為什麼我們（仍然）投資 Web3 遊戲

Leah Callon-Butler 和 Nathan Smale 表示，在創新、採用和影響力方面，遊戲脫穎而出，成為區塊鏈技術的主要用例

Despite a downturn in game tokens, Web3 gaming is still attracting investment due to its potential for innovation, adoption, and impact.

儘管遊戲代幣低迷，但 Web3 遊戲由於其創新、採用和影響的潛力，仍然吸引投資。

Key Takeaways:

要點：

With game tokens down 37% overall in 2024, some are writing off Web3 gaming, but this is shortsighted.

隨著 2024 年遊戲代幣整體下跌 37%，有些人正在放棄 Web3 遊戲，但這是短視的。

Despite the downturn, Emfarsis is still actively angel investing in seed and pre-seed Web3 startups.

儘管經濟低迷，Emfarsis 仍然積極對種子和種子前 Web3 新創公司進行天使投資。

This is a great time to invest, as builders are pitching mind-bending new ideas and shipping intriguing MVPs.

這是投資的好時機，因為建構者正在提出令人費解的新想法並推出有趣的 MVP。

Emfarsis is putting its money where its mouth is, guided by the thesis that Web3 gaming will move us further forward in terms of innovation, adoption, and impact than any other use case.

Emfarsis 正在言出必行，其理念是 Web3 遊戲將比任何其他用例在創新、採用和影響方面推動我們進一步前進。

Our company Emfarsis is now investing in and advising early stage Web3 projects with a focus on gaming. We originally became interested in blockchain way back in 2016 because we saw the potential for the technology to empower marginalized groups and champion inclusion, redistribute wealth and power more fairly and transparently, and improve the lives of billions of people all around the world. Ultimately, we believed that Web3 could be a force for good.

我們公司 Emfarsis 目前正在投資早期 Web3 項目並為其提供諮詢，重點關注遊戲領域。早在2016 年，我們就對區塊鏈產生了興趣，因為我們看到了該技術在賦予邊緣群體權力和倡導包容性、更公平和透明地重新分配財富和權力以及改善全球數十億人的生活方面的潛力。最終，我們相信 Web3 可以成為一股向善的力量。

It wasn’t until late 2017 when we went all in on Web3, joining a crypto payments startup that sought to level the playing field for business operators that were fighting tooth and nail with the banks for a fair go. We got to go around the world giving talks and running workshops, while I wrote red pill-styled opinion pieces on everything from peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and crypto-asset backed remittance to decentralized identity and reputation.

直到 2017 年底，我們才全力投入 Web3，加入了一家加密支付新創公司，該公司致力於為那些與銀行竭盡全力爭取公平競爭的企業經營者提供公平的競爭環境。我們必須到世界各地進行演講和舉辦研討會，而我則撰寫紅色藥丸風格的觀點文章，內容涉及從點對點（P2P）支付和加密資產支持的匯款到去中心化身份和聲譽等各個方面。

But, OMG, the education effort was a hard slog. Yes, of course, people would nod emphatically as we told them they could be their own bank, and transact permissionlessly — yada yada yada — but only a small number actually converted. Even then, they were more likely to buy on a local, licensed CEX and HODL, rather than self custody and go off exploring the decentralized ecosystem.

但是，天哪，教育工作是一項艱鉅的任務。是的，當然，當我們告訴人們他們可以成為自己的銀行，並且無需許可即可進行交易時，人們會用力點頭——yada yada yada——但實際上只有一小部分人進行了轉換。即便如此，他們更有可能在當地有執照的 CEX 和 HODL 上購買，而不是自行託管並繼續探索去中心化生態系統。

We found ourselves asking: what’s the point of world-changing tech if you can’t get people to use it? Not just check the balance on their wallets once in a BTC moon, but really use it? At the time (circa 2018-19), we felt the learning curve was too steep, the UX sucked, and quite frankly, talking about wallets, payments and remittance put people to sleep. Not to mention that most people weren’t overly enthused about investing their savings into “magic beans” that they viewed as volatile, risky, and possibly scammy. Few normies wanted to gamble on that.

我們不禁要問：如果不能讓人們使用改變世界的技術，那它還有什麼意義呢？不僅僅是在比特幣滿月時查看一次錢包餘額，而是真正使用它？當時（大約 2018-19 年），我們覺得學習曲線太陡峭，用戶體驗很糟糕，而且坦白說，談論錢包、支付和匯款會讓人們昏昏欲睡。更不用說大多數人並不太熱衷於將自己的積蓄投資於“魔豆”，他們認為這些“魔豆”不穩定、有風險，而且可能是騙局。很少有普通人願意在這上面賭博。

But making money by playing a video game? Now THAT was a different proposition altogether. This was the promise of play-to-earn and we discovered it before most, when “blockchain gaming” was still an oxymoron. When I first wrote about it for CoinDesk in August 2020, Axie had less than 500 DAU, was still on Ethereum, and suffered all of the same UX and on/off ramping issues as the rest of crypto. But that didn’t stop a tidal wave of new users, when word got around about the game that paid you to play — particularly in the Philippines where we’d relocated in 2018 in the belief that the country would see a crypto adoption miracle thanks to its young, digitally-savvy but mostly unbanked population that was highly proficient in English.

但是透過玩電玩賺錢？現在這完全是一個不同的提議了。這就是邊玩邊賺錢的承諾，我們在大多數人之前就發現了它，當時「區塊鏈遊戲」仍然是一個矛盾的說法。當我於 2020 年 8 月首次為 CoinDesk 撰寫相關文章時，Axie 的 DAU 還不到 500，仍然在以太坊上，並且遇到了與其他加密貨幣相同的用戶體驗和開/關斜坡問題。但這並沒有阻止新用戶的浪潮，當這款付費遊戲的消息傳開時，尤其是在菲律賓，我們於 2018 年搬遷到菲律賓，因為我們相信該國將看到加密貨幣採用的奇蹟，謝謝面向年輕、精通數位科技但大多沒有銀行帳戶且精通英語的人。

At its peak in July 2021, Axie counted nearly 3 million daily active users (DAU). Largely, they were poor, low-skilled service sector workers hailing from emerging economies in Southeast Asia, Latin America, India and Africa — exactly the kind of people that we’d hoped might one day find personal empowerment in crypto. This community had previously been ignored by crypto marketers due to their lack of disposable cash, and here they were, finally, and legitimately, competing in the global decentralized digital economy as equals. It was the miracle we had predicted; we just never dreamed a video game would be the catalyst.

在 2021 年 7 月的高峰期，Axie 的每日活躍用戶 (DAU) 接近 300 萬。很大程度上，他們是來自東南亞、拉丁美洲、印度和非洲新興經濟體的貧窮、低技能的服務業工人——正是我們希望有一天能在加密貨幣中找到個人賦權的那種​​人。這個社群先前因缺乏可支配現金而被加密貨幣行銷人員忽視，而在這裡，他們最終合法地在全球去中心化數位經濟中平等競爭。這是我們預料到的奇蹟；我們只是從未夢想過電子遊戲會成為催化劑。

Read more: Jeff Wilser - What Hamster Kombat Did: How Telegram Built a Web3 Gaming Juggernaut

閱讀更多：Jeff Wilser - Hamster Kombat 做了什麼：Telegram 如何打造 Web3 遊戲巨頭

It’s critical to note here that Axie’s developer, Sky Mavis, had achieved this great adoption feat without needing to make blockchain easier to use or understand. It didn’t even lower the cost of participation, as you still had to buy the NFTs you needed to play (at least, you did in the early days — more on that later). Instead, Axie changed the game entirely, by delivering an unapologetically Web3-native experience that was unparalleled. It financialized gaming in such a way that anyone who contributed real value to the game’s virtual economy (not just the developers and the publishers) could reap the benefits. And people wanted it so bad

這裡值得注意的是，Axie 的開發者 Sky Mavis 已經實現了這一偉大的採用壯舉，而無需讓區塊鏈更容易使用或理解。它甚至沒有降低參與成本，因為你仍然必須購買玩遊戲所需的 NFT（至少，你在早期是這麼做的——稍後會詳細介紹）。相反，Axie 徹底改變了遊戲規則，提供了無與倫比的 Web3 原生體驗。它將遊戲金融化，任何為遊戲虛擬經濟貢獻實際價值的人（不僅僅是開發商和發行商）都可以從中受益。人們非常想要它