DigiTalk Podcast EP25 Recap - What’s Changing in GameFi This Cycle

The recent DigiTalk Episode 25 podcast brought together a dynamic panel of builders and experts from Pixels, Soulbound, and Oone World to explore the theme: “What’s Changing in GameFi This Cycle.”
In this episode, the discussion dives deep into how GameFi is evolving in 2025 — from nostalgic game worlds reimagined for Web3, to new economic models centered on player loyalty, emotional storytelling, and social engagement. The speakers unpack what’s working, what’s not, and what builders should focus on as the industry moves beyond Play-to-Earn and into long-term, sustainable design.

Introduction

Pixels
Pixels is a nostalgic farming MMO where users can own assets and participate in a fully on-chain economy. It has been live for over a year and is one of the largest on-chain games by daily active users. After migrating to Ronin, the project has seen rapid growth through community engagement and accessible onboarding.

Soulbound
Soulbound builds emotionally resonant, story-rich games in Web3. Its design philosophy combines RPG mechanics with real player-driven narratives. The goal is to bridge the gap between narrative immersion and decentralized ownership, giving players both emotional and economic value.

Oone World
Oone World is an open-world experience where players can build, own, and trade in a persistent social ecosystem. It emphasizes interoperability and longevity — enabling assets, achievements, and reputation to travel across multiple games and communities.

Q1: The early GameFi wave focused heavily on “earn first” mechanics, but in 2025 the narrative is shifting. With projects like MapleStory Universe gaining traction, what’s replacing P2E in today’s market and which models are actually showing signs of long-term retention?

Pixels
Pixels has moved beyond basic P2E by exploring more strategic and skill-based reward systems like “risk-to-earn,” especially through features like Pixel Dungeons. Players stake resources before entering, introducing gameplay depth and encouraging smarter engagement instead of passive grinding.
This design helps curb extractive behavior and incentivizes long-term play. The model is slower to scale but fosters stronger user retention by aligning rewards with player commitment and skill, not just time spent.

Soulbound
The new wave of retention is built around narrative and emotional investment. Soulbound focuses on delivering rich, story-driven RPG experiences where players care about their characters and outcomes. Tokens and rewards are layered in only after players are emotionally anchored.
This progression-first, meaning-driven design approach has kept players returning not for earnings, but to discover what happens next — a sharp contrast to earlier GameFi patterns.

Oone World
Oone World has transitioned to what it calls “value layering.” Instead of giving players direct payouts, the game offers reputation, long-term unlocks, and social status that accumulate through consistent engagement.
This shift reduces reliance on emissions and transforms the game into a participatory economy. Players feel like they are shaping a persistent world — which has shown stronger retention than traditional P2E schemes.

Q2: Web3-native users are loyal but small in number, while traditional gamers represent a much larger and often skeptical audience. From your experience, which group has been more valuable to engage in 2025 and how do you design for each?

Pixels
Pixels focuses first on traditional gamers by removing wallet friction and offering familiar mechanics like farming and quests. Web3 elements are introduced gradually once the player is immersed, making the transition smooth and intuitive.
However, Web3-native users still play a vital role as early evangelists and economy testers. Pixels uses their feedback to fine-tune game balance before scaling to larger audiences, creating a layered engagement strategy.

Soulbound
Soulbound sees traditional gamers as key to mainstream adoption and builds interfaces, UX, and narrative structures to resemble high-quality Web2 titles. There’s no crypto jargon and no upfront blockchain requirements.
Meanwhile, Web3 users serve as community builders and provide early feedback. Soulbound treats them as collaborators in shaping the world, but ensures design choices don’t alienate more casual users who just want a compelling game.

Oone World
Oone World targets both groups with distinct entry points: traditional players get a polished open-world experience without blockchain barriers, while Web3 users can dive straight into governance and asset mechanics.
This dual-track strategy helps build scale while retaining depth. The key is progressive onboarding — players don’t need to know it’s Web3 until they’re ready to explore deeper ownership or interoperability features.

Q3: We’re seeing more projects move away from token-first thinking. Instead of building games for tokens, tokens are now being integrated into games. How are you striking the right balance between gameplay and token utility without disrupting immersion?

Pixels
Pixels integrates its token through non-essential yet enriching features like visual customization, prestige badges, or community-based upgrades. These uses avoid pay-to-win dynamics and keep gameplay centered on skill and exploration.
The team also implements token sinks that are tightly connected to meaningful in-game actions. The token economy supports the world rather than dominating it, keeping player immersion intact.

Soulbound
Soulbound’s token is used as a narrative device — unlocking alternate quests, powering decisions, and accessing unique lore branches. It enhances rather than dominates gameplay, reinforcing emotional and strategic depth.
To avoid disrupting immersion, token volatility is isolated from core mechanics. Players experience a story-first journey, with blockchain elements surfacing only when narratively appropriate.

Oone World
Oone World uses tokens to unlock areas, host community-driven events, and participate in world-building decisions. These integrations are framed in-universe, so they feel like part of the player’s journey rather than external tools.
The token system is layered in slowly. Early players can engage fully without even realizing it’s Web3. When tokens appear, they do so in ways that reinforce player identity and creative power.

Q4: Even with solid research and planning, players often engage with games in unexpected ways. What’s one surprising behavior or trend you’ve seen from your community this year that forced your team to adjust?

Pixels
Pixels saw players forming underground trading groups that bypassed the official marketplace, often using Discord or Telegram. This revealed unmet needs in the peer-to-peer economy.
In response, the team accelerated development of a more social and flexible trading system, integrating chat and off-chain trust signals to keep the experience native and secure.

Soulbound
Soulbound noticed that players were emotionally attaching to NPCs far more than anticipated — creating fan fiction, building lore, and requesting spinoff stories.
The team restructured narrative arcs to give these NPCs larger roles and allowed players to vote on which side characters get deeper backstories, making storytelling even more collaborative.

Oone World
In Oone World, players began treating land plots not just as resources but as social hubs — building mini-events, hosting virtual meetups, and even starting guild-based cities.
This behavior led the team to expand social tools, introduce modular building systems, and support community-led economies with governance-lite mechanics.

Q5: Beyond gameplay, new engagement loops like social missions, content creation, and seasonal mechanics are gaining traction. What systems have helped you strengthen player retention and build deeper connections?

Pixels
Pixels introduced rotating seasonal events with exclusive crops, quests, and leaderboard challenges. These moments bring players back regularly and create a shared social rhythm.
The team also implemented content creation kits that let players design their own quests and environments, which are then curated and added into the main game — blending community with core design.

Soulbound
Soulbound built a branching narrative tool that lets players co-write quests based on in-game choices. Community-generated arcs are reviewed and layered into the world, empowering storytelling as a shared experience.
They also run episodic seasons tied to character arcs — giving players a reason to return to see how their past decisions unfold across time.

Oone World
Oone World leaned into collaborative missions — tasks that require small groups of players to work together across regions and disciplines. Success unlocks region-wide buffs or structures.
User-generated assets and seasonal governance votes further deepen player investment, giving them a tangible stake in the evolving world.

Q6: The GameFi narrative continues to evolve, but some buzzwords still dominate the conversation. What’s one trend you think is overhyped in 2025 and what’s one underrated angle more people should be exploring?

Pixels
The idea that "interoperability" is a must-have feature is often overhyped — not all games need to share assets to succeed. What’s more impactful is emotional continuity: giving players a reason to care across sessions, not just platforms.
A deeply underrated angle is offline-first design. Building great games that can run and feel complete without needing constant chain calls is key to accessibility and user trust.

Soulbound
Over-tokenization is still rampant. Not everything in a game needs to be financialized or liquid. The assumption that players want markets for everything undercuts emotional engagement.
A more overlooked opportunity is emotional UX — using UI and feedback systems to enhance immersion and empathy. This is where narrative Web3 games can stand out.

Oone World
Land speculation remains overhyped — especially when projects treat land purely as a financial asset. Without meaningful gameplay, it becomes a burden.
What deserves more attention is real-time social interoperability — systems where decisions or assets in one community affect another. This builds organic alliances, rivalries, and deeper retention.

Q7: Community rewards are widely talked about but often still default to airdrops and emissions. In your project, how are you building loyalty systems that go deeper, whether through ownership, progression, or long-term benefits?

Pixels
Pixels rewards loyalty through progression-linked achievements and social reputation. Long-time players get access to cosmetic upgrades, prestige leaderboards, and land improvements that reflect time spent — not just money spent.
They're also rolling out guild-based perks, where communities that consistently contribute to events or governance gain benefits as a whole, not just individually.

Soulbound
Soulbound uses narrative-based loyalty. Players who make certain long-term choices unlock story branches that are only available months later — rewarding commitment, not just activity.
They’re also experimenting with soulbound items (non-transferable NFTs) that evolve over time, representing a player’s unique journey through the world.

Oone World
Oone World created a dynamic reputation system where actions — good or bad — affect your standing and influence. This reputation grants voting power, access to elite missions, and social privileges.
Long-term loyalty is also rewarded through cross-season identity — players build a persistent avatar and history that gives them influence in future events, decisions, and legacy world-building.

Conclusion

As GameFi matures in 2025, the focus has clearly shifted from hype-driven economics to player-driven experiences. Across Pixels, Soulbound, and Oone World, a common thread emerges: successful Web3 games are no longer built around tokens, but around trust, storytelling, community, and meaningful progression.

The new generation of projects is prioritizing emotional immersion, sustainable economies, and hybrid onboarding models that respect both Web2 familiarity and Web3 innovation. Rather than chasing buzzwords, these teams are building systems that respond to real player behavior — from unexpected social hubs to evolving loyalty mechanics.

Ultimately, the future of GameFi belongs to builders who treat players as co-creators, not extractors. As narrative depth, interoperability, and player agency take center stage, the industry is moving closer to delivering not just games with tokens — but truly playable, persistent worlds worth returning to.