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“The actual crypto part needs to disappear in the background.” - Me (too often).
I hate it when people say this (especially when I do).
It’s a tired cliché, and maybe it’s true.
While many are still trying to figure out how to make blockchain invisible, Gunzilla Games with Off the Grid seems to have done it — maybe too well.
The “Next-Gen Cyberpunk F2P Extraction Royale” is crushing its go-to-market strategy. Crypto Twitter is both docile and ablaze, a rare combination indeed.
Outside CT, it seems to have hit a mainstream nerve. The Ninja/Tatman/Scump trad-streamer industrial complex is involved, rallying the normie kids.
I haven’t kept much track of trad-streamers lately, but it seems they genuinely like the game. The chasm between paid promotion and authenticity has always been nebulous, but Off the Grid rides the line well.
So what’s the catch?
Well—for starters—less than 100% of the game logic is hosted onchain.
Look, I’ll confess that I play offchain games all the time (I know that’s blasphemy).
And while Web3 games are cool, titles that only dabble in crypto mechanics don’t maximize the affordances that blockchain offers players.
Off the Grid runs a slick marketing campaign, but let’s face it—less than 100% onchain logic makes it another missed opportunity for deeper player ownership and control.
But actually, I’m unconvinced this game has any relation to crypto at all, given its broadly successful marketing campaign and the fact that the word-soup description in their Twitter bio fails to even dog-whistle the crypto part.
Then you go check their website. Nothing.
Furthermore, their marketplace isn’t even that integral to the experience.
Yes, the game looks awesome. But it feels more like a traditional title with a veneer of crypto.
Pushing the blockchain elements into the background strips away what makes onchain gaming so revolutionary: the ability for players to genuinely own, govern, and shape the game world.
Fully onchain games offer players unprecedented control with the promise of emergent economies and mechanics—instead of just using blockchain as a garnish.
So now that my dreams have come true, and the crypto has “disappeared into the background,” I’m livid.
Where’s the M*taM*ask pop-up? Where’s the unintuitive UX and prohibitive learning curve?
Trad-gamers might not be ready for full-blown onchain integration. But in earnest, it’s probably a really good thing that games like Off the Grid can ease the public consciousness into hearing the word ‘NFT’ again.
Maybe crypto needs to re-enter the gaming space quitely, a subtle nudge here and there.
But the future is fully onchain, and anything less is just a stepping stone.
Normies and Crypto have a deeply toxic relationship. And maybe Off the Grid is the tasteful thirst trap that gets the normies to slide back in.
Slowly, then all at once.
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