Composable Culture - a way to understand the unification of Web3, culture a - Joanna frota Kurkowska

I prepared this presentation before ethereum Warsaw and I've been going to lectures all around like since the morning and I think if you follow the mass adoption route uh some of the design topics brand Partnerships Etc you will see some of the concepts either re emerging or being um or being maybe repeated but it's a it's a I think it's a good way so it it proves me right that it works like this approach Works uh but I really might have fooled you because I used all the buzzwords and the in the name so you know AI web free all those sexy things and uh really I think this presentation is something more so it's more than web 3 and I think it's the second most non-technical presentation the first one being the the the great one about branding before like done by a guy called I think Dennis it was a great presentation but it's more of an cultural approach to technology than than about Trends right so first a little bit about me so I work at g2a I'm the strategists and insights uh person uh I co-host a post a podcast I'm adviser to third unit a startup that tackles the things around IP management I published some stuff some essays on my web web page nets for pop and I contribute to Kiwi news yay great great Community the uh both the founders of f unit and kiwi are here so if you want to like meet some cool Founders hook them up uh so basically uh a month ago I was sitting in the forest I'm from a lovely town called G it's surrounded by forests so I was thinking about the presentations and Technology blah blah blah all those nice things you do during vacation time which you shouldn't do because you should relax on vacation time logically and then this came out I don't know anybody read it no okay great that's that's that's even greater uh so this is a piece done by Jonathan Li his General partner at a16 Z so you probably all know huge investment uh investment fund and um while the whole text is great it's very a very inspiring it's it goes in depth and I have a great respect to Mr Li I wouldn't be myself if I wouldn't like dissect it so for me uh it was like the first thing I I like I was reading it and I was like okay it's very one-dimensional like IP creation so intellectual property cannot only rely on generative ni tools uh which also was uh pretty much interesting for me because if you knew what a16 16z invests in it's also web 3 so there was no like mention of web web 3 whatsoever I also know that it's an investment fund so they have to have a thesis their content is built around it etc etc still I was a little bit hurt uh again discoverability discoverability a very hard word to pronounce is Uber hard and I think it's going to be harder with uh EI and more distribution channels another thing was that it was a very tool oriented approach and I don't think tool Orient tool oriented approach generative and I in in this case is enough on the other hand World building is not enough at some point also so you need something more and uh what also struck me when where in all this is the consumer like there was there was mentioned only on of of the content right and where in all of this is the consumer and do we really need another picture I think uh I know everybody are 18 in this stage like we're very young we know we love picture stories Etc but do we really need to iterate on the past like maybe there's something more and I basically think it's time to think differently and experiment with IP management and pop culture creation so I don't think there was any talk about pop culture uh and like nerdy stuff around ethereum Warsaw but I think many of the concept that were presented here either Mass adoption or brand design Etc is very much aligned with this concept uh so I think it's also a time in which we need a holistic approach and a stellar really Stellar signal to no noise ratio I think all of you who are like consuming content as much content and I as I do really know what I'm talking about like signal to noise is crucial and the last few years have really been crazy uh there were many more Trends bus tools and projects more than ever like we we've all been there like web 3 was here also and fun fact when I was telling my friends at work that I'm coming to e War so they were like like what web free conference is this still a thing like nfts are dead still we are all here and I think this all happens uh in a really good really good way people and me included are tired confused and have no idea how to approach all of this it's really really really tiring uh so one day after being bombed by I think hundredth newsletter on AI 100 thing like different analysis on game development some some turmoil turmoils in entertainments and after I think a talk with my friends who are working in ux research I just sat and just came up with this so a little bit of a framework that that helps me um to put all the concepts together and to like match them this is a rough draft so uh it's only to prove a point that everything is connected and you should think of it like a not uh each of these concept does not uh exist without the other so hence my point before about the LI article about like the very AI Centric approach uh so again rather that thinking at every Trend and point as a separate Trend and Tool and like not seeing the connections I try to connect them as much as possible and it really uh I think I'm a smart person uh and in a way but I'm really about asking the right questions rather than only giving answers and I think this approach of like merging things and connecting them really helps so basically um to give you an example like very uh very academic one so these are a couple of Trends I I just wrote down and I I I try to like explain what I was going going with it with uh my composable culture approach note to you this presentation will be available on the internet later so you don't have to like screen it Etc I or just hit me up I will send you the link um we had the N nft CR uh and like thinking about nfts and thinking about all this is like uh we have to think how to create valuable IP around the concept like nfts are great but we've seen um projects fall and like you know being born and like either fall or did not meet expectations I think we all uh know what I'm talking about in this room and I think it's also important to like to like create an ecosystem viable ecosystem around these assets of course you don't have to do it like you just can like put out nfts and like let users uh do what they're like for example this happened to a project that I really really like called loot I don't know if anybody remembers it but it was really really awesome back in the day and there are many other questions like to this to this there are other trends that I wrote down of course AI tooling so I'm a huge fan of AI tools but I see that there's a there's a whole time waster of people just testing other tools rather than focus on problems to solve right so why go in this like bandwagon when you can just like put it to use of course we have to think how people will benefit from using these tools will the project that we are developing will benefit in any way from like using those tools Etc the two other trends that I like wrote down and uh like I think that they are interesting I think they're that that they're benefiting from the composable culture approach is um mainly the game industry so a little bit of what Li was uh writing uh he believes that it's the best time to build currently in gaming I'm not so optimistic like I'm a huge video game fan but uh I don't know if you know like there are many games being released I think every year like last year steam have uh have seen uh 14,000 games being released so how do we tackle discoverability when we know that each of steam steam's users uh played I think three games on average each year so that's a huge problem how to think about customer research how to think about product building uh how to tackle the discoverability problem uh note I don't know if anyone of you does please let me know I'm really really waiting um do we go for an extra Niche like some Rogue likes uh for 10 people or we try to aim at at triaa some of these questions might seem seem familiar because you you've all seen the I think it was mentioned before but somebody the stage I think Paulina or somebody mentioned that gaming should be like the main main boot boost for web three adoption this not this this did not happen right so asking uh many of those questions might be interesting also uh the trans media strategy uh that I think many of you are also familiar if if not highly recommend uh like going into it um so it should be like approach approach from uh questions like how our thinking about World building around different media like releasing only game or only comic book I think it's not enough and like companies are trying to catch on um does implementing technology X is beneficial for Pro for project Z right so this is another thing that I think uh we have I don't I don't want to say failed but wasn't tackled really in terms of like Games Etc um so there are many questions and there are many approaches the the the last one is like I don't want to go into de it deep into it it's just my personal faith that I'm like trying to tackle my brain around in my free time so personal digital rooms finally become a thing how do we tackle that do we sell them like do we furnish them etc etc so this also works like this but this was like the more academic approach and I just want to tell you how it works in practice on two examples one is the Commerce approach uh so it's based on the work I do at g2a and the other is a startup approach um so this is mostly based on what we're doing currently at third unit uh so that's the e-commerce approach so how I try to like think about those different assets around those different concepts uh so imagine that's the first and I think most important important thing all of these concepts are connected for example if we do trade campaigns uh if you don't know what a trade campaign is in marketing it's basically doing a campaign around a different either an event or either uh uh around an asset or or something else for example if you work in fashion you know that there are loads of trade campay for jeans basically I I did a lot of this in my time working fashion business but if you're doing it on a new market you have to think around what kind of advertising advertising formats will be will be uh fitting for this kind of campaign what kind of users um what kind of users will be the people who will be interested in it do we go again for the niche approach how do we build com categories around it and maybe if a trade campaign is built around a game title or even a crypto asset uh by the way we at G2 are a huge fan of crypto assets so if you're here and you for example have an or work for an crypto exchange please let me know I'll be to like provide you all the all the info uh we we're like working on like leveraging leveraging uh IPS right if it's a game Premiere Etc uh so that's the commercial thing like also payments and security which is one of our favorite and most challenging ways of doing business and the startup approach is pretty different so um in terms of third unit we try to disrupt the market so we are thinking about entertainment assets um more as a fin fintech so it's pretty novel we have a clear plan but we don't know if the market will well we like we're thinking about the markets uh in a way I think um it's pretty novel because we're not focusing our our jobs on on the EU or or or Northern America which uh might be pretty cont controver controversial uh looking at all those uh markets and their values Etc uh we're focusing on no EU markets we for example when we talk with other Founders on with creators they see generative AI as a threat to their work etc and we're trying to build an ecosystem of Creator tools either for us we're creating our own IPS or for people who are who come and want to work with us right so we also uh see IPS as a loyality hub so basically um we see them as um uh loyality programs to .0 uh this is a great promise I fought talking about predictions I fought years ago when crypto was going mainstream that loyality programs uh by entertainment Brands is going to be the thing for Mass adoption this did not happen and I think uh we are entering phase two in which it might happen maybe not all on all the markets but I if you're a trend researcher or you have a startup really it's a trend to follow also in terms of Licensing Etc it's it's pretty interesting thing to like dig in uh our ongoing Trend research and it I'm not only mean reading lots of Manga comics uh devouring all kinds of entertainment and other things education I think it it was very clear uh in the previous conversation that education is the key and we also believe in education on not only on software Hardware kind of things but also novel Trends and Technologies and um things that are more um let's say the they they are more novel to the market and of course real tackling on the Creator Eon economy because I think I'm a big believer in ugc and if you're following the market you can see that it's it's happening um there are many uh other great like I I showed you like company approach but there are other IP great IP um IP um examples so for example real short it's if you don't know it uh it's a uh my friend uh calls it Netflix for people with short attention span each of the episodes of the series is one minute long so I think if you have a really short attention span it's for you but it's a novel way of Designing IP uh and entertainment creation uh frog Mage one of my favorite Instagram born uh AI Trends uh you you just got a frog and some funny letters and it's it's all there is to create an IP and uh it's interesting to to to see many many more of these kind of creations and I'm very much interested how do they go how do the creators think of like leveraging it uh there are also our web three Darlings you probably know all of them and some some things uh and this is what I I also advise to you to do uh I know we probably are everybody here are like mainly either F focused on polish pop culture or an American pop culture uh but there are other markets there there there are markets that are that have really really really great great series anpan man is uh one of the most popular if not the popular children's IP for Japan uh I don't know if anybody heard of it before uh uh you can you can you know you can just uh it's not only for little kids so you know don't don't be shy um so there are many many other IPS around the markets that are really really really great and are interesting to it's it's interesting to see they are being developed uh oh and basically um that's it uh it was like a short short talk to the to end of the day and to make you a little bit think uh if there are three K takeways I can give you this will be uh bch agnostic uh I did not mention web 3 on purpose uh web three Centric thinking May kill you uh it's make can make you less attractive but it's okay if you want to do it uh but think about other Technologies how you can implement it think further and connect deeper so this was what I was telling you about connect the dots make it work and I think the last point and I think this is what I'm I've I'm telling myself every day uh Trends are awesome but just don't get lost in them uh we all know how bandwagoning ended for uh many of the companies seconds of silence for them there will be such cases when generative Ai and many other Technologies uh use the hype but think outside it think I think in the long long term um and one more thing and yeah it's Web Solutions can web three solutions can be backend of many of these projects so like I'm not talking about ditching web three alt together but use it smarter uh don't wait for Mass adoption create Mass adoptions yourself and if you want to contact me get the presentation or ask something I'll be here uh today and tomorrow and just I think it's everything so thank you very much and have a great e more so everybody thank you any questions or if you're too shy you can just you know no questions thank you oh he's done okay hey hey um so you said that uh okay there was this narrative that web free gaming will drive Mass adoption and it hasn't happened and I agree I was a big believer me too and I'm wondering if you see any uh potential projects that you think could in this one year maybe two years or whatever the time frame could be really the games that we are waiting for the problem maybe not the problem but I don't see any projects and it's not because uh I don't want them to succeed I just think web free gaming became just web fre gaming because like if you asked me three years ago I would say that web free gaming will be uh either a part of PC gaming mobile ging on or or console gaming the same happened with mobile photography so people were like doing this division of oh there's photography but there's photography done with phones it was it was a huge thing like back in the day and it didn't happen so I think web free gaming will be just web free gaming I don't see any projects Maybe I'm Wrong uh that will uh I'm talking about like web 3 cented projects I don't see it but on the other hand it's a it's a niche and I think it's cool that we3 gaming carved their its own way right because we we've all seen uh blockchain like blockchains that were game based like Harmony back in the day or any other right so I think we have currently we have like traditional gaming that you can you know divide PC console mobile Etc and you have web three gaming and this is also interesting from the from the point of view of game design etc etc uh and a little bit adding to this do I see the the potential of web 3 gaming coming back in the mainstream as it did back during the XC Infinity era predictions suck basically and currently I don't have any views on that I don't think so maybe in Asia but on the other hand if you ask me three years ago I would say yeah it will be like huge thing in three years lost a lot on the tokens then thank you any other question what do you think I've seen a few projects are actually releasing their own like even consoles to play their the the games with and would you say it's just like another scan where you know they sell a product that bases all of that they base all of the rewards from or is it actually something that we would need like a PS4 PS5 for the web 3 gaming or do you think it's going to be more the other way where the games will be adapting for the infrastructure that we already have because I think in my opinion there is some space for like web 3 based games and I think there's going to be some implementation where it's like an open market Source um but which way do you think it's going to go is it the consoles adapting for web 3 or web three games adapting for the consoles that we already have that's a very good question but and I have to go it in deep so I've been a gamer for 30 years and it's the the last two years or the last last year has been uh very interesting in terms of Hardware because it's the first time um I'm not putting a bet on any of the consoles uh usually like back in the day it was like Super Nintendo or you choose PlayStation Etc now I see uh companies uh going for the infrastructure and this is a strategy Microsoft plays on so they're creating the whole ecosystem of like I think with do Acquisitions right so they they acquired exision blizzard Etc so I think they're going more for the infrastructure while uh you have for example uh console like Nintendo that is very Hardware oriented Nintendo is like uh there there's this joke that you know uh Xbox and PlayStation on are fighting and you have like super nintend like Nintendo like looking in the back uh like the browser question is very interesting because I remember um researching browser games I think three years ago and the country that was very much into browser games was Germany and it was uh I don't know why if anybody knows the answer please let me know and on the other hand uh I see a little spike in browser gaming so maybe that's the way um and okay this is a very long answer I don't think there's a there should be a hardware connected with prep web 3 gaming um and exclusive and done exclusively for web 3 gaming I think companies like uh valve with steam deck or Logitech should open their eyes a little bit and make web3 gaming one of their selling points like the easiness of playing games on the on the on the Run uh because we also see at g2a we're doing lots of research we see um we see uh the rise of like handheld PCS so I think uh I wouldn't bet my life on it but I see that handheld PCS might might be the way or even handheld consoles uh Nintendo excluded cuz they I I don't think this I can bet on they will never enter web fre not in a million years so and and to follow because you said that your opinion changed throughout the past three years so really if you could just break down like a few main points why did you I wouldn't say like completely lost the belief in in web3 gaming over the past 3 years other than obviously the market conditions but also I think that gaming industry in general can only reach like a certain ceiling before we really have to break into some really new infrastructures and options like actually diving into the games with you you saw what Apple came up with with the vision pros and everything like that so do you think is it going to be a constant race between kind of the two industries the norm normal games and the web 3 games or will they eventually like Collide and just keep going together and also on my first point why did you stop believing in them so much uh because token goes up basically many of the projects I followed uh were good projects uh but many of them were token based and in the beginning I was huge fan of like the X Infinity economy Etc it's an it was for me an intriguing way of taking monetization and um microtransaction to a new level so uh these are the games I'm not play because I really I play really boring games like you wouldn't play them but for me for me as an analyst the games that are based on microtransactions and all kinds of data are the most interesting to analyze so I also F uh for like first thing many of them were token based and all them the like the they acquired the player the let's call it the I'm looking for the English word um the promise of the token price or the asset price um so that's most my that was my I think biggest regret and the other thing was that I believed uh that in the in the three years we'll see a game uh considering uh game development I know it's like game development is not like that it's a very hard process on the other hand we've seen in the the past years successes of such titles as mainstream uh normal web web 2 or like traditional games successes of projects like vampire survivors uh the most addictive game of all time don't play it really don't play it or or Flappy Bird Etc so these were the games that didn't you know take hundreds of millions of dollars to make like for example g26 right so I thought that uh in the in the Builder pool uh because so many great people came into this space I also worked for for outlier Ventures as a game analyst and I see I saw like really great minds like going into and nothing like this happened so I might be wrong you can prove I'm I'm wrong but this was also something that I said hm and maybe the other thing that uh was very um but I'm talking about like a person from work working as an analyst for a for accelerator uh there was very little of novelty in it so I've seen I think 100 PID decks of Pokemon clone 200 uh PID decks of a fortnite clone and another 100 of uh Counterstrike clones so uh most of the games that I've seen were uh as I was saying like iteration of some old Concepts I'm not talking that I'm not saying that it's wrong but I was also looking for a you know this is why I mentioned loot I don't know if you know it it was a it was like you only had the assets and you had to build the whole word around it and I thought that loot will be the thing to like make the Nerds go into it like in the mainstream and it also did not happen so it's a very again very long answer to your short question but this is why I didn't lose my Fates if you know any games that are interesting please let me know I'll be happy to like look at them so so what what do you think needs to really happen for the web3 games to really take go uh what really needs to happen is for example my gaming friends because of that's another problem the pr my friends who are Gamers who have been Gamers for 20 30 40 years when they hear web three or nft they just go this is like we don't want to do it so I think it's either rebranding to digital assets or something else or maybe making uh maybe one of the main companies like Val or something should Implement web free Solutions into their into their ecosystem Roblox I know is it's trying to do something like that but with Roblox the problem is that they have very young audience I think the average of Roblox users is is 13 years old 13 to 15 to 16 I think so this gives you loads of problem with regulations and I uh again trying to end my question I think uh web free should tackle the younger audience because they're very interested in different formats they're they like experimenting I see it with my the my friends kids like they love novelty uh but again I see a problem with regulations coming because um I also thought that maybe web 3 should go in a way of loot boxes etc etc etc but we all know how it worked out so thank you for great questions me thank you very much [Applause]