2. The possibility of games as economic production activities

“Is it possible to earn money solely by playing games?”

Certainly, some gamers do. If one becomes a professional gamer like the globally renowned Faker, this is indeed achievable. However, not everyone can become such an elite pro-gamer. If over three billion gamers worldwide could earn money while playing, could gaming serve as both economic consumption and production?

Blockchain games or Web3 games have previously demonstrated this possibility through the P2E(Play-to-Earn) model. By allowing gamers to trade game-related assets as NFTs and issuing game-specific cryptocurrency, each game becomes an economic community, where the game’s growth corresponds to the growth of its cryptocurrency, enabling players to monetize their in-game assets and achievements. Considering this, shouldn’t all newly released games worldwide now incorporate the P2E model? Strangely, this is not the case. Why?

First, there are limitations to developing games that are both fun and economically viable. We refer to this as the qualitative limitations of existing games. The current game industry still lacks understanding and trust regarding Web3, hesitant to incorporate blockchain components due to insufficient R&D and experience. Games developed mainly by the Web3 industry often lack quality of gameplay or are too simple in design, resulting in their tokenomics-based economic community models to frequently fail. In addition, most games are also structurally unsuitable, in its fundamental design, for implementing their own economic systems for a viable P2E. While there are several games that have succeeded, most companies within the industry have the tendency to perceive such cases to be lucky exceptions rather than a plausible grounds for future opportunities. Even the successful ones often face sustainability issues for reasons described below.

Second, each game operates on its own separate tokenomics, making the economic system unique but dependent on the game’s popularity and lifecycle, effectively limiting its sustainability which we refer to as the quantitative limitations of existing games. For online games, peak traffic and the prime of its lifecycle typically lasts only 2-3 years post-launch, causing the value of NFT-based assets or cryptocurrency to depreciate over time. Tokenomics relying on in-game mining face inflation risks as supply increases while demand naturally diminishes due to declining user traffic over the course of the game’s lifecycle. To address these issues, there are attempts being made within the industry to enhance interoperability between games. A thesis based on expanding demand through multiple games sharing a single tokenomics, with new game titles continually released to sustain growth.

Based on the morphological characteristics of bringing together various games, most attempts adopt the strategy of building a game platform. However, recognizing the clear limitations of the game platform strategy, the United Games team pursues a metagame strategy to realize the long-held dream of gamers: a stable P2E environment where gaming can become a profession, ushering a new era in the gaming industry as a whole.