Bragging Rights Are Key to Retaining Web3 Gamers

Gaming is a social endeavor, so winning means cooperating with your friends in quests or beating the player on the other screen, and telling the world about your achievements.

Allen Ng is the Co-Founder of OpenSocial Protocol and EVG, one of Asia’s largest Web3 operating groups in consumer products. This post is part of CoinDesk's GameFi theme week.

Web3 gaming has struggled for various well-documented reasons, most notably in the form of great backlash from the gaming community due to Web3 games being “boring” and “depthless.”

But what if I told you that there is a hidden ingredient missing from Web3 games that could potentially solve this problem? An ingredient that has been used by traditional game developers for decades to keep players engaged and coming back for more.

This ingredient is none other than the good ol’ bragging rights.

Bragging rights are a fundamental aspect of gaming that allows players to showcase their achievements and skills to others. It’s what drives players to complete challenges, climb the ranks and ultimately achieve victory.

In the world of Web3, bragging rights take on a whole new meaning. With the advent of digital identities and verifiable gaming achievements, players can now brag about their accomplishments across multiple games and ecosystems.

This creates a new layer of social clout and status within the gaming community, where players can build their gaming resumes and showcase their bragging rights to potential employers, friends and followers.

The importance of the social layer

Socializing is a key aspect of human nature, and it plays a vital role in gaming. From massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) to first-person shooters (FPS), players are constantly interacting, competing and cooperating with each other.

These social interactions create a sense of community and belonging, which in turn leads to higher engagement and retention rates. In fact, studies have shown that players who socialize more in games tend to spend more time and money on them.

This is where Web3 comes in. By enabling players to perform transactions with each other and not just with the game itself, Web3 social systems will allow players to create their own teams, guilds and organizations within the game.

It’s not just you and “The Matrix” anymore. It’s you, your friends, your competition and your community.

With all the time invested into a game, players will grow more attached when they have something to brag about in their time spent gaming, and a place to brag about it. Those bragging rights are the crude oil that is constantly fuelling the $200 billion-a-year gaming economy after the right refining.

But they are also missing in Web3 gaming, relegated behind grind-and-earn mechanics. The next generation of Web3 gaming dApps needs to understand this and include community self-sovereignty, creating composable UI layers and giving gamers something to brag about, in addition to offering financial incentives. Only then will the adoption of Web3 games increase.