Following Grant, let's step into the world of Mantle's ecological games.

Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow

From the TON ecosystem's "Tap to Earn" fan base surpassing tens of millions, to the domestic 3A masterpiece "Black Myth: Wukong" sparking widespread discussions, it seems that Web3 never lacks attention to games.

This is also understandable. According to the "2023 Global Games Market Report" released by the global game market research company Newzoo, the global game market size is $184 billion, with over 3.38 billion global game users. Faced with such a huge user base and industry scale, many people believe that games are the key to bringing billions of users to Web3.

It is for this reason that after rolling up technology and application, the ecological focus of major chains is on games. Among them, the modular L2 Mantle has attracted attention due to its frequent explosive success in the gaming sector: On one hand, the casual cat-raising chain game Catizen integrated Mantle's infrastructure and native token MNT, and within 2 months of its launch, it attracted nearly 20 million registered users. On the other hand, the large-scale Meta-MMO game MetaCene has already attracted over 150,000 players during the testing phase.

What are the successful principles of Mantle in the gaming sector? What layout strategies will it implement in the future?

With such curiosity, we had an in-depth conversation with Grant Zhang, the person in charge of the Mantle ecological gaming sector (Twitter: @0xGeezee). As a veteran player in the gaming industry, Grant has been involved in game projects with a cumulative download volume of over 500 million times. He shared his unique and profound insights on his thoughts on Web3 games and the support that Mantle as an L2 should provide.

In addition to standard support such as marketing, user growth, and funding, Mantle's differentiated advantage lies in the more practical help the team can provide in token economics design, support for listing, talent introduction, and game release.

Looking to the future, while keeping the suspense, Grant also exudes ample confidence:

We have 7 flagship games, of which 2 (Catizen and MetaCene) have already been successful, and our next goal is to achieve a 100% success rate for all 7 games.

In this issue, let's follow Grant's sharing and step into the panoramic view of the Mantle ecological gaming world.

Part 1: Stepping into the panoramic view of the Mantle ecological gaming world

Deep Tide TechFlow: It's a pleasure to have the opportunity to have an in-depth conversation with you. First, please introduce yourself (you can share some past educational experiences, career/entrepreneurial experiences, etc.).

Geezee:

Hello everyone, I am Grant Zhang, currently serving as the person in charge of the Mantle ecological gaming sector, and I am also a Chinese-Canadian. Due to my real name "Grant" being easily misunderstood (many people might initially think I am a funding committee rather than a real person), I often avoid using my real name, and many of you may be more familiar with my other name, Geezee (Twitter: @0xGeezee). I am delighted to have this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange with everyone.

In terms of my career/entrepreneurial experience, I have a rich resume in the gaming industry. I have led the publishing teams for games such as "League of Legends," "Teamfight Tactics," "Ragnarok Online," "TapTap," "Transformers," and "Game of Thrones," and have also been involved in the development of several casual games such as "Ski Adventure" and "Crossy Road." According to incomplete statistics, the download volume of the game projects I have been involved in exceeds 500 million times.

In addition to Web2 games, I am also very focused on the Web3 gaming sector and have played strategic roles and provided support and consulting services in some well-known game projects, such as Catizen, MetaCene, and Ember Sword. I hope to continue supporting and helping excellent game developers and sharing these wonderful experiences with players around the world.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Gaming is a key focus of the Mantle ecosystem. What are the considerations behind this? As the person in charge of the Mantle gaming sector, with the frequent emergence of excellent works in the Mantle ecological gaming projects in 2024, could you briefly introduce the current basic situation and key achievements of the Mantle ecological gaming projects?

Geezee:

We know that there are different countries and ethnicities in the world, and therefore there are different languages and cultural barriers, which may hinder the exchange and popularization of new technologies. In my eyes, entertainment and games are a globally universal language, and the enjoyment they bring can transcend cultural and language barriers.

Similarly, for Web3, games are also the perfect tool for achieving large-scale popularization, which is why the Mantle ecosystem attaches such importance to the development of the gaming sector. We firmly believe that the large-scale popularization of blockchain technology will eventually come, and games will be an important contributor to this process.

Due to the high level of engagement and resource intensity required for cooperation with game projects, we are often very cautious in choosing cooperative games. This has also led to the fact that the current number of products in the Mantle ecological gaming sector may not be that high, but we have very high requirements for the quality of games, and once we choose to cooperate, we are committed to ensuring their success. Catizen is a good example, as one of the first games we chose to support, it attracted over 26 million players in just 5 months.

Part 2: From Catizen to MetaCene, why do Mantle games frequently become popular?

Deep Tide TechFlow: It is understood that in April of this year, Mantle established a strategic cooperation with Catizen, and subsequently, Catizen's achievement of attracting tens of millions of users is remarkable. In a market with no shortage of game-specific public chains, could you please share with us, using the success of Catizen as an example, why developers should choose Mantle? Or how does Mantle empower the development of games as an L2?

Geezee:

In fact, our cooperation with Catizen and its publisher Pluto was established as early as August 2023. Whether it's game design, token economics, user acquisition, or cooperation with TON, Mantle provides comprehensive support.

Speaking of the layout in the gaming sector, Mantle's strategy is completely different from that of most other ecosystems. This difference mainly lies in our team: in other ecosystems, the development of the gaming sector is usually led by outstanding investors, while Mantle's gaming team is composed more of publishing and operations experts in the gaming industry. Therefore, we can provide more substantial support for our game partners, including token design, economic models, game publishing, financing, and user acquisition.

The reason Catizen chose to cooperate with Mantle is as I just shared. Our unique team structure can provide professional and practical support for game projects, which can effectively drive the success of projects, something that other ecosystems cannot achieve.

Deep Tide TechFlow: In the past few months, TON's popular mini-games have been continuous. What do you think is the fundamental reason for TON's wave of mini-games? How long can this wave continue? Does Mantle have more actions and plans in this regard?

Geezee:

I believe that the Telegram gaming ecosystem will continue to develop, and based on the close relationship between Telegram and TON, we will definitely see more games like this landing on TON. It can be foreseen that this development process will be very similar to WeChat mini-games.

For Mantle, super casual games like Catizen and Tap to Earn are just the beginning. These types of games are very suitable for attracting users and can bring a massive Telegram user base into the world of mini-games. In the future, we plan to gradually introduce more in-depth and appealing game mechanisms to game players.

Mantle's future plan is to develop together with the Telegram mini-game ecosystem and continue to release more suitable game products at each stage of evolution.

Deep Tide TechFlow: With the popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong," more community members are discussing when Web3 will have its own 3A-level masterpiece. How do you view this discussion? What do you think is the necessary opportunity for the birth of a 3A-level game in Web3? When will this happen?

Geezee:

I believe "Black Myth: Wukong" will go down in history as one of the greatest games. This game also makes me, as a Chinese descendant, extremely proud because it showcases many wonderful aspects of Chinese culture to the world.

However, we have to admit that 3A single-player games do have significant limitations in terms of user growth, engagement, and profitability. Not only do these games have extremely high production costs, but compared to mobile games like "Genshin Impact" or "Candy Crush," they also have very limited player engagement and therefore limited profitability.

So, it's difficult to see a large number of developers getting involved in the development of such games. I think this is also an important reason why the community believes that "Web3 will not have a Black Myth." As a result, more developers are likely to turn to the construction of mobile casual core games, and I believe this trend will not change over time, and Web3 games will also follow this trend.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Another heavyweight game in the Mantle ecosystem, MetaCene, has also accumulated a good reputation during the testing phase. As a large MMORPG game, MetaCene has more complex requirements in terms of cost, rules, and economic model design. In light of the discussion on 3A-level games in the ecosystem, what differentiated support do you think Mantle can provide for such games?

Geezee:

Large-scale games have more complex requirements in terms of cost, rules, and economic model design, and this is where our team excels.

In addition to the standard support such as marketing, user growth, and funding that other ecosystems can also provide, our differentiated advantage lies in the rich successful experience our team has in game operations and publishing. This allows us to provide more practical support for MetaCene, such as providing advice for their token economics, supporting their listing, helping to attract talent for development/publishing, and even participating in certain aspects of game design.

Another key differentiating factor is the infrastructure support we have built around games. We have teams like Game7, Hyperplay, Yeeha, and Community Gaming, which can provide comprehensive support in areas such as user acquisition, engagement, wallet infrastructure, entry points, and security. These can be said to be necessary support for the success of Web3 games.

Deep Tide TechFlow: We know that Mantle has the largest project treasury in the crypto industry, which has led to strong developer incentive measures in the Mantle ecosystem. Can you share how developers can better utilize this advantage for rapid development in the gaming sector?

Geezee:

One point I want to emphasize again is that despite having the largest treasury in the Web3 field, we are still very cautious in choosing which games to support.

Unlike other ecosystems that may try to introduce hundreds of games to the ecosystem through a "wide net" approach, the Mantle ecosystem has only chosen to deeply cooperate with about 7-8 games and provide real support. As a result, the games selected for cooperation with our ecosystem receive much more substantial assistance and support compared to other ecosystems.

Another major benefit of having a large treasury is that we can better empower projects and players. The treasury can generate returns through different investments, and these returns will be distributed through our game partners to help attract players more effectively.

Part 3: Differentiated strategies in L2 competition, Mantle continues to focus on gaming

Deep Tide TechFlow: Games have always been seen as an excellent entry point for bringing a large number of incremental users to Web3. However, the development of games has been somewhat turbulent for a long time, and a very important reason for this is that most game players are "heavy on income, light on experience." Faced with this issue, the concept of ServerFi proposed in a recent Yale University paper has sparked widespread discussion, as it is believed to explore the possibility of bringing games out of the Ponzi quagmire. How do you view ServerFi? How do you think the relationship between "Play" and "Earn" in games should be balanced?

Geezee:

In fact, "Play to Earn" is not a new concept originating from Web3. Although this concept has recently been widely used to describe various Ponzi scheme Web3 games, many game projects had already made multiple attempts in the "Earn" field before the emergence of blockchain technology. For example, I know many users made a lot of money through arbitrage in the "Treasure Market" of "Fantasy Westward Journey," and when I was young, I sold a headscarf worth hundreds of dollars in "MapleStory." Additionally, many players provide power leveling and gaming services in games like "League of Legends," which is also a form of making money through games.

One concept that needs to be emphasized is that game developers need to recognize that "Earn" is more of a tool to better attract players to participate, rather than a viable business model.

Recognizing this also means that there are higher demands for the design of in-game economic models. Game developers often need to carefully calculate how many different actions players can take to support their game, and then make critical decisions about how much income users can earn from these actions. This is a very crucial issue.

Deep Tide TechFlow: One last question, could you please share the key layout and upcoming roadmap/milestones for the gaming sector in the Mantle ecosystem in the next year?

Geezee:

Haha, unfortunately, I can't share too much because most of the plans in this area are confidential.

But what I can reveal is that so far, the Mantle ecosystem gaming sector has 7 flagship products, of which 2 (Catizen and MetaCene) are already known and have achieved success in their respective niche areas.

Our goal is to continue releasing these 7 games over the next few quarters and to ensure that they achieve 100% success.

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