Aron Beireschmitt, the creator of Crypto Unicorns, discusses with NFT Steez the critical elements blockchain games require to develop successful in-game play-and-earn economies.
Early in 2022, as the excitement around play-to-earn (P2E) games and platforms started to wane, Web3 players began emphasising the need for games to be more “fun” and less money-driven. In the most recent episode of NFT Steez, Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond discussed the viability of P2E-focused blockchain games with Aron Beireschmitt, CEO of Laguna Games and creator of Crypto Unicorns.
According to Beireschmitt, the transition from a play-to-earn strategy to a play-and-earn approach indicates that there is still room for experimentation and development in these games. With blockchain technology, crypto natives and gamers may now play, own, and possibly monetize play-and-earning models, according to Beireschmitt. The greater concern is whether or not it is sustainable.
Beireschmitt claimed Crypto Unicorns is “trying to map a road to sustainability via the mix of economic farming simulation” and real-time “skill-based gaming loops” According to Beireschmitt, these gaming loops must not only resemble form and function but also be entertaining and engaging for players.
However, he also admitted that blockchain-based games are not for everyone and that Crypto Unicorn’s target population are crypto natives.
According to Beireschmitt, there is a lack of “incentive alignment for free-to-play,” which would allow producers to extract the most value from the minority of players that pay in free-to-play games. This gap generates a “paradigm mismatch,” wherein Web3 gaming allows players to achieve a new degree of autonomy and ownership over in-game products, assets, and skills.
This, according to Beireschmitt, is what makes the play-and-earn concept “compelling,” since users might possibly earn while playing their preferred game. Beireschmitt said that Web3 not only permits players’ provenance and ownership, but with governance models, players and participants are now enabled to assume “control of the direction of the game, ecosystem, and IP (intellectual property)”.
The in-game economy has proved to be a stumbling block for the majority of play-and-earn games. Beireschmitt said that the dynamic between passive and active players contributes to the long-term viability of in-game economies as one of the components essential for their sustainability. Passive players are those that invest in active players for their own game advancement.
However, Beireschmitt stressed that “skill-based gameplay loops” and “token sinks” must be added for the dynamic to be viable, since this returns the player to the economy and ecology. According to Beireschmitt, the majority of play-and-earn games are still navigating their transition from “growth phase” to “maturity phase,” but he is certain that “great prospects lie ahead!”
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