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Could “Gaming Capital Market” spark interest in crypto gaming?
Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron is behind the upcoming launch of Open Game Protocol. Open Game Protocol is a chain-agnostic app layer that aims to reward players of any game with any token, and also rewards developers with tokens.
“The most important thing for players is that they get paid, and more importantly, they believe in the rewards that they get. And the most important thing for developers is that they can get more players and ultimately make a living making games,” Waldron told me in an interview.
However, for game developers who are not blockchain engineers, rewarding players is not always easy. Any This is because you need to purchase a large amount of that token in advance and create a smart contract to distribute it.
“For most game developers, all that stuff is rudimentary,” Waldron said.
conflicting incentives
Crypto gaming has been undergoing an identity crisis for years due to disparate genres such as narrative games and casino games being lumped together. Many crypto game developers, investors, and influencers have promoted the importance of “good games first” first and foremost.
But perhaps they didn’t understand why anyone would play crypto games in the first place: that players could actually win something of monetary value. Otherwise, big-budget games like Fortnite and League of Legends, backed by multi-billion dollar studios, offer a better gaming experience overall.
While some indie developers have recognized that the advantage of crypto games is the financialization that makes it different, we have yet to see any titles break into the mainstream. This year we’ve seen a flurry of casino games, hyper-casual titles, and “Ponzi-esque” titles, all looking to leverage a more token-forward approach.
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Marketing centered around crypto games has emphasized what kind of blockchain is used and promoted it like a famous brand. This is often because the L2 itself is doing the marketing.
However, the motivations and interests of the L2 blockchain may actually be at odds with what game developers actually need.
“Their own incentives are getting in the way a little bit,” Waldron told me. “They’re saying, ‘I want to drive certain types of TVL and transactions on my chain,’ so to some extent they’ve become less aligned with the games they’re working on.”
structure
Waldron likened the OG protocol to Stripe. This is because any game developer can get token rewards set up for their game as quickly as they can set up credit card payments.
However, there is also a community component where you can stake your tokens.
“We built a system to create these reward pools and allow the token community to decide which games receive how much rewards,” he said. “Rather than games creating assets, assets are combined with existing games.”
Traders can support their favorite tokens and games.
All of this is possible thanks to what Waldron calls “gaming coins,” which are attached to existing tokens. He used FARTCOIN as an example.
“The FARTCOIN Game Coin is not used in-game. In reality, it is a governance token that only determines where the FARTCOIN rewards go. In other words, it is a way to speculate on how big the FARTCOIN gaming ecosystem will become.”
Non-crypto game developers may eventually use non-crypto gaming protocols as an alternative to traditional advertising, Waldron suggested.
“This is going to be like another method of user acquisition that’s cheaper and more effective than advertising,” Waldron said, adding that developers can also buy game coins to stake on their titles.
The OG protocol is initially using Solana, but plans to expand to EVM chains in the future. It is incubated by ICMrun, a Solana forward group focused on applications for tokenization.
