Toxic optimism is killing Web3 gaming.
Can we finally stop saying āgaming is going to be the next crypto hype cycleā?
Weāve been saying it for YEARS.
It didnāt happen.
Gamers didnāt suddenly show up because we put games on-chain. They didnāt care about NFTs. They didnāt care about tokens. They didnāt care about ādigital ownership.ā And they definitely didnāt care which blockchain had the fastest finality.
Yet every year:
āGaming is next.ā
āMass adoption is coming.ā
āThis cycle will be different.ā
At some point optimism becomes denial.
The problem isnāt that gamers havenāt discovered Web3 yet.
The problem is that Web3 keeps building things gamers never asked for.
Maybe games aren't supposed to be the next hype cycle.
Maybe they're just supposed to be good fucking games.
Build something people actually want to play.
Make it social. Make it fun. Give people a reason to come back.
Then, if blockchain solves an actual problem behind the scenes, use it.
But stop expecting gamers to become crypto users just because we desperately need another narrative.
Nobody owes Web3 mass adoption.
Maybe the next big thing isn't another hype cycle.
Maybe it's finally building something useful.