WTF is Web3 Gaming?

Reading time: 4 min

I started my first business when I was 10 years old.

No, I didn’t sell lemonade.

I sold wood. Digital wood.

As a kid, I spent endless hours playing Runescape. I loved virtually meeting up with my friends, going on quests, and leveling up my character’s skills.

As I became more dedicated to the game, I wanted to buy rare items so I could flex on other players. But there was one problem…

I needed a lot of gold.

I had two options:

1. Sell wood, fish, or other resources for gold (time consuming)

2. Use a third party website to buy gold with cash from other players (illegal)

There was no way I was going to steal my parent’s credit card, so I started my own woodcutting business.

Imagine DoorDash, but for wood.

Yew logs (a type of wood) were in high demand and highly profitable to sell.

Players needed yew logs to craft high-level archery bows and other items. But to get yew logs, you needed a high woodcutting level which was tedious to level up. That’s where I’d come in.

I’d head over to the forest, chop a ton of wood, then walk over to the market and sell it in bulk to players.

While chopping wood was a long and boring process, I didn’t mind putting in the time. As a kid, all I had was time. And I hella wanted those items for my character.

I’ve played a lot of games over the years. And in each game, I’d dedicate endless hours to grind away, level up, and get rare items. I’d even spend hundreds of dollars on skins so my character could look cool.

Video games were my escape.

In real life, I was just a scrawny kid.

In video games, I could be whoever I want. A knight with a huge ass sword. A powerful magician. An owner of a digital wood empire.

While I’d reap all the rewards from my hard work in the game, all the time and money I invested became worthless the moment I stopped playing.

My items were stuck. I couldn’t transfer them or sell them for money. There was no way for me to get any value back from all the time and money I put into a game.

All the time I spent chopping wood to get high-level items? Gone.

Spent $500 on League of Legend skins but all my friends are playing Valorant now? Out of luck.

In 2021, the gaming industry was worth ~$200 billion. Players spend so much time and money yet they don’t get any ownership or receive any value back.

Until now.

Web3 Gaming

Web3 gaming = gaming + blockchain.

Gaming NFTs and tokens let any player own their items and transfer value between different platforms. Today we’re going to talk about gaming NFTs.

Gaming NFTs are unique game items that you can own, like:

• Skins

• Weapons

• Property

• Monsters

• Characters

And more.

You can transfer it out of the game. Sell it. Rent it out. Gift it to a friend. It’s yours to do whatever you want with it.

Done playing Fortnite and moving to Valorant? Trade your Fortnite skins for Valorant skins.

Not using your high-level Dragon Sword that you worked so hard to get? Rent it out to another player in a secure and trustless way.

And you can verify if game items are actually rare.

For example: Party Hats are the rarest items in Runescape—worth over 50 billion gold ($6,000+).

Runescape could say there are only 5,000 Party Hats in the game but you’d have no way to know unless you had insider info. With gaming NFTs, anyone can look on the blockchain to verify how rare an item is.

Not only can you own your items, but there’s more transparency into games. And that’s a game changer (pun intended).

Games are like digital economies and they’ve been completely closed off up until this point.

Web3 gaming gives power back to players and lets anyone from around the world participate in an open digital platform.

If you pay for something, you should have the right to own it. What if you couldn’t sell the car you bought?

If you dedicate a lot of time to getting high-level items, you should be able to get value back from all the hours you put in.

I’m hyped for this next era of gaming—and even more hyped to be building at the forefront of it with Decentral Games.

It’s an amazing time to be a gamer.

See you next Friday,

Fifty Sat

P.S.

Some of my favorite games were Runescape, MapleStory, League of Legends, and Call of Duty.

What are some of yours? Reply to this email or DM me on Twitter and let me know 🙂

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Say what you want about Chainsmokers, but this song bops. And they know how to throw down an insane live set.