RuneScape is the kind of game metaverse enthusiasts dream about.
It is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the vast, virtual realm of Gillinor, a fantasyland filled with quests and an estimated half a million players each day. It boasts a dynamic in-game economy and currency, thousands of tradable items, countless ways to show off wealth and power – all without any blockchain. The first version of the game was launched in 2001, yet to this day it has a solid influence on the crypto set.
For crypto gaming builders, RuneScape arguably tops the list of formative games that also includes World of Warcraft, Dota 2, Diablo, MIR4, and EVE Online. Now, many people are trying to create virtual worlds just as attractive, but with the benefits of a blockchain base.
“Looking back, it seems like Runescape had the seed of it all,” said Alisha Anderson, International General Manager of Sino Global Games. “It at least trains us to want and do what we are doing in gaming and NFTs. Just looking at the economy, P2P and DeFi, scarcity, grinding, flexing, the wonders of RNG (random number generation) , flipping – all are parallel to crypto.
There are few surer paths to virality on crypto Twitter than contemplating how the Web3 experience somehow recalls playing Runescape as a kid. Produced by Metav3rse co-founder Quinn Slocum a classic of the genre On 15 January.
If you grew up playing Runescape your chances of getting scammed through social engineering are 99.9% less
— quinn (@quinnslcm) January 15, 2023
“More than anywhere else online, this was where many of us learned to trade, fell for scams, got scammed, found the grind, got skilled, outsmarted demons and each other. , pulled out, and calculated our achievements in an endless world, ”said Anderson.
What is it about Jagex’s smash hit that still fascinates crypto people twenty years later?
digital money
To understand the Runescape-to-crypto pipeline, look no further than the way Runescape’s economy functions — and flourishes.
Broadly speaking, players train their skills to acquire items. Those items can be harvested through a variety of hard virtual labor, such as fishing, chopping wood, and cooking; through war; Or in other more esoteric ways. Whatever their chosen path, players accumulate both inventory and skills, paving the way for more and more wealth.
The process of training and gathering materials is often laborious; For example, repeatedly clicking on ore-rich rocks to mine their contents. “People used to grind a lot while playing Runescape to get the items they wanted,” said Howard Xu, co-founder of Ancient8, who developed a DAO infrastructure for GameFi. The game’s P2P and NPC combat scenarios provide a more thrilling, if riskier, path to riches.
There are also items that can be obtained from quests and seasonal drops. In the early days of RuneScape, masks and party hats obtained from Halloween and Christmas gifts became some of the most valuable items in the game. They had no ostentatious use beyond display. Their only value was their scarcity – a word that excites many crypto enthusiasts.
But it was what Runescape players could do with their money and rare items once they were acquired that made such a mark on the minds of the Web3 folks. From its earliest days, trading was an integral part of the game.
“One of the things that really stood out to me in RuneScape was that players could trade items and currency with each other,” said Salvino D’Armati, founder of the luxury fashion brand backed by Nouns DAO. “It was really fascinating to see how different commodities and currencies had different values based on scarcity and demand. I think that’s what’s really important in crypto gaming and the NFT space as well – understanding how value is created is and is exchanged.
At its most basic level, Runescape between two players who choose to trade with each other involves bartering on the exchange of a combination of items and gold pieces (GP). Over time, clusters of hundreds of players began to form in hotspots such as Falador Park and a bank west of Warrock. Here, sellers would advertise their wares with colorful floating messages, while buyers would hunt for bargains.
The game also appealed to arbitrageurs, who made a living trading from price inefficiencies in these informal market centers. (And while this happens in all types of markets, it may be worth noting that crypto arbitrageurs, too, have eliminated price inefficiencies between exchanges.) In Runescape, this process is referred to as “marching”. Is known. Metav3rse’s Slocum, who played RuneScape from age seven to 19 and skipped school “a few times a week” to play until 4 a.m., said Marching taught players the basics of supply and demand.
The Grand Exchange
The makers of Runescape quickly gave players a more efficient means of price discovery in 2007 through the launch of the Grand Exchange, an automated trading system that gave buyers and sellers a way to post orders without interacting directly with other players. Given, with prices varying based on supply and demand. crypto as twitter keepsThe Grand Exchange has become for Runescape what OpenSea is for NFTs.
Sam Lehman, an investor in the $50 million Web3 venture fund Symbolic Capital, said, “More than anything, RuneScape and its Grand Exchange have shown that the time gamers put into games and the rewards they reap are worth it.” has real value.” , “The concept is so inherent to web3 gaming that it may seem obvious, but around the time of Runescape it was a largely novel concept for gamers to sell, buy and trade items they earned in the game.”
Evidence for Lehmann’s case – that players care about their stuff – can be found in the fact that Runescape offers pin-protected, in-game bank accounts into which gp and loot can be deposited. While such accounts may fall short of offering an immutable record of ownership, they have certainly proven to be somewhat durable. A player may be absent from Runescape for a decade and investigate to find their possessions as they left it.
Lehman said marketplaces similar to Runescape’s Grand Exchange have since sprung up elsewhere in the gaming realm. A prime example is the platform on which players can trade skins used in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The Counter-Strike site deals in fiat money, however, which means it is more akin to a micro-transaction platform than an embedded exchange. Dota 2 is a similar site for buying and selling skins, and there’s a lot more to it than that.
Runescape’s marketplaces were unusual, however, as they proved that people value in-game wealth without tying it to fiat money.
Proponents of Web 3 argue that such games, whose players clearly value their loot, can be enhanced through the introduction of blockchain technology. Slocum called Runescape “the perfect example of an open world where you are known for your avatar and digital footprint,” but added that it departs from the idea of a true metaverse because it lacks interoperability outside of Gielinor. Is.
With blockchain, players could theoretically cash out games they lose interest in, or even time port items from that game into a wider gaming ecosystem. But according to Lehman and other experts in the field, the blockchain gaming faithful are about to realize this vision backwards.
“The problem with implementing this on Web3 right now is that game makers are focusing too much on the economic side and start creating token models, exchanges, NFT items before the gameplay actually happens which makes for a sticky game. Is engaging enough that people want to play and be dedicated. His time,” Lehmann said.
build backwards
Crypto games are often financially baffling from the outset. At this point, in some cases, they offer more as a financial mechanism than as gameplay – tools for staking, liquidity pools, token swaps and so on. Just visit DeFi Kingdom.
Alexander Leonard Larsen, co-founder and COO of Axi Infinity developer Sky Mavis, believes the rise of NFTs and token sales as a funding method is flawed. “You have this new part of the games industry where you can tap into crowdfunding in a new way, so you get a lot of amateur game developers,” he said.
Such developers over-promise and under-deliver. After raising a ton of money through an initial token sale, they are forced to defend their token value, as well as wrestle with the reality that top-tier games will take years to deliver. Huh. There are countless examples in the crypto sphere. AXI Infinity itself experienced a massive price increase in late 2021, with its AXS token rising above $160. Today it is trading at around $12. Leonard Larsen said, “It’s almost as if you’ve been a public company since day one.”
Another issue for Web 3 game makers is how to incorporate tokens into their games without being overwhelmed by mercenaries who care more about financial rewards than the game itself. Leonard Larson said, “It’s better to have an organic place where people meet, and even have them have a surprise drop or something like that, because then you can get true believers who love your sport.” ”
Then, how to make players fall in love with the game? If there’s a lesson for Web3 from Runescape’s success, it’s certainly that players didn’t value their treasure due to the game’s financial means; Financial means were necessary because they valued them.
On the other hand, there are many ways to value something. Runescape players value their loot, but not in the way they value real-world money and possessions. Many fear that having fiat money at stake will take away the levity from gaming. This is why so many gamers have pushed back against plans from companies like Discord to adopt Web3 software.
Xu of Ancient8 compared it to playing poker. “It’s only when there’s a stake on the table, you have a stake in the game, that’s when you start playing with a lot more strategy,” he said. “It amplifies the experience to make it more intense or it creates a new experience for people.”
This may explain why most Web3 games to date offer relatively simple gameplay: they don’t need to do much to get gamers pulse.
Yet the promise of so-called “AAA” games in the crypto sphere abounds and a tidal wave of venture capital is rolling in as they come true. For all the inspiration the area gets from Runescape and other category-defining games, can Web3 produce its own?
“For many of us Runescape, Minecraft, World of Warcraft, or Grand Theft Auto was our starter metaverse. We didn’t say it that way, being online and being online wasn’t the issue, the game was,” Sino Global Games ‘ Anderson said.
“We wanted to enjoy ourselves, and Runescape provided – we met, gathered, explored, discovered, achieved, skilled, killed and died together in a world detailed enough to feel endless.” That collective base layer for a metaverse, we’re now growing bigger and more pervasive.
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