Blockchain-based games tailored for women may promote inclusion despite the apparent shortage of women in the Web3 industry. According to recent research by the Entertainment Software Association, 48% of American gamers identify as female. It highlights that half of the world’s gamers are female. Women’s engagement in the multibillion-dollar gaming industry is noteworthy. This, along with the industry’s predicted tremendous development, is a significant reason many Web3 games are developing exclusively for female players.
Beryl Chavez Li, the co-founder of Yield Guild Games, a worldwide play-to-earn gaming community, said that blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity had increased female players. “Although data indicate that play-to-earn games are more appealing to male players, we anticipate that will interest more women,” she added.
Yat Siu, co-founder, and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, further explains that finance and Web3 games intertwine closely, stressing that this would bring all sorts of individuals to the field over time. However, he predicts that women will attract mainly due to their propensity for more financial responsibility. “This is especially true in poorer nations, where microfinance and microlending are mostly head by women,” he said.
Web3 games incorporate features to attract women
Several Web3 games are now under development to cater to a primarily female audience. Fashion League, for instance, is a free, play-to-earn smartphone game that enables players to build their fashion empire. Theresia Le Battistini, CEO, and founder of Fashion League said that the game allows users to create virtual clothing lines that could eventually be sell as nonfungible tokens or NFTs. At the same time, brands can use the game to display digital products: “We believe that everything will be gamefi in the future, as our research indicates that the gaming market will surpass $300 billion by 2027. Web3 games must be accessible to anyone.”
Le Battistini noted that Fashion League incorporates inherently attractive characteristics for women to increase female involvement. “The aesthetics of the game are crucial, as is the fact that it will first be available on mobile devices. She noted that women like playing mobile games because of the low entry barrier. Recent studies indicate that 62% of smartphone owners installed a game during the first week of ownership. In addition, these statistics suggest that 51% of mobile gamers are female and 49% are male. According to a survey by The Female Quotient, aesthetics is essential in drawing women to the Web3 sector.
Will games increase women’s participation in Web3?
It is unclear if women-oriented Web3 games will genuinely result in higher participation. Currently, Pettersson considers this a complex subject to answer. Nonetheless, he added that it is reasonable to assert that high-quality Web3 games directed toward women would attract more women to the industry: “The original “Web2” games were built and geared for boys and men. Over the years, more and more games have been created specifically for girls and women.
In light of this, he feels that the Web3 industry is already aware that women like games and want to be engaged, consequently placing a greater emphasis on this gender group. However, Pettersson noted that it would be difficult to establish the actual effect of these games.
Siu also mentioned that games are becoming less reliant on gender, while Maietta said that Web3 could construct its culture on deliberate inclusivity. While noteworthy, it is essential to note that the Web3 gaming industry is still in its infancy. Consequently, some in the industry think developers are now more concerned with expanding the ecosystem than fostering inclusiveness. Olga Ivanova, content and community manager at Spielworks, a blockchain gaming platform, said that Web3 game developers are more focused on “building powerful in-game economies and raising the game design to at least AAA standards.”
Wrapping Up
The difficulty for Web3 games is also connecting to the widespread acceptance of crypto, which is not primarily related to gender but to overall crypto usage globally. And there is still work that must done regarding accessibility and usability for this to occur.
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