[Event Recap] Role and State of Guilds in the Bear Market
Editing by Nath Cajuday
The play-to-earn gaming community representatives discussed the current state and challenges that the industry faces amid the ongoing global crypto bear market. The panel discussion happened last August 25, 2022, during the Bitcoin, Beer & Bitstories meetup at the Draper Startup House Manila in Makati City.
The speakers of the talk were Jake San Diego, the Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer of decentralized blockchain platform MetaverseGo, Eli Becislao, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of gaming guild Coin Sessions Entertainment (CSE.GG), Hermie Cornejo the General Manager of gaming community Limitless Guild, and Matthew Dy, the Business Development Manager of GameFi guild hub BlockchainSpace. Bernadette Misia, the Co-founder of non-fungible token (NFT) rental marketplace Playdex moderated the panel.
During the discussion, BlockchainSpaceโs Matthew Dy noted the changes they experienced during the shift of gaming communities from a literal physical space to the online set up. He shared that back in 2018, from their very beginning, the the firm also conducted physical meetups prior to the pandemic.
โIn 2020, BlockchainSpace was actually one of the first guilds in the world. Very quickly (we) grew 500 scholars but very early we saw the opportunity in terms of tooling and infrastructure. So, we sort of pivoted towards that and now, we’re kind of like a guild of guilds,โ said Dy.
He expressed that although the transition from physical interactions to online were quite hard as there are really no guidelines and no one was actually prepared, it became a step for the rise of gaming guilds in the country as well as the launch of crypto and blockchain technology.
Meanwhile, Limitless Guildโs Cornejo was asked about the importance of guilds even in the bear market:
โWhen you talk about games, it’s really difficult to scratch out the guild part, the gathering of the community part. With just two people you can start a guild; it’s not about you needing a hundred or 200 before you can start a guild. As long as you band together, you give a name to your group, thatโs already a guild. Especially in GameFi.โ
He stated that in GameFi (Gaming Finance), it is necessary for guilds to be there because โwithout organization, it will be hard to onboard, especially newcomers, within the space.โ
โIn order for newcomers to basically learn, they need to be a part of an on-ramp group of people, and that’s (the) guild. So, I think it is necessary and guilds are here to stay because there is a need for them within the GameFi,โ Cornejo added.
He also clarified that there is no way to stop the creation of guilds in any game space and it is just going to grow.
However, Dy had different thoughts about the position of guilds during the crypto winter:
โIn this generation, guilds are not exactly sustainable. There are guilds that are not really guilds; they are only guilds in names where they are filled with a bunch of grinders. (In) Hermieโs answer where they talk about community, they talk more about onboarding players, they talk about helping each other out. Cause that’s the true spirit of guilds back in the web2 series.โ
He noted that in the web3 gaming space, current guilds have to take some of those sustainable web2 practices and implement them and see how the skills will start to fill in going forward.
โSo, I think, with BlockchainSpace, (where) we have 709 guild partners, what weโre seeing in those that are surviving are those that know how to pivot. Either they focus on content creation, or being ambassadors with different games. Those things are the true ethos of what it is to be a guild,โ Dy pointed out.
On the other hand, San Diego of MetaverseGo emphasized that โfor as long as there are multiplayer video games, thereโs going to be guilds.โ (Read more: [Event Recap] Play-to-Earn in the Bear Market)
The event was co-presented by crypto news provider BitPinas, premium liquor Don Papa Rum and blockchain game Delysium.
Accordingly, in a recent crypto meetup organized by BitPinas and Yield Guild Games (YGG) called the Mid-Winter Fireside Chat, the second panel discussed what it was like to build and create after the bull market and hype cycle in the Philippines. (Read more: [Event Recap] Mid-Winter Fireside Chat Second Panel: Crypto PH Builders in the Bear Market)
This article is published on BitPinas: [Event Recap 2] Role and State of Guilds in the Bear Market
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