RMG Studio: Why We Believe Infinite Games are the Holy Grail of Web 3 Gaming

This article is provided by RMG Studio

Finite games are played for the purpose of winning, infinite games for the purpose of continuing the game indefinitely. - James P. Carse

The bottleneck of Web3 games is not fun

Unfortunately, in the existing projects in the current market, not much innovation has been seen, and there is still no clear path to solve this problem.

Outside of Play-to-Earn (P2E), most games simply port mature Web2 games to Web3, with the only difference being that in-game items can be extracted and traded on the chain in the form of NFTs.

A prime example of this is 3A Games, whose view is that the reason for the failure of GameFi represented by Axie is that the game quality is poor and lacks playability, merely being a speculative Ponzi scheme. Therefore, they are often studios that have already achieved success in the Web2 gaming sector, possessing mature experience and game production capabilities to produce high-quality games. VCs are also willing to invest in this story, with funds represented by A16Z often betting over $10M on a single project.

3A game production cycles are often lengthy, typically lasting over three years, so it is currently difficult to judge the feasibility of this path based on real market feedback. However, let's conduct a thought experiment - if we were to mint in-game items from successful Web2 games as NFTs, would that turn them into successful Web3 games? If feasible, acquiring a mature Web2 game for modification would save three years, wouldn't it?

Most in-game items are non-tradable, but fortunately, there is a famous game that can support this experiment - CSGO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive).

CSGO, launched in 2012, has a stable daily user base of 35 million, making it a highly engaging game. Its trading market is very active, with over 100 trading platforms aside from Steam (owned by the same parent company Valve), and it is estimated that the annual trading volume of CSGO game assets is around $50 billion.

Now, the question is, if we mint CSGO items into NFTs, would you buy them?

• I wouldn't, as the appreciation potential is insufficient. The prices of rare CSGO items are moderately increasing, but a 6% annual return is evidently unattractive for NFT traders. Besides, there is also a risk of decline.
• If there is speculation, then I would. But I may not hold them long-term.
• I wouldn't, as I am not a CSGO player. So, let's assume, if it were a CSGO player, would they buy? Most likely not, because the trading platforms in Web2 are more mature than in Web3. Current Web3 efforts to facilitate fiat payments and non-custodial accounts are already mature in Web2, and players have no need to switch to Web3 to make purchases.

Although the feedback received is not entirely positive, we have decided to carry out this thought experiment to see how it unfolds, especially since CSGO is a truly significant IP that will attract attention regardless.

However, during the actual implementation, we discovered a serious issue - all in-game items in CSGO do not have a Total Supply. Yes, players have been trading items without knowing the total supply, and the project team can issue "NFTs" at any time. While such opaque operations are common in Web2, the lack of Total Supply transparency is a red flag for Web3 users.

All items in CSGO are obtained by opening loot boxes, which drop randomly in the game. The rarity of items obtained from loot boxes is random, and lower rarity items can be combined to create higher rarity items. However, the specific item created from the combination is also random. Moreover, all these random numbers are centralized and can be adjusted at any time, making it difficult for players to perceive changes, as they were unaware of the probabilities initially.

In such a scenario, it is hard to believe that the CSGO official team is not manipulating the market to maintain the stability of the economic system.

If all item issuances and in-game probabilities are on the chain, with Total Supply publicly transparent, allowing assets to freely circulate and trade, the centralized manipulation by the official team would be rendered ineffective. In such a scenario, can the trading price of CSGO be sustained?

The most pressing issue for Web3 games is a sustainable token economy

Looking back, playability is already a mature industrial capability in Web2. If there is a deficiency in this aspect, spending money will certainly resolve it quickly. With so much capital and Web2 talent pouring in, this problem should have been easily solved. However, it is evident that this direction is not correct.

After all, from Web2 to Web3, playability has not changed. The main change is in assets. Yes, we are back to the logic of transitioning from the information internet to the value internet.

This changed part is 1, that is, assets are 1, and playability is just a trailing 0. Before the asset problem is formally resolved, no amount of playability is significant. Therefore, it is crucial to promptly address the issue of the token economy.

So far, the two GameFi projects that have truly stood out and garnered industry attention are Axie and Stepn. Their success stems from the token economy. Conversely, their failures also originate from the unsustainability of the token economy.

The token economy may seem simple, especially to many professionals who have worked on game balance, who might subconsciously think it is not much different from numerical planning. However, the immutability of rules, the public transparency of the overall information, and most importantly, the free market of assets have made a significant difference between game balance professionals and token economy designers, to the extent that they are reproductively isolated.

Moreover, the design of the token economy also needs to align with the current blockchain infrastructure. Blockchain can create new species that do not exist in the traditional world, such as flash loans, but due to current performance limitations, they are not suitable for some existing businesses. For instance, AMM was proposed long before blockchain was born, but it was not until 2020, with the advent of Uniswap, that it became well-known. This is because AMM is more suitable for the existing blockchain infrastructure compared to order books.

Creating a game solely based on the token economy: Real Money Games

Many Web3 game companies raise funds and allocate a significant portion to game development and art design, but I believe this is not worth it at this stage. Skins (art design and story background) facilitate understanding for ordinary users and attract more people, but as mentioned earlier, ultimately, it is the 1 behind the 0, and our top priority is to address the 1.

Therefore, we plan to set aside operational skills, art design, story, etc., and create a series of games solely based on the token economy. Through real market feedback, continuous iterations will be made to explore a token economy suitable for the sustainable development of Web3 games. The first game will be the sequel to FOMO3D, called World Boss.

The logic is very simple, so simple that there is only one type of FT, without NFTs.

1. All players come together to defeat the Boss, with 1 token equalling 1 HP.
2. After the Boss is defeated, the level increases, and the new level's boss's health increases by 9%.
3. Players who defeat the Boss will immediately retrieve 60% of the attack tokens. They will also receive an 8% kill reward, and the reward and 40% of the attack tokens will be collected after three levels.
4. If the Boss is not defeated within the specified time, the current round ends, and a new round begins. The participant of the final level will retrieve 100% of the attack tokens and share the prize pool.

For more detailed rule introductions, please visit:

Rule

Many may wonder why we are starting with a game that clearly has an end, given that we aim to create infinite games.

Although Axie appears to be an infinite game, when the economic system inflates and the bubble reaches a certain level, and new participants and funds are insufficient, there is no turning back. Project teams generally lack the motivation to continue development, burdened with significant "debts," and opt to launch new projects. So, what seems like an infinite game is, in reality, a finite game.

On the other hand, while World Boss seems to be a finite game with clear boundaries in each round, its endpoint eliminates accumulated bubbles, allowing a fresh start in each round, motivating everyone to start anew.

An infinite game with finite rounds turns into an infinite game.

Real Money Games is the first stage to achieve an Infinite Game

World Boss is just the beginning, and in the future, we will design more token economies, incorporating a magical combination of tokens and NFTs. To match the current blockchain infrastructure, we have specific requirements for the design of each game:

Fully on-chain

Only when it is truly fully on-chain can human weaknesses be eliminated, ensuring "no rug, no inside-info," and achieving complete public transparency and fairness.

Anti-bot

Anti-bot does not mean that bots cannot play the game. In fact, we may develop a series of bot aids to assist everyone in playing the game. Anti-bot primarily aims to ensure that bots do not have any advantages over regular players through mechanism design, such as preventing front-running.

Once this stable token economy is achieved, by merely adding a skin for a car or a card, it can easily transform into a game that the general public understands. Each skin game targets different preferences of audiences, introducing them to the world of Web3.

At that time, the explosion of Web3 games is likely to occur. World Boss is just the beginning, with more exciting games on the way.

This is the mission of RMG. Let's go!!!

RMG Studio: A community incubator dedicated to Web3 games. It only incubates fully on-chain games with carefully designed game economic models. The first game from RMG Studio, "World Boss," is scheduled for release in March 2023.