Like tens of millions of teens who first went online in the early 2000s, Dominic Law spent his free time on Neopets.com. He spent hours feeding jelly to his dragon-like digital pet (known as Shoyru, the most famous Neopet), earning virtual currency by playing mini-games like Extreme Potato Counter , and exploring the site's vast online world, home to a giant dinosaur omelette. . . However, within a few years, Lowe's virtual mascot, like millions of others, was forgotten because he was busy with school tests.
More than two decades later, Lu, now 35, reinvented Neopets when he joined Netdragon Websoft, a Chinese online gaming company that acquired the virtual pet game in 2017. The Harvard Business College grad says he saw the chance to bring the nostalgic title to its peak when he saw the potential of combining Web3 technology with online gaming.
Lu, a former management consultant at Bain & Co., joined Fuzhou-based Netdragon in 2020 as head of new markets. After seeing the buzz around Web3, Lau convinced Chairman Liu Dejian, a former Forbes mogul, to start a company dedicated to adapting Neopets to cutting-edge technology. So, in early 2021, Lowe founded a company called Netdragon's Neopets Meta and moved across the border to Hong Kong.
In Neopets Meta, Law, who is the CEO, is creating a Web3 game based on the classic Neopets website. Dubbed Neopets Metaverse, the game will allow users to earn crypto tokens and digital items that can be used to create NFTs through mini-games and battle against other users' pets. Lu hopes that the new game, which will be released in the first quarter of next year, can bring back fond memories to the approximately 150 million Neopets users around the world and help them with Web3, just as the Web did with Web1. :
“Neopets was one of the first online games that introduced players to the online world. This is what we are trying to replicate with Neopets Metaverse," says Lu. "We want to be one of the first fun games to introduce the Web3 world to both our old user base and new Neopets users."
Although Netdragon investors did not share Law's enthusiasm; Shares of the Hong Kong-listed company have fallen around 6% since the start of 2021, and many tech-savvy investors are hoping Web3's gaming rights will succeed. In January, Neopets Meta announced that it had raised $4 million from investors, including blockchain fund Polygon Ventures, Blizzard Avalanche Ecosystem Fund, and venture capital firms IDG Capital and Hashkey Capital.
Even with multi-billion dollar funding and the backing of his parent company with a $1.1 billion market cap, Lowe faces the daunting task of making his Web3 vision a reality, especially in the dead of winter. Current keyword.
One of the attractions of Web3 games is the ability for users to earn tokens, also known as profitable games. But play-to-win games were mainly played by speculators, not by traditional players. And when the crypto winter followed a series of corporate collapses, these financially motivated players went out of business, leaving games with few users and cryptocurrency worth next to nothing.
Axie Infinity is a good example. The game has been the epitome of a monetization gameplay mechanic and has seen its unique daily active wallets drop by more than 98% from a peak in November 2021 to around 12,000 as of March 22, according to the blockchain analytics firm. Dappradar. Two Pokemon-like gaming tokens, AXS and SLP, are also down more than 90% since hitting their highs around the same time, according to tracker Coingecko.
Likening winning the game to a Ponzi scheme, Lu recently followed in the footsteps of other Web3 games by switching to a larger play-and-win story. Lau says that his strategy to avoid speculation is to make Neopets Metaverse a fun and engaging game. In this way, Lu hopes that players will want to save coins or digital collectibles to enhance their gaming experience, instead of selling them on the open market.
"It's really no different than any Web2 or Web1 game where people really like to spend time and want to spend money in the game," says Lu. "This should be the model for Web3 games."
Classic Neopets already has "all the right components for a Web3 game," Lau says. The browser-based game has been around since 1999 and focuses on the care and customization of virtual pets, with mini-games, battles, and tasks that reward players with virtual currencies called NeoPoints and bounties. NeoPoints can be used to buy pet food, toys, luxury equipment or to furnish your home. The fictional world of Neopets has a thriving economy, thanks to player-run stores, an auction house, an interest-paying bank, and even a fictional stock market with fictional companies like EEEEEURGH. Limited. and Yippee!
With alpha mode, Neopets Metaverse will initially appeal to original Neopets players and cryptocurrency enthusiasts before expanding its reach to mainstream players, Lau said. Of the nearly 150 million registered users that Neopets.com has amassed over the past 24 years, about 90 million are from the United States and Canada, and about 10 million are from Asia, according to the law.
Neopets Metaverse has already started beta testing for nearly 5,000 Neopets NFT owners and avid gamers on Neopets.com, says Lu. However, some of them did not want to stay in the 3D virtual world. "I haven't seen anything with the three alpha builds so far to suggest that the final game will be a waste of time," Hurdy said on the Discord chat show. A Neopets fan who said he was first drawn to Web3 because of the Neopets Metaverse added that it "seems to be an unrelated game that prompted the release of Neopets IP."
“I'm only staying for the trip because I want Neopets Meta to be more. A fun and well-executed Neopets Metaverse would be a great addition to Web3," said @jaywilly, another veteran Neopets player who also claimed to be an investor in an NFT. "But I highly doubt that ever happens."
These comments come in response to the Neopets community, which strongly opposed the combination of NFT with the nostalgic title when it started the Web3 hub a few years ago. The community expressed concern about the possible misappropriation of cash and environmental contamination.
But the law is indifferent and welcomes positive or negative feedback. Lau said in response to the criticism. "We have learned important lessons about building trust, communication and transparency with our players and we are committed to speaking more clearly about our mission and what we are building."
It is not unusual for traditional gamers to opt out of online gaming companies' blockchain initiatives. The announcement by the Pokémon Company International that it is looking for a corporate development manager with Web3 experience has disappointed some fans of the possible blockchain integration with the monster fighting game. Others, such as French Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft Entertainment, and Korean antiquities dealer Krafton Chang Byung-gyu have stopped releasing their own blockchain game or have been hesitant to release after releasing their Web3 fork during the blockchain boom. the cryptocurrencies.
“Neopets was one of the first online games that introduced players to the online world. This is what we are trying to replicate with Neopets Metaverse.”
Andy Lee, a partner at Hong Kong-based crypto fund Everest Ventures Group, predicts that it will take at least two more years for Web3 games to become mainstream. One way to reach traditional gamers, he says, is to lower the technology barrier by giving them NFTs and centralized connections already tied to a crypto wallet. Li adds that retaining these players will require "strong social elements," including not only in-game chat, but also a platform for them to quickly share their gaming experiences.
In addition to visual updates and crypto asset integration, Lu says it will allow for in-game interactions between Neopets Metaverse players. This may include real-time events in virtual pet homes, unlike email and Neopets.com forums. At the same time, Lu is also aiming for interoperability, a core idea of Web3, where items purchased in one game can be used in another. Neopets Meta is exploring the possibility of allowing 2D pets to enter the 3D metaverse as digital collectibles on Neopets.com.
As crypto infection fears continue to rise following the bankruptcy of former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, Lu believes that web3 gaming will drive the next evolution of the gaming industry. "The sky's the limit. There's no reason why we can't imagine a world where all three billion gamers are involved in Web3 gaming." "If we can achieve what Neopets.com was able to achieve on Web1, that would be fantastic."
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