Designing Incentive Models for Web3 Game Economies

This episode of LOL Lounge sees YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon and host Leah Callon-Butler, director of Emfarsis, in conversation with LongHash Ventures co-founder Shi Khai Wei and BITKRAFT Ventures partner Jonathan Huang. Together, they explore how speculation, when designed with fairness and purpose, can make games more engaging. 

Filmed in Singapore at the conclusion of the TOKEN2049 week, as the city raced with F1 energy, the episode highlights Jonathan’s view that speculation is an innate human need. It is visible everywhere, from the popularity of prediction markets to the blind-reveal thrill of Labubu collectibles, loot boxes, and Pokémon card packs, through to your grandma betting on bingo or mahjong with her friends. These activities are more about anticipation, social connection, and FOMO than they are about prizes.

Jonathan and Shi Khai show how Virtuals, a fair-launch platform that gamifies participation, channels that same instinct into a community-driven system where access is earned, not bought. Its points system rewards engagement over capital — a model that inspired the design of YGG Play’s Launchpad, which uses quests and staking to ensure the most active contributors benefit from token distribution. 

Tune in to hear how both models make speculation fun, fair, and transparent for all.

LOL Lounge Episode 05 — Designing Incentive Models for Web3 Game Economies

1:10 — Jonathan, Shi Khai, and Gabby’s key takeaways from TOKEN2049 in Singapore

4:14 — How BITKRAFT and LongHash came to invest in and collaborate with YGG 

7:18 — How Casual Degen games mash simple loops with DeFi elements for a different type of fun

9:40 — Why slapping crypto on Web2 games never worked and how to design for crypto natives instead

11:39 — Why Asia has historically been a “petri dish” for testing new monetization models in games

14:04 — How YGG Play is putting a game-specific twist on the YGG Play Launchpad 

17:05 — How the Virtuals.io point system was designed to incentivize certain economic activity

20:18 — How YGG Play’s questing system rewards dedicated players with early access to token launches

23:26 — The importance of balancing rewards for paying users with those who contribute time and skill 

26:17 — How game discovery is a bigger challenge than ever in the “age of abundance”

28:42 — How tokens give true fans and super fans a way to help bootstrap their favorite games 

30:40 — Why VCs see token buybacks as a strong signal of confidence from founders

35:41 — A useful framework for developers to apply when choosing a chain to build on

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Start racking up points on the YGG Play Launchpad now at app.yggplay.fun.

Follow Shi Khai and Jonathan on X for a VC’s perspective on the Web3 gaming industry.

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