game studios are gradually entering the blockchain field and putting their game IPs on the blockchain. This will bring more opportunities and recognition to Web3 games, and also increase the vitality of the entire industry. These studios combine their own game worlds with blockchain technology to bring players a new gaming experience and more possibilities.

Image credit: Jump Crypto

The current conditions for games on the chain are relatively basic. What we need is a complete infrastructure. Only with a complete infrastructure can we ensure that users can enjoy the same smooth and pleasant experience in Web3 games as traditional games. **The following will introduce the types, features and innovations of Web3 games, as well as the infrastructure required to realize them. **

Part.1 Classification of Web3 games

Achieving true decentralization is necessary, yet full decentralization may be difficult or even unrealistic at first. In the early design stages of a protocol/project, more centralized visibility and control is often necessary to facilitate easier Product-Market Fit. In addition, Web3 games are also limited by factors such as infrastructure. Therefore, **Web3 games can take a progressive decentralization approach, but the key is to ensure that the early protocol/project design is ready for true decentralization in the future. **

According to the degree of on-chain, that is, the degree of decentralization, Web3 games can be divided into the following types: optional on-chain games, half-chain games and full-chain games. (Note: Refer to Jump Crypto's classification of Web3 games here)

Type #1: Optional Cosmetic Mints (OCM)

Image credit: Jump Crypto

**"Optional on-chain game" is essentially centralized. **Very similar to traditional Web2 games, this game records the ownership and status updates of game assets in an off-chain database, and the issuance of game assets and currency is also managed by a centralized organization. However, unlike traditional games, players can choose to mint certain assets they hold in the game into NFTs and put them on the chain to realize the free circulation of assets. At the same time, the game developer will also sell some rights or functional permissions to players in the form of NFT.

However, game project parties and developers still have the subjective power to decide whether players can obtain a lot of information. Under the current infrastructure conditions, full-chain games and half-chain games may have too much resistance for players. The optional on-chain game may be the most acceptable to players because it presents the least resistance to players.

Type #2: On-chain assets (OCA)

Image credit: Jump Crypto

"Half-chain game" is not truly decentralized, it is a game form in which player assets are stored on the chain, but the actual game operation is still carried out under the chain. This form is common in most current Web3 games. Half-chain games solve the problem of verifying asset ownership and asset programmability, focusing on in-game items and property, and not paying much attention to other states of the game.

It introduces a trustless mechanism that allows players to conduct secondary sales in the game, thus forming a verifiable game asset economic system. This game type is good for heavy-duty, feature-rich games, such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games and first-person shooters. However, such games require robust infrastructure, including fast indexing, standards capable of updating on-chain item information, and data relay devices capable of transferring in-game state to the blockchain and automatic execution based on relayed data. Without these facilities, it will affect the player's gaming experience and developer acceptance.

Type #3: Fully on-chain games (FOC)

Image credit: Jump Crypto

Also known as "completely on-chain game", it is a truly decentralized game. **It uses the blockchain instead of the traditional centralized game server, stores all player data on the chain, and indexes and writes it. The shared state on the chain not only records data related to assets, but also includes all information related to the state of the game. This approach gives games persistence, censorship resistance, and community self-developability.

However, due to the current incomplete infrastructure, the frequent state updates involved in the game and the corresponding gas fees will limit the design space of the game. This is why we need to focus on building and improving the game infrastructure.

To sum up, in order to achieve the same smooth experience of "full-chain games" and "half-chain games" as "optional on-chain games", and gain more advantages, the key lies in the establishment and improvement of suitable infrastructure. **While continuously improving the infrastructure, a gradual decentralization method can be adopted.

Regardless of the above types of on-chain games, **before decentralization is truly realized, the game project party should actively disclose game information, including which parts are on-chain and which parts are not. Once the game deployment is completed, through DAO, the community can participate in the governance and operation of the game, including adding and changing game parameters and rules, etc. **

Part.2 Web3 game features and innovations

Web2 games and Web3 games have very different characteristics. **Web2 games adopt a closed system, the game assets are circulated inside the game, there is almost no interaction with the external market, and there is no suspicion of financial activities or market manipulation. **Game developers can freely adjust the parameters and rules of the game from the perspective of God to enhance the entertainment of the game. The **Web3 game builds an open game system so that game tokens and assets can freely circulate in the external market and generate financial behavior, and players also have the opportunity to obtain rich returns through tokens. **

In addition, the decentralized nature of Web3 games brings a series of innovative elements to game design, creating a new gaming experience and developing new types of games. Next, we will introduce the features and innovations of half-chain games and full-chain games in detail. (Note: The advantages of all half-chain games mentioned below are also applicable to full-chain games, but the advantages of full-chain games may not be applicable to half-chain games)

Half Chain Game

1. Composability: is an important factor in building a truly decentralized game ecosystem. Through data interaction and sharing between different games, players can enjoy a coherent game experience in multiple games without being limited to a single closed game world. This also promotes cooperation and innovation among game developers, and strengthens the interaction and development of the game community. **

**2. Player participation in creation: **By storing game assets on the chain, anyone can create content around these assets without prior permission. Compared to Web2 games, this openness increases the possibility of user-generated content, expands the reach of games, and allows users to create more games to play. **

**3 Player asset risk under centralized control: ****This type of game focuses on the design of the game economic model. **Although the game assets are on the chain, the key elements related to the assets, such as core parameters and rules, are not fully on the chain, and are still controlled by the game party and developers. This gives them a certain degree of control and manipulation space, and also means that the value of game assets in the hands of players may be affected by centralized regulation, and even instantly return to zero in some cases. **This is undoubtedly a huge blow to those players who have invested a lot of time and effort to obtain precious props or virtual wealth. To make matters worse, when the project party is unprofitable and chooses to flee the game, the value of the so-called permanent assets in the hands of the players will almost disappear.

Full chain game

**1. Player-driven economic system and autonomous game world: ****In a truly decentralized environment, the economic system is driven by the actions and decisions of players, rather than controlled by game developers or central institutions. ** Players acquire and manage in-game assets and resources through trade, cooperation or competition. At the same time, players can also independently participate in the governance of the game and formulate rules to realize the autonomy of the game world. This player-driven economic system and autonomous game world bring players a richer and more free gaming experience.

**2Continuous game experience and state traceability: Serverless architecture and on-chain storage achieve game persistence, independent of developer server. ** Players can continue the game without being affected by the server. Adopt zero-knowledge proof to protect privacy, without revealing operation details. The full-chain game avoids tracking and verification by the central agency, enhancing player data privacy and game reliability.

When building a truly decentralized Web3 game, a fully decentralized architecture is required to achieve continuous game experience and state traceability. Such games will establish player-driven economies and autonomous game worlds, providing an unprecedented gaming experience.

However, if Web3 games are not truly decentralized and lack transparency, a series of problems may arise. Changes in game parameters and rules directly affect entertainment and financial behavior, which may arouse suspicion of market manipulation and even face legal restrictions and prosecution. Therefore, when building a Web3 game, it is crucial to ensure true decentralization and transparency in order to maintain the fairness and credibility of the game.

Part.3 Beyond Token Economy, Embrace Decentralization

Early Web3 games relied too much on the token economy, which led to many games eventually going to Ponzi or dying out quickly, raising questions about the sustainable development of Web3 games. Real gamers start to wonder if investing time and effort in these types of games is worth it. To achieve the long-term development of the game economy, we must go beyond the token economy and embrace true decentralization. However, a sound infrastructure is also indispensable for this to happen. Next, we'll introduce some typical infrastructure projects today.

StarkNet

StarkNet is an L2 solution created by StarkWare, hailed as an arsenal for on-chain games, to create an off-chain execution layer on Ethereum.

StarkNet uses zk proofs to achieve low-cost and fast transaction processing on Ethereum. It does this by batching multiple transactions and efficiently publishing this data to the Ethereum network. Since StarkNet can amortize Ethereum verification fees, it is more popular and affordable. In fact, as transaction volume increases, fees decrease.

In addition, StarkNet also provides native account abstraction and contract wallets, which are more suitable for the interactive needs of games on the chain. In terms of ecological construction (see the figure below), StarkNet pays attention to the cultivation of native applications, co-organizes hackathon activities with partners, and successfully incubates many on-chain game ecological projects. More details and future roadmap can be found in the StartNet community information.

Image credit: @odin_free

MUD

The Solidity-based full-chain game engine MUD developed by Lattice Studio is one of the more mature projects in this field. MUD can help developers quickly deploy game logic into smart contracts and synchronize with client state, thus greatly improving development efficiency.

In large-scale game development, the game engine plays a key role. For full-chain games, similar tools are needed to quickly deploy game logic, shorten development time, and provide data standards to promote iterative development and interoperability in an open ecosystem.

However, although MUD is an excellent framework and has successfully developed a full-chain game similar to OPCraft, as an infrastructure for game development, there is still much room for exploration and development to be further improved.

Image source: MUD

ARC（Action Registry Core）

ARC is an open source framework developed by Jump Crypto to manage the asset layer on the game chain. This framework is scalable, able to handle the increase in the number of game assets and interdependencies, while avoiding the technical debt that can come with object-oriented programming methods. The basic architecture of ARC adopts an onion model divided into three layers, including the core layer, registry contract and operation contract. The framework has been open sourced on GitHub, and more details can be found in previous translation articles.

Infrastructure is the key to game development (2): A preliminary exploration of the new framework - Action Registry Core

Infrastructure is the key to game development (4): How does the ARC architecture work?

Building a full-chain game faces many challenges, including the flaws in the underlying infrastructure and the immaturity of the ecosystem. These issues directly affect the game's response time, cost, and iteration speed. However, in addition to the projects already mentioned, there are many infrastructure projects that are actively being explored and implemented in order to promote the further development of the Web3 game ecosystem.

It should be noted that in order to build a fully decentralized game,** these infrastructure projects must be composable and need to follow the principles of decentralization. **This means that various projects need to be able to work together and be compatible with each other to form a unified infrastructure network. This combination of composability and decentralization will give game developers greater flexibility and innovation, and will also provide players with a richer and more diverse gaming experience.

at last

Web3 Gaming has huge potential to bring new possibilities to the gaming world. In order to achieve true Web3 Gaming, games need to be built on a bottom-up protocol with a token model as an auxiliary means to ensure the sustainability of the game economy and avoid GameFi problems. In such games, players can truly own assets and break free from the control and restrictions of centralized institutions or platforms in free transactions.

Looking ahead, we can look forward to further maturity and innovation of infrastructure projects, including more complete blockchain technology, smart contract platforms, and storage protocols, etc., to provide a more efficient, safe, and reliable gaming environment. This will **accelerate the development and popularization of Web3 games, and players will be able to participate in a game world full of creativity, freedom and real value, rather than just chasing the economic benefits of tokens. This will attract more players to invest their time and energy, thus promoting the prosperity and development of the entire ecosystem. **