Opinion: GameFi airdrops will continue to exist, but they won't save terrible games

PANews reported on April 23 that, according to Cointelegraph, several industry executives have stated that despite some players' ongoing resistance to the "token economy", game studios are likely to continue using airdrops and other incentive measures to attract players. Kieran Warwick, founder of game studio Illuvium, said in an interview: "This is a very simple way to gain market share. However," games that cannot convey fun or gameplay are still doomed to fail. The problem with this approach is that if you use it as a marketing tool and you don't have a good product to back it up, your retention rate will be very low."

Shi Khai Wei, founder of venture capital firm LongHash Ventures and investor in several blockchain gaming projects also emphasized: "Due to incentives, cryptocurrencies are very good at acquiring users - we have airdrops, play-to-earn mechanisms and speculative elements but in order for player retention you need interesting gameplay. Games which can figure out sustainable economics correct release schedules attracting the right type of players and incentivizing the right type of gameplay will survive." Warwick admits token incentives will inevitably attract 'airdrop farmers' rather than real gamers but sees this as necessary evil for expanding player base gaining attention from potential gamers within the field.

Meanwhile Gabby Dizon CEO of Yield Guild Games believes while airdrops can play an important role in accelerating GameFi adoption not everyone necessarily seeks economic returns.

Dizon and Warwick believe GameFi lags behind traditional games by about 14-15 years but they expect this gap will soon narrow down. “The pace of innovation in blockchain is much faster than traditional gaming,” says Warwick because many people working on blockchain come from mainstream studios who developed games played by millions; building IP might take six or seven years leading game studios have already completed half process.
Before then we're waiting for dominant GameFi projects driving industry forward like Clash Of Clans and Candy Crush Saga in early 2010s. Yield Guild Games hopes to see games of this caliber in the future it has established a decentralized gaming guild network aiming to bring together blockchain games and gamers within one community.