Where Web3 games have gone wrong — and how to fix it

cointelegraph.com:

The world of crypto and Web3 is fast-moving, with new trends emerging all the time. However, the industry has a bit of a problem when it comes to public perception. Figures from Pew Research Center suggest that among Americans who have heard about cryptocurrencies, 75% are either not very or not at all confident in their safety and reliability.

While there has been no shortage of innovation across this vibrant sector in recent years, some misconceptions have continued to stick. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) hit headlines worldwide after rare pieces of digital art began changing hands for millions of dollars. This led to a narrative that all NFTs were expensive — but in actual fact, the average revenue per user stands at just $114.80. Away from eye-watering prices for CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, many crypto collectibles are being sold at far more affordable rates.

Web3 and blockchain-based gaming suffer from a similar fate. Play-to-Earn titles initially attracted a lot of attention for paying out rewards to avid users, but those returns ultimately proved unsustainable over time. For example, Axie Infinity was one of the top-tier games that slashed rewards as the bear market began to bite.

Despite searing questions about the viability of this industry, developers have continued to create games that follow this model. However, this tends to create communities of investors rather than gamers, with the prospect of monetization sucking the fun out of the experience. Worse still, a misplaced focus on tokenization often takes resources away from making the game experience as immersive as possible.

Web3 games have also been criticized for their limited variety and relatively lower quality compared to traditional centralized games. To