What Is Create and Earn?

Create and Earn is a movement in web3 gaming, focusing on content creation. As players bring value to games through guides, mods, and other interactions, they receive tokens and other rewards.

Key Takeaways

• Web3 games offer content creators the opportunity to create and earn, be it through social engagement rewards or through participating in official contests where they can earn rewards for creating mods.
• There are also player to player content markets where players can create game assets to be sold as NFTs, or even creating game worlds they can monetize.
• There are also SocialFi projects focused on gaming, where players are rewarded for engaging with social spaces, and also by completing tasks in game.

There’s little doubt that gaming will be changed forever by web3 technology. And really, it already has – whether that be through gaming NFTs, tokenized play to earn economies, player governance through a DAO system, or embedded game systems that will exist on the blockchain forever.

But one aspect that often gets overlooked is content creation. Content creation is a rather broad concept. It can range from videos on YouTube and TikTok, to detailed mods, to social engagement, and beyond. These systems all existed long before web3 gaming came along. But the idea of earning through blockchain gaming is more than just about playing, creators can get rewarded as well. And the blockchain gaming’s embrace of their community and their understanding that the players bring value to the games, will reverberate throughout the gaming ecosphere.

In fact, Eve Frontiers, the web3 project from the creators of Eve Online, recently revealed details about their upcoming game and how they are taking player content creation to the next level. Eve Frontiers plans to build a scripting interface into the game, letting players use it to create things such as automated markets or quest hubs. Additionally, they plan to let players create and mint their own tokens from within the game. And these won’t be just in-game currencies, these will be on-chain, blockchain tokens, paving the way for a whole new dynamic in regards to game economies and player government.

Earn with Social Engagement

Though looked down upon and often flooded with bot accounts, social engagement is an important part of advertising these days, and a much cheaper alternative to radio or TV or banner buys. And influencers, those who can bring attention to a product through social engagement, have been able to make money through partnership deals and sponsorships, but web3 gaming is ready to move the bar on how influencers are rewarded.

It seems that almost every web3 game has some sort of social engagement rewards program these days. This can be as simple as bonus points for referring friends, but, more often, is a full-fledged marketing push, rewarding users for not only engaging with the official media posts, but also for creating their own content and sharing on various social channels. This can include streams, review videos, game guides, basically anything that brings extra attention to the game.

One example of this is Life Beyond’s Mission to Dolos program:

🚀 Mission to Dolos Update!

Hello Pioneers,

We’ve just expanded our “Mission to Dolos” platform with new quests and updated features:

🔥 What’s New:

11 fresh Lore Quests (New)
2 brand new Social Quests (New)
2 engaging Roles Quests (New)

Ready to dive in? Start your journey… pic.twitter.com/jilBBcSgBi

— Life Beyond (@LifeBeyond) September 19, 2024

These web3 social engagement / content creation programs generally pay out in the primary token for the project and are often paired with play to airdrop campaigns as well. Sometimes those who make significant, useful contributions can be rewarded with special Discord roles, or even customized NFTs!

Word of mouth has always been a strong indicator in the gaming scene. And by using some of their marketing budget to foster this community growth and outreach, web3 game companies are embracing and supporting social engagement in ways that we’ve never seen with web2 gaming.

Fan Communities on the Blockchain

Just a little side note. Blockchain technology is also enabling fan communities with on-chain memberships and VIP passes that offer benefits such as early ticket access, exclusive chats with the artists, and even invitations to parties and back stage events! Having these memberships exist as NFTs prevents forgery, as well as allowing for easy transfers and verification. And with the rise of digital identities, we may even see rewards built around engagement with real life events.

In-Game Content Creation with Web3 Gaming

User generated content is already huge in web3 gaming and it will only continue to grow.

How players affect the content of a game can vary. Sometimes it can be as basic as providing feedback during a beta test to building an entire gaming world. And most web3 games are not shy about handing out rewards to early testers. This includes tokens, special Discord roles, and even limited edition NFTs!

Those who love making mods or other game content should be moving to the web3 space if they aren’t already here. Web3 games are not only encouraging player mods by building tools and services to help out modders, but they are often rewarding them through official contests while also providing means for the modders to earn from marketing and selling their content.

Modding has been a huge part of video games for a long time. In fact two of the biggest games ever, Counter Strike and DOTA 2, both started as mods of other games. But the embrace and willingness of the web3 gaming community to integrate monetization channels for modders gives everyone with an idea the chance to bring their passion project to life and even turn it into an income generator!

One example is Influence who has handed out rewards to those who created useful, third-party tools for their game. Another is Alien Worlds where player-run, Planetary DAOs regularly provide funding to help expand the Alien Worlds ecosystem. We even have Gods Unchained offering a reward to players just for coming up with a cool idea for a new game format! And these are just a few examples.

On top of that you have player to player content markets such as The Sandbox and Nifty Island, both of which let players create game assets and then sell them as NFTs. Or you can even create your own game world in The Sandbox and monetize it! These types of build and earn opportunities will continue to grow as more worlds systems such as Hytopia, Seedworld, and Alterverse come online.

And while having previous experience in 3D modeling and content creation will certainly help your prospects, these create and earn offers are open to everyone, no matter their skill level. Create something cool that players like, and you might even be able to earn along the way!

Create and earn in blockchain gaming is still in its infancy. The Sandbox continues to add new features to their worlds, giving game developers more room to experiment and create. And other projects are still ramping up, many with different ideas such as utilizing AI to help create, or linking your custom space to a larger world.

But a lot will change over the coming year as these projects start to put their worlds and development tools in the hands of the world owners, bursting open the doors of the create to earn scene in ways the gaming world hasn’t seen before.

The Rise of SocialFi

SocialFi, the term, is somewhat new. But the idea of gathering multiple social campaigns across different projects into one central location has already been done before by sites such as DeQuest, Zealy, HyperPlay and CARV. The SocialFi concept takes things a step further, with Tribally being one of the most prominent movers in this space. 

SocialFi not only rewards players for engaging with social spaces, which can include Twitter, Discord, Telegram, on-site chats, forums, and more, but it also encourages players to engage with other players through gameplay. For example, Tribally has a rotating series of quests where players can earn Tribally tokens by playing matches in Mighty Action Heroes, Pixels, and the whole suite of Axie-themed games.

Lizard Labs looks to be headed in the same direction, though their newly launched Lizard Lounge is still in its early stages. Immutable Gems seems to be a similar sort of system – check in daily to claim Gems and hit certain milestones in games on the Immutable X system to earn more Gems. We don’t know what these Gems are for, but it feels like this is leading into an Immutable SocialFi system.

You can even add community gaming nights into this category as well. Nifty Island has become a popular destination, letting players earn Blooms and other rewards while playing games with the gaming community from a different project! We also often see other cross-game collaborations, sometimes including special tournaments with prizes for the winners. These sorts of events not only build and foster the gaming community, but also reward players for being part of it.

Closing Thoughts

Again, none of these concepts are new. But the difference with web3 is the open embrace of players as part of the entire gaming experience – especially the gaming economies. Web2 games are often closed systems, designed to take money from the players. But web3 games are taking a different tack, offering to share their income with the players, giving players an extra incentive to participate and encouraging them to help the game succeed.

All in all, web3 gaming seems to recognize the value of players. Not just as a wallet, but as a critical part of the games themselves. After all, you can’t really have an MMO without players, and a PvP game against bots just isn’t the same as playing versus other humans. Maintaining an active playerbase is important for these sorts of games. And just by playing a game, the player is creating content for other players, so it makes sense to reward active, contributing players just for being there!
In a few years, video game production won’t be the same as it is now. And a big part of that will be this change to player and studio interactions as the lines between audience and creators become more blurred, pivoting video games towards a more collaborative future.

About PlayToEarn

PlayToEarn is a blockchain games data aggregator and news outlet. Our team delivers accurate, unbiased and up-to-date news and data from the blockchain gaming space.

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