The Metacast: The Value of Gamers

In this podcast, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon and Head of Asset Acquisition Jeff Holmberg shares how playing for entertainment can have different meanings for players and game developers.

The Metacast by Naavik is a business-focused exploration of the companies, trends, strategies and leaders that are defining the future of games. Founded in 2018, Naavik is a research, consulting and advisory firm that enables games industry professionals to better master the business of gaming.

The host of The Metacast’s Crypto Corner, Nico Vereecke, is an investor at BITKRAFT Ventures and the founder of Future of Gaming. In this episode of the podcast, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon and YGG Head of Asset Acquisition Jeff Holmberg join Nico to talk about the state of play-to-earn, the role of guilds in Web3 gaming, how Web3 games should position themselves, and what makes Yield Guild stand out.

The following is an excerpt from the episode. Listen to the full discussion here. 

The Current State of Play-to-Earn - The Metacast by Naavik

Nico (25:05): A lot of comments from critics have come from the fact that, in order to be able to earn something, you need to add value. And today, if you're playing a game, you're supposed to play a game for fun. It's not self-evident that you actually add value by playing games. So what are some examples of the upskilling that you do for the community members that would have or would give them the skills to add value in a more traditional sense?

Gabby (25:34): People don't understand that a person playing a game is actually adding value. Think about free-to-play games. Game developers are willing to spend a lot of money to acquire a user, like a player getting ads on Facebook. And why are they willing to acquire those users? Because those users have value. 

People are playing for fun, but you don't realize you actually have value by being inside the game, especially if it's a multiplayer game. So just because a game is fun doesn't mean you're not doing anything of value. People don't really think about this, because you're thinking of playing games from your own point of view, which is, “I'm playing this for entertainment.” And if I'm doing something that has value, then it’s work. 

It’s actually very different, looking at it from the game developer’s perspective. I'm acquiring users, whether I'm marketing, taking out a billboard, PR, direct acquisition or paying yield. These are all different types of user acquisition. A game that is not sustainable, where there is more yield coming out than revenue coming in, is no different from a mobile game that's spending more money on Facebook ads than it is making in revenue. You have to separate the entertainment value of something from the value of something because these mean different things to the developer and to the player themselves.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube. 

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