For those who can remember, Myspace was a once uber popular social media platform that was launched back in 2003. Users could create and upload content such as photos and videos and share them with their friends and family. Although the platform largely fell from public consciousness in the late 2000s, it reigned supreme, especially in the West, before the advent of Facebook. Now, Myspace CEO and Founder Chris DeWolfe share that he believes that blockchain gaming is the future of social media interaction.
Photo by The Hollywood Reporter
In an interview with Cointelegraph, DeWolfe says that play-to-earn blockchain games and other forms of blockchain entertainment are the future of gaming. In his statement, he says that the adoption of blockchain allows for players to have unique experiences in their game experience:
“We predict [the blockchain] will be the dominant place where we all socialize, are entertained and conduct commerce,”
It’s been no secret that blockchain and NFT games continue to be seen in a negative light by a majority of gamers. They’re often seen as a scam or as a similar attempts at microtransactions that are often despised by gamers too. Despite this, big game developers and publishers such as Ubisoft and Square Enix see blockchain as the future of gaming.
As the CEO of Jam City, a game development company, DeWolfe has some thoughts regarding blockchain technology’s negative perception to the larger gaming public. He posits that if a game is well-made and the developers have a healthy communication with their player base then that helps their public perception. DeWolfe shares that it falls to the “the quality” of any given game and “how developers interact and engage with players” to shape how the public views them.
DeWolfe goes on to say that blockchain gaming (often referred to as Web 3 gaming) is similar to the early days of Myspace and Web2. Web2 which focused on user-generated content had many skeptics at the start but the popularity of sites like Friendster, Multiply, and Myspace catapulted into the spotlight and paved the way for more popular user-generated sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
“They [skeptics] also weren’t sure about the quality of user-generated content and if it would be interesting,” DeWolfe adds “…so there were naturally concerns over adoption. However, MySpace is really a perfect example of just how powerful user-generated content would become.”
Right now, Web 3 which includes NFT games and the metaverse is currently in its early stages but DeWolfe is confident that it will dominate socialization and commerce in just a few years. Blockchain and NFT games actually account for about $5.7 billion of all NFT transactions in 2021 with one popular game, Axie Infinity, having millions of daily active users and also accounting for about $3.5 billion in NFT transactions alone.
Jam City has already launched its own blockchain division back in 2021 with the game Champions: Ascension. Only time will tell if DeWolfe’s predictions will come true.