Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets that are spoken of in this newsletter.
(P2A) EVENTS & SOCIALFI
It is another light week in terms of P2A opportunities. However, I assume (and hope) the # of events will increase in the upcoming weeks.
Variance is hosting another playtest (starting today Jan 6) with a new leaderboard, new quests, new levels, and more P2A rewards
Join the Discord to snag a spot to participate
Castile announced the Pioneer Season is coming on Jan 16th with 20M CAST in rewards
The season will last a month and will be freely accessible to everyone
MARKET TALK
THE RETURN OF “GAMEFI”?
Recently we saw a surge of (onchain) games with pixel graphics, highly-financialized gameplay (usually involving risk), and idle loops. Are we seeing the gamefi renaissance?
For context, gamefi for me means when Web3 games and DeFi are closely related, Wolf Game is a prime example of this. Pirate Nation wouldn’t fall into this category imo
This surge seems to be correlating with the hype of upcoming chains such as Abstract, Monad, and BeraChain
The interesting thing is that gamefi has shown to be one of the few areas with PMF inside of gaming
Why? Because the DeFi aspects of these games manage to attract traders (i.e. capital)
See gamefi as DeFi, but wrapped in an engaging and retaining game loop, where users can risk their capital for potential outsized rewards
Often (not always) it ends up being a ponzu, which is a positive-sum game for devs and early entrants
Over the years consumers have become more critical of games in this space, which has led to a higher quality of games, even in the gamefi sector
And I find it exciting to see more complete experiences (i.e. sustainable games) to experiment with DeFi elements. Cambria is a good example of this
Just be selective in the teams and games you pay attention to, because when there’s FOMO there will be extractors trying to feed you low-effort garbage
AI AGENTS ARE THE NEW GAMES
“AI Agents are games. Few realize this but they will”, “I think this is gonna be the first of a whole new type of game”, and “But AI and gaming are symbiotic if not synonymous.”
The above are a couple of quotes on CT that got me thinking about the intersection of the AI Agent meta and gaming
One way that helps to conceptualize the idea is “the sims with risk” (e.g. Parallel Colony)
We’re playing the game of betting on the potential and the emergent behavior of “autonomous computers”, like how we watch sims behave, only the playground becomes much vaster (onchain) now
We’ve been experiencing the shift towards more utility-driven agents, and the potential of AI Agents in games will be an interesting one
The concept of “GamefAI” will include Agents playing and earning inside of onchain games
Counterarguments: what would make them different from bots? Plus there’s a lack of comps (i.e. PMF) for AI Agent-driven (simulation) games
“…(gaming will be) used as a demo environment for AI and other plays”
More food for thought from Avalon: “In Avalon many of our AI agents will exist both inside and outside of our multiverse”
Honestly, I am still learning and trying to wrap my head around where this is going. Much of the potential here is still largely underexplored…
I also made a list of gaming projects and agents that interact with AI and gaming in some way or another to keep track of everything
