Gamers will help drive Web3 adoption: Polygon Labs president Ryan Wyatt

Many crypto builders see video games as the killer app for Web3citing supposed benefits such as ownership of in-game items that NFTs, possible interoperability between games, and the potential to profit from rising token and NFT values. But by and large, players aren’t buying it.

Prominent NFT gaming efforts from firms such as Ubisoft, Square Enix and GSC Game World have faced backlash from outspoken video game fans. Critics point to shallow play for early NFT games, fraud in the crypto industry and falling asset prices, plus a belief that game publishers will use NFTs to extract more money from players.

Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs, transitioned to the crypto industry in early 2022 after a remarkable career in eSports and video games, including as head of YouTube Gaming. On a recent episode of Decrypthis gm podcast, Wyatt argued why gamers will help lead the charge for Web3 adoption.

“It’s a matter of time,” said Wyatt, who leads the business team at Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain network. “When we see mass adoption of Web3 games, really, in a couple of years, I think the friction you see today will largely be gone. Not completely, but gamers are the most tech-savvy group – so they’ll be the earliest the users.”

Players already understand digital ownership and the idea that virtual objects can have value and personal meaning. Admittedly, there are limits to ownership in Web2 game models: Fortnite sells a variety of character “skins” and items, but they cannot be resold or used in other games. And if Epic Games eventually shuts down Fortnite, they will potentially be useless.

In contrast, an NFT representing a unique character or item can be freely sold or traded, and composition of blockchain assets means they can be used in other games and metaverse worlds to some extent. But Wyatt said there needs to be stronger Web3 games to justify the attention and investment of gamers.

“You just have to give them a reason to play a game,” he said, but surmised that “it’s not there right now.”

Play to earn games increased in value and attention in 2021, led by Axie Infinity with NFT trading volume worth over $4 billion, but such games were derided as shallow and simplistic – or scams and financial failure. Wyatt expects developers to make strides in developing compelling Web3 experiences going forward.

“We’re going to learn a lot over the next year or two about how you start making really interesting blockchain-based games,” he said.

He envisions a world where a blockbuster free-to-play shooter like Call of Duty: Warzone could feature blockchain resources, with users buying and trading NFT weapons and cosmetics, and artists creating and selling their own supported objects. The game publisher can then offer tokens instead of in-game currency, providing accessible on-ramps to crypto.

In that development, Web3 games can abstract away the complexities of using crypto wallets and managing NFT resources, hiding the technology to some extent. They can also hide the terminology, adopt “digital collectibles” and other phrases that Web2 brands have used for NFTs– just like Reddit has done with its avatars.

“We kind of always joke about it, but we really mean it: success at Polygon is [that] nobody talks about Polygon,” Wyatt said. “When you go to play Call of Duty, for example, you don’t think, ‘Hey, is Call of Duty: Warzone on Google Cloud or AWS? Because if it’s on the Cloud, I’m playing not Warzone.’ You know? It’s kind of not going to happen.”