Moody Madness: Not Everything Needs to Be Onchain
Gabby Dizon recently joined Moody Madness to talk about why it’s a good thing for games to combine onchain and offchain mechanics — and why he expects this hybrid approach to become the norm.
Not every player is drawn to economic gameplay. While Web3 introduces new motivations such as ownership and the ability to earn, not everyone wants to play for financial rewards. That’s why thoughtful design matters: blending onchain and offchain elements to support different kinds of engagement. As developers experiment with new models and work to strike a balance between economics and experience, some resistance is to be expected. But what feels controversial now may soon become the norm.
On an episode of the Moody Madness Spaces hosted by streamer and Unfungible X Spaces Program Lead Ice, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon joined a discussion called “How Crypto-Friendly Should Games Be?” Also in attendance were Crypto MAZE CEO Alex E., Gr1D Network CEO Jack O’Neill, Prospect Sports co-founder Johnny Chen, and Roach Racing Club Community Manager Vasu Gupta. They discussed Web2 gamers’ skepticism toward Web3 gaming, attributing the stigma to past negativity surrounding tokens and NFTs, as well as a general resistance to games that place economics at the core. The group also discussed how gaming is a space for innovation, where ideas can be tested before the broader Web3 industry adopts them at a foundational level.
The following is an excerpt from the Spaces, where Gabby argues that a combination of onchain and offchain mechanics can be a good thing in Web3 games, depending on the game design and incentive alignment. He also makes a case for economy-based games to go mainstream.
Listen to the full recording on X.
How “Crypto-Friendly” Should Games Be?
Ice (48:56): Gabby, do you think optional, partial crypto elements in gaming could work? Or do you think it might reactivate that stigma that resides in Web2 gamers’ memory banks?
Gabby (49:09): If you look at a lot of games right now, they're using a combination of Web2 and Web3 mechanics. For example, point systems are around, and they're being mixed with tokens. This is a good thing — having different resources, either onchain or offchain, different kinds of currencies, some tradable, some non-tradable. These are all game mechanics.
I'm not in the camp where everything needs to be onchain. There are reasons for a resource to be onchain as a token, whether it's a coin or an NFT. There are reasons why you would want to have a point system that is not tradable, and it boils down to the game design and what kind of incentive alignment you're trying to achieve with the players.
Ice (50:02): Well said, Gabby. Just like how tokens should be partially integrated, so should the idea of all assets being partially integrated onchain. But, you know, as the days and the years go by, I feel this stigma that has been established in the minds of Web2 gamers. I don't know if it's been completely alleviated. Some of it has dissipated over time, but at the end of the day, the stigma is absolutely there. That being said, how do you think project leaders, founders, and builders in the industry can help address this stigma?
Gabby (50:39): Honestly, the stigma is there because there have been a lot of negative experiences with tokens and NFTs. Someone said earlier that for most of our history, we've been playing video games for the sole purpose of leisure. Of course, there have been economic RPGs, like RuneScape, in the past. With Web3, the economy part dominates the gameplay.
Ultimately, that's what crypto is for, and that's what people are here in crypto for. They want ownership, they want to earn money. Not everyone plays games because they want those things. More and more economy-based things will be online, more and more games that look like video games but have complex economies and maybe have GDPs that rival small countries, will exist.
It’s a new thing. A lot of us here are gamers. A lot of us hate new things in games, like how people hated free-to-play. People hate new things. People hate crypto now, but I absolutely expect these things to be normal in a few years, and people will forget that we hated them in the first place.
You can listen to the full recording on X.
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