User Bootstrapping, Incentives, and Tangible Engagement
The evolution of in-game earning
Over the past few years, the concept of in-game earning has evolved. While the specific trends and "meta" around earning shift over time, the core idea remains constant: it’s always about enabling players to earn value in some form. Given this, it’s safe to predict that the P2A meta of 2024 will also adapt and evolve in the future.
It's important to note that the landscape is constantly evolving, and there’s no exact blueprint for user bootstrapping or incentive design in web3. However, by studying past trends and user behaviors, you can gain valuable insights to shape effective strategies for your audience.
While many "earn" narratives have come and gone, two models have demonstrated the most resilience:
P2E (Play-to-Earn):
Players earn tokens or NFTs by participating in in-game activities.
Example: Completing daily missions or PvP battles to receive rewards.
P2A (Play-to-Airdrop):
Players earn points by completing tasks (in-game or SocialFi). These points are later converted into a token allocation during the TGE (Token Generation Event).
Example: Participating in quests, creating UGC, or engaging with community initiatives to earn allocations.
Best practices for P2A campaigns
The ever-changing meta in Web3 gaming makes it challenging to provide a universal framework for P2A campaigns that will remain relevant long-term. However, by looking at successful campaigns, we can extract some key best practices that increase effectiveness:
Announce Start and End Dates: Clearly define the campaign’s timeline to manage user expectations.
Avoid User Fatigue: Limit campaign duration to prevent "expectation debt" and disengagement.
Maintain Engagement: If necessary, shorten timelines to keep momentum and reduce token dilution.
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2. Limit Social Farming Quests
Prioritize Quality Engagement: Focus on meaningful user-generated content (UGC), such as mission debriefs or performance highlights, over basic retweet tasks.
Create Shareable Moments: Design quests that players feel proud to share on social media, fostering organic engagement.
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3. Design Immersive Point Systems
Use Game-Specific Items: Replace generic points with immersive in-game assets like crystals or coins.
Tie Points to Progression: Frame them as XP that unlocks better rewards as players advance.
Add Rarity: Introduce premium items that feel rare and valuable.
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4. Innovate on Existing Strategies
Differentiate Your Campaign: Build upon proven strategies to stand out.
Examples:
Introduce collectible streak badges (e.g., Diamond Hand badges for holding NFTs).
Reward long-term engagement, such as interacting with the ecosystem for 10+ days.
Go beyond flat bonuses and incentivize nuanced behaviors.
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5. Offer Meaningful Rewards
Avoid Minuscule Payouts: Ensure rewards justify participants’ efforts and gas fees.
Being too restrictive with rewards can generate negative sentiment and harm your reputation (FUD) especially when expectations are not well managed. Additionally, a lack of incentives may discourage both new and existing community members from staying engaged and actively discussing (and posting about) your project. It’s important to note that you can’t make everyone happy.
Pirate Nation’s P2A campaign is a strong example of a well-balanced reward system, offering meaningful payouts to F2P users while generously rewarding NFT holders. It stands out as one of the most well-received P2A campaigns of 2024 in terms of post-airdrop sentiment.
Reward Genuinely Engaged Users: Use thresholds, raffles, or merit-based systems to identify and reward quality participants.
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6. Encourage Habit Formation
Time-Based Quests: Introduce daily or weekly challenges to promote consistent participation.
Streak Multipliers: Incentivize regular engagement with escalating rewards for maintaining activity.
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7. Incentivize Desired Behaviors
Align Rewards with Goals: Reward behaviors such as:
Frequent gameplay.
Holding NFTs.
Referrals and creating social buzz.
Use Multipliers: Provide additional rewards for players who engage in multiple desirable activities.
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8. Build Robust Referral Systems
Reward In-Game Engagement: Focus referrals on meaningful actions, such as completing missions or milestones, rather than sign-ups alone.
Encourage Second-Degree Referrals: Provide rewards for recursive referrals to scale user acquisition.
Prevent Exploitation: Design systems to resist Sybil attacks.
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9. Balance Simplicity and Depth
Offer Accessibility: Provide simple entry points for casual players.
Cater to Core Gamers: Include more complex bonus quests for engaged participants.
Avoid Burnout: Don’t require excessive daily play to remain competitive.
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10. Embrace Risk and Reward
Introduce Speculative Mechanics: Appeal to crypto-savvy players with high-risk, high-reward opportunities.
Example: Allow users to risk in-game currency for greater payouts.
Gamified Upgrades: Include mechanics like upgrading weapons/assets with a risk of loss.
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11. Plan Token Distribution Thoughtfully
Use Vesting Mechanisms: Implement systems like battle-vesting to release tokens gradually, preventing early sell-offs.
Redistribute Unclaimed Rewards: Reallocate leftover rewards to genuine users to ensure fairness.
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12. Scale Engagement Requirements
Start Simple: Begin with low-barrier tasks to onboard participants.
Expand Over Time: Add more complex milestones and content as players progress to maintain interest and participation.
P2A monetization
Pay-to-Airdrop (P2A 2.0) is an evolution of traditional P2A campaigns, where players earn token rewards not just through in-game engagement but also through monetary contributions. In this model, players who make purchases—whether for NFTs, in-game assets, or special event access—are prioritized for token rewards over purely free participants.
This approach gained traction in Q4 2024 as it helps address common challenges in traditional P2A, such as bot farming, unsustainable reward emissions, and a lack of long-term player retention. By requiring some level of financial participation, P2A 2.0 ensures that rewards go to spending users rather than extractors who abandon the game post-airdrop. It also serves as a good example of how reward incentives adapt over time even within the same cycle. In order to come up with successful campaigns, founders need to be ware of the current trends and be adaptable.
The differences between traditional P2A and P2A 2.0:
Aspect
Traditional P2A
Pay-to-Airdrop (P2A 2.0)
Entry Requirement
Free participation based on gameplay
Requires purchases to “earn” (NFTs, passes, or in-game spending)
Note: the effect will most often be that top of funnel metrics (e.g. participants) will be worse due to higher barrier to entry.
Reward Distribution
Based on engagement/activity alone
Prioritizes paying users + engaged players
Bot Resistance
High risk of bot farming
Reduced bot risk due to financial barriers
Sustainability
Often leads to high sell pressure (from farmers) during launch
Monetization ensures stronger retention
User Intent
Attracts speculative grinders
Attracts real spenders & engaged participants
Key benefits:
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Qualifying and Gatekeeping Recipients
Monetization helps filter and qualify participants, ensuring that airdrops are allocated to users who actively contribute to the ecosystem.
By requiring a financial commitment, studios can focus on rewarding genuinely invested players.
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Showcasing Monetization KPIs
The monetization strategy enables studios to present credible monetization metrics such as:
ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User)
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
Revenue Growth
These metrics enhance market validation and improve credibility with centralized exchanges (CEXs) and investors.
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Minimizing Token Farming and Dumping
Spending users are more likely to hold and use tokens, whereas farmers tend to dump their allocations immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE).
This reduces downward pressure on token prices and ensures a healthier in-game economy.
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A Sustainable Alternative to Traditional Models
Traditional P2A campaigns often distributed large amounts of tokens in exchange for playtime, diluting their value.
By requiring spending, “Pay-to-Airdrop” creates a more sustainable system while still rewarding user engagement.
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Indirect Token Sale
“Pay-to-Airdrop” serves as a gamified monetization mechanism, allowing studios to indirectly sell tokens in a way that is engaging for players.
Players feel incentivized to spend during the campaign, aligning their actions with the game’s success.
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Driving Evangelism Through Concentrated Value
Allocating significant value (tokens) to a smaller, committed group of players is more impactful than giving smaller allocations to a larger audience.
This concentrated group is more likely to become evangelists who actively promote the game and support its ecosystem.
After completing a P2A campaign, most companies transition toward P2E mechanics. P2E aligns more closely with post-token-launch strategies, as it requires an active, live token to function effectively.
We will explore this topic in greater detail in Part 3 of this playbook, where we discuss strategies and best practices for implementing P2E post-token launch.
Peer-to-peer incentives
In crypto, word-of-mouth (WoM) is a critical component of any growth strategy. This is due to the community-driven nature of the ecosystem, which thrives on trust, advocacy, and the power of network effects.
The effectiveness of WoM can be quantified using the K-factor, which measures the virality of your growth strategy:
Formula:
K-factor = (Number of invites sent per user) × (Conversion rate).
Key Insight:
A K-factor greater than 1 indicates exponential growth, as each user brings in more than one additional user on average.
The most common and effective strategy to amplify your K-factor is implementing a referral system. We’ve covered this topic extensively in the chapter “Creator Strategy and Outreach” where we detail how to design and optimize referral campaigns to maximize user acquisition and engagement.
Gifting and tipping
In addition to referral systems, gifting and tipping have proven to be effective tools for driving growth in Web3 ecosystems. These methods leverage the community’s engagement and encourage viral participation, seamlessly integrating into gaming and crypto environments.
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Gifting
Example: Ronin’s Gifting Portal
Overview:
In 2023, Ronin introduced the Gifting Portal, a tool for seamlessly gifting within the Ronin Network.
How It Works:
Users connect their Ronin wallet via the portal to send a gift.
Recipients claim gifts through a direct link or secret code provided by the sender.
Purpose:
Designed as an onboarding and rewards tool to get friends, family, and community members involved.
Encourages participation by reducing the barriers to entry.
Community Creativity:
Users found innovative ways to repurpose the tool for giveaways, enhancing its reach and amplifying its effectiveness.
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Tipping
Example: $DEGEN’s Tipping Model
Overview:
The memecoin $DEGEN implemented a tipping system on Farcaster, enabling qualified users to distribute a daily tipping allowance for content they deemed valuable.
How It Worked:
Recipients earned points through tips, which were converted into a token allocation at the end of each airdrop season.
Potential Applications for Gaming:
A tipping system can be creatively adapted to gaming by leveraging native features:
Leaderboard Bonuses: Allocate tipping bonuses to top-ranking players.
Guild Tipping: Enable guild members to reward their teammates for exceptional contributions.
Speculative Tipping: Introduce tipping mechanics tied to in-game betting or predictions.
When designing peer-to-peer incentives, look beyond gaming-specific examples. Many viral campaigns in DeFi and other verticals have successfully incorporated similar mechanics. Strong growth tools often translate well across multiple industries, allowing for innovative integrations that resonate with diverse audiences.
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Giveaways (and contests)
Giveaways (GAs) are a powerful way to leverage tokens, NFTs, and other assets to drive marketing exposure and engagement. They are typically tied to milestones, events, or holidays and can incentivize participation through various mechanics, such as lotteries, creative contests, or challenges.
Examples of Effective Giveaways:
Axie Infinity: Christmas Giveaway
Event: A summer campaign where 100 Axies were distributed.
Mechanic: Participants answered ecosystem-related questions and claimed prizes via the Axie Gifting Portal using unique codes.
Fableborne: Chest Opening Livestream
Event: During Season 3 of its P2A campaign, Fableborne live-streamed Chest Openings.
Mechanic: NFTs pulled from the chests were given away to the community.
Shatterline: Gaming PC Giveaway
Event: As part of a marketing push, Jonah Blake offered a gaming PC to a U.S.-based user.
Mechanic: Participants had to wishlist the game to enter the giveaway.
Ronin: RON Staking Tutorial Contest
Event: In 2023, Ronin hosted a tutorial contest focused on staking RON.
Mechanic: Participants created educational user-generated content (UGC) to showcase staking tutorials, gamifying the onboarding process and increasing awareness of RON staking.
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Designing a successful giveaway
When creating a giveaway, consider the following:
1. Define Your Goal
What are you trying to achieve?
Examples:
Gain wishlists on Steam or Epic.
Increase email signups for a marketing funnel.
Boost reach on social media.
Build P2A mindshare or drive attention to an upcoming milestone.
2. Select Your Prizes
Digital Rewards: NFTs, tokens, in-game assets, or exclusive collectibles.
Lottery System: Randomly select winners from participants.
Creative Submissions: Use contests to reward the most compelling UGC (e.g., fan art, tutorials).
Challenges or Puzzles: Gamify participation with activities like solving riddles or completing in-game missions.
Behavior-Based: Reward participants who exhibit behaviors that align with campaign goals (e.g., referrals, engagement, purchases).
Track Performance & Optimize
Monitor KPIs such as:
User Acquisition Cost (UAC): Compare the cost per acquired user to other marketing tools (ads, influencer collaborations, etc.).
Engagement Metrics: Track impressions, likes, shares, and referrals.
Conversion Rates: Measure how many participants take desired actions (e.g., wishlist, sign up, or make a purchase).
Use insights to refine future giveaway strategies and maximize ROI.
Align incentives with broader goals
Your incentive models should be designed to steer growth in areas that align with your broader objectives, such as:
Increasing followers and social engagement.
Driving community growth and player acquisition.
Encouraging mass participation and activity within your ecosystem.
These metrics will play a critical role in achieving key milestones, such as securing CEX listings or attracting investment opportunities (explored further in the post-TGE section).
By aligning incentives with long-term goals, you ensure that your campaigns are not only engaging but also strategically impactful for the project’s growth trajectory.
