Article author: Cube Labs
Source: Cube Labs
TL;DR
Understanding the behavioral preferences of Web3 players is critical for optimizing game project operations and adjusting the design of games and revenue mechanisms. Compared with ordinary users, Web3 players have about 4 times the purchasing power of ordinary users, 1.2 times the social influence, and about 4 times the average total game time;
Many Web3 games are trying to use Tokenomics to extend user interaction time and the life cycle of the game, but from a data perspective, it is more likely to solve this problem by improving playability.
The 0.5th step on the road for GameFi to achieve massive adoption may be the discovery and mining of target users. Only when you figure out who your target users are and who you want to make profits from, can you talk about breaking the circle.
background
Following the last growth experiment, over the past month or so, I have started a growth experiment targeting the GameFi segment.
Why choose GameFi as the target track?
First of all, GameFi is considered to be the field that can achieve the most massive user adoption. Exploring the overlapping users of Web3 native users and Web2 game players, namely Web3 players, is an important entry point.
Secondly, GameFi has relatively more active users, and there are also many project parties that are still operating in the bear market. On-chain data shows that the number of active addresses in the past 24 hours is about 200,000, and the number of active GameFi project parties is currently more than 900.
Although the overall scale of GameFi is relatively small compared to the entire cryptocurrency market, with the size of the global GameFi market estimated at approximately US$6 billion in the first half of 2023, the gameplay and revenue mechanisms of the GameFi market have attracted more and more players to participate.
Understanding the behavioral preferences of Web3 players is critical both for optimizing game project operations and for adjusting the design of games and revenue mechanisms.
Segment track sample
The entire GameFi has many subdivisions and is mainly composed of 8 parts - user-side aggregators, games, multi-game platforms/publishers, liquidity providers/financial instruments, blockchain solution providers, game engines, developers/studios and chains.
**In order to further understand the real user portrait of Web3 players, the sampled projects selected for this event are all in the game field. **Here, IOSG's classification of Web3 games is cited (based on Steam's classification and the highest-grossing mobile game types). Web3 games are mainly divided into 5 categories:
RPG (Role Playing Game): Players play the role of characters in the game and improve the character's ability by completing tasks and upgrading levels, including MMORPG, Team Battle, etc. The participants of this event, BigTime, ArcLoot, and Seraph, belong to this type of game.
Strategy: Players need to formulate strategies, manage resources, develop the economy, build armies, etc. in the game, including cards, chessboard & automatic battles, real-time strategy and tower defense, etc. BLOCKLORDS, a participant in this event, belongs to this type of game.
Simulation: Simulates various scenarios in real life, such as running a store, driving a vehicle, farming, space flight, life & leisure & casino, etc. The participants of this event, Infiblue, TownStoryGalaxy, PlantCrossing, and TodayTheGame, belong to this category of games.
Action games: fast-paced action games, where players need to jump, attack, dodge, and perform other operations, including shooting, fighting, and other action games. CEBG, a participant in this event, belongs to this category of games.
Sports: simulate various sports, such as football, basketball, tennis, etc. TopGoal, a participant in this event, belongs to this category of games.
Source: https://medium.com/iosg-ventures/mapping-the-gamefi-ecosystem-9bc10e4c10a3
GameFi activity data mining
In addition to the conventional activity indicators, purchasing power indicators and **influence indicators, **new data on player behavior preferences in Steam has been added for this GameFi event, as follows:
Steam Data Metrics
How much time players spend on different games on Steam
The types of games, themes, styles, etc. that players like
There are 5 game styles, 22 game themes, and 30 game types.
Explanation of various indicators ⬇️
3-General Game Category
Casual games: usually refer to games that are simple to play, easy to get started, and relatively easy to play, suitable for casual players. This type of game usually does not require much gaming experience and skills, and the game time is relatively short.
Mid-core games: usually refer to games with moderate difficulty, relatively complex gameplay, requiring certain gaming experience and skills, and suitable for intermediate players. This type of game usually requires a certain amount of time and effort to play well.
Hard-core games: usually refer to games with high difficulty, very complex gameplay, requiring very high game skills and experience, and suitable for professional players. This type of game usually requires a lot of time and effort to master, and the game time is relatively long.
5-Play Style
Singleplayer: A player who prefers to play the game alone, without playing with other people.
Multiplayer: Gamers enjoy playing games with other players, either cooperatively or against each other.
PVP (Player Versus Player): Players like to compete against other players to show their strength.
PVE (Player Versus Environment): Players like to fight against the game environment, such as fighting monsters in the game.
Co-op: Players enjoy working together with other players to complete game tasks, such as teaming up to complete a mission.
22-Game Theme
Fantasy: Games that include elements of magic, magical creatures, epic heroes, legendary stories, etc.
Sci-Fi: Games that include elements such as robots, aliens, future technology, and space exploration.
Horror: Games that include elements of horror stories, ghosts, zombies, vampires, monsters, etc.
Futuristic: Games that include elements of future technology, cities, transportation, weapons, etc.
Realistic: Games that include elements of real-world sports, warfare, simulators, etc.
Dark: Games that include elements of darkness, distortion, unease, depression, etc.
Mystery: A game that includes elements of exploration, puzzles, and strange things.
Cyberpunk: A game that includes elements of future dark cities, technology, crime, and resistance.
Medieval: Games with elements such as knights, castles, wars, and kingdoms.
Magic: Games that include elements of magic, wizards, spells, magical creatures, etc.
Space: Games that include elements of space exploration, aliens, planets, interstellar wars, etc.
Dark Fantasy: A fantasy game that includes dark, twisted, disturbing, depressive and other elements.
War: Games that include elements of modern or historical warfare, combat, strategy, etc.
Historical: Games that include characters, events, wars, and other elements from historical periods.
Steampunk: A game that includes elements of steam engines, machinery, and the steam age.
Aliens: A game that includes elements of aliens, alien technology, and alien civilizations.
Robots: Games that include elements of robots, robotics, futuristic robots, etc.
Thriller: A game that includes elements of tension, excitement, fear, etc.
Mythology: Games that include elements of ancient myths, legends, gods, heroes, etc.
Science: Games that include elements of scientific experiments, scientific discoveries, and technology.
Noir: A game that includes elements of film noir, detective, crime, conspiracy, etc.
Dystopian: A game that includes elements of a dark future, a hostile society, political conspiracy, etc.
30-Game Genre
Indie: Games produced by small game studios or individuals, usually with innovative gameplay and good gaming experience.
Action game: It is characterized by fast-paced actions, and players need to jump, attack, dodge and perform other operations in the game.
Adventure: A game that features exploration and puzzle-solving. Players need to solve various problems and puzzles to complete tasks.
RTS (Real-time Strategy Game): Players need to build bases, recruit soldiers, develop strategies, and fight opponents in the game.
Strategy: Players need to formulate strategies, manage resources, develop the economy, build armies, etc. in the game to complete various tasks.
RPG (Role Playing Game): Players take on characters in the game and improve their characters’ abilities by completing tasks, raising levels, etc.
Simulation: Simulates various scenarios in real life, such as running a store, driving a car, flying an airplane, etc.
Puzzle: A game that focuses on solving various puzzles and riddles.
Arcade: Fast-paced, easy-to-understand controls, and high difficulty are the main features.
Shooter: A game with shooting as the main gameplay, divided into first-person shooting (FPS) and third-person shooting (TPS).
Platformer: Players need to jump, climb, avoid obstacles, etc. in the game to complete the game tasks.
MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game): Players play roles in the game, interact, communicate, fight, etc. with other players.
Sports: simulate various sports, such as football, basketball, tennis, etc.
Fighting: A game that uses fighting as the main gameplay, and players need to master various fighting skills and moves.
FPS (First-person Shooter): Mainly based on the first-person perspective, with shooting as the main gameplay.
Racing: A racing game in which players need to drive cars on the track.
Casual games: simple to understand and easy to play, suitable for leisure and entertainment.
Survival: Players need to survive in the game and face various difficulties and challenges.
Battle Royale: A multiplayer online survival competitive game where players need to survive in the game to become the final winner.
MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena): Players need to form teams, fight with opponents, attack opponents' defense towers and destroy their bases.
Hack and Slash (action role-playing game): Features fast-paced action, where players need to attack, dodge, and avoid.
Sandbox: Players can freely explore, build, and create in the game without clear game objectives.
Roguelike: A game with turn-based, randomly generated maps and enemies, and permanent death as its main features. Players need to explore, fight, collect items, etc. in the game.
Roguelite: Similar to Roguelike, but allows players to retain certain progress and items in the game.
Trading Card Game: The main feature of this game is using cards to fight. Players need to collect, combine and use various cards to fight.
Auto Battler: Players need to select certain cards or characters, and then watch the game automatically battle.
Card Game: A game that features card games, such as poker, bridge, etc.
Driving: Games that feature driving vehicles, such as racing cars, trucks, etc.
Metroidvania (horizontal action-adventure game): With horizontal action and adventure as the main features, players need to explore the map, collect items, improve abilities, etc.
Building (construction game): The main feature is to build and manage cities, bases, etc. Players need to plan, build and manage buildings and resources.
[Note: Conflict of interest — All data in this article comes from Clique]
Web3 Player Profile Overview
Generally speaking, GameFi usually has two customer acquisition logics. One is: traditional distribution and purchase methods as the main method + Web3 community promotion as the auxiliary method. This route is basically a common way for large game companies to transform into GameFi, because the purchase channels are relatively fixed and the ROI is controllable. They use part of the budget to promote the Web3 market, and it is considered good if there are about a few hundred real players converted;
Second, Alpha community promotion and Launchpad/task platform customer acquisition are the main methods, supplemented by traditional social media publicity. This method is a relatively original approach, and the idea is similar to issuing white orders. This method is like casting a wide net to catch more fish, the target users are not accurate and the quality is low, the cost is uncontrollable, and it is difficult to achieve very good results in a bear market.
For most GameFi project parties, whether it is path one or path two, the first step is to accurately find Web3 players.
According to the data of this sampling, the real players covered are about 2,000 people (the standard for real players here is that the wallet balance and Steam game time are both greater than 0), of which Web3 players account for about 20%. The average ETH holding of Web3 players is 16.5, the average number of fans in Taiwan is about 500, and the average game time on the Steam platform is 1,784 hours. Compared with ordinary users, Web3 players have about 4 times the purchasing power of ordinary users, 1.2 times the social influence, and about 4 times the average total game time.
The next step is to convert these Web3 players to games.
Gaming behavior preferences
Overall, Web3 players participating in this event spent an average of more than 2,000 hours on their preferred game types, and preferred to play multiplayer, action-oriented hardcore games.
More than half of Web3 players prefer hardcore games. Since these games are difficult and complex to play, they usually take a lot of time and effort to master. Therefore, the average gaming time per person is 3,303 hours.
In terms of game style, players clearly prefer multiplayer games, whether cooperative or competitive. Multiplayer games are also more likely to attract players to spend more time participating in the game, with an average total game time of 2,028 hours per person.
Action and strategy games are more popular among players, with 70% of players loving to play them, and the average player spending more than 1,700 hours playing the games.
The above data shows that the playability of the game must be high enough to attract real gamers. The current Web3 games can be understood as Fi+Game, rather than Game+Fi. The playability is obviously insufficient and players lack the motivation for long-term interaction.
Many Web3 games are trying to use Tokenomics to extend user interaction time and the life cycle of the game, but from a data perspective, it is more likely to solve this problem by starting with playability.
Game type preference
Web3 players have a very clear preference for game types, and they like fast-paced, heavy-operation games. Although they will try many different game types, they will only spend more time on specific types.
Action, Strategy, RPG, and Shooter are the most popular game types, and players generally spend 10-15% of their total gaming time on these types of games.
Although there are as many as 30 types of games, more than 45% of players have tried more than 67% of them. Judging from the percentage of time allocation, players do not spend too much time on games that are not their preferred types. They are the type of people who "play but not fully play" and only try them out.
Traditional players are already accustomed to highly complex games, such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Old Man Ring, RDR2, etc. When designing game play, projects can refer to the game genres preferred by users, what types of games are popular with players and suitable for superimposing Web3 elements and play. The core logic is that the game itself must have the demand for asset transactions, and it is best to mobilize the subjective initiative of the community and transfer some of the operational difficulties, so that it can operate more naturally. Here is a quote from GallonLabs (TW@gallonwang):
MMORPG (Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game): A large-scale online game like Fantasy Westward Journey has the need for account trading, item trading, and guild battles, so trading with NFT assets is suitable for Web3 gameplay;
SLG (Strategy Game): It is a large category in the traditional game field. It also has the demand for material trading and guild battles. It has low operating costs and can be operated for a long time with a small number of users. It is especially popular among European and American players.
Simulation: The counterpart of web2 is various simulators, which enable players to develop and upgrade their games. The gameplay is simple and requires relatively few operations. There is also a need to trade props and assets. If combined with some social game gameplay, the community nature of Web3 can be mobilized.
However, some games are not suitable for "Web3ization" at this stage, such as MOBA games, which have high development costs, difficult operations, and long life cycles. They are completely uncompetitive in the current GameFi segmented gaming field.
Game theme preference
Compared with game types, Web3 players do not have a clear preference for game themes. The time allocation for different themes is not much different, basically around 13% of the total game time.
Game types and themes complement each other. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, War, Horror, and Realistic are the most common game themes. Action and Strategy games are often based on these themes. Elements such as war, monsters, and magic are more likely to create a tense and exciting atmosphere. Games of the same theme usually have similar storylines, scene settings, and character settings, and are prone to convergence.
Players will try different game types, but will not jump back and forth on the game's storyline or background settings, which indirectly shows that the subject matter has little influence, and what really attracts players is the gameplay and mission mechanism.
Web3 Player Classification
In the traditional game player classification model, players are divided into killers, achievers, social players, and explorers according to the different interaction objects (Player/World) and interaction methods (Acting/Interacting). This classification is also applicable to Web3 players.
Players represent personal experience, personal achievements, personal growth, etc., a collection of all the attributes of the player himself
World represents the collection of NPCs, scenes, plots, and all the fictional layers of the game itself.
Acting (one-way action) represents the player's behavior, including the behavior of completing tasks, fighting, etc. The player's purposeful and active behavior of operating the character
Interacting represents the interaction between players and represents sociality
Limited by the data type, the player classification of this event is roughly divided according to the preferred game type, style, duration and other information. 67% of the players are social players, 16% are killer players, 11% are achievement players, and 6% are exploration players.
Socializers [67%]
Basic information: Style preference is Multiplayer and Co-op games, type preference is Action, MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing), MOBA (multiplayer online tactical battle arena), Strategy games, etc.;
Player profile: Social players are interested in interacting with other players and getting to know different players. They are usually accustomed to the guild battle mode, and are also familiar with who to contact for over-the-counter transactions. They like to play in groups and have a high overlap with secondary creation players.
Strategy reference: More social elements can be added to the game mechanism. In terms of operational strategy, these players can be given the role of community administrators to encourage other players to participate in the game. They can also be used to contact core players or big players.
Killer [16%]
Basic information: Style preference is Multiplayer and PVP games, type preference is Action, Shooter, Battle Royale, Arcade games, etc.;
Player profile: Killer players are keen on winning. Competitiveness is their first requirement for the game. They will learn various skills to win or to rush to the top of the leaderboard. Unlike achievement players, they only care about winning and not the means. They usually spend money or work hard on a certain game, and even use bugs or plug-ins.
Strategy reference: In terms of game mechanism, you can optimize the player rankings, or increase the competitiveness of the battle to moderately arouse the players' desire to win. In terms of operational strategy, you can guide such users to spend money to upgrade props to satisfy their sense of satisfaction with winning.
Achievers [11%]
Basic information: Style preference is Singleplayer and PVP games, type preference is Action, Adventure, Simulation, Survival, Puzzle, etc.;
Player profile: Achievement-oriented players will actively complete the game's tasks and goals. Clearing a level is a basic requirement. Some will set their own goals in order to clear a level. They are highly sensitive to incentives for clearing a level and will be very happy to receive some rare rewards.
Strategy reference: In terms of game mechanics, we can work on the balance between the complexity of tasks and the rarity of rewards. When players start to lose their enthusiasm, giving them more special rewards can motivate them to the greatest extent.
Explorers [6%]
Basic information: Style preference: Singleplayer and PVE games; Type preference: Action, Sandbox, Adventure, Indie, etc.
Player portrait: Exploratory players have a strong interest in the game world itself, especially those extreme surprises, hidden plots, and strange bugs. Their goal of playing the game is to understand the mechanics of the entire game and become a polymath of the game world. They are also keen to answer questions for newcomers and share their discoveries.
Strategy reference: In terms of game mechanics, you can place more easter eggs and hidden plots. In terms of operational strategy, you can establish a game feedback group to let them deeply participate in the game play design and encourage them to output more content. At the same time, you can also give them the role of game evangelists to answer questions for newcomers.
Project analysis
Since most of the games on the Steam platform are client-side games, the data samples selected have limited reference value for mobile game projects. However, we can still clearly see from the current data that different customer acquisition methods attract very different users. Two typical cases are CounterFire (Ex CEBG) and BLOCKLORDS.
CounterFire(Ex CEBG)【https://twitter.com/_CounterFire**】**
**New and old users:** There are a large number of participants in the event, almost all of whom are new players, accounting for as high as 97%, which also shows that this growth activity has a good effect on attracting new users for CEBG;
**Player portrait: **Users generally have low wallet balances, all below 1 ETH; the average time spent on Steam is about 800 hours, 11 players spend more than 1,000 hours, and the player with the most hours is about 3,000 hours; 17 users have more than 1,000 fans, 2 users have more than 10,000 fans, and the highest one has 22k fans;
It seems that the purchasing power of these CEBG players is average, but fortunately they are real game players with relatively strong social influence. If their assets are relatively light, the community stickiness and activity should be good.
BLOCKLORDS【https://twitter.com/BLOCKLORDS**】**
**New and old users: **The proportion of new players joining through activities is 36%, and the number of Web3 players accounts for 60% of the total users, indicating that BLOCKLORDS has relatively accurate users;
Player portrait: Users are obviously heavy gamers + Crypto OGs. There are 13 people with wallet balances exceeding 100 ETH, 2 people with more than 1,500 ETH, and the one with the most holding more than 2,300 ETH, a potential krypton gold player; the average time spent on Steam is 2,400 hours, of which 23 people have more than 3,000 hours, 16 people have more than 5,000 hours, and the most hardworking one is a player from Russia, with nearly 9,000 hours;
As a strategy game that requires relatively heavy time investment and operations, BLOCKLORDS has a high degree of match between the game type and the player type. Players like multiplayer, action-oriented hardcore games. After these players are converted to the game, the operation side does not need to spend too much time on user education. Everyone will be very familiar with the prop trading and guild battle modes, which is also more conducive to achieving community self-driving.
At this point, don’t scroll down in a hurry. Observe the data below first. Can you guess which of the above mentioned customer acquisition paths CounterFire (Ex CEBG) and BLOCKLORDS respectively correspond to?
[Note: There is a certain deviation in the data of a single activity, please refer to the actual operation data]
CounterFire (Ex CEBG) is the first one: mainly traditional issuance and buying methods + supplemented by Web3 community promotion; BLOCKLORDS is the second one: mainly Alpha community promotion and Launchpad/task platform customer acquisition + supplemented by traditional social media publicity.
From a data perspective, I a priori believed that CEBG chose the Web3 native growth method because its user profile is similar to that of many task platforms, with low purchasing power but high activity. After the interview, I found that this is not the case. CEBG's Web2 users converted through channels such as Facebook are twice as many as Web3 users, which is why this part of the players does not have too many on-chain assets.
It is counterintuitive that if we do not refer to player data from traditional platforms such as Steam and Epic Game, we often directly classify users with small wallet balances as freeloaders and ignore the conversion of these players because it is easy to fall into the trap of empiricism. Fortunately, multi-dimensional information can help us avoid misunderstandings. Data will never lie.
Interestingly, when it comes to choosing growth strategies, BLOCKLORDS and CEBG, both of which originated from major gaming companies, chose very different approaches.
BLOCKLORDS mainly acquires customers through Web3 channels, because before, whether it was the NFT sales on IMX and Polygon or the community beta testing, they deliberately set the Web3 threshold, and basically did not organize activities to attract Web3 speculative users. They mainly acquired customers around the content of products and core game assets. After a longer period of time, this method is easier to accumulate OG members.
GameFi’s only way to break out of the circle
This event gave me some shallow thoughts on GameFi's customer acquisition and breaking the circle. Let's talk about something practical here. I saw a meme recently that was quite interesting👉
Although it is a bit ironic, it is true. GameFi is mostly Ponzi in the form of games, without many real players.
Once upon a time, GameFi was highly expected to have massive adoption among users, and the prosperity of Axie and Stepn brought unlimited imagination to the industry.
However, at present, the gaming experience at the product level is not good, the economic mechanism lacks stability and sustainability, and the ecosystem is relatively fragile; the lack of real players at the user level limits the long-term development of GameFi, and it is unknown when GameFi Summer will arrive.
