Play-to-earn games are the reason ‘real’ gamers hate crypto: Atari founder

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Crypto games have garnered a bad reputation among traditional gamers, but the future of Web3 games and blockchain-based worlds is far from over, says Nolan Bushnell.

It’s no secret that traditional gamers harbor a strong sense of disdain for crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in their games. The reason for this is clear, says Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, it all started with the insane rise of play-to-earn games.

“I can tell you clearly where this disdain for crypto comes from,” Bushnell said. “The hatred comes from these play-to-earn games that pioneered blockchain gaming.”

“Good gamers don’t like to grind. Grinding is shitty. What gamers want is fun, and unfortunately these play-to-earn games are 100% dependent on the greater fool theory to work.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph in a wide-ranging interview, Bushnell — known as the “godfather of video games” — shared his many perspectives on the current gaming landscape and the role blockchain technology will play in the sector moving forward.

While it could be seen as outlandish if someone said that they had “invented video games” — for Bushnell, this was just a part of his long career, including founding the gaming system Atari and the American dining chain Chuck E. Cheese. He is also one of the few people in the world to have counted Steve Jobs as an employee.

*Released in 1977, Atari 2600 was the first home video game console produced by Atari. Source: Wikipedia*

Bushnell believes the future of Web3 gaming depends on a major shift away from play-to-earn dynamics and a renewed focus on building convincing virtual worlds through the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.

The mass adoption of these new worlds, Bushnell explains, will be entirely dependent upon the human need for socialization as well as a permanent sense of “place and time” in the new economy of virtual worlds.

“How do you meet people? Where do you meet them? Where do you meet them? That’s the connective tissue of Web3 and the metaverse. If you can provide this sense of real place and real time in virtual worlds, that’s when I think we've really got something.”

Presently, Bushnell serves as the chief knowledge officer at Moxy, a new blockchain-based esports company, where he describes three pillars where blockchain can provide modern gaming with a much-needed upgrade.

I'm excited to be speaking at the DELF event. We've chosen Hong Kong for https://t.co/GNemkV0YDf's entrance to the Asian Market https://t.co/phUuANd9LB
— Nolan K Bushnell (@NolanBushnell) August 15, 2023

The first and most important value proposition Bushnell says is the ability to transfer seamlessly and securely.

“We want to turn gaming into a platform for competition and in order to have good competition, you need to be able to securely transfer funds simply and easily,” he explained.

As the world becomes increasingly digital, there needs to be a way for people to ensure that actions and expectations are aligned with outcomes.

“Number two, and it's a close two by the way, is the utility of smart contracts. Smart contracts don’t just have value in games but in all human interactions, because so much of what we do in life is establish relationships and then set the terms of those relationships.”

The third key area is the ability to securely store the value of digital assets in the form of currencies and tokens.

First introduced to cryptocurrency by Tether co-founder Brock Pierce, when Bitcoin (BTC) was hovering around the price of $50, Bushnell said he didn’t take too much notice of crypto at first.

However, like many others, he changed his minds when the price of Bitcoin began to surge, and suddenly Bushnell realized that there might be something more going on in the world of blockchain.

While Bushnell admits that he doesn’t have much material exposure to cryptocurrencies due to the volatile nature of prices, he concluded that anytime humans are capable of sharing a perception of value en masse, “we’re usually in the clear.”

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"I was gobsmacked" — Nolan Bushnell said his conversation with Yat Siu on Web3 games changed his brain.

Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and inventor of Pong — one of the first commercially successful video games — has shared optimism for the future of Web3 games, particularly as it comes to bringing ownership to virtual worlds.

During the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum in Hong Kong on Aug. 25, Bushnell spoke alongside Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu, discussing the past, present and future of gaming. It was moderated by Sean Hung, the managing partner of Chiron Group.

Bushnell, who Yat Siu acknowledged as the “grandfather of gaming” — praised Web3 games for their ability to extend the concept of ownership into the digital landscape.

“Games will increasingly imitate all factors of life. Web3 with blockchain suddenly transmits ownership into the virtual world.”

The Atari founder currently serves as the Chief Knowledge Officer at Web3 gaming company Moxy — and kicked off the panel by sharing the topline details of a conversation he’d had with Siu in the days prior:

“I was just gobsmacked. I mean, we had you know, every once in a while you can have a conversation that changes your brain. We had one of those.”

I'm excited to be speaking at the DELF event. We've chosen Hong Kong for https://t.co/GNemkV0YDf's entrance to the Asian Market https://t.co/phUuANd9LB
— Nolan K Bushnell (@NolanBushnell) August 15, 2023

While Bushnell launched into his prediction of a world in the not too distant future, where the inside of self-driving cars could become a mobile gaming studio, Siu pointed to the potential of Web3 games to help economically monetize gameplay, as games become a more ubiquitous part of everyday life.

“The impact that Web3 gaming has already had…is that you can start earning money with the engagement of the time that you spend in these games.”

Siu said that despite games originally taking the form of “player versus environment” systems, where gamers play against the non-player characters (NPCs), the world of gaming — as seen through the rise of Minecraft and Roblox — has evolved to become a multiplayer ecosystem.

“You don't go to Fortnite to play against yourself or an environment. You go online to play against others, meaning that we, the players, are the content, but the difference is that we haven't really been compensated for it,” Siu explained.

When asked what he saw as the biggest promise provided by Web3 games, Bushnell said that the combination of “KYC and the immutability of blockchain” were the best ways to ensure that players in online games were not bots or bad actors.

Additionally, Bushnell predicted that games would soon become an essential part of the classroom, with students learning best by way of “story and simulation.”

While the positives of Web3 games were readily espoused, Yat Siu noted some of the issues that had arisen alongside the proliferation of blockchain gaming.

“When you introduce Web3 and blockchain to any system, including games, you're introducing capitalism. And so the problems we have seen in the last 12 to 18 months comes from the fact that these games have become not just capitalist to the studio that produced it, but to every participant,” Siu said.

Despite the many flaws introduced by the financialization of games — many of which became readily apparent in the “toxicity” of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity — Siu said that the inherently capitalist element would aid young gamers in gaining a financial education.

“If the world becomes more financially literate because of Web3 gaming — because they understand something about value — then I think the world will become safer.”

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