Today, I bring you a very interesting project. Zentry is an ambitious and exciting project aimed at creating a “metagame layer”. They are dedicated to turning everyday life into an epic MMORPG.
If you are a gamer (PC, console, mobile, or web3 games), then you definitely don’t want to miss this article. Zentry aims to unify all your activities across different games (web2 and web3) and platforms, allowing you to earn rewards while playing games through another metagame.
This team has already achieved great success in the GuildFi space and has garnered support from top investors (Binance, Animoca, Coinbase Ventures, Defiance Capital, etc.). Their treasury is valued at a whopping $1.5 billion.
After reading this article, I will tell you how to start playing games and earning shards through their first product.
Today, I had the privilege of discussing their vision and the overall landscape of web3 games with Zentry’s co-founder, Jarindr.
This article was written in collaboration with Zentry, and I may continue to work with them in the future as I am very fond of their vision. I hope to support as many high-quality blockchain consumer applications as possible.
First, could you briefly introduce GuildFi and why you decided to launch Zentry?
We founded GuildFi over three years ago. GuildFi is a gaming platform. If you are familiar with Axie Infinity, a game that has created job opportunities for millions in Southeast Asia, then you’ll understand. Our headquarters are in Thailand, and we saw a huge market opportunity in Southeast Asia about two and a half years ago.
At that time, Axie Infinity was one of the largest games, the only one to introduce gaming guild narratives and scholarships. We created thousands of job positions for people to start playing games and earn rewards and income.
As a player with 10 years of gaming and business investment experience, I have seen the creation of many protocols. Given my engineering background, I knew that the “play-to-earn” model is not truly sustainable. You cannot just keep distributing tokens to speculative people. This pyramid structure will eventually collapse.
This realization led us from GuildFi to Zentry. The main reason for this transition was the change in narrative and business model. GuildFi focused on gaming guilds, but now we are building something on a larger scale with Zentry. While the GuildFi name still signifies gaming guilds, we are constructing something more ambitious and revolutionary with Zentry, so a rebranding was necessary to make people understand that Zentry is not just about games. We aim to fundamentally change this industry in a significant way.
So, what problem does Zentry mainly address?
Through Zentry, we are building a “game of games”. So, what problems are we trying to solve here? We are addressing the two biggest challenges in the gaming industry, not only in games but also in a broader sense. This includes both web2 games and web3 games, although I do not like to separate them.
The first problem is distribution, and the second is monetization. Gamification has always been a crucial component of consumer applications. If you are familiar with e-commerce applications or Duolingo, you will know that gamification has been a key element.
Observing some of the biggest consumer applications like TikTok or YouTube, you will see that they always enhance user engagement through various gamification techniques, enticing users to return and improving the overall experience. This could be as simple as a daily login reward. If you understand Duolingo, one of its biggest features is the streak of continuous logins, even though it may seem insignificant, some people have logged in consecutively for 700 days. These are practical examples of how consumer applications use gamification to keep users coming back.
We are building a layer that covers consumer applications, which can be games, social networks, or any other platform. This layer helps these applications monetize better, improve user retention, and create real story backgrounds that make users genuinely want to keep visiting.
Zentry is an ecosystem consisting of multiple interconnected products, all based on the same goal. Imagine it as a universe of interconnected games with stories, intellectual property, and characters that people can immerse themselves in. To progress in our games, you may need to do something outside of the game and interact with different layers and applications.
Our layer helps these applications achieve better monetization and distribution. For example, if you frequently play games like Dota, League of Legends, or Axie Infinity, each game has its mini-games and achievements. Our layer adds another level of engagement. For instance, every time you hit an opponent in Valorant or complete a game in Axie Infinity, you may receive additional rewards from our layer.
These rewards may come in various resources from the Zentry universe. Playing different games can earn you different resources that can be used to create items, gift cards, or enhance your profile. This encourages players to return to their favorite games, helping these games monetize better.
First-party distributors may not want to use mechanisms like timed loot boxes or gambling, as users may feel they are just trying to squeeze more money out of them. As a third party, we can apply these game mechanisms across different games without worrying about these issues, enhancing user experience and monetization capabilities without affecting people’s perceptions of the original game or application.
So, is Zentry a bit like the movie “Ready Player One,” where everyone is playing games in a persistent universe, but essentially playing a bunch of different games? Can people understand Zentry this way?
Absolutely. If you look at our daily lives, this is actually already happening, just scattered everywhere. For example, if you have already played 20,000 hours of Dota, that is very valuable. For game publishers looking for experienced players, you are an important player. Suppose I am a new game developer and I want to reach out to people who have played at least 10,000 hours of mobile games to test my new game. This is a good example of why this is important and how you can eventually monetize through your own data and skills.
Zentry empowers users with more autonomy, helping players in the Zentry universe grow, thrive, and make profits from their daily activities. Unlike unsustainable “play-to-earn” models (earning tokens by playing games), we have a more sustainable model.
This applies not only to the digital realm but also to the physical realm. Imagine you want to create a rare sword in Zentry, which requires resources from different games. We do not force people to play different games because that is not practical. Users typically play only a small fraction of games. For example, if you want to create that sword and you need resources from game A, but you only play game B, we have designed a model where you can still generate those resources because other players are playing game A.
Imagine the last resource you need can only be found in a physical store. You can go to a new partner store, like Dunkin Donuts, and be one of the first 500 customers. This creates a collaboration between the digital and physical spaces. Remember when Pokémon Go had rare Pokémon appear at specific locations, attracting crowds to certain stores? We have the ability to create similar experiences in any field, from the digital world to the real world.
Zentry will launch a series of interconnected products, starting with Nexus. Could you introduce your products?
We started with Nexus, which has been live for a few weeks now. We have already attracted over 10.Nexus aims to gamify social network interactions by building games on top of it. They have created a social graph to identify powerful users within the Web3 ecosystem. Their focus is on providing a gamified experience rather than just a mining platform, making it a true game. While the current version is simplified and emphasizes direct interaction, the next upgrade will turn Nexus into a more complete game.
In the full version, every time you discuss different games on Twitter or earn resources, you can use these resources to create items and equip them to your profile, engage in PvP battles with other players, or create guilds. The goal is to encourage a gamified experience where users become content creators while playing games. Nexus believes that there is a lack of content creators in the Web3 space, which results in the industry relying on a few influential individuals, streamers, and gamers. This creates a significant gap compared to Web2 games.
For example, hiring a YouTuber or streamer with 1 million subscribers to play your game on Web3 could cost five to six times more than hiring a similar influencer in Web2. Nexus aims to address this issue by gamifying content creation. They do not directly incentivize people to create content; instead, they make it fun through games, improving how people interact with social networks.
Their upcoming product launching in the third quarter is Radiant. Radiant is a game collection designed to enhance your daily gaming experience across different games, whether Web2 or Web3.
As an overlay, Radiant introduces new interactions and reward layers. For example, if you play games like CSGO or Apex Legends, Radiant will introduce loot box mechanisms similar to those games into all the games you play. These loot boxes provide items and resources, encouraging players to engage more with their games. Nexus aims to create a win-win situation for game publishers and players.
The third upcoming product is Zigma, their primary NFT collection. While they have not revealed many details yet, Zigma will serve as a global passport for the entire Zentry ecosystem.
Zentry operates as a layer that can run on top of thousands of existing games. If some games fail, they will not fail with them. One of their biggest advantages is their team, consisting of seasoned professionals from Web3, advertising, ad tech, and the gaming industry. Additionally, they are one of the largest gaming ecosystems, with $1.5 billion in funding. This allows them to incentivize and build the entire Zentry ecosystem and invest in games. Crucially, Zentry will not fail due to the failure of a single game.
Zentry tokens play various roles across multiple areas and will be used in all their Web3 builds. Firstly, Zentry is profitable, and the generated revenue can be used to purchase and destroy these tokens. These tokens will be the primary currency for all their products, including trading and selling. The tokens will be the only tokens used by all platforms and partners wishing to collaborate with them.
For example, if a game wants to join the Zentry universe, they need to use their tokens to pay us for managing resource distribution in their game. Additionally, when you stake Zentry tokens, you have the opportunity to access multiple ecosystem areas. They refer to it as “staking rewards.” When you stake, you receive rewards that can be used to purchase tokens or receive additional tokens when participating in different games. They aim to distribute the right tokens to the right people to maximize the likelihood of their reuse within the ecosystem.
Regarding the current Web3 gaming industry, they believe that although it is still in its early stages, it has enormous potential. The industry has evolved from a lack of trust or belief in Web3 games to having genuine participants and high-quality developers entering the field. These new entrants are trying to create dreams that Web2 games cannot achieve.
They acknowledge that we are still waiting for a fully successful Web3 game. Competition with giants like PlayStation with massive budgets poses challenges. Blockchain offers a unique way to distribute games and acquire users, something impossible in traditional gaming.
As for potentially successful games, they express skepticism about AAA games due to the time and budget required. They are more interested in independent games that require less time, are well-designed, and have the right incentives. They highlight examples like “Pixels,” a simple game similar to “FarmVille” that gradually evolves into an RPG game, showcasing the power of incentives in attracting users.
Overall, they are excited about projects like Parallel and the potential of independent games relying on platforms like Ronin to showcase success in the Web3 gaming space.
