Gm!
I'm very excited to introduce you all to WASD: The ultimate content hub for onchain games and autonomous worlds.
In this piece, I'll be breaking down my vision for WASD along with what you'll get when you subscribe to this newsletter, join our community and collect our content.
Be sure to read to the end, so you can mint our free genesis NFT with art designed by the legendary Bushi to show that you are a Day 1 supporter of WASD!
Now…let's get into it!
Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
Before we dive into WASD, here’s a little bit about myself.
My name is Ben (FaultProofBen on Twitter). I've been interested in crypto since 2020, and working in the industry since 2021.
Before WASD, I was an analyst at Bankless, writing for their newsletter about topics like Ethereum, L2s, DeFi, and gaming.
I'm also a member of Wildfire DAO 🔥 _ 🌳 where I participate as a governance delegate for Optimism, ENS, Rocket Pool, Gitcoin, and Safe.
As it did for many others, 2022 shook my faith in crypto.
I knew that by design, blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum were not going anywhere. However, I had doubts about whether this industry would have the positive impact on the world that I had once thought it could.
Leaving wasn't an option (what else would I do with my life), so I instead looked to smaller niches within crypto to reignite my excitement towards this space.
This led me to gaming.
From Zoo Tycoon 2 in elementary school to Warzone in college, video games have always been among my biggest hobbies. They've also served as a valuable outlet to help get me through the challenges I've faced in life.
Because of this, the theoretical synergies between gaming and blockchain like interoperability and ownership of in-game assets easily resonated with me.
I began to dive deep into Web3 gaming at the beginning of this year, but I felt like something was missing. I believed in the thesis that gaming was the next major new user funnel, but I hadn't come across anything which captured my heart and mind like DeFi once had.
However, that changed when I started digging into onchain games and autonomous worlds (AWs).
After reading "Autonomous Worlds (Part 1)" by Ludens, I had the 'oh shit' moment I was waiting for. I felt the same mind-consuming excitement that I did when I first made a trade on Uniswap and took out a loan on Aave.
Why Onchain Games Rule
Why am I so interested in onchain games and AWs?
Before getting into that, I first should probably attempt to give high-level definitions of the two (this is easier said than done).
I define an onchain game as one whose gameplay logic is defined by smart contracts, and whose assets exist as tokens and NFTs.
As their name suggests, the underlying game lives entirely on a blockchain, not in AWS.
I view an autonomous world as the evolution of an onchain game; one that has progressed and matured to the point that it resembles a society with clear boundaries and rules.
The reason why I think these ideas are so cool is that rather than shoehorn NFTs into traditional gaming experiences, onchain games enable the creation of new ones that leverage the core properties of blockchains like immutability, composability, transparency, and decentralization.
Some of the attributes of onchain games and AWs that I find most interesting are:
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Emergent Gameplay: Gameplay can take many forms and is not just constrained to a limited set of logic.
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Permissionless Development: Anyone can build a DLC-type extension or mod.
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Permanence: A game world can survive as long as its host blockchain exists, and is unable to be stopped.
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Interoperability: Games and their assets are composable with one another.
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Client Agnostic: You can play an onchain game through any UI.
I think these qualities are why onchain games and autonomous worlds have the potential to not only reshape gaming and entertainment but create new, smart-contract-based societies that will change the way we organize and spend our time.
To me, this is the instantiation of "the metaverse" concept that became popular in the back half of the 2021 bull run.
What I also love is that these big ideas are not just theoretical.
There are numerous onchain games that you can try out today on mainnet, testnet, or in a public playtest. And there are tons more in development.
My current favorite is Sky Strife, an RTS game developed by Lattice, the team that created the MUD engine.
It's still in its early stages but is a ton of fun (shoutout to CometShock for a legendary battle in Match 8 last week).
I also like Pirate Nation developed by Proof of Play on Arbitrum Nova, and Loot Survivor by Bibliotheca DAO on Starknet Goerli.
I didn't get to play, but FFG’s Doomsday also looks really cool. I'll definitely be in Season 2.
WASD Fixes This
Onchain games and autonomous worlds are awesome, but they're difficult to get involved with.
Great content has been produced about them, but most of this is technical, developer-oriented, or thought pieces.
There is a dearth of information sources for enjoyooors like myself, as well as new people looking to enter the space.
Trying to find new games, keep up with playtests, and get onboarded into these worlds is brutal.
Furthermore, both crypto and gaming are much more fun multiplayer than singleplayer, yet meeting other AW enthusiasts is a challenge.
I hope that starting with this Mirror, WASD can begin to address these problems.
This newsletter is for both gamers and investors. This is crypto after all: Investing is a big part of every sector in this space, and should not inherently be shunned.
To start, we'll release two pieces a week on Mondays and Thursdays, though this output will scale over time.
Monday pieces will be more news-cycle oriented. A typical one will begin with some commentary on a hot-button topic and also include:
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Updates on onchain gaming/AW-related news and opportunities like playtests, releases, and mints
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A TLDR of a cool game/project that I've been playing or researching recently
Thursday pieces will have a little more variety. They'll be longer and more research-oriented, taking the form of:
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Deep-dive reports into games, ecosystems, infrastructure, and investment opportunities
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Guides on how to get onboarded and start playing different onchain games
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Breakdowns of interesting in-game trends and shenanigans
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Thought pieces on the implications of onchain games and AWs on offchain and onchain society
So if you like gaming, exploring new crypto niches, aping into things, or want to learn more about this space, WASD is the publication for you.
Of course, we'll also have a community Discord!
The server will serve (pun absolutely intended) as a meeting ground where you can talk, learn, play, and ape with fellow enjoyooors.
You can join it by through the link below.
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An Onchain Media Brand
I don't just want WASD to be another boring old newsletter.
I think there is so much untapped potential at the intersection of crypto and media, and fully intend to experiment, push boundaries and explore this design space.
In that vein, I view WASD as an onchain media brand. Every piece of our written content will be collectible as an NFT, living forever on a blockchain or decentralized storage network.
However, I think that simple tokenization does not begin to scratch the surface of what's possible with content NFTs. They should not just be static ERC-721s that sit in a wallet collecting digital dust.
In this new world, content should not just be consumed and collected, but composable with the subject matter it covers.
My goal is to make WASD NFTs interoperable with the games and worlds that we write about. I envision them being used in a variety of different ways like:
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As an in-game item
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As an in-game badge or insignia
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As an in-game newspaper or information source
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Aa a coordination tool for guilds
These are just ideas that I thought of off the top of my head. WASD NFTs are free to be used as a primitive in any way that our collectors and community members desire!
NFTs have demonstrated that they're one of the great community-building tools that humans have created.
I hope WASD NFTs can bring together an amazing group of collectors, and holding them will provide you with a variety of different perks including:
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Access to an exclusive collector Telegram group
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Whitelists for tournaments
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Access to IRL and metaverse events
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Entry into lotteries for game tokens and NFTs
Our first NFTs will be free mints…though this will change in the future!
Finally, WASD as an organization will also be active onchain.
You can see what we get ourselves into at: wasdgaming.eth
Join the WASD Republic
I hope you'll join me in going further down the onchain gaming and autonomous world rabbit hole.
If you're interested in doing so and find my vision for WASD to be compelling, subscribe to this Mirror below, follow us on Twitter, and join our Discord.
That is the best way to stay on top of all things WASD, onchain games, and AWs.
Our first main piece will be dropping on Thursday! In it, I'll dive deep into MUD, one of the leading onchain gaming engines and ecosystems I mentioned earlier.
Thank you for reading, and as promised here is our genesis NFT. You can mint it through the embed below!
See you soon and welcome to WASD! 🥳
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