Chain games are blockchain + games, which refers to game products built on blockchain technology. The biggest difference between them and traditional games is that the decentralized nature of blockchain has a natural confirmation of the player's assets, so the player's assets in the chain game exist as the player's personal assets. Compared with GameFi, the scope of chain games is wider, that is, as long as the game product has completed the data on the chain, it can be called a chain game.
Another interpretation of blockchain games is Token+Game, which is the financialization of GameFi games. Use stablecoins or mainstream coins to buy characters or props. Obtain project tokens within a certain period to make profits. The essence is similar to mining, but after combining with games, it has complex scenarios, unlocking conditions and higher profit margins.
When it comes to GameFi, the market opinion is usually polarized. On the one hand, the continuous entry and increase of various institutional VCs, independent development teams and even large companies represent the expectations of capital. On the other hand, opponents have always criticized excessive financialization, poor gameplay, shoddy graphics, and flaws in the economic system.
Blockchain games gradually recover from the trough
During the last round of P2E (Play to Earn) boom, GameFi’s life cycle was generally short. Compared with traditional games, it lacked playability, had a shorter development cycle and was more focused on asset value rather than gameplay. The economic system in the game was designed to be too simple and crude, lacking a balance mechanism. DeFi is just a game shell.
Therefore, many players feel that the game is monotonous and boring, without any novelty, and is not fun for gamers. In this case, many participants do not care about what the game itself is, but just want to make as much money as possible. The capitalization process of the entire game is too obvious, too fast, and the monetization is too early, and the players participating in the game are too speculative.
For example, new players need to buy in-game items or NFTs before they can play the game. Although they can earn money from the game, as more and more tokens are circulated in the game, the selling pressure gradually increases, and the tokens continue to fall without takeover orders, which delays the player's return cycle. In addition, the GameFi project needs new players to enter the market to maintain, but the blockchain games at this stage are basically single scenes and NFT props, which cannot attract new players at all.
After the market entered a deep bear market in 2022, most blockchain game projects entered a "crash wave", and there were almost no innovative and phenomenal projects like Axie, Stepn, etc. Play To Earn. There are also NFT-based Free to Own models, 3A RPG games that emphasize more playability, and Bet to Earn and Skill to Earn that add a certain degree of gambling and competition.
In the bear market environment at that time, it couldn't make any waves.
Even in this situation, the game track is still developing slowly. How to increase application scenarios to extend the life cycle of blockchain games and sustainable revenue models is the main goal of the next stage of blockchain games. Blockchain games are trying to get rid of the simple "Play to Earn" label and transform into a Play and Earn model by increasing playability. Weaken the Earn component and increase the proportion of Play to attract a group of real game players.
First, 3A-level blockchain game narratives were born, and many so-called 3A-level blockchain games appeared, such as Abyss World, Bigtime, and Delysium. Later, the narrative trend turned to full-chain games, and a number of projects such as Dark Forest and Arena of Faith appeared, which are committed to becoming full-chain games.
Some star games that have gone through several years of development cycles have also made progress. The StepN team has launched GasHero, and the highly anticipated Illuvium has been launched on the world's second largest gaming platform Epic, and so on.
Crypto leader Binance is also continuously increasing its investment in the gaming sector. Since 2023, Binance has launched six new projects, four of which are related to games, namely the virtual companion game Sleepless AI, the Layer3 game public chain, the metaverse farm game Pixels, and the Protal platform focusing on cross-chain games.
Regardless, the entry of various capitals, Binance's successive investments and launches of gaming assets, and the upcoming release of various blockbusters after several years of development, also mean that a new wave of blockchain games will soon arrive, which is worthy of our attention.
A gaming guild that cannot be ignored
In addition to game developers and game platforms, there is another participant in the entire blockchain game industry that absolutely cannot be ignored, and that is the game guild.
In the traditional gaming field, a guild is a group of people that gather together for the main purpose of playing games and has means of communication outside of the game, such as its own channels and communities, with specific names and logos, strict rules and regulations, and level divisions.
However, in the era of blockchain games, the purpose of establishing guilds is more to discuss how to integrate resources and maximize benefits, and to put them into practice for the player group. In addition, the guild will also provide free training and guidance to ordinary users who have no network foundation, and ultimately share the profits with the players.
However, blockchain game guilds have very obvious regional characteristics, do not have an obvious head-aggregation effect, and have low business barriers; they are mostly distributed in countries and regions with high demographic dividends but low per capita income (such as Southeast Asia).
The more famous guilds include YGG, GuildFi, Merit Circle, etc. YGG was also born from Axie. In the Philippines, this game was well-known. YGG took advantage of the popularity and trained a large number of ordinary people to enter the game to "dig for gold".
After YGG completed its initial accumulation through Axie, it participated in the investment of several blockchain games and issued its own tokens, and later attracted investment from institutions such as a16z. Under the influence of YGG, more large-scale blockchain game guilds and massive "gold-making studios" were born, attracting more players to create profits.
The latest to come out on top is GuildFi, which was formerly the largest gaming community in Thailand.
GuildFi aims to build an interconnected ecosystem that connects different games, digital collectibles (NFTs), and communities, based on the Web 3.0 infrastructure. GuildFi's vision is to maximize the interests of players and achieve interoperability in the Web 3 gaming space.
Since November 2021, when GuildFi announced the completion of a US$6 million seed round of financing, in more than two years, GuildFi has raised a total of US$140 million from companies such as Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Animoca, Pantera Capital, Hashed, etc., which is quite impressive considering the background of the investors.
GuildFi has more than 100 million US dollars in treasury reserves, and most of the funds are not native assets (project tokens), but stablecoins and Ethereum. This kind of fund reserve is enough to support GuildFi through bull and bear markets.
Through GuildFi, players can freely communicate and explore different games and communities, improving their gaming experience and revenue. For project owners, GuildFi acts as a super node that can help them acquire users and increase exposure.
In general, the core problem that GuildFi wants to solve is the difficulty of gamers discovering and accessing different games and platforms, providing gamers with a more unified and smooth gaming experience. It provides players with a full range of support and reward mechanisms, creates more opportunities and choices, and also provides a steady stream of user flow for the game. GuildFi can be said to be the 2.0 version of the blockchain game guild.
Transformation based on a higher dimension
The guild has established a strong cooperative relationship with players and developers. On the one hand, the guild invests in the primary market, helps projects develop and increases their traffic; on the other hand, the guild goes deep into the game field, recruits and trains players, holds competitions, promotes games, and combines the player community with game projects.
On the other hand, although guilds can bring a considerable number of users, they can also cause unfair competition for retail investors. At the same time, in a bear market, guilds usually accelerate the death spiral process for GameFi projects, causing the supply and sale of tokens to get out of control. After becoming unprofitable, guild players will also quickly leave, and the guild's own hematopoietic ability will be greatly reduced.
The transformation of blockchain game guilds is still imminent. Seek innovation and change, and reshape the existing business model, such as improving the economic model, providing more diverse services, or introducing new types of games. Balance the benefits and game fun to ensure that the guild can remain competitive in the ever-changing market. Gradually diversify the business: consider expanding into other Web3-related fields.
GuildFi has recently undergone a strategic transformation and upgraded its brand to Zentry. The token $GF will also be converted into $ZENT in proportion.
Zentry aims to bring the experience of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) to real life. Zentry is building a universal Super Layer that connects all games into a unified game economy.
The Zentry ecosystem consists of four vertically integrated cores: underlying blockchain infrastructure that connects Web2 and Web3 data, targeted consumer applications designed to appeal to diverse player groups, a multi-IP universe that deepens engagement through compelling narratives and collaborative IP partnerships, and a strong capital pool of over $100 million.
Zentry will change the status quo where the efforts of gamers cannot be transferred between games and the value created by players is captured by companies. It is creating a new game economy (Play Economy), where every game and every victory can enrich the game legacy of players while also benefiting them in the real world.
The super layer is the platform for realizing this vision. Through Zentry's super layer, all games are connected into a unified game economy. It can seamlessly integrate various game platforms, game loyalty systems, player identities, and cross-game activities into a single integrated gaming experience.
Loyalty systems, player identities, and cross-border activities from countless games and platforms will be seamlessly integrated into a single overlay experience. Gamers can continuously improve their status, uniqueness, and wealth by playing games in different ecosystems.
The main functions and features of the super layer are as follows:
Seamless integration: Through the super layer, different game platforms and systems can be connected together, allowing players' gaming experience to flow and continue across platforms and systems.
Value transfer: Through the super layer, players’ efforts and achievements in one game can be converted and applied to another game, solving the problem of players’ efforts and achievements being isolated between different games.
Enhanced integration of gaming and reality: The super layer can directly link gamers’ achievements, identities, status, etc. to their real-world lives.
Build a unified game economy: The super layer builds a unified game economy system, where players’ efforts and achievements in one game can be rewarded in other games and their value can be reflected in the real world.
The design concept of this super layer is to break the current situation in the game industry where each game is a relatively closed and isolated system, so that the achievements, efforts and value of gamers can flow between different games, empowering players and partners.
Conclusion
In general, whether it is Zentry (GuildFi), YGG, Merit Circle, or even many small game guilds, they are actively trying to transform. From blockchain game guilds to platforms or launching game public chains. This is also a behavior that conforms to the market and is worth encouraging.
Zentry's brand upgrade shows that its team has high-dimensional strategic development planning and high execution capabilities. At the same time, the new narrative has great development potential and the business scalability is extremely high.
Looking back, projects during the bull market that proactively upgrade their brands and swap tokens usually perform well. This swap between GF and $ZENT is worth keeping an eye on.
There will always be a time to ride the wind and waves. It will not be smooth sailing for Zentry to realize such a grand vision, but we need more tolerance and support for teams that dare to explore.
*This article is only a display of high-quality projects and does not constitute investment advice
