In the midst of the 3XP expo, amidst flashing screens and quick thumbs, Rohit Gupta, co-founder of the esports team NYXL, shared his thoughts on gamer skepticism toward Web3.
Speaking to Decrypt’s Kate Irwin, Gupta didn’t hold back his thoughts. “There’s a general negativity when you use the word Web3 and it’s very justified,” Gupta stated. A harsh but real verdict, echoing across the gaming community.
The world of gaming and crypto, it seems, are like oil and water – they’re yet to find a way to mix smoothly. This isn’t just a hunch. The crypto realm, synonymous with scams and foul plays, has undoubtedly left a bitter taste in the mouths of many.
The co-founder points out, “A lot of prominent teams have inadvertently, perhaps, positioned certain crypto games or tokens and they’ve ended up being scams.”
Gupta also mentions the distaste for what feels like a cash grab. Gamers are passionate folk, loyal to their craft. He notes that trust obviously wanes when it becomes about leveraging your audience for a massive cash grab or tempting them to come and play a game that isn’t actually a good game, it’s just a de-fi game. And that trust is hard to build but easy to lose.
It’s not just the scams, but the essence of these games that makes players raise an eyebrow. We’re gamers, after all. We don’t want our favorite pastime to become a thinly veiled financial transaction.
Then there’s the ever-present fear of being hacked. No one wants their hard-earned virtual trophies whisked away due to security vulnerabilities. Gupta acknowledged this concern: “Opening a wallet, having a seed phrase, being able to get hacked — those nuances are being figured out.” Web3 may be new and shiny, but if it can’t promise the safety that we’ve enjoyed in Web2, it’s a no-go.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle, as Gupta explains, is the sheer technicality of it all. Games are meant to be dived into, an escape from reality, not a slide into complex operations and technical jargon. “And we have to not be so technical about some of these things. It should be a single click to download a game and open it and dive right in.” Gamers crave simplicity, straightforwardness, the thrill of gameplay over the thrill of complex crypto operations.
Gupta’s comments serve as a mirror, reflecting the current mood of the gaming community towards Web3. But they also serve as a roadmap, a guide for developers and companies alike to steer their journey in Web3. Perhaps the future is brighter, perhaps the resistance will fade, but only time will tell. As Gupta puts it, “A lot of the issues along the way that have turned Web2 gamers away are going to be fixed. They just want to play a game.”
And at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about? Just playing the game.
