The second chapter continues!
Again, there is no financial advice, this site is primarily game coverage / guides – wrong place for money! This is a blunter than usual assessment of the current state of web3 infra – and is just one person’s take (Don’t troll me! It’s totally fine if there are many takes in the world you know!)
To recap part 1, Treasure’s key proposition is console / infrastructure – the web3 Steam Deck or Switch of sorts.
Three specific factors that Tempest thinks are under-rated that make Treasure a sleeper of an ecosystem (which may have caused the recent surge of interest):
- Trove trumps Opensea for gaming
- Web3 games are a hybrid model & MagicSwap eliminates friction
- Gamers like to hangout in game communities
Trove: How different from Opensea?
Tempest is going out on a limb here, but Opensea’s origin story came from Art NFTs and land NFTs (Decentra / Sandbox). During the past year, it this proliferated into all sorts of genres including gaming, but it is indeed just one category out of the whole sea!
As of writing, there are actually few dedicated gaming market brokers on the web3 street! This is very much what sets Treasure apart (Credit to Trove).
Trove is the marketplace infra for Treasure and the solution or UI to for gamers to make their purchasing decisions. The ability to browse (safely!) and buy / sell / play game cartridges (NFTs) in the same eco-system + mostly priced in the same game credits is an under-appreciated QoL many gamers take for granted in web2 – but is actually a pleasure in web3.
Trove is still in a development phase, but over the past year, many small QoL releases have continued (Floor bids on collections, Moonpay on-ramp) and if one thinks about it, what if someday you can floor bid for specific features of a game NFT or get store credit purchases to make VIP? (I want the skeleton with the rocket launcher feature only for 50 MAGIC! 20 MAGIC for Level 2 VIP!)
MagicSwap: Web3 Games require Alternative infra vs. web2
Tempest’s experience thus far in web3 gaming has suggested the operating model of games are a straddle of traditional pay2own (yes,yes, I like it TOO!) & smartphone gaming monetization models (pay2win / progress).
The model is like this primarily due web3 having a primary objective of decentralization / ownership of assets. You own the gaming NFT you bought, if you make some loot or in-game tokens, those are yours too! You do need some tokens or in-game currencies to make the game meta right?
Naturally, this model will come up with a few challenges:
- Marketplace for items (Trove-solved)
- Token utility into the game (game-dependent but few of the biggest challenges in current web3 gaming)
- Marketplace for buying specific-game tokens/credits (Enter MagicSwap)
MagicSwap on the surface looks pretty much like a Uniswap or Sushi Swap on Arbitrum – but underneath the hood, it is a DEX specifically catered towards Treasure games.
In its current state, it operates no different than any DEX (buy/sell game tokens) and caters specifically to $ELM (Tales of Elleria) & gFly (Battlefly) game tokens which allow for progression or in-game utilities – but do not ever underestimate infra delivery.
Rumor has it…MagicSwap will allow for NFT pools (think Sudoswap for Treasure games!). Want to trade a Realm for a few Toadz or Toad Pad? You can soooon!
What if you can use gFly to buy a Beacon Pet? That’s right… this is a game-changer that people ignore / underestimate. Frictionless game infra that allows inter-operability / trading of different game assets!
TreasureTags & Community
Should you have spent some time in web3, you may well have very likely come across the iconic Smol PFPs alreadEEEEEEE! (Tempest loves typing wen smol in discord)
For those that wander through discord, you may also have come across or heard of this quaint #moonboiz channel in Treasure with a diaspora of memes, copy pasta, and over-the-top exaggerations of MAGIC! To top it off, you may have even seen a black mage emoji “Casting” MAGIC higher!
A lot of these smol things form the culture and cohesion of any web3 community – and specifically in Treasure, you will see more people talking about games and theorycraft – much more than some new degen mint or cool pfp on Opensea.
BUT one final incoming feature which may well advance Treasure’s progression towards web3 gamer infra are something announced recently called: TreasureTags
TreasureTags simply put, is a profile-based gamer progression curve via gaining EXP or levels. Rumor has it, may also include some guild social features – potentially too!
The more time you spend or activities in the Treasure ecosystem, the more EXP you get which provides an achievement-based system. There are still numerous applications in this matter, but this system has only been seen in a few other games – and only in isolation which limits genre expansion – e.g. Sandbox and Crypto Unicorns.
As a gaming system this has not yet been seen, but imagine the possibilities of getting enough Treasure achievement levels for access to a new gaming beta test (or white-list??). How about, exclusive and coveted roles in discord or even ability to gain Harvester access? Or alternatively, boosts on stats or mechanics for certain game loops in selective games? So many possibilities!
So much? TOKENOMICS wen?
The point of this article is to simply give you a glimpse of what are some innovations being delivered at the Treasure infrastructure level. It doesn’t mean to tell you to ape in Treasure eco, but hopefully highlight, some of the actions taken by the development team and the progressive outlook that may hopefully allow a better space for web3 gamer adoption – which truly remains at an initial stage at best. (in short, it’s not financial advice! Simply some thoughts on gaming consoles!)
At this rate, some moonboiz will interrupt Tempest with where does Bridgeworld fit and why it last? Worry not, part 3 will be coming soon – but please don’t call it tokenomics and ask about inflation/deflation!
