NFTs
Steam Banana Opens Debate
A clicker game on Steam recently became the talk of the town after upending some of the platform’s most popular games. ‘Banana’ became a sensation for its NFT-like rewards, which can be sold for over $1,000 on the Steam marketplace. However, the click phenomenon has sparked a debate among members of the crypto community about the state of crypto and web3 gaming.
Peeling back the Steam clicker game feel
Banana is an indie game on Steam that involves clicking on a banana image to get rewards. Although not the first of its kind, its players are rewarded with digital bananas every few hours. Rewards can range from common bananas worth pennies to rare bananas that can sell for up to $1,300.
The free-to-play game made headlines after overtaking some of the platform’s most popular titles. Banana surpassed Elder Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 on the list of most-played games. The clicker game was second only to Counter-Strike 2.
At the time of writing, the game remains the fourth most played on Steam, with over 344,000 current players and a peak of 578,000 in the last 24 hours. Additionally, it reached an all-time high of 917,000 players earlier this month.
However, the game’s simplicity raised some alarms among players. Many believed the clicker game contained malware that turned devices into crypto miners. While others wondered if the game was a fraud Of the type.
One of Banana’s developers, Hery, denied the allegations. Hery told media outlet Polygon that “it’s pretty much a stupid game” with bananas, not a scam.
Many users also speculated whether the game was related to NFTs and cryptocurrencies, as it had an NFT feel but without the blockchain technology. A Banana team member clarified that “Banana wants nothing to do with crypto.”
They explained that the game had no intention of integrating crypto, as it does not “mix well” with Steam. Furthermore, they emphasized that it started as “a silly game to collect some bananas on your Steam profile.”
Are Cryptocurrencies and Web3 Gaming Going Crazy?
While Banana has no plans to integrate into the cryptocurrency industry, the game has sparked several conversations within the community. Several members took the opportunity to discuss its implications for web3 gaming.
One user highlighted the game’s popularity despite its simple mechanics, proposing that the industry doesn’t need ‘AAA games’ to make it big. Several community members agreed and suggested There is a misconception about the type of games needed in web3.
While complex, super-action games are believed to be the only option, “guys just want to have fun and earn points,” said one user It is”.
Some users to believe that Banana and similar games could help with web3 games. The meme quality of the game was touted as a potential catalyst for wider adoption.
Similarly, this week, Avalanche Gaming discussed the implications of Banana on its Gamified Show. According to Paul Bettner, game developer and co-founder of Playful Studios, Banana could be a breakout into the larger world of crypto gaming.
For Bettner, “the behavior that we all love and participate in on web3 as degens and native users of web3 and cryptography is, in fact, universal.” As he watched the Steam clicker sensation phenomenon evolve, the game’s developer got that that users were “a bunch of degenerates who don’t yet know they’re degenerates.”
Ultimately, he considers that “people are learning to degenerate”. If most of these users knew “what a wallet or a blockchain is, they would realize they could do this on a 1000x scale on a blockchain.”
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com