Bryce Johnson, higher generally known as Brycent, is a number one voice in Web3 gaming. A longtime gamer, he first discovered to NFTs when he heard Axie Infinity — dubbed Pokémon on the blockchain — talked about on a podcast in early 2021. It was an ideal match for Brycent, who grew up enjoying Pokémon and labored as a software program engineer.
The timing was additionally proper. A latest startup enterprise had failed, and Brycent determined to return to a nine-to-five job, desiring to play video games in his free time. Little did he know that his ardour for gaming would quickly lead him on an unbelievable journey, making him a key determine within the rising Web3 gaming panorama.
As a 2023 NFT100 honoree, nft now not too long ago sat down with Brycent to debate his journey to gaming prominence and his ideas on the way forward for the area.
Discovering Axie Infinity
Brycent acknowledged that builders couldn’t create a sustainable reward token and, in his phrases, “print cash out of nowhere.” As an alternative, in his eyes, success in Web3 gaming requires two essential parts: entertaining content material and schooling on the worth of blockchain expertise. “I noticed that play-to-earn tokenomics wasn’t sustainable, and I obtained numerous backlash for that,” he admits.
Brycent continued to forge his personal path after signing with Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerSports in 2021.
Constructing a Web3 gaming model
Together with his each day streams and sharp trade commentary, Brycent shortly turned a information base for newcomers in Web3 gaming. All through 2022, he targeted on constructing his group throughout Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch, the place he now boasts over 300,000 mixed followers. He has amassed his following due to his dedication to iteration, soliciting suggestions, creating with consistency, and embracing the opportunity of failure.
Brycent’s dedication to his craft led him to win the Gam3r’s Alternative Content material Creator of the Yr Award. He additionally co-founded Loot Squad, an NFT Gaming Guild specializing in constructing blockchain shopper merchandise and yield farming in NFT Video games, additional cementing his place within the trade.
Behind the scenes, Brycent now works with a workforce of editors, group managers, and extra, lots of whom he met throughout his Axie Infinity days as a part of the sport’s scholar program. By way of this program, gamers comparable to Brycent, who possess full units of Axie NFTs however had restricted availability, have been in a position to assist players who had adequate time however lacked the monetary means to partake within the sport.
Though Brycent has reached appreciable success, he’s removed from complacent. He states, “I wish to be a pacesetter. Not simply in gaming and never simply in Web3. However throughout web2, Web3, and leisure at giant.”
Brycent on TikTok, YouTube, and what’s subsequent
As he displays on the present state of content material creation, Brycent says, “I feel we’ve gotten to a spot the place we overvalue 15-second movies. Yeah, the metrics on that content material could be good, however what’s memorable about it?”
A profitable YouTube channel, in accordance with Brycent, has the potential to drive followers to different platforms, one thing he doesn’t see taking place with TikTok and different short-form channels. He notes, “I do know loads of creators who’ve tens of millions of TikTok followers and only some thousand throughout different channels. What good does that do anybody?”
Even TikTok appears to be shifting in direction of long-form content material, recognizing, as Brycent does, that short-form content material might increase superficial metrics however fails to make a real influence.
With this in thoughts, Brycent plans to take a position extra time in long-form YouTube content material —”previous dependable,” as he calls it — to construct a sustainable ecosystem in Web3. By way of what these movies will seem like, he desires to deal with academic content material and broader gaming commentary as he strikes ahead.
His Twitch channel, the place he streams 4 hours a day from Monday to Friday, stays his lifeline. However he plans to broaden his streaming hours to YouTube, concentrating on creating fewer high-quality, impactful movies.
Embracing the way forward for Web3 gaming
Brycent believes there’s a major alternative for different creators to enter Web3 gaming and welcomes the competitors.
He’s satisfied that challengers will push him and everybody else to enhance. “There’s an absence of people that wish to be tastemakers in the suitable means in Web3[…]my content material isn’t predicated on whether or not or not I make a greenback off it. I wish to entertain and educate.” True to his phrase, Brycent doesn’t take himself too critically. He’s identified to do impersonations throughout his streams and freestyle for prolonged intervals.
Regardless of his playful angle, Brycent is reasonable concerning the challenges going through Web3 gaming. He envisions the area grappling with mainstream adoption for a while because of its area of interest nature. Nevertheless, he anticipates just a few video games, comparable to Dr DisRespect’s Deadrop, may achieve mass adoption this yr regardless of the broader market being flooded with “pixelated rubbish” and Ponzi schemes.
Brycent is set to not be the man hyping up video games that don’t make it. As an alternative, he desires to be the voice that gaming studios flip to when the market takes off: somebody with an viewers of open-minded players wanting to discover and push boundaries in one thing new.
He positions himself as “that man” by creating significant, academic, and entertaining content material. “Good content material is like good music,” Brycent says. “You may hearken to Stevie Surprise immediately, and it nonetheless hits. I wish to create content material like that. The type I can look again on in 10 years and see it’s nonetheless impactful and nonetheless related.”
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