Sam's CEX talk.
Gamified Episode #67 breakdown
A note from Gnoc
Two weeks in a row??
Last episode was our most viewed EVER… You know I had to follow it up.
I can’t thank you guys enough for the support even though we’ve been MIA for months - I’m committed to making this a more regular thing and I’m so happy you all enjoyed the new format.
Get used to seeing me in your inbox every week!
Re listen to Episode #67 of Gamified!
In Today’s Newsletter
Are Play to Airdrop campaigns still working?
Sam’s CEX talk
ICYMI
Are we all Airdropped out?
Distributing a product is hard.
Distributing a game is VERY hard.
Distributing a Web3 game? Damn near impossible…
Web3 teams have been looking for ways to capture attention since the dawn of time. The ecosystem is a frustrating combination of too much noise (ie. too much going on) and too few users (ie. no one is here to use our product).
One of the ways teams have managed to capture attention is through airdrops. These come in different shapes in sizes; everything from free money for historical use of a product, to on going rewards for owning certain assets (usually NFTs).
Games have recently adopted this strategy in what has been dubbed “Play To Airdrop” or “P2A”.
Users play the game for x period of time and are rewarded (typically in that games on-chain currency) depending on their performance during the reward window.
“Performance” started with things like logging in, or making an account but have since evolved into more hands on experiences like… actually playing the game and completing levels (the audacity!!).
Everyone loves a good airdrop (or more accurately everyone loves free shit) - but are teams asking too much of users in order to get them?
Panelists discuss:
Dub feels that the market for play to airdrop campaigns has become diluted, suggesting that most users are participating in 5+ at a time.. which begs the question; are these users even worth chasing?
Lemz argues the exact opposite; having a bunch of campaigns live at one time is actually a bullish thing for games as it forces users to make a decision. He hopes that this means that users who do participate have chosen to do so because that game either cuts through the noise or resonates with the user, making participants high value + intent users.
Vidar is blunt. He strongly dislikes P2A, claiming that “everyone and their mothers” are doing it.
(I don’t know that I agree with Lemz entirely, but I do think there’s probably an argument to be made there. If I have 100 options but I choose your game, I’m probably more interested in it than the others?).Sinjin says the improving quality of games will lead to more effective play to airdrop campaigns (and pretty much every other type). He makes reference to the early days of Axie Infinity; a novel experience with powerful social levers to pull. Max adds, it’s not just about getting the player in the door - you need substance (read good gameplay) in order for these campaigns to have real benefits.
(While Axie wasn’t successful super long term with their incentives, Sinjin does raise a good point here - there is proven appetite for compelling experiences. Perhaps we’re just not seeing any.)Strategic implementation is a hot topic:
Sinjin says you need to have a follow up plan for long-term retention; once users are in, what’s the plan? How do you bring in non-web3 users?
Cautionary tales from Kohji; Web2 users are important but you have one chance to capture their attention. Fuck it up, and that’s it. They’re gone. You need to have community + gameplay loops in place before you ever attempt to attract non-crypto natives.
Part of the plan, according to Park is to cultivate a strong community BEFORE these activations. You should have a lively ecosystem, something that makes people want to stay before you try to bring in more users.
Kohji simply says that while all of this is great, we need to remind ourselves that incentivized campaigns are NOT a new thing. Games have been leveraging some version of this for decades are there are plenty of real world examples we can take learnings from to form better campaigns in web3.
It’s interesting for me to see such a wide range of opinions on what I thought would’ve been a pretty simple topic.
More users at top of funnel = better for the game.
Turn’s out most people believe there’s a qualifier to that statement: IF your game is ready for an influx of users.
Do you:
Have the systems in place to handle 1,000 more users? 10,000? 100,000?
Have deep enough progression systems to keep users engaged post reward window?
Have a plan to reengage users who come play once but don’t return?
That’s a lot to digest, because its a surprisingly nuanced topic but here’s the TLDR:
Play to Airdrop campaigns are a double-edged sword. They can be incredible tools for driving top of funnel user acquisition but they often fall short in attracting long term players.
The trick?
Leverage multiple activities.
In my opinion P2A shouldn’t be seen as a stand alone growth lever, but rather one of many tools in the toolbox for game developers looking to create a more efficient pipeline for growth.
Sam’s CEX talk.
Sam posted a long thread last week featuring so JUICY info from Web3 gaming founders (sent in anonymously of course). The focus was on the perhaps less than savory actions of certain Centralized Exchanges (CEX joke).
The TLDR (allegedly):
Big centralized exchanges have all the negotiating power when it comes to getting your token listed because they have all the users, and in turn all the volume.
Rumors are that these exchanges are charging anywhere from 10-20% of total token supply in order to get listed.
Panelists were split; some believe that while that price is high it’s actually worth it because of the historical performance of tokens who do get listed, others believe those prices are ridiculously high.
Teams are forced to bot or otherwise artificially inflate their social numbers because CEX’s have set follower benchmarks before even talking to teams.
Pricing has become more obfuscated, designed to extract max value from teams listing tokens.
I didn’t feel like a full breakdown was a good fit for the newsletter but I did want to highlight it because I do think it’s pretty interesting.
I HIGHLY recommend you read the post.
Here’s a screenshot from Twitter (hint if you click the image it’ll link to the Tweet):
🔥💗🙌