WEPIN Partners Day 2024 ② Vortex Gaming: Beyond Platform - Community Evolution: Integrating Web2/Web3 Gaming and User Rewards

Author: Jiyun Kyung, Business Development (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiyunkyung/)

WEPIN Partners Day 2024 Speakers

① Verychat: "The Future of Web3 Mass Adoption Through the History of Computer Popularization"

② Vortex Gaming: "Beyond Platform - Community Evolution: Integrating Web2/Web3 Gaming and User Rewards"

③ map3protocol: "Web3 based Real-World Map"

④ Metacultures: "Global Mass Adoption through K-Culture Performance"

⑤ BitBlue: "Entertain Transformation; AltTown"

⑥ Socialus: "Building YouTube Investment Ecosystem with Web3 Wallet"

⑦ StudyRich: "StudyRich X WEPIN, Creating WEB3 Learning App"

⑧ Modern Lion: "Driving Blockchain Mass Adoption through NFT"

⑨ WEPIN Wallet: "Growing Together with Partners, Shaping the Future of Web3 Mass Adoption"
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[TL;DR]

• While existing blockchain communities relied solely on positive incentives, Vortex Gaming's philosophy emphasizes that superior content is the key to sustainable community building.
• Vortex Gaming abstracts complex blockchain technology, providing Web2 users with seamless Web3 rewards through SBT/token systems and human-readable wallets.
• Beyond a simple rewards platform, the goal is to establish an integrated Web2/Web3 gaming hub by building an SNS-style gaming community and nurturing a content creator ecosystem.
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About Vortex Gaming

Vortex Gaming is a content-driven gaming community building Web3-optimized services through global game social media and guild functionalities. By providing reliable professional content across various aspects including game quality and economic systems, we aim to break down user perception barriers surrounding existing Web3 games.

Furthermore, Vortex Gaming strives to unite Web2 and Web3 gamers into a single community by delivering tailored content for both rapidly growing Web3 games and traditional Web2 games.

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Beyond Platform - Community Evolution: Integrating Web2/Web3 Gaming and User Rewards

Let me briefly introduce Vortex Gaming. As a Web3 subsidiary of Inven, Korea's leading gaming media community, we are a content-centric gaming community focused on achieving Game-Fi mass adoption.

While there have been various communities in the blockchain industry, they largely relied solely on positive incentives, failing to maintain sustained user engagement and lacking long-term viability. To address this challenge, Vortex Gaming firmly believes that superior content is the cornerstone of a sustainable community.

We envision an integrated community that encompasses not only Web3 games but also traditional Web2 games. Our vision is to establish ourselves as the ultimate hub providing all necessary services to gamers without distinguishing between Web2 and Web3. To this end, we are focusing on bringing together both Web2 and Web3 gaming users and delivering compelling content to them.

Through this approach, we aim to gradually break down the psychological barriers Web2 users feel towards Web3 games, allowing them to naturally encounter Web3 content in a shared space. Vortex Gaming is designed as an SNS-style interactive service where users can communicate with each other and engage with Web3 content in an interesting way. This strategy aims to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3, ultimately achieving mass adoption. Our ultimate goal is to establish ourselves as an integrated gaming hub where all users can connect and interact seamlessly, regardless of Web2 or Web3 distinctions.

In particular, we believe that game users have the potential to become content creators. Based on this belief, Vortex Gaming is building an ecosystem to nurture next-generation game content creators.

This ecosystem is implemented using blockchain technology, providing users with various features to create content and receive rewards based on their content's impact. Beyond simple rewards, creators can build their own fandom, and fans can support or donate through VOR points or Vortex tokens. This structure not only provides economic benefits to creators but also motivates them to continuously supply high-quality content to the ecosystem.

As a gaming community, we place significant emphasis on gamification elements and reward systems. We believe that active participation and tangible rewards are crucial elements in creating a sustainable and healthy community.

For example, Vortex Gaming helps users easily understand our service through familiar features like login bonuses and tutorial-style missions. Upon completing these missions, users can earn VOR points, which are designed to be convertible into Vortex tokens, providing real benefits to users.

We utilize Soulbound Tokens (SBT) to provide credentials when users complete specific missions or achieve goals during gameplay. This issues digital credentials for users' achievements. Beyond mere verification, users can express their individuality by customizing their Vortex avatars with various accessories upon joining.

The SBTs acquired through these missions will be used for modeling users as gamers. We are developing plans to tokenize gamers based on this data, believing it will become a valuable asset within the gaming ecosystem.

While Vortex is called a platform, we are fundamentally community-centric. Our community supports various processes such as game discovery, strategy sharing, and finding party or guild members. We are preparing to enable users to accomplish all these tasks within Vortex without switching between multiple services. For instance, we provide spaces for gamers to stay connected through features like direct messaging and group chat.

Moreover, while supporting necessary functions for existing Web2 games, we strive to deliver satisfying experiences for Web3 users through immersive game simulators and Web3 economic system analytics tools to meet Web3 gaming needs.

This represents one of our core business areas under active development. As mentioned, Vortex Gaming is a subsidiary of Inven, and alongside the Inven organization, we have another subsidiary called Inchant, home to game influencers. Through both in-house content production and content created by ecosystem creators, we aim to provide all necessary gaming information within Vortex.

This information will be integrated with LLM-based AI, aiming to create an environment where users can always find the answers they need when accessing Vortex Gaming. We plan to unveil this system in the near future.

Currently, Vortex Gaming hosts approximately 250 Web2 gaming channels and 380 Web3 gaming channels. With both Web2 and Web3 gaming channels coexisting, we have focused on creating an environment that Web2 users can navigate comfortably.

We have incorporated this accessibility into our registration process. For example, we offer social login functionality, allowing users to sign up easily through Google or other social accounts. During registration, users create a handle (similar to X or Facebook) that appears after their personal URL and select their preferred games and channels.

Upon completing registration, the user's channel ID becomes their wallet address. We support human-readable wallet addresses, providing such a natural UX and interface that Web2 users may not even realize they're in a Web3 environment.

Users can then earn rewards through various missions. For instance, when a mission is completed, a reward button appears, which, when clicked, prompts for a WEPIN wallet PIN entry. After entering the PIN code, items appear as digital photocards or digital goods. While users see these as simple digital photocards, they are actually minted as Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) stored in their wallets.

At Vortex Gaming, all issued items are housed in what we call 'My Inventory.' Users can view their token information and detailed information about various SBT NFTs in this inventory. They can also use their SBTs to synthesize or customize characters. When users click the 'Synthesis/Customize' button, they can proceed with synthesis through their WEPIN wallet PIN, with all generated data recorded on-chain.

Since April this year, we have been conducting collaboration events with various Web2 and Web3 gaming companies through our open beta service for about seven months. While previous rewards focused on positive elements, we have evolved to design rewards that address gamers' actual needs. Furthermore, we have structured missions based on content that gaming companies want to provide to their players.

Mission rewards include not only in-game items but also digital goods utilizing IP and physical merchandise. Through these missions and rewards, we are building communities in collaboration with numerous gaming companies.

To share a case study, our first example is "Myongjo," a game launched this year. As a major title in the subculture genre, it garnered significant attention upon its launch. This led to a surge in users on our Vortex Gaming platform, with post views exceeding 1.3 million and channel followers growing from 8,000 to over 9,000. Notably, 5,700 digital photocards featuring Myongjo characters were issued, all recorded as SBTs.

Our second case study features a collaboration with "Eternal Return," a game that, while not new, maintains a strong subculture fandom. Due to its passionate fan base, mission completion rates were exceptionally high, resulting in the issuance of 16,000 SBTs.

As you can see, Web2 users are engaging with their favorite games and earning items or consumables without deep knowledge of Web3 technology. Yet these activities are being recorded as on-chain transactions, and users have shown virtually no resistance to this integration.

Our third example is "Solo Leveling: ARISE" by Netmarble. We ran separate channels for English-speaking and Korean users. Given the IP's popularity, event participation exceeded 50%, with post interactions (likes, shares, comments) reaching 36,000, reflecting the strong appeal of the IP to fans. Over 7,600 SBTs were issued through this collaboration.

Next is our Web3-based collaboration case. We partnered with Marblex's Luna Animals IP, where Web3 users, being familiar with rewards and incentives, demonstrated significantly higher participation and mission completion rates compared to Web2 users.

While our Web2 game events typically attracted thousands of participants (5,000-8,000), this Web3 initiative, despite its smaller scale, generated over 12,000 SBTs from just 900 participants. This demonstrated that even a smaller user base can achieve high engagement and active participation levels.

Finally, during our OBT period, we've demonstrated diverse user engagement and achievements through various SBT issuance cases. We've showcased multiple examples across games like Myongjo, Solo Leveling, and Eternal Return, and collaborated with Marblex to offer raffle tickets in SBT format. These tickets were designed to reward holders with either MBX or Puzzle NFTs.

As shown in the bottom right, we've also implemented a system where users can customize and synthesize their own styles using accessories issued for Vortex characters. We're still in the OBT period, collaborating with numerous Web3 and Web2 projects while sharing mutually beneficial information and experiences. Through these partnerships, we aim to build win-win relationships.

Our website is accessible via QR code and is currently available in PC and web versions. We continue to host various events and welcome you to explore them. If any teams or projects are interested in participating in community building with Vortex, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your attention.

Note: This content has been edited from presentations delivered at WEPIN Partners Day 2024. Please be advised that some content may vary from the original presentations.