Bullish on the Bear Market
Why Building in a Web3 Bear Market is the Ultimate Bull Move for Dark-Fantasy Game The Red Village
Anyone who has been involved in blockchain technology, NFTs, or crypto for long enough has seen their fair share of highs and lows. As in any market, crypto is subject to ups and downs; it’s just that in the blockchain world they tend to hit faster and more frequently. The last few weeks have been no different. But history has proven time and time again that for every bear there is a bull.
When the sun is shining and charts are green, everyone is a crypto fan; discord and telegram groups are booming, and money flows like water throughout the ecosystem. But the bull market brings with it risk, too — like ducks to water, scammers, malicious actors and rug-pullers rear their ugly heads when cash is abundant, seeking to take advantage of newcomers to the space. In a bull market, every second project disappears a week after mint, the anonymous ‘founders’ draining the project wallet and moving on to the next quick buck. Promises are made, but never kept; the next shiny thing catches everyone’s eye and the crowd moves on.
In a bear market, the forest is quiet. The cash river dries up.
But it is during the night, when all is still, that the true giants of any market are built. Not amongst an ocean of competition and quick capital, but rather amongst a pond of true believers and ardent advocates. When the cash-grab projects have dwindled, and the scammers moved on to other more immediately profitable endeavours, it is the builders and their communities who are left behind to grind. The Red Village team are builders, patiently awaiting the return of the sun. For as sure as the day is long, summer is coming.
Projects that have the resources, the capacity, and the capability to build even when the rampant enthusiasm isn’t there will be best positioned to capitalise on the market when the sentiment shifts and the world once again turns its eyes towards the blockchain. We know that there is an overwhelming amount of interest at the organisational level in blockchain gaming; you only have to look at some of the communication from top gaming studios globally such as Epic, Ubisoft, Square Enix, SEGA, or EA to see that it is inevitable that almost every major publisher and developer will incorporate at least some blockchain or NFT elements in their future titles.
We also know that many traditional game publishers, developers, and large corporations are risk averse; they tend to focus on what they know, and spend money on the market as it is, rather than as it will be. Communities and players will be harder to persuade at first; they have seen a shift towards micro-transactions and loot in recent years, and are understandably wary of new game modes that are perceived to be about monetising fun. The path to acceptance will be paved first by smaller studios, before the giants lay the highways. The first ‘good’ blockchain games, that provide a real game experience, will hit the market in the coming months; and traditional gamers will undoubtedly follow.
But for major organisations, pivoting resources to begin building a blockchain game beginning in six or twelve months from now will put most of the competition behind web3 builders like The Red Village by at least the same period. And that is quite the head-start in the world of game development.
If there is one thing about web3, it moves quickly. There is a saying, oft-repeated in the space, that a day is a week and a week is a month in the industry — and it couldn’t be truer. Because building on the blockchain is monumentally difficult, being a first mover has huge advantages. And because being reactive and responsive to community is a 24/7 pursuit, bigger corporations struggle to keep up with the pace required to meet the unique demands of the space. As they say, big ships take longer to turn.
They’ll work it out — they always do, it’s why they’re big — but in the mean time, smaller publishers will pave the way, and as traditional gamers start to see real, high quality games being played on the blockchain, it will be the already established ecosystems such as The Red Village and Phantom Galaxies (both produced by Animoca Brands’ Blowfish Studios) which truly reap the benefits of being early.
With the advent and rollout of this next generation of blockchain games that combine the world-building, graphics, lore and gameplay of traditional games with the community, earning potential, and true digital asset ownership of web3, we will see a massive influx of players enter the space. Gaming truly will be the catalyst for the mass adoption of blockchain technology, that much is certain.
On top of this, there is ample evidence that gaming is a recession-proof industry. When the outside world gets scary and expensive, it has been demonstrated time and time again that people spend less on outdoor entertaining, and look for entertainment closer to home. Lockdowns, COVID, and a tighter economy have greatly accelerated the movement towards digitalisation of lifestyles; the metaverse, Work-From-Home, and socialising through web-based platforms.
There could be no better time, nor stronger catalyst, for the adoption of good web3 games than the circumstances as they currently are.
The Red Village stands uniquely positioned in the world of blockchain and web3 gaming. Already having a playable, on-chain, 3D game with an active community and hundreds of full daily Tournaments puts it heads and shoulders above most of the rest of the space, even if it is in beta. The famed The Red Village: Tournament mode is a nod to the bygone era of P2E which helped kick off blockchain gaming, but simultaneously a recognition that the immediate future will be dominated by play-and-earn games. Tournaments are fun, immersive, and thrilling to watch — you only have to tune in to any of our incredible content creators to see how much enthusiasm and enjoyment there is in every single fight.
Tournament mode is a core part of The Red Village ecosystem; it proves our concept and our game-building acumen, and it will undergo constant development and improvement over the coming months and years. With future sub-modes such as Seasons, 1v1 To-the-Death, and a breeding protocol known as Summoning yet to be released, Tournament mode will provide enough variety to keep the community engaged and active for years to come.
But Tournaments are not where The Red Village ends. As announced recently, The Red Village team has just secured a development partnership with Animoca Brands’ Sydney based game studio, Blowfish Studios, to build out an expansion of the universe, The Red Village: Darklands.
As proven builders in the space (Phantom Galaxies is a unique example of AAA-game building on the blockchain, which just raised nearly $20m in a private sale of its ‘planets’), and as part of the world-beating Animoca Brands portfolio, Blowfish Studios are well equipped to turn The Red Village from good, to great, to groundbreaking. And with it, turn the narrative from ‘play-and-earn’ to ‘social gaming.’
And this is why we are bullish on building in a bear market.
Because when web3 gaming ‘summer’ hits — and it will — people are going to expect more than the last time around. Players will want real games. Real community. Real graphics, real gameplay, and real experiences that mirror the world of traditional video games, anchored to those beloved web3 calling-cards of community, digital asset ownership and, of course, earning. And while everyone else scrambles to raise funds, drop new mints, or pivot to accomodate the brave new world of blockchain games, The Red Village will be here to greet players with open arms.
Blood is coming.
The Red Village launched a playable 3D dark-fantasy blockchain game in March, 2022, on the back of two sold-out NFT sales in November and January. Having traded over 3,000 ETH on secondary markets and with a thriving and active community, The Red Village has been the success story of blockchain gaming in 2022, pioneering the shift from P2E to Play-and-Earn, and showing that it is possible to both have fun and earn at the same time in a good ecosystem. Having paid out over $400,000 USD in game earnings in the last two months, and with some players having earned as much as $10,000 USD in profit in that time, The Red Village shows that combining good community with good gameplay and a strong concept is a recipe for success.
Blood is coming.
