No one asked for my opinion. But here it is anyway.
Back in ‘05 or ‘06 when I was going through the quintessential rebellious phase in life, I began obsessing about a line from one of Satyricon’s tracks - Prime Evil Renaissance. As a strict warning, Satyricon are a black metal band; abrasive, loud, offensive. Listen at the risk of your own sanity.
“In order to create, you must destroy”. A line that repeats more than a few times in the 6 minutes that speaks of a misanthrope espousing the annihilation of humanity to start afresh in a nihilistic utopia. To be very clear, this is not the context I wish to talk about. Mine is much simpler.
It is a Darwinistic view - the survival of the fittest. The bad times are when new business models emerge, companies move toward profitability, people realize the need to up-skill, technology that was once passed on gains adoption if it brings efficiency. With economic downturns, new entrepreneurs emerge that choose to build differently from their predecessors. Scarcity brings out the resourcefulness that is suppressed when capital is cheap.
In context of Web3 gaming, we’ve seen cheap capital flood the market leading to games that are devoid of any true value - broken gameplay, suspect economics, bad actors, misplaced hype. What we haven’t seen are games in which the use of blockchain tech elevates the game. Instead, we got Play-to-Earn, a promise that was lapped up by everyone because it seemed so novel and the storytelling was on point. How could everyone be fooled by a label that is devoid of reason?
Throughout history, humans have fallen prey to the illogical in times of plenty. Economic downturns are just a gentle reminder that foolishness cannot persist for too long. The economic train has entered what looks like long-ass tunnel which seems to have no light at the end as of now. The lack of sunlight and oxygen will many unfortunate folks who weren’t part of the decisions that led us here. We’re merely passengers of a train over which we have no control. We must demand better. With our money, our voices, and our choices.
Over the weekend I watched a very interesting video which helps visualize how cycles work. While the context here is of predator and prey, it applies to economic cycles well enough.
As I wind down on my philosophical musings, I urge you to consider this as a piece of optimism. As I listen to the rasping vocals deliver the apocalyptic verse “In order to create, you must destroy”, I choose to focus on ‘create’.
From Tegro HQ
We did a space this week where we spoke about the bear markets; this was a break from our usual programming on Web3 games. Instead, we chose to talk about the macro aspects of what’s happening and how it will pan out over the coming months.
Alongside Siddharth Menon (Cofounder of Tegro & WazirX) was Shashwat Gupta (Founder of NonFunjible and Altcoin Buzz).
Tegro is hiring engineers! (🐯,🐯) @TegroFiWe're live! Join now -> https://t.co/3Yg9xCXpuj
Siddharth also made a guest appearance on Cope.Studio-hosted Twitter Space about the future of Web3 gaming.
Tegro is hiring engineers! (🐯,🐯) @TegroFiTune into today's Twitter spaces at 8 pm IST as @BuddhaSource along with @dbennahum @shloked_ @LegacyofAshes will shed some light on the future of web3 #gaming https://t.co/s1yJ5cAldu https://t.co/AK980keg85
Move-to-Earn. There will soon be more of these things that incentivize the most mundane of things. If you’ve taken away anything from today’s intro, it’s that the label of ‘to-Earn’ is constructed on shaky foundation.
Many are predicting STEPN’s demise and it would be good to explore why. Some reads on the topic below.
Lacoste released an NFT project UNDW3; it’s pronounced “underwater” although an informal survey I conducted with a few friends of mine swear that they thought it was “underwear”
The true test is not whether people will buy into these; there are always enough folks happy to speculate. It’s whether there’s utility in ownership. Else, we’re still in the throes of a hype-driven phase.
Clockwork Labs raises $22M to develop its community sandbox MMORPG - BitCraft. The round was lead by a16z, with Supercell, David Baszucki (Roblox founder). David Helgason (Unity cofounder), and others participating.
Thought For Food
This week has been spent re-visiting some of the content that has helped me get a better understanding about the future of virtual worlds. I’d recommend reading through and following the trail if you’re just starting out or need a refresher.
