#226 - Why Web3 Will Fix "Gamer Anxiety" 🎮

Plus, Doodles IRL store and Ledger shows ENS names

GM and welcome to Decentra Daily.

We're the web3 newsletter that’s never gonna give you up or let you down or run around and desert you or make you cry or say goodbye or tell a lie and hurt you.

Today,

  1. Web3 will fix game anxiety 🎮

  2. Doodles at CAMP stores 🛒

  3. Ledger now shows ENS names 📇

  4. Another Azurabala pfp tease 👤

What's this? 🤔
Our floor price index tracks the biggest, most influential pfp projects, art collections, and gaming assets.

1. What’s game anxiety and will web3 fix it?

Do you suffer from game anxiety? It’s the feeling of guilt or nervousness while playing a video game.

Sometimes, game anxiety is caused by the tense, violent, competitive, or gruelingly difficult atmosphere of games.

But game anxiety can also be triggered by a sense of shame around playing games as an adult – the belief that it’s irresponsible to spend time gaming instead of earning money or pursuing other more socially acceptable goals.

Which makes game anxiety a real problem if you use gaming as a way to relax after a hard day at work!

So what’s the solution for people who want to play games without feeling like they’re wasting their time?

Web3 developers could headshot gaming stigma by letting players earn real-world value from the time they invest in gaming.

This thread by @alexisohanian explains the blockchain-backed “play to earn” gaming model that, according to Alex, could go mainstream within the next five years. 👀🤷‍♀️

Using the blockchain, games like Axie Infinity, Otherside, and Illuvium let players monetize their progress by tracking ownership of in-game achievements, tools, outfits, weapons, and other rewards.

Players can then sell their accomplishments for game tokens, which they can convert to other cryptocurrencies.

Unofficial asset marketplaces for traditional games like Counter-Strike are already seeing high volumes and big sales, demonstrating the demand for play-to-earn functionality.

– Not to mention the Twitter meltdowns that occur every time the (unsubstantiated) rumors of GTA6’s P2E features resurface.

As the blockchain helps to integrate video game activity with real-world economies and markets, that sense of shutting out the world that can accompany a gaming session should disappear.

And hopefully, as a result, people will feel less anxious about choosing to spend their precious time on their favorite game. 😌

2. A Doodles interactive store is coming this summer

Doodles is teaming up with CAMP stores to create a real-life “retail and entertainment experience.”

CAMP is a cool family store/play center found in major cities across the US. They collaborate with big IPs like Disney and H&M to create interactive in-store events.

Outside of festivals and conferences, this will be the first time Doodles has staged a physical retail event.

According to a Doodles thread, the store space is being designed with web3 newbies in mind, introducing people to the Doodles ecosystem and giving them a chance to sign up for the project’s online hub, the Stoodio.

There’ll be a new range of merch and toys, and Doodles holders will get free entry plus some special perks.

So what will the space actually be like?

  • Big. 6,000 square feet!

  • A family-focused environment with toys and activities

  • More adult-oriented events in the evenings

  • Launching this summer

On the web3 wire

A web3 artist is working on an original Netflix game 🎮 
Netflix continues to expand into the video game space by starting work on its own title. The “original IP” game is being developed by Raf Grassetti, art director for God of War and web3 artist whose work has appeared at Christie's and Sotheby's.

More Apple “Reality” headset leaks 🕶️
Leaked details of the screens inside Apple’s forthcoming headset suggest it will have a crazy resolution. It’s rumored to contain two, 1.4-inch 4K micro OLED screens with extremely high refresh rates.

OpenAI & Deepmind say they might have triggered the extinction of humanity 😮
CEOs of the top AI labs have published another open letter on the dangers of the AI they’ve created. They say that the technology needs to be taken as seriously as the threat of nuclear war or future pandemics.

3. Ledger now shows ENS names

ENS is integrated into Ledger Live and hardware wallets. That means you can use an ENS name when transferring your assets.

ENS stands for Ethereum Name Service. An ENS is an easily readable version of an Ethereum address. ENS addresses are made of one or more words followed by “.eth” and are also stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

The ability to use ENS names when moving funds to or from a Ledger wallet should improve usability.

Instead of seeing a list of basically indistinguishable 42-character strings of random letters and numbers, you’ll now see names like “Wiggles.eth” or “DecentraDaily.eth” for wallets that have an ENS.

The upgrade was possible due to a new indexing feature by Ledger called the Trusted Name Service that ensures the correct matching of addresses and ENS names.

As a result of the news, people are bidding tens of thousands of dollars for the ENS name ledger.eth, which is currently up for sale.

Notable Tweets

4. Azurabala gets closer to dropping its new pfps

Last night, we got another glimpse of Azurbala’s new pfp set in a teaser video.

The video shows one of the “Jungle Punk” ecosystem’s new characters in a downtown alley spray painting over a hologram of the former collection.

The end of the clip shows a few new NFTs in greater detail. Judging by what’s there, potential traits for these new Azurians include weapons, jewelry, hair, and some sort of elemental superpowers…

Also announced yesterday: mint passes for the new look Azurians can be claimed by burning a Bored & Dangerous book NFT.

Remind me? Azurbala is the narrative-driven NFT collection from Tally Labs, creators of the Bored Ape spin-off and first crowd-written NFT book, Jenkin’s the Valet.

Watch: The new teaser on Twitter or listen: To last night’s Twitter Space

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Meme of the day

Till the next edition of Decentra Daily! 🦸