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Despite the artificial intelligence buzz overshadowing the now-defunct metaverse hype, Web3 developers continue to create virtual worlds, hoping to bring an experience like “Oasis” from Ernest Cline’s influential “Ready Player One” to life.
But some Web3 game creators may have tried to run before they could walk, making big promises around an NFT drop or token instead of coming up with a compelling game concept. Game development can be difficult and difficult, which some builders quickly learn.
However, the emerging Web3 space and its decentralized ethos could affect the wider video game industry, especially if user-generated content continues to be seen as an increasingly important part of many game experiences.
Avalon’s Chief Product Officer Jeffrey Butler believes that the era of developing isolated projects is over. In his view, the future of the metaverse is open and connected, with developers and communities working together to create better gaming experiences in tandem.
“I don’t believe it’s possible for anyone [single] companies out there today to make the amount of content that players are demanding available,” Butler said Decrypt at the GamesBeat Summit 2023 this week in Los Angeles.
Butler has experienced this firsthand with more than 20 years of game development—including stints as a producer on Sony’s influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), EverQuest, and Creative Director of the canceled EverQuest Next. He knows all too well the stress that game developers, designers, testers, and players feel when launching a new online game.
“Let’s be honest—creating a massively multiplayer game is an incredibly difficult task,” Butler said, noting the huge amount of time, effort, and resources it takes to make a successful game in MMO. “People get burned out in the industry … it’s too much for some people, too stressful, too high pressure.”
Butler said he saw the potential to create more expansive, interconnected virtual worlds even earlier than the original EverQuest in 1999. He started as an avid player of the classic online game and then joined the studio , which quickly moved up the ranks. Butler said Decrypt that even an early look at online play is like looking into a crystal ball for the metaverse.
“The thing that’s important to me, working on EverQuest, is that I can look far and see far—over the horizon—like the Oasis in ‘Ready Player One.’”
Coined by author Neal Stephenson in the iconic cyberpunk novel “Snow Crash,” “metaverse” has become a popular buzzword on the Web3 to describe virtual worlds that can range from games to workplaces. . However, detractors called the metaverse a cash grab to trap venture capital money, and the initial buzz crashed and burned.
Butler said he doesn’t like using the term “metaverse” to describe Avalon because of the negative connotations, preferring instead to simply call the future digital universe a game. Avalon is the titular first game from Avalon Corp, and the Unreal Engine 5-powered game will reportedly include a mix of MMO and metaverse elements.
In February, Avalon Corp—which boasts gaming veterans from Sony, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Blizzard—announced a $13 million raise to build its online universe, with backers like Hashed and Coinbase Ventures to mix.
Instead of cramming a game on top of blockchain technology and embracing the current financial focus of crypto, Butler says his ambition is to take technology already used in the gaming industry and give it and Web3 focus. As such, he devised ways to encourage players and the community to contribute to the game’s content and gain value as a result.
“My goal is to take all the tools that are in the Unreal Editor and gamify them,” he said, “as if we were creating a more powerful version of LEGOs—where [developers] can be the author within a game, in most any style we choose.”
Butler pointed to the online modding community as an example of groups coming together to build and develop games they love. We’ve seen game mods become their own popular standalone games, including Counter-Strike and Dota 2, and that fan-driven ethos continues today with some of the biggest games in the industry.
“They’re not merely sustaining these games,” said Butler about the modders. “They increase the number of people playing the game.”
He suggested that the resurgence in popularity of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 — which had a disastrous launch due to numerous technical errors — was thanks to the modding community. Meanwhile, today’s hottest games like Roblox and Fortnite thrive in large part because of user-generated games, levels, and content.
Embracing interoperability and allowing the community to co-create with the core team are the bigger shifts Butler sees shaking up the video game world—while also slowly pushing the concept of the “metaverse ” which is closer to the grand visions depicted in other media.
“It’s not just that we saw it in Ready Player One,” Butler said. “It’s part of building value.”