Despite promises of “decentralization” and “trustless ownership,” the vast majority of crypto games today are, at best, partially decentralized. Web3 is the branding, but in reality, most areGame assets live on-chain, yet the game logic, state and storage remain off-chain on centralized servers.
Furthermore, developers have to make important tradeoffs when using blockchain technology to make the game widely accessible to non-crypto audiences. But there are passionate communities of degens interested in full-fat, on-chain “autonomous worlds” that are built from the bottom up by the players. One group even modded a game to form a communist collective so everyone “won” the same. Autonomous worlds, as they’re sometimes known, face a lot of hurdles, but given the limitations, the early results are impressive.Web3 games are grappling with a bunch of other issues due to the brief history of the emerging sector.
The Metaverse Index token, which tracks a collection of major gaming and metaverse tokens, is down 95.6% from its all-time high in November 2021.In response, Web3 games are now shunning the “play-to-earn” catchphrase that helped propel the sector to prominence, embracing phrases like “play--own,” and deemphasizing the profits while focusing on benefits such as the ownership of game assets, or simply how fun the game is.
Some believe the emphasis on financial returns has tainted the industry’s image, not least due to an influx of scammers.