Midcore Games: A More Suitable Choice for Web3 Integration

18 min readJul 26, 2022

Key Findings

Midcore gamers are strategic and research-oriented and willing to earn achievements through paying in-game, which coincides with the behavioral characteristics of Web3 users.
Midcore gamers with in-game payment behavior will become the base of paying users in Web3 games.
AAA games are not suitable for the current Web3 market environment.
Web3 games with AAA art quality targeting Midcore Gamers are more likely to be successful.
There are two ways for Midcore-gamers-oriented game content to succeed in the Web3 world: to develop blockchain-native Web3 games or integrate new Web3 concepts and economic incentives into market-proven Web2 games.

Introduction

The fundamental reason for the enormous popularity of GameFi is that it can attract a large number of players to join the Play-to-Earn model and, to a certain extent, solve some of the pain points of NFT, such as the lack of a complete product closed loop and a clear value assessment model.

However, projects that have become popular across industries like Axie Infinity and StepN are also facing a slowdown in user growth, lower player revenue, and even a significant shrinkage of assets. This phenomenon also reveals some problems in GameFi: overly homogeneous products, relatively simple gameplay for most games, and economic models solely based on mining, output, and reproduction, which can no longer meet the higher expectations of players for games, nor can it attract more Web2 users. Suppose the blockchain game industry can neither attract new gamers nor continuously improve the quality of content and the construction of gameplay. In that case, it will face a crisis of slow development and stagnation.

With a large amount of capital entering the blockchain industry and the field of Web3 games, some Web2 game publishers or studios that have already achieved success are also eager to give it a try at Web3 games. They hope to enter the Web3 game field quickly by using their rich experience in game design and control of game quality and try to join the Web3 economic incentive model. MIR4, published by Wemix, a famous Korean game publisher, has already achieved initial results in the field of Web3.

Based on MixMarvel’s years of experience in the game industry and in-depth understanding of Web3, MixMarvel DAO Venture conducted research and analysis on the dimensions of game categories, game user profiles, and behavioral characteristics of Web3 users, concluding that compared with AAA Games (Hardcore Games), the game content for Midcore Gamers is more suitable to Web3 integration and more likely to achieve success in the Web3 world.

Classification of Web2 games

Firstly, we can categorize traditional games in three dimensions: game category, game device, and time spent on gaming.

Game Category

By game category, traditional games can usually be divided as follows:

Gaming Time

By the time spent playing games, Web2 games can be classified as follows in descending order:

Casual Games

Players usually spend 0.5–1 hour per day on Casual Games.

Casual Games Features: simple, fun, and easy to use. Before the popularity of smartphones, Casual Games were mainly puzzle games pre-installed on mobile phones and PCs. With the popularization of smartphones and 4G/5G mobile networks, Casual Games have entered the era of diversification, with PC casual games slowly being replaced. Simulation games, sport games, and interactive games have occupied the main market of Casual Games. In addition, Casual Games are also widely recognized by the market for their features, including none required heavy mental activity, uncomplicated game background, the play-and-stop mode convenient for solving puzzles, and repetitive actions designed as goals.

Midcore Games

Players usually spend 1–1.5 hours daily playing Midcore Games.

Midcore Games Features: with Hardcore Game elements and a lower gaming threshold. Midcore Games usually extract elements from Hardcore Games, simplify the operation procedure, and run more on mobile devices. Midcore Games also have more attractive advantages to players, such as multiplayer experience, low hardware requirement, easy-to-start gaming, inclusive themes, and strategic gameplay. In terms of gaming time, Midcore Games do not require players to immerse themselves in games for a long time, which is very friendly to players who lack sufficient time for gaming. Therefore, the target market of Midcore Games is vast.

Hardcore Games

Players usually spend 2 hours or more a day on Hardcore Games.

Hardcore Games Features: intensely competitive and higher requirement for devices. With their exciting themes, exquisite styles, distinctive productions, and deeply fictionalized game plots, Hardcore Games are more inclined to serve gamers in pursuit of tough challenges or the smaller group of players. Most Hardcore Games are fiercely competitive and have a high requirement for game devices. Hardcore Games are mostly action games.

Game Editor Kris Graft once vividly described Casual, Midcore, and Hardcore Games as Casual Gamers play games in their spare time, Midcore Gamers schedule game playing according to their lives, and Hardcore Gamers arrange their lives based on games.

Gaming Device

In terms of game devices, Web2 games can be classified into the three categories down below.

Console: console games, including handheld games and home console games, the content of which is usually AAA games;
PC: digital/boxed PC games and web-based PC games;
Mobile: games on a smartphone or tablet.

The boundaries between Console, PC, and Mobile are gradually blurring, with many cross-platform games being launched. Yet, according to the diverse needs of players, each gaming device can exploit its advantages in different types of games. However, we believe that Console games are unsuitable for incorporating Web3 elements. Web3 games need the support of corresponding Web3 tools, such as decentralized wallets, FT and NFT trading marketplaces, and more, which can not yet be downloaded and installed on Console devices at the current stage. However, with the rapid development of blockchain technology, we do not rule out the possibility that this can happen in the future.

In the next part of the user profile analysis, we will exclude players of console games.

Web2 User Profile Analysis

We have cross-classified the above game categories using Venn diagrams and will perform a user profile analysis on the overlapped part.

Casual Games + Mobile: Players neither consume nor earn, usually using fragmented time to play games

Casual Gamers prefer free games that require not much attention and can be started or paused anytime, anywhere, and have no need to make money from games.

In terms of time, Casual Games allow players to pause or quit games at any time without any loss, and players can play games during their fragmented time. CandyCrush is a classic Casual Game;
As for devices, Mobile are the best choice for many Casual Gamers;
When it comes to game consumption, Casual Gamers do not tie games to their actual financial interests and thus will not choose paid games or have any expectation of making money from games;
Casual Gamers do not like to study strategy. Instead, they prefer to consistently achieve a sense of accomplishment by repeating core game instructions or actions;
The group of Casual Gamers is relatively stable and broad, with a high penetration rate across all game types.

We take Candy Crush Saga as a case study for user analysis. Candy Crush Saga is a PUZ game and one of the most classic products in the American match-3 game market. It has occupied the first place in U.S. best-seller lists for a long time and has received broad industry attention.

Characteristics of Candy Crush Saga Users: mostly female players, relatively mature in age, and against game fees.

Candy Crush Saga, with its colorful candy-themed elements, has an overwhelmingly female player base, aged between 26 to 54;
Players are more inclined to play the game for free and do not readily choose the paid option even if it is available. The users’ lives in Candy Crush Saga can be earned by sharing with friends on social media, spending time, and paying, with the first two proving to be the most frequently used ways;
The player base is dominated by puzzle game enthusiasts, most of whom do not like to study game strategies;
It is very common for players to play during commute and fragmented time.

Midcore Games+Mobile/PC: Players are more strategic and research-oriented and more willing to pay in-game

Midcore Gamers like to study game strategies and are willing to pay to bridge the gap caused by a lack of gaming time.

In terms of preference, Midcore Gamers also enjoy Hardcore Games but lack sufficient playtime;
Psychologically speaking, Midcore Gamers want to get good feelings and gains from the game in a limited time while inheriting the competitive awareness from Hardcore Gamers;
As for Behavior, Midcore Gamers are willing to make up for their lack of time by paying to get a quick in-game boost. The in-game demand created by some game developers in a centralized way often requires players to pay for key in-game assets. Such design attracts a large number of Midcore Gamers;
Midcore Gamers have good gaming skills and are good at using “governance strategies” to improve character attributes or leaderboard rankings.

Next, we will analyze the highly rated Genshin Impact. When Genshin Impact came to market in 2019, it captured a group of seed users between Midcore Gamers and Hardcore Gamers. Born around the millennium, when life quality was rapidly improving, these users began to pursue high-quality Mobile games and consumption upgrade in games. The handheld game market at that time did not adequately meet these needs, but the emergence of Genshin Impact filled this gap. After three years of iteration, although Genshin Impact is still essentially an MMORPG, it is already close to a AAA game in terms of graphic quality on Mobile devices.

Currently, the highly rated Genshin Impact is still the main driver of the MMORPG market, accounting for more than 95% of the market, and it has also won the award of TGA 2021 Best Mobile Game of the Year.

Characteristics of Genshin Impact Users: mostly ACG gamers, willing to pay for characters when lacking gaming time.

Predominantly youngsters (under 24 years old);
User group overlapping with that of Honkai Impact 3 and Arknights;
Part of the users are console gamers, but the majority of the users are still inclined to utilize Mobile for gaming. These gamers have a certain ability to appreciate games without being familiar with the mode of AAA games;
Players are willing to pay to draw game characters. For example, exquisitely drawn characters, smooth movement, and excellent dubbing will attract a large number of players to pay to draw their favorite characters;
Players will learn and exchange game strategies in the game forum;
Players tend to use fragmented time for entertainment and can freely control the pace of the game.

Hardcore Game+PC: Players have excellent gaming skills, low willingness to pay, and prefer to gain game assets and upgrade levels through pure play

Hardcore Gamers have superb gaming skills and are reluctant to pay for in-game props but are willing to purchase premium hardware devices in order to enhance their gaming experience.

Hardcore Games usually have requirements for hardware, and their players prefer to use high-resolution monitors, sensitive control devices, high-performance PCs, and the latest stand-alone to enjoy a long-lasting gaming experience;
Players often read game-related information about the game (keep up-to-date with new versions of software and hardware) and participate in game community discussions;
Hardcore Gamers prefer games that are highly competitive and complex, and they tend to challenge and master the most difficult level of game operation and tasks;
Hardcore Gamers tend to improve their skills to defeat other players and to gain in-game achievements. They are mostly perfectionists who want to enjoy the entire game content;
Hardcore Gamers have the highest participation degree and game loyalty among all game types and are willing to spend more time on the game. The gamer group is relatively settled.

We chose World of Warcraft, an MMORPG developed and published by Blizzard Games, for our next analysis. With a history of nearly 20 years, the game still has almost 5 million players actively subscribing to it in 2022.

Characteristics of World of Warcraft Users: mostly male players, less willing to pay in-game, and more emphasis on the sense of achievement obtained through good gaming skills and high rankings.

Male players make up the vast majority of the gamers;
Players are younger, mainly aged between 18 to 34 years old;
Players have high requirements for devices and want an immersive experience;
There are many deep players who generally have long online gaming time. Besides the monthly card, players will not have more money invested within the game, hoping to rely on their own efforts and game experience to get the fun and sense of achievement in the game.
World of Warcraft also has rib players (players selling gold coins for cash). In addition to monthly cards, they will trade the gold coins they have earned in the game for money.

According to the survey above, we can find that MMORPGs span Midcore Games and Hardcore Games. However, MMORPGs perform differently in different categories, which we will illustrate regarding game devices and player preferences.

First of all, in terms of devices, Midcore MMORPGs are mostly Mobile games; Hardcore MMORPGs are more like PC games.

Secondly, as for player preferences, with the portable Mobile devices and the pause-at-anytime mechanism, Midcore MMORPGs can satisfy players’ needs to play games in a fragmented time when there is insufficient time for gaming. Players are also willing to pay for characters or equipment that can enhance their skills. Although their picture quality is still not as good as Hardcore MMORPGs, Midcore MMORPGs have gained a broader user base than the former for their portability.

With the compatibility with PCs and ultra-high-quality games, Hardcore MMORPG games will be more appealing to players who like to immerse themselves in games for a long period and to prove their ability through their own game operation instead of paying for props in the game.

Midcore Gamers-Oriented Content is More Suitable for Incorporating Web3 Concepts and Elements

We compared the behavioral characteristics of the players screened in the previous section with Web3 users and found that Midcore Gamers overlap highly with Web3 users. They are all strategy research-oriented players and have the willingness to pay for products. And this part of users will become the base of in-game paying users after they enter the Web3 world.

Midcore Gamers highly overlap with Web3 users in behavioral characteristics

First, let’s look at the behavioral characteristics of Web3 users.

Highly transactional, usually earning through paying

Web3 players aim for Play-to-Earn and strongly desire to earn real money. They will pay for the initial assets in the product and are willing to invest more assets in the mid-term to level up and gain more benefits. Web3 users pay extra attention to the economic system of the game but do not have high demands on the gameplay and style of the game itself.

Flexible in thinking, with a certain economic knowledge base

A complete set of economic systems for Web3 games involves the knowledge of market economy and financial monetary theory. To earn real income in the game, players need to have a specific financial knowledge base and be able to make basic judgments on the future direction and trend of the product.

Young and good at researching tokens and economic strategies

Web3 players tend to be younger and more energetic to keep learning and researching the continuously developing blockchain technology and application scenarios. Especially for Web3 games with the economic system as the core, young players are more interested in studying the economic and trading strategies.

Extra attentive to their asset equity

Web3 players attach great importance to the decentralized mechanism of the game. Under the decentralized mechanism, the game is no longer centrally managed by the publisher, and all rights are distributed fairly to ensure that players’ rights to their in-game assets are confirmed (including asset ownership, rights of creation and use, game governance rights, etc.). Asset ownership allows players to freely trade and circulate their assets; the right of creation allows players to co-create the game, and it is fair to say that players jointly decide the future form of the game; game governance rights are directly linked to governance tokens, which are usually the credentials for players to participate in voting for governance.

Based on the highly overlapping behavioral characteristics of Midcore Gamers and Web3 users, we believe that Midcore Gamers-oriented content is more suitable for incorporating Web3 elements and concepts, such as adding rules for FT and NFT assets, making game assets more open and transparent through smart contracts, and enabling players to truly own the assets. And Midcore Gamers will be very receptive to Web3 assets, rules, and concepts due to their strong willingness to pay and preferences for strategy research.

Why AAA games are not suitable for the current Web3 market

Definition of AAA Game

AAA game generally refers to high-cost, high-quality, high-volume single-player games, which is an American standard. AAA game is more of a marketing concept, and there is, in fact, no such classification for games in the game industry. The earliest application of the idea of AAA games in the game industry was in Console games and only later evolved into PC games. So, why do we say that the game content for AAA players is not suitable for Web3 integration? The fundamental reason needs to be analyzed starting from the business model of AAA and the psychological characteristics of players.

AAA games cannot integrate with the Web3 concept due to their players’ psychological characteristics and business model.

The target users of AAA games pursue an immersive experience, which is quite different from the experience with Web3. With the high cost and unclear key path to success, AAA games are not suited to the current market environment of Web3.

AAA game players value game experience more than trading

AAA game players do not match with the Web3 user profile. AAA game players care more about the immersive experience of the game plot and gameplay. They are less sensitive to economic systems, asset trading, and other financial strategy-related content, thus unable to adapt to the high financial attributes of Web3. There are even some players who are resistant to Web3 games that come with financial attributes. French game developer Ubisoft once tried to include NFT assets in their game and had to cancel the plan due to players’ resistance.

In terms of business model, the time and capital invested in AAA games cannot follow up with the rapid iteration of Web3

AAA games have requirements for quality, volume, and investment. To make a popular AAA game, it needs to be the ultimate in graphics exquisiteness, game fluency, and granularity at the same time, which requires developers to invest a huge amount of time and funds. The blockchain industry is an industry with a rapid iteration of underlying technologies and application scenarios, which is unsuitable for games that take too much time and capital cost.

However, if a game has AAA quality (art quality rather than game design philosophy) yet is targeted at Midcore players, it will definitely succeed.

Web3 games with AAA art quality and targeting Midcore Gamers are more likely to succeed

However, we do not deny AAA games outright. The movie-level art quality of AAA games is something from which all the other categories of games can learn. In the current Web3 market environment, simple game mechanisms + low-to-medium-level art quality + simple game experience can no longer reach the goal of attracting more game users. But Web3 games with AAA art quality and Midcore Gamers experience are more likely to be successful. No player will refuse an immersive gaming experience, even the Web3 players who are more attentive to asset trading.

MixMarvel DAO Venture believes that games with AAA quality (specifically referring to art rather than game design philosophy) and targeted at Midcore Gamers, whose core concept and economic cycle are in the interest of players, are most likely to be widely accepted and become successful. If a AAA quality standard can be established in the field of Web3, there will be a disruptive change for Web3 games.

The earlier mentioned game Genshin Impact is an example in this case. Although some people have already categorized it as a AAA game, there are also many skeptical voices. For instance, there are some senior AAA game players who do not recognize this classification. However, we believe that a game like Genshin Impact, which is close to AAA standard in terms of picture quality, is worthy of being noticed and studied by Web3 game teams.

How to Incorporate Web3 Concept into Game Content

There are two ways to integrate Web3 elements and concepts into the game content for Midcore Gamers.

To develop blockchain-native Web3 games based on existing Web3 game design concepts and frameworks, as well as the characteristics of Web3 users;
To transform or reinvent Web2 games that the market has proved following the Web3 concept.

The second path proved to be more likely to succeed. Market-proven games usually show a healthy user data model, good player feedback on the gameplay, and recognition of the quality of the game content after the game is launched. Such games have been repeatedly polished and demonstrated in detail and already have the market scale and user base in the Web2 field.

In terms of development time, it can take up to several years for a game to go through the whole process from initial concept to the following design, development, repetitive debugging, and official launch. The popular Third-Person Shooting game Fortnite has experienced six years of polishing. Compared with developing a new Web3 game from scratch, integrating Web3 design and concepts into the market-proven Web2 games and conducting innovation on business and business models can save development time to the greatest extent.

As for distribution, it is easier for games with an existing user base to establish market scale than for games that must re-explore the user market.

MIR4, an MMORPG developed and published by the well-known Korean game publisher Wemade, is a game that has successfully transformed from a Web2 game into the Web3 field. As a classic IP, The Legend of Mir has a history of 20 years and has accumulated many loyal players with deep feelings for the game and spending power. The Web3 game MIR4, based on The Legend of Mir, successfully occupied the Web3 market right after its release. MIR4 was officially launched in late August 2021, after which Wemade saw a surge in revenue, active players, and transactions. In Q3 2021, Wemade achieved revenue of KRW 63.35 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%. The number of monthly active users on the Wemix platform reached 28,000 in September, an increase of more than ten times compared with August. The platform’s transaction volume reached USD 2.91 million, a 156-fold increase compared with the transaction volume in August.

Epilogue

The Web3 game industry is already full of competition: from the successful release of MIR4 by the South Korean publisher Wemade, to the attempt to issue NFT by the French video game tycoon Ubisoft; from the British Web3 game developer Oxalis Games receiving $4.5 million funding from Supercell and Animoca Brands for developing the Web3 game Moonfrost, to the Japanese gaming giant Square Enix selling over 50 IPs such as Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy to enter the blockchain industry, and even to the Chinese gaming powerhouse Tencent investing in Australian NFT startup Immutable. Most people are concerned about the issue that the blockchain industry needs games to land, but has anyone ever thought about why games also need blockchain?

MixMarvel DAO Venture has given its own answer — the rights and spirits that blockchain can empower people with.

Blockchain gives the asset ownership to players, which ensures the players’ rights. Driven by rights and interests, game publishers have transformed into service providers and no longer stand in the dominant position as they do with traditional games. Such rights and interests create an ecosystem for Web3 game players to co-create, co-rule, and co-exist — game design or ecosystem governance. All players need to make decisions together. In the eyes of traditional game developers, players are not cold data or customers anymore but subjects with a sense of right. People’s subjective initiative can be brought into full play in Web3 games, allowing users to truly own their own achievements in this extraordinary and distinctive experience.

During our research, we noticed that the unique social attributes of MMO games coincide with the idea of creating an immersive social experience as advocated by Metaverse. We also found that the natural in-game economic circulation system of MMO games may bring new transformative power to Web3 games. These are interesting and worthy topics for long-term exploration.

About MixMarvel DAO Venture

MixMarvel DAO Venture is a decentralized investment organization that unites builders and investors from the Web2 and Web3 worlds. Concentrating on pioneering Web3 applications, tools, and infrastructures, MixMarvel DAO Venture empowers Web3 ecosystem constructors through financial support and consulting services. It comprises a diverse portfolio of GameFi, Metaverse, Web3 engine, and infrastructure projects.

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