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Web3 games face significant challenges in player recruitment, with a recent report highlighting that only 7.9% of Web3 games have over 1,000 users. This lack of players, or “player liquidity,” leads to long matchmaking times, suboptimal competitive experiences, and financial challenges that impact studios' ability to generate revenue and sustain development.
The fundamental solution to these challenges goes beyond the simple measure of increasing player count, which is time-consuming in nature. Instead, we can increase player fluidity immediately by creating AI avatars that are “digital blueprints” of players' skills. These avatars allow games to run seamlessly even when the human player count is low by filling matches with competent players, effectively solving the player fluidity issue for Web3 games.
This is made possible through a process called Imitation Learning, which implements a meticulous, high-fidelity process for training AI models to accurately reflect the player's gameplay style and strategy. This is not a matter of simply having an AI bot act autonomously; careful tuning is required to preserve the human stamp of the AI and the nuances of the player's behavior.
The resulting AI avatars are able to compete independently while reflecting the skill level and strategic depth of their creators. This rigorous approach preserves the competitive integrity and dynamism of the game environment.
By allowing players to transfer their skills to AI Blueprints, the game can continually replenish matches with these AI avatars, ensuring no degradation in the gameplay experience regardless of whether human players are online or not. This maintains a richer, active player pool and greatly mitigates player fluidity issues.
A side benefit of this technology is the concept of “parallel play.” Players can encapsulate their skills into AI avatars that can span multiple environments within the same game, or even completely different game modes, simultaneously. This capability not only gives players more opportunities to compete and win, but also enriches the gaming experience by ensuring more robust and diverse competition.
While some may fear that the presence of AI will devalue human skill and competition, the reality observed in games like our flagship game, AI Arena, where players train their AI fighters using imitation learning, shows that this is not the case: players tend to put in significant effort into training their avatars, which deepens their engagement with the game and improves their own skills by observing their avatars' performance.
For game studios, this approach promises a consistent and active player base, faster matchmaking, balanced competition, and a better in-game experience — and it also offers new avenues for monetization, including the ability to speculate on AI avatar matches and trade and sell avatars.
The benefits to players are numerous: increased engagement, greater reward potential, flexibility, convenience, and an enriching learning environment. Players can effectively participate and develop their skills in their favorite Web3 games even when they are away from their console or PC.
Looking to the future, it's clear that the integration of AI avatars will revolutionize the world of Web3 gaming by solving the critical challenge of player mobility and unlocking new opportunities for engagement and monetization. With the adoption of this transformative technology, the next era of gaming is expected to become more accessible, challenging and engaging.
