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2023 NFT Gaming Wishlist

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8 web3 gaming themes for 2023

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by William M. Peaster

1) Deeper, richer gameplayĀ 

One reason people love games so much? They allow us to test and hone our skills.Ā 

Nowhere is this truer than in games that have lots ofĀ depth, i.e. they offer a rich variety of tactical and strategic gameplay possibilities. Anything from Chess to Hearthstone are examples here.Ā 

The NFT gaming ecosystem is growing faster than ever now, but to date many of its early titles have felt ā€œflatā€ in lacking much to do and thus offering players little in the way of tests of skill. One project working in the right direction here right now is Axie Infinity.Ā 

In April 2022, Axie creators Sky Mavis unveiledĀ Axie Infinity: Origins, an optimized version of their original tactical card battler game that introduced card updates, a charms and runes crafting system, and real-time combat. As you can see from the tweet above, these new elements allow players to enjoy aĀ lotĀ of depth with unique, custom-tailored playing styles.Ā 

Of course, Axie Infinity: Origins is still a work in progress itself, but I hope to see more projects following its lead in ā€œgoing deepā€ in 2023. If youā€™re interested in learning more about this game in particular, check out its basicsĀ in this Sky Mavis guide.

2) New mobile releases

A decent smartphone is more affordable than a computer or a gaming console, so mobile games are great for accessibility.Ā 

One thing Iā€™ve always really enjoyed about Axie Infinity was how you could play it on Android devices (with iOS support coming soon, too), and thereā€™s no doubt weā€™re going to see more NFT games emulating this approach going forward as mobile gaming activity keeps rising to new heights.Ā 

The mobile gaming boom is picking up steam

One project Iā€™m watching on this front right now isĀ Treeverse.Ā 

A mobile MMORPG built on Ethereum and headed up byĀ Endless CloudsĀ andĀ Loopify, Treeverse is currently in limited pre-alpha testing. However the early videos from this testing reveals the makings of a game that not only looks pretty but also looks downright fun in my opinion.Ā Ā 

Bringing fun to more people, and more people into the empowering applications of crypto, is the lodestar for mobile NFT games. Iā€™m really interested to see how Treeverse and other mobile titles like it progress accordingly.Ā 

3) Gasless gamingĀ 

Games with lots of on-chain elements can come with lots of transactions and wallet signatures.Ā 

Lots of transactions and wallet signatures = poor user experience.Ā 

As such, a new NFT game thatā€™s demonstrating how to provide gasless UX isĀ Pirate Nation, an on-chain adventure game built on Polygon. The project uses aĀ game wallet systemĀ that allows Pirate Nation to cover transactions behind the scenes so players donā€™t have to pay for gas or sign any transactions mid-game.Ā 

Hereā€™s hoping other web3 games start experiment with this superior UX approach, too!

4) The Arbitrum gaming invasion

Arbitrum has been the largest and most popular layer-two (L2) Ethereum scaling solution for a while now.Ā 

Of course, affordable and fast infra is ideal for NFT games. This reality, combined with all the advances yet to come for Arbitrum, makes this L2 fertile ground for a web3 gaming boom.Ā 

Additionally, projects likeĀ Treasure DAOĀ have already done much to bring the foundations of a teeming NFT scene to Arbitrum, so the fun looks like itā€™s just getting started here. Thatā€™sĀ literallyĀ true for a title likeĀ The Beacon, a free-to-play RPG that just had an explosive launch and is poised to bring considerable activity to Arbitrum going forward. This is just a taste of whatā€™s to come for this L2, I think.Ā 

5) More tournamentsĀ 

The thrill of competition, the glory of skillful wins, the gain of achievements and rewards, and that sense of belonging to a community of passionate peers.Ā TheseĀ are the reasons why players find tournaments so exciting.Ā 

So when it comes to NFT games, tournaments are absolutely a great way to offer players fun and compelling experiences on a rolling basis, and Iā€™d love to see more of them accordingly.Ā 

One project that I think is nailing the tournament approach currently isĀ Sorare: NBA, which lets players build fantasy decks and then register for a variety of different competitions whenever theyā€™d like. Yes please!

The Sorare: NBA tournament lobby

6) Flexible crypto-native designs

Sometimes when NFT games push out updates, the game creators will temporarily pause their contract(s) and players will have to unstake or migrate their gaming assets. This isnā€™t great UX, right.Ā 

One game thatā€™s tackling this problem right now isĀ Shattered EON, which is set to launch in April 2023. Itā€™s doing so with the flexible and modularĀ Diamond StandardĀ smart contract approach that allows NFT games (among other use cases) to readily extend and update their projects. Iā€™m all in favor of seeing more of this practical approach in the space.Ā 

7) More on-chain game engine experimentsĀ 

By ā€œon-chain game engine,ā€ I mean a series of smart contracts that are created to power a gameā€™s backend indefinitely on a blockchain like Ethereum.Ā 

On-chain game engines are interesting because they allow third-party creators to openly build new experiences around and on top of NFT games. This dynamic paves the way to modding, which in turn allows players to actively choose how to want to enjoy and experience their games of choice.Ā 

There has been lots of interesting work on this front lately. For example, in recent months weā€™ve seenĀ Curio,Ā Lattice, andĀ Adam CochranĀ introduce new on-chain game engines. These are the bloomings of a new field, and the possibilities are wide open here at the moment.Ā 

8) No-token games

Practically every NFT game to date has embraced ERC20 tokens in some form or fashion.Ā 

The most popular approaches weā€™ve seen so far have revolved around single-token or dual-token models. The latter splits out governance and utility matters across separate ERC20s, while the former tries to handle all its needs with just one token.Ā 

Both these approaches can face major issues, which 0xKepler, one of the great minds in web3 gaming in my opinion, lays out excellently in this thread:

As way to avoid these issues, 0xKepler proposes the creation of aĀ no-token modelĀ that would rely on ā€œoff-chain currency + NFTs for value accrual.ā€Ā 

The idea is that players could ā€œmint NFTs against their off-chain currency,ā€ which would mitigate direct fiat exchanges and thus lessen the financial motivations thatĀ can wreck an NFT gameĀ when unchecked. I think this is a fascinating approach that can lead to funner and more balanced games. Iā€™ll be excited if we start seeing more projects put this strategy into action, because we definitely need more experimentation in this regard.

The future of fun awaits

If youā€™re into NFTs and youā€™re also a gamer, itā€™s an incredibly exciting time to be on the ground in the NFT ecosystem.

The NFT games scene is still fairly primordial, yes, but in observing here one gets the sense right now that a corner is being turned. Important strides are being made. Where there was once only a few simple NFT game efforts, there are nowĀ manyĀ such titles in various stages of development and with varying complexity levels.

Indeed, the possibilities and the tech are opening up. The gameplay is getting richer, the UX is getting better, our collective infra and collective knowledge are improving in all directions. Weā€™re still far from solving everything in this sector, thatā€™s for sure, but my hope and forecast as an avid gamer and NFTer is weā€™ll see no shortage of NFT gaming projects continuing to make significant advances in 2023!