Original Title: "Insights into GameFi Players: A Deep Dive into Understanding Web3 Growth Hackers"
Original Author: SunnyZ
TL;DR
Understanding the behavioral preferences of Web3 players is crucial for optimizing game project operations and adjusting game and earnings mechanisms. Compared to ordinary users, Web3 players have about 4 times the purchasing power, 1.2 times the social influence, and an average total game duration of about 4 times;
Many Web3 games are trying to extend user interaction duration and game lifecycle through tokenomics. However, from a data perspective, starting from playability may be more likely to solve this problem;
The initial step towards achieving massive adoption of GameFi may be the discovery and exploration of target users. Only by understanding who your target users are and figuring out who your profit target is, can you discuss breaking the barriers.
Background
After the previous growth experiment, for over a month, I have started growth experiments focused on the GameFi industry.
Why choose GameFi as the target track?
First, GameFi is considered the field most capable of achieving massive adoption by users. Exploring the overlapping users between Web3 native users and Web2 game players, known as Web3 players, is an important entry point.
Second, GameFi has a relatively large number of active users, and there are still many project teams operating even during the bear market. On-chain data shows that the number of active addresses in the last 24 hours is about 200,000, and the current number of active GameFi project teams is over 900.
Although the overall size of the GameFi market is relatively small compared to the entire cryptocurrency market, as of the first half of 2023, the global GameFi market is estimated to be around 6 billion US dollars. However, the game mechanics and earnings mechanisms of the GameFi market have attracted an increasing number of players.
Understanding the behavioral preferences of Web3 players is crucial for optimizing game project operations and adjusting game and earnings mechanisms.
Sample of Sub-sectors
The entire GameFi sector has many subcategories, consisting mainly of 8 components - user-side aggregators, games, multi-game platforms/publishers, liquidity providers/financial tools, blockchain solution providers, game engines, developers/studios, and chains.
In order to further understand the true user profiles of Web3 players, the selected sampling projects for this event all belong to the gaming field. Here, we cite IOSG's classification of Web3 games (based on Steam's classification and the highest-grossing mobile game types). Web3 games are mainly divided into 5 major categories:
RPG (Role-playing games): Players assume the role of characters in the game and enhance their abilities through tasks, leveling up, etc, including MMORPG and Team Battle. The participating projects in this event, BigTime, ArcLoot, Seraph, belong to this category.
Strategy games: Players need to develop strategies, manage resources, build economies, and armies, including card, board & auto battle, real-time strategy, and tower defense games. The participating project in this event, BLOCKLORDS, belongs to this category.
Simulation games: Simulate various real-life scenarios, such as running shops, driving vehicles, farming, space flight, life & leisure & casino, etc. The participating projects in this event, Infiblue, TownStoryGalaxy, PlantCrossing, TodayTheGame, belong to this category.
Action games: Characterized by fast-paced actions, players need to perform actions like jumping, attacking, and dodging in the game, including shooting, fighting, and other action games. The participating project in this event, CEBG, belongs to this category.
Sports games: Simulate various sports activities such as football, basketball, tennis, etc. The participating project in this event, TopGoal, belongs to this category.
Based on the above classification, 10 games on the right side of the image were selected as the focus of analysis.
Data Mining for GameFi Activities
In addition to the regular indicators of activity, purchasing power, and influence, for this GameFi event, additional data related to player behavior preferences in Steam has been added. They are as follows:
Steam Data Indicators
Time players spend on different games on Steam
Game types, themes, styles that players like
There are 5 game styles, 22 game themes, and 30 game types.
Subcategories of Steam game types, themes, and styles
Explanation of Various Indicators
3-General Game Category
Casual Games: Usually refers to games with simple gameplay, easy to learn, and low difficulty. They are suitable for casual players. This type of game usually does not require much game experience and skill, and the game time is relatively short.
Mid-core Games: Usually refers to games with moderate difficulty, relatively complex gameplay, requiring some game experience and skill. They are suitable for intermediate players. This type of game usually requires a certain amount of time and effort to play well.
Hard-core Games: Usually refers to games with very high difficulty, extremely complex gameplay, requiring very high game skills and experience. They are suitable for professional players. This type of game usually requires a lot of time and effort to master, and the game time is relatively long.
5-Play Style
Singleplayer Games: Players enjoy playing games alone, without playing with others.
Multiplayer Games: Players enjoy playing games with other players, either cooperatively or competitively.
PVP (Player versus Player): Players enjoy competing against other players to demonstrate their skills.
PVE (Player versus Environment): Players enjoy battling against the game environment, such as fighting monsters in the game.
Co-op (Cooperative Play): Players enjoy working together with other players to complete game missions, such as teaming up to accomplish a specific task.
22-Game Theme
Fantasy: Games that include elements such as magic, magical creatures, epic heroes, and legendary stories.
Sci-Fi: Games that include elements such as robots, aliens, futuristic technology, and space exploration.
Horror: Games that include elements such as horror stories, ghosts, zombies, vampires, and monsters.
Futuristic: Games that include elements such as futuristic technology, cities, transportation, and weapons.
Realistic: Games that include elements such as real-world sports, warfare, simulators, and simulations.
Dark: Games that include elements such as darkness, distortion, unease, and melancholy.
Mystery: Games that include elements such as exploration, puzzles, and strange occurrences.
Cyberpunk: Games that include elements such as dark future cities, technology, crime, and rebellion.
Medieval: Games that include elements such as knights, castles, warfare, and kingdoms.
Magic: Games that include elements such as magic, wizards, spells, and magical creatures.
Space: Games that include elements such as space exploration, aliens, planets, and interstellar warfare.
Dark Fantasy: Fantasy games that include elements such as darkness, distortion, unease, and melancholy.
War: Games that include elements such as modern or historical wars, battles, and strategies.
Historical: Games that include elements such as historical figures, events, wars, and periods.
Steampunk: Games that include elements such as steam engines, machinery, and the steam era.
Aliens: Games that include elements such as aliens, alien technology, and alien civilization.
Robots: Games that include elements such as robots, robot technology, and future robots.
Thriller: Games that include elements such as tension, excitement, and fear.
Mythology: Games that include elements such as ancient mythology, legends, deities, and heroes.
Science: Games that include elements such as scientific experiments, scientific discoveries, and technology.
Noir: Games that include elements such as film noir, detectives, crime, and conspiracy.
Dystopian: Games that include elements such as dark future, harsh society, and political conspiracy.
30-Game Genre
Indie: Games produced by small game studios or individuals, usually with innovative gameplay and good gaming experience.
Action: Games characterized by fast-paced action, where players need to perform actions such as jumping, attacking, and dodging.
Adventure: Games characterized by exploration and puzzle-solving, where players need to solve various challenges and puzzles to complete missions.
RTS: Real-time strategy games where players need to build bases, recruit soldiers, and devise strategies to battle opponents.
Strategy: Games where players need to devise strategies, manage resources, develop economies, and build armies to complete various tasks.
RPG: Role-playing games where players take on the roles of characters in the game and enhance their abilities through completing quests and leveling up.
Simulation: Games that simulate various real-life scenarios, such as running businesses, driving vehicles, and flying airplanes.
Puzzle: Games characterized by solving various challenges and puzzles.
Arcade: Mainly characterized by fast-paced, easy-to-understand gameplay and high difficulty.
Shooter: Mainly focused on shooting gameplay, divided into first-person shooter (FPS) and third-person shooter (TPS).
Platformer: Players need to jump, climb, and avoid obstacles to complete game tasks.
MMORPG: Players assume roles in the game and interact, communicate, and battle with other players.
Sports: Simulate various sports games, such as soccer, basketball, tennis, etc.
Fighting: Mainly based on fighting gameplay, players need to master various fighting techniques and moves.
FPS: Primarily played from a first-person perspective, with shooting as the main gameplay.
Racing: Centered around racing, players need to drive cars on a race track.
Casual: Mainly characterized by simple and easy-to-understand gameplay, suitable for casual entertainment.
Survival: Players need to survive in the game and face various difficulties and challenges.
Battle Royale: A multiplayer online survival game where players need to survive and become the last winner.
MOBA: Players need to form teams and battle against opponents, attacking their defense towers and destroying their base.
Hack and Slash: Mainly characterized by fast-paced action, players need to attack, dodge, and evade in the game.
Sandbox: Players can freely explore, build, and create in the game, without specific game objectives.
Roguelike: Mainly characterized by turn-based gameplay, randomly generated maps and enemies, and permanent death. Players need to explore, battle, and collect items in the game.
Roguelite (Roguelite Game): Similar to Roguelike, but the game allows for some progression and item retention.
Trading Card Game: A game that focuses on using cards for battles, where players need to collect, combine, and use various cards to fight.
Auto Battler: Players need to choose certain cards or characters and then watch the game automatically engage in battles.
Card Game: A game that mainly features card gameplay, such as poker, bridge, etc.
Driving Game: A game that focuses on driving vehicles, such as racing games, truck games, etc.
Metroidvania: A side-scrolling action-adventure game where players need to explore maps, collect items, and improve their abilities.
Building Game: A game that focuses on building and managing cities, bases, etc., where players need to plan, construct, and manage buildings and resources.
Note: Disclosure - All data in this article is sourced from Clique
Overview of Web3 Player Profile
Generally, there are two common strategies for GameFi customer acquisition: (1) traditional distribution and user acquisition methods with complementary Web3 community promotion, which is often used by major game companies transitioning to GameFi. They allocate a portion of their budget to promote in the Web3 market, aiming for a conversion of a few hundred real players, which is considered good; (2) Alpha community promotion and Launchpad/task platform as the main methods with traditional social media promotion as a supplementary approach. This strategy is more native and similar to the whitepaper distribution. It involves casting a wide net to attract users, with less precise targeting and lower quality, and the cost is not controllable. It is more challenging to achieve significant results in a bear market.
For most GameFi projects, regardless of whether they choose the first or second strategy, the first step is to accurately find Web3 players.
Based on the sampled data, the number of real players covered is around 2,000 (real players are defined as those with wallet balances and game hours on Steam greater than 0), of which Web3 players account for about 20%. The average ETH holdings per Web3 player is 16.5, and the average Twitter followers are in the range of 500. On the Steam platform, the average game hours per Web3 player is 1,784. Compared to regular users, Web3 players have approximately four times the purchasing power, 1.2 times the social influence, and about four times the average total game hours.
The next step is to convert these Web3 players to the game.
Game Preferences
Overall, Web3 players participating in this activity spend an average of 2,000 hours or more on their preferred game types and prefer multiplayer action hardcore games.
More than half of Web3 players prefer hardcore games. Due to the higher difficulty and complexity of these games, it usually takes a significant amount of time and effort to master them, resulting in an average total game duration of 3,303 hours per person;
Players clearly prefer multiplayer games in terms of game style, whether cooperative or competitive. Multiplayer games also attract players to spend more time participating, with an average total game duration of 2,028 hours per person;
Action and strategy games are relatively popular among players, with 70% of players enjoying them, with an average total game duration of over 1,700 hours per person.
The above data indicates that games need to have high playability to attract true gamers. Current Web3 games can be understood as Fi+Game, rather than Game+Fi, as they clearly lack gameplay and players lack long-term interactive motivation.
Many Web3 games are trying to prolong user interaction and game lifecycles through Tokenomics. However, from a data perspective, it is more likely to solve this problem by starting from playability.
Preferred Game Types
Web3 players have clear preferences for game types and enjoy fast-paced and operation-intensive games. Although they may try out various game types, they only spend more time on specific types.
Action, Strategy, RPG, and Shooter are the most popular game types. Players generally spend 10 to 15% of their total game time on these types;
Although there are up to 30 game genres, over 45% of players have tried more than 67% of these genres. In terms of percentage of time allocation, players do not spend too much time on non-preferred genres, which can be described as "tried, but not fully played."
Traditional players are already accustomed to complex games, such as the well-known PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, The Elder Scrolls, and Red Dead Redemption 2. When designing gameplay, projects can refer to the preferred game genres of users to determine which types of games are popular and suitable for integrating Web3 elements and gameplay. The core logic is that the game itself should have a demand for asset trading and can ideally stimulate community engagement, shifting some of the operational difficulties and allowing for a more natural operation. Here, I'll quote GallonLabs' perspective (TW@gallonwang):
MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game): A large-scale online game similar to Fantasy Westward Journey, which naturally has a demand for account trading, item trading, and guild battles, making it suitable for Web3 gameplay with NFT assets;
SLG (Strategy Game): A major category in the traditional gaming field, which also has a demand for material trading and guild battles. It has low operational costs and can be operated for a long time with a small number of users, especially loved by European and American players;
Simulation Game: This includes various simulators that mimic aspects of Web2. It involves cultivation and upgrading, with simple gameplay and fewer operations. It also has a demand for item and asset trading. When combined with some social gaming aspects, it can stimulate the community engagement of Web3.
However, some games are not suitable for "Web3 transformation" at this stage, such as MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games, which have high development costs, operational difficulties, and long lifecycles, making them completely uncompetitive in the current GameFi game market.
Game Genre Preferences
Compared to game genres, Web3 players do not have a significant preference for game genres, and time allocation does not differ much across different genres, generally accounting for around 13% of total game time;
Game genres and themes are complementary to each other. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, War, Horror, and Realistic are the most common game themes. Action and Strategy games are often based on these themes, with elements such as warfare, monsters, and magic creating a tense and exciting atmosphere. Games of the same theme usually have similar storylines, setting, and character design, leading to convergence;
Players will try different game genres, but they won't hop around with respect to the game's storyline or background setting, indicating that the thematic factors have little influence. What really attracts players is the gameplay and mission mechanisms.
Web3 Player Classification
In the traditional player classification model, players are divided into killer, achiever, socializer, and explorer types based on the different interaction objects (Player/World) and interaction methods (Acting/Interacting). This classification is also applicable to Web3 players.
Players represent personal experience, personal achievements, personal growth, and so on. It's a collection of all the attributes of the player themselves.
World represents NPCs, scenes, plots, and all the fictional layers of the game world.
Acting represents the player's behavior, including task completion and combat. It refers to the player's purposeful and active manipulation of the character.
Interacting represents the interaction between players and represents socialization.
Due to the limitations of data types, this player classification for the event is mainly based on preferences for game types, styles, and durations. 67% of the players are socializers, 16% are killers, 11% are achievers, and 6% are explorers.
1. Socializer Players [67%]
1) Basic information: Prefer multiplayer and co-op games, genres like action, MMORPG, MOBA, strategy, etc;
2) Player profile: Socializer players are interested in interacting with other players and meeting different players. They are usually familiar with guild battles and know who to contact for off-game trading. They enjoy group activities and have a high overlap with players who create fan works;
3) Strategy reference: More social elements can be added to the game mechanism to cater to these players. Operationally, these players can be given the role of community administrators to engage other players in the game. They can also serve as a bridge to connect with core players or high-spending players.
2. Assassin-type players [ 16% ]
1) Basic Information: Preference for multiplayer and PvP games, with a preference for action, shooter, battle royale, and arcade games;
2) Player Profile: Assassin-type players are passionate about winning, and competitiveness is their top priority in games. They will learn various techniques for victory or climbing leaderboards. Unlike achievement-oriented players, they only care about winning and don't mind the means. They often spend money or grind a specific game, and may even use bugs or hacks;
3) Strategy Recommendations: Game mechanisms can be optimized for leaderboards or increased competitiveness in battles. Moderately stimulating the players' desire to win, operationally guiding these users to spend money on upgrading items to satisfy their sense of triumph.
3. Achievement-oriented players [ 11% ]
1) Basic Information: Preference for singleplayer and PvP games, with a preference for action, adventure, simulation, survival, and puzzle games;
2) Player Profile: Achievement-oriented players proactively complete game tasks and goals. Completion is a basic requirement, and some may set their own goals for completion. They are highly sensitive to motivation for completion and become very happy when they receive rare rewards;
3) Strategy Recommendations: In terms of game mechanisms, strive for a balance between task complexity and rare rewards. When players start to get stuck, providing more special rewards can maximize their motivation. Operationally,
4. Exploratory players [ 6% ]
1) Basic Information: Preference for singleplayer and PvE games, with a preference for action, sandbox, adventure, and indie games;
2) Player Profile: Exploratory players have a strong interest in the game world itself, especially in extreme surprises, hidden plots, and strange bugs. Their purpose in the game is to understand the entire game's mechanics and become a scholar of the game world. They are also enthusiastic about answering questions for new players and sharing their discoveries;
3) Strategy Recommendations: In terms of game mechanisms, placing more easter eggs and hidden plots. Operationally, establishing a game feedback group to deeply involve them in game gameplay design, encouraging them to generate more content. At the same time, assigning them the role of game evangelists to answer questions for new players.
Project Analysis
Since most games on the Steam platform are client games, the data sample selected has limited reference value for mobile game projects. However, from the current data, it is still apparent that different user acquisition methods attract vastly different users. Two typical cases are CounterFire (Ex CEBG) and BLOCKLORDS.
CounterFire(Ex CEBG)
New and old users: The number of participants in the activity is large, and almost all of them are new players, accounting for 97% of the total. This also indicates that the growth activity has had a good effect on attracting new players to CEBG;
Player profile: Users generally have a small balance in their wallets, all below 1 ETH. The average time spent on Steam is about 800 hours, with 11 players spending over 1000 hours and the most dedicated player spending around 3000 hours. There are 17 users with more than 1000 followers, 2 with over 10,000 followers, and the highest number of followers is 22k;
It appears that the purchasing power of CEBG players is average, but they belong to real gamers with relatively strong social influence. If their assets are not too light, the community stickiness and activity should be good.
BLOCKLORDS
New and old users: 36% of the new players joined through the activity, and Web3 players account for 60% of the total users, indicating that BLOCKLORDS has acquired relatively accurate users;
Player profile: Users are clearly heavy gamers + Crypto OG, with 13 people holding more than 100 ETH, 2 people holding over 1,500 ETH, and the highest holder owning over 2,300 ETH, indicating potential whales. The average time spent on Steam is 2,400 hours, with 23 players spending over 3,000 hours and 16 players spending over 5,000 hours. The most dedicated player is from Russia, spending nearly 9,000 hours;
As a strategy game that requires a significant time investment and operations, BLOCKLORDS matches well with the game type and player type. Players enjoy multiplayer, hardcore action games. Once these players are converted into the game, the operation side does not need to spend too much time on user education. Players are already familiar with the pattern of item trading and guild battles, which is also more conducive to achieving community self-drive.
Now, before scrolling down, observe the data below. Can you guess which type of customer acquisition path corresponds to CounterFire (Ex CEBG) and BLOCKLORDS mentioned in the previous text?
Note: There may be some deviation in the data for a single event. Please refer to the actual operational data.
CounterFire (formerly CEBG) is the first case: traditional distribution and user acquisition through buying primarily, with Web3 community promotion as secondary; BLOCKLORDS is the second case: alpha community promotion and launchpad/mission platform user acquisition as primary, with traditional social media promotion as secondary.
From a data perspective, I initially believed that CEBG chose Web3 native growth methods, as the user profile is similar to many mission platforms - low purchasing power but high activity. However, after conducting interviews, it was discovered that CEBG's conversion rate from buying users on platforms like Facebook to Web3 users is twice as high, which is the reason why these players do not have many on-chain assets.
Against common sense, if we do not refer to traditional platforms such as Steam or Epic Games' player data, we often simply classify users with low wallet balances as freeloaders and overlook their conversion potential. This is because it is easy to fall into empirical fallacies. Fortunately, multidimensional information helps us avoid making such mistakes, as data never lies.
Interestingly, when it comes to choosing growth strategies, BLOCKLORDS and CEBG, who both come from a background in major gaming companies, have chosen completely different approaches.
For BLOCKLORDS, user acquisition mainly comes through Web3 channels. In previous NFT sales on platforms like IMX and Polygon, as well as community beta testing, particular emphasis was placed on requiring Web3 involvement. Additionally, there are hardly any activities designed to attract Web3 speculative users. The focus is primarily on attracting users through product and core gaming assets. This approach makes it easier to accumulate OG (original) members over an extended period of time.
The inevitable path to breaking through in GameFi
This event has led me to some shallow reflections on user acquisition and breaking through in GameFi. Let's talk about something abstract. I recently saw an interesting meme:
Though it is somewhat ironic, it reflects the truth. GameFi is mostly a Ponzi scheme disguised as a game, with very few genuine players.
There was a time when GameFi held great promise in terms of achieving massive adoption among users. The prosperity of Axie Infinity and Stepn brought limitless imagination to the industry.
However, at present, the product-level gaming experience is unsatisfactory, the economic mechanisms lack stability and sustainability, and the ecosystem is relatively fragile. The absence of genuine players limits the substantial development of GameFi. The GameFi Summer is yet to come.
If we want to break through, we must make some changes.
In addition to optimizing products and economic mechanisms, it is necessary to understand Web3 players and attract Web2 players into the game.
In this activity, to be honest, there aren't many project parties who understand growth strategies and know how to gain insights into Web3 players. They are still relatively blind, not knowing user profiles, behavioral preferences, where to promote the game community, or even what type of players are in this community.
The first step in a project is to determine who the target users are and whose money is being earned. This decides whether to convert users from Web2 or explore users in Web3, and also determines what elements should be emphasized in game economic mechanisms and gameplay design. The development cost of a good game is quite high. With sufficient playability, the game's lifespan will be extended passively, attracting more experiential players and allowing some operational costs to be shifted to the community, supporting the product's self-sustainability. This can to some extent balance development costs, operational difficulties, and the lifecycle trilemma.
Fortunately, I've noticed a very positive phenomenon. There are many playable game projects being actively built in this bear market, no longer relying solely on financial products. After all, games are ultimately consumer goods and need real consumers (players).
Whether it's deep digging into a small portion of core users in Web3 or converting game players from Web2 with more traffic, there is no standard answer to this matter. Whether it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat. Regardless of the approach, it's all exploration and requires pioneers to blaze the trail for future generations.
After all, in a certain sense, GameFi seems to be the only hope for breaking through the Web3 circle.
