Value Decryption: How to Strike Gold on Major Web3 Gaming Platforms for the Next Axie Infinity?

The crypto gaming industry, as one of the hottest sectors in the digital age, has proven its immense potential and appeal during the last bull market, and the wealth economy formed by blockchain games is also one of the main reasons attracting attention. As we enter the last month of 2023, this industry faces numerous challenges amid market fluctuations and constantly changing player demands.
The concept of a GameFi project exploding every year seems unable to continue into 2023, but the arrival of 2024 is highly anticipated, with many predictions pointing to certain projects leading the industry forward. This article will analyze the current state of the traditional gaming industry and the crypto gaming sector, explore future development directions, and highlight several platform projects that can assist users in better participating in Web3.

Web3 games are experiencing a bear market cycle, but greater explosive opportunities are on the horizon

In recent years, the overall gaming industry has undergone unprecedented rapid expansion, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when global market revenues saw significant growth. This growth was driven by increased time spent at home and the exploration of new forms of interactive entertainment, closely related to the explosion of Axie Infinity. At that time, industry analysts predicted that by 2026, the overall gaming market could reach an impressive $321 billion, based on the prevailing market growth trends and the increasing popularity of blockchain technology in the gaming sector, injecting an incredible force into the gaming industry.
However, according to Newzoo's 2022 Global Games Market Report, global gaming market revenues fell by 4.3% year-on-year last year. This decline was primarily due to the gradual end of the pandemic, leading people to return to normal social and work lives, thus reducing time spent gaming at home. Additionally, some major gaming brands postponed the release of their key projects from 2022 to 2023, with significant drops in games released by Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation, which also affected the overall market performance to some extent.

Newzoo data report chart
Moreover, the blockchain gaming sector, which made significant contributions in 2021, has also been greatly impacted by the alternating bull and bear markets in the crypto space, failing to provide the same positive influence on the overall gaming industry as before. Thus, we can see that the development of blockchain games is also one of the new driving forces affecting the overall gaming industry's market size.

Web3 games have solved many of the traditional gaming industry's ailments, with more imaginative development prospects

As mentioned earlier, in the latest wave of developments in the digital gaming field, although there has been some underdevelopment during 2022 and 2023, it is generally believed that this sluggish situation will gradually reverse, and even lead to an explosive year in 2024. Whether blockchain games will also take off with this momentum is a point of interest for many.
Blockchain games leverage blockchain technology to provide players with unprecedented gaming experiences and value creation opportunities, offering limitless potential to the sector.
In the world of traditional gaming, players often face a core issue: the frustration felt after investing significant time in a game. This feeling usually stems from the limited replay value of games, leading players to ultimately abandon them. However, blockchain technology offers various innovative solutions to address this problem.
First, one of the most notable innovations in blockchain games is the application of in-game NFTs. These blockchain-based non-fungible tokens allow players to truly own, buy, and trade in-game items, which also hold real value outside of the game. This shift in ownership not only enhances player engagement but also brings a new dimension to the gaming economy. In-game NFTs allow players to own and resell items such as weapons and skins, thereby endowing game assets with real value.
Additionally, the Play2Earn model provides tangible rewards for players' efforts by allowing them to earn assets through completing game tasks. The Play2Earn model is changing the way players interact with games. In this model, players earn real assets by completing game tasks or achieving specific milestones, which not only increases the appeal of gaming but also provides players with new income sources. This economic incentive mechanism brings new business models to the gaming industry while attracting a broader player base.

The history of human game development
Another important feature of blockchain games is their cross-platform capability. The cross-platform nature of blockchain games allows PC, console, mobile, and blockchain players to connect seamlessly, enhancing accessibility and interactivity. Through blockchain technology, players can experience games seamlessly across different devices and platforms, breaking down traditional platform barriers. This cross-platform interoperability not only enhances accessibility but also provides players with a richer and more coherent gaming experience.
With ongoing technological advancements, especially the integration of VR and AI, the potential of blockchain games will be further explored. AI-driven NPCs (non-player characters) provide personalized gaming experiences, making each player's journey unique. Meanwhile, the integration of VR technology into blockchain games offers players an immersive virtual reality experience. Finally, in-game advertising provides developers with a revenue stream while offering players more opportunities for interaction and engagement. The combination of these technologies heralds the arrival of a more immersive and personalized gaming world, providing players with new ways to explore and interact. Therefore, blockchain games are not only a current hotspot in the gaming industry but also an important direction for future gaming development. As the market matures and players become more accepting of new technologies, blockchain games are expected to become a key force driving progress in the entire gaming industry. These innovative solutions work together to significantly enhance the appeal and longevity of blockchain games.

Success and failure hinge on tokens: How can the development challenges of the Web3 gaming industry be addressed?

In the crypto gaming industry, if we set aside gameplay, the related NFTs or tokens are the main reasons attracting user attention, but the issues related to token economics are also a prominent challenge. The core of this problem lies in the fact that many crypto game tokens have encountered value depreciation amid market fluctuations, often due to unsustainable economic models, excessive token sell-offs, poor game quality, and the combined effects of a bear market. This "vicious cycle" not only undermines the confidence of players and investors but also threatens the healthy development of the entire industry.
To address this issue, the industry needs to implement comprehensive improvements in the following three areas:

1. Product Quality: First, companies must focus on building high-quality gaming products. This means that games should not only feature outstanding graphics, engaging characters, and rich narratives but also ensure that the game itself is sufficiently appealing and entertaining. The primary motivation for players to engage with a game should be the enjoyment of the game itself, rather than merely seeking rewards.
2. Community Engagement: Crypto gaming companies should place greater emphasis on the voices of the community, as players are not only users of the game but also key to its revenue and success. Companies should listen to players' needs and suggestions, such as the content, technology, and narrative improvements they wish to see in the game. By utilizing blockchain voting systems, player feedback and participation can be more effectively integrated, collaboratively shaping the game's development.
3. Token Economics Model: Most critically, there is a need to redesign and refine the token economics model to ensure its sustainability and stability. This includes implementing deflationary mechanisms, allocating in-game fees to protocol stakers, providing loyalty rewards, optimizing voting mechanisms, prioritizing rewards for game quality, and imposing certain restrictions on users with large holdings. These measures aim to create a fairer and more sustainable economic environment, thereby enhancing token value and stabilizing the market.
   In summary, by improving product quality, strengthening community engagement, and reforming the token economics model, the crypto gaming industry can overcome current challenges and achieve long-term, healthy development. This not only enhances players' gaming experiences but also brings more stable and sustainable growth to the entire industry.

Helping players quickly grasp industry dynamics: An overview of Web3 gaming data platforms

The rapid development of Web3 games comes with various accompanying issues. For users and players, understanding how a blockchain game project operates can start from aspects such as product quality, community situation, and token economics model. Nowadays, users can leverage various tools and applications to better discover and analyze potential good projects, such as market analysis tools, community forums, and project evaluation platforms, all of which can provide valuable information and insights to help them make more informed investment decisions. Through these tools, users can not only capture market trends in a timely manner but also mitigate risks to ensure asset safety. The following platforms provide users with direct channels to understand Web3 projects in these areas:
Galxe: A Web3 task platform where users can earn NFT credentials by completing tasks
Galxe, formerly known as Project Galaxy, is a prominent task acquisition platform in the Web3 industry. What sets Galxe apart is its unique approach of distributing various Web3 project tasks to users, encouraging them to actively participate in on-chain interactions, and then recording and generating corresponding NFT credentials to reward their participation.
For users, these tasks include simple actions such as following the project's Twitter, retweeting, liking, joining communities, and more specific project experiences such as token swaps, staking, lending, and minting. This not only provides users with a way to earn rewards but also allows them to gain deeper insights into and participate in different projects.
For project teams, Galxe serves as a powerful channel to attract and reach target users, especially during the early development stages of a project, which is crucial for promoting products and features.
According to information from Galxe's official website, the platform has attracted over 11 million unique users and facilitated the development of over 3,000 partners, including Optimism, Polygon, and Arbitrum, through its reward programs. Users can search and filter tasks released by different blockchain game projects on Galxe's official website to receive airdrop rewards while also gaining opportunities to learn about the projects.
Galxe has also launched the Space application, allowing users to create community spaces without prior permission. This has made Galxe one of the largest Web3 task platforms currently available. As of June 24, 2023, Galxe has collaborated with over 2,700 project teams/communities, launched over 10,000 tasks, and has more than 11 million Galxe IDs. Additionally, project teams can issue NFTs on the platform and provide minting qualifications to eligible users while utilizing the platform's data credentials for customized services. Users can easily view tasks released by various projects and seek potential airdrop opportunities, participate in community activities, and explore new projects.
Galxe has also introduced a digital identity credential called Galxe ID and on-chain tagging OAT. By analyzing on-chain data, Galxe tags different users, and for each task, a credential set is generated that can be exported to third-party applications for use (e.g., token distribution).
In summary, Galxe is not only a Web3 gaming task platform but also an ecosystem that promotes knowledge sharing, community engagement, and market discovery. As its user base continues to expand and its features are optimized, Galxe is expected to become a leader in the Web3 gaming field. For ordinary Web3 users, maximizing returns and seizing opportunities for quality projects is an important issue, and Galxe provides a wealth of tasks and rewards to help users better discover and analyze potential good projects. Through Galxe, users can accumulate valuable on-chain interaction records to make more informed investment decisions. At the same time, this also provides project teams with a powerful channel to attract and interact with potential users, accelerating project development.
DeGame: Over $10 million in funding, over 500,000 registered users, and over 1.8 million users completing tasks
Since its establishment in 2021, the DeGame platform has rapidly grown to become an important player in the Web3 gaming field. As of October 15, 2023, DeGame has attracted over 500,000 registered users and established over 2,000 communities in its community module, with the number of users completing tasks exceeding 1.8 million. These figures demonstrate DeGame's influence and appeal in the Web3 gaming community.
On May 30 of this year, DeGame announced the completion of its second round of funding, raising $6.5 million, led by Folius Ventures, Kenetic Capital, and A&T Capital, with a total disclosed funding amount of at least $10 million.
In terms of functionality, DeGame offers a comprehensive and rich experience for discovering and participating in Web3 games. The platform includes 4,795 games, 77 chains, and 1,356 tokens, covering almost all major projects and tracks in the Web3 gaming market. Users can easily access and participate in these projects through simple searches or clicks.
DeGame's features such as Top Communities, Quest, Leader Board, Gaming, and Event provide users with an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface. These modules not only showcase project communities, reward tasks, project rankings, application downloads, and online/offline activities but also enable users to easily switch and participate in different projects without having to toggle between multiple platforms.

DeGame's new product official page
Additionally, DeGame's Feeds and Academy features have a strong user-generated content (UGC) characteristic. These features allow professional Web3 creators worldwide to share industry news and insights through text and video, helping users clear cognitive blind spots and address information asymmetry. This open and collaborative content ecosystem not only enhances community interactivity but also provides users with a platform for learning and growth.
In summary, DeGame is not only an aggregator for Web3 games but also an ecosystem that promotes knowledge sharing, community engagement, and market discovery. As its user base continues to expand and its features are continuously optimized, DeGame is expected to become one of the leaders in the Web3 gaming field.
As mentioned earlier, the rapid development of Web3 games comes with various accompanying issues, and if we set aside gameplay, the main concern for ordinary Web3 users is how to seize opportunities for quality projects in this still immature market to maximize returns. Nowadays, achieving this requires users to leverage various tools and applications to better discover and analyze potential good projects, such as market analysis tools, community forums, and project evaluation platforms, all of which can provide valuable information and insights to help them make more informed investment decisions. Through these tools, users can not only capture market trends in a timely manner but also mitigate risks to ensure asset safety.
Zealy: A reward task publishing platform that helps Web3 applications expand community size and activity
Zealy (formerly Crew3) is a notable Web3 application aggregation platform that underwent a rebranding in early April this year and successfully completed a $3.5 million pre-seed round of funding. The platform's main goal is to help Web3 applications expand community size and activity, providing users with a platform that integrates digital assets, online and offline activities, and reward tasks.
Zealy's product homepage aggregates projects from various Web3 subfields, including startups, blockchain games, DeFi, infrastructure, NFTs, metaverse, and Web3 learning platforms, categorizing Web3 communities into new communities, featured communities, popular communities, and upcoming communities. Users can easily find various projects on Zealy's official homepage, especially blockchain game projects, and can also look for promising blockchain game communities in the upcoming community section.
It is important to note that users need to bind their MetaMask wallet and complete signature authorization to register a Zealy account to unlock more features. Zealy is a platform focused on community promotion, aiming to help Web3 communities continuously grow. It positions itself with Web3 Discord and has a high social attribute. Within the Zealy community, there are various activity templates, including daily check-ins, content creation, invitation tasks, and other operational tasks. Compared to other platforms, Zealy is more focused, with clear classifications and a points ranking system. In Zealy, some project tasks require users to complete writing, screenshots, invitations, and other tasks to filter out a large number of automated behaviors, ensuring user authenticity.
The tasks provided by the platform mainly relate to specific projects, including following the project's Twitter, retweeting, joining Discord, registering project accounts, answering project-related questions, etc. These tasks are mostly used by project teams for marketing and attracting users, so Zealy's business model leans towards the B-end and is classified as a traffic platform. By providing these tasks, Zealy not only helps project teams with promotion but also offers users a chance to earn rewards while maintaining task diversity and authenticity.
QuestN: A Web3 task platform serving long-tail B-end users
QuestN (formerly Quest3) is a Web3 task activity platform incubated by Hogwarts Labs and is also one of the donation projects of GRT14. The platform's feature lies in serving long-tail B-end users, allowing small B-end clients (such as KOLs, communities, DAOs, etc.) to publish tasks without setting thresholds, unlike most mainstream task credential platforms like RabbitHole and Galxe. However, to ensure the quality of B-end clients, the platform requires them to bind their official website and social media accounts. For tasks offering token rewards, the platform also requires B-end clients to deposit the reward tokens into the treasury in advance for verification.
The tasks provided by QuestN mainly relate to specific projects, such as following the project's Twitter, retweeting, joining Discord, registering project accounts, etc. As rewards, users can receive tokens, NFTs, whitelist spots, etc. These tasks are primarily aimed at helping project teams with marketing and attracting new users, so QuestN's business model leans towards the B-end and is classified as a traffic platform.
Overall, QuestN provides a platform for small B-end clients to publish tasks, offering them an opportunity to enter the Web3 task activity field. This open platform helps promote the development of the Web3 ecosystem while providing users with diverse task and reward options.
RabbitHole: An established decentralized on-chain incentive interaction platform
RabbitHole is an established decentralized on-chain incentive interaction platform, with its current products divided into two categories: the Web3 new user education platform Skills and advertising quests Quests.
In the Skills category, RabbitHole offers four different skills, including Layer2, DAO, DeFi, and NFTs. The tasks for these skills mainly cover basic Web3 on-chain operations, with detailed tutorials provided for each task. Upon completing these tasks, users will receive a non-transferable "Intro to L2" NFT. This part of the tasks aims to help new users quickly get started with Web3 and understand how to operate within it.
The other type of tasks is Quests, which are typically published by individual project teams and require users to interact with specific projects. As rewards, users can receive NFTs, and sometimes project token rewards. However, it is worth noting that tasks that offer project token rewards usually require users to undergo BrightID real-person verification to prevent witch attacks (where a user pretends to be multiple identities to operate).
Overall, RabbitHole provides relatively detailed Web3 on-chain operation introductory education, suitable for novice users. However, the number of collaborating project teams is relatively small, and the business model leans towards the C-end, classifying it as an educational project. Notably, RabbitHole announced the completion of an $18 million Series A funding round in February 2022, led by Greylock and TCG Crypto, further proving its importance in the Web3 education field.
HyperPlay: Completed $12 million in funding, achieving complete interoperability for Web3 games
HyperPlay is a Web3-native game launcher and game store aggregator, primarily designed to automatically connect users' assets, wallets, and NFTs to every Web3 game application they participate in. The platform successfully completed a $12 million funding round in June this year.
To use HyperPlay, users simply need to visit its official website and click the "Store" button to access the Web3 game mall page. In the mall, users can search for and select interesting Web3 game projects based on detailed categories, then enter the game's detail page to start their P2E (Play to Earn) journey.
One of HyperPlay's advantages is its achievement of complete interoperability for blockchain games. Users only need to bind their personal wallet accounts to the HyperPlay website to easily experience various blockchain game projects. However, HyperPlay's disadvantage is that the number of Web3 games it includes is relatively limited, and the information displayed about the games is not comprehensive enough.
Despite this, HyperPlay's successful funding indicates the platform's development potential in the Web3 gaming field, providing users with a more convenient way to participate in Web3 games, which positively contributes to the development of the blockchain gaming ecosystem.
TaskOn: A Web3 task collaboration platform supporting marketing and operational growth for Web3 projects
TaskOn is a Web3 task collaboration platform focused on supporting the marketing and operational growth of Web3 projects. As part of the Moonbeam series of applications, TaskOn offers a range of automated features designed to streamline operational processes.
Among these, the API-Verified feature automatically verifies whether participants have completed operations related to specific products, helping to ensure task validity. Additionally, TaskOn has an automatic reward distribution feature that allows rewards to be issued to participants immediately after an event concludes, with event organizers only needing to create the event and provide sufficient rewards (which can be tokens or NFTs) stored in their TaskOn accounts. Furthermore, TaskOn can create events on behalf of event organizers, further reducing their operational burden.
Compared to other Web3 task platforms, TaskOn stands out for its simplicity and ease of use, and it is rapidly developing. The platform has also implemented a series of measures to prevent bot participation, making it one of the platforms with the highest rate of real users, reaching up to 92.9%.
In summary, TaskOn's business model leans towards the B-end, classifying it as a traffic platform. It provides Web3 projects with an effective way to conduct marketing and operational growth, and is expected to play an important role in the Web3 ecosystem.