The growing popularity of web3 gaming points to an imminent shift in the world of mobile games and entertainment.
Fueled by the P-2-E model and the demand for new fun experiences, it promises to usher in a new era where playing games extends beyond having fun to include championing a social cause like a campaign against human trafficking.
In keeping up with the latest developments in this space, I reached out to Clement Le Bras, the founder of My Lovely Planet, a web3 game application devoted to environmental responsibility.
Can you briefly tell us about yourself, Clement?
I am Clément Le Bras, founder of My Lovely Planet. Before that, I founded Lilo.org a search engine that finances social and environmental projects.
Lilo has given more than 5 million euros to thousands of NGOs across the world and has more than 6 million active users. I believe technology, crypto, and business are 3 amazing powerful tools to bring fast and meaningful change for the better at scale.
What is your route to blockchain technology and web3 gaming?
I started my journey in crypto in 2015 when I was working in a coworking outlet. Nearby, there was this very small “café” called “La maison du bitcoin.” I would sometimes go in there and talk about crypto. This small shop would then become “Ledger” a few years later.
I have also thought about doing an ICO for my first company in 2017 for Lilo. We didn’t do it at the time, but from there, I was hooked. Then, as a gamer myself, I started to look at how could crypto bring value to gaming and the environment.
During the NFT boom, we saw the trajectory of web3 gaming and the excitement around it. Do you consider it a fad?
Today, 90% of NFT projects are dead. One might see that as a sign of weakness. I am sure that this is the natural trajectory for every new technology. Remember the 2000 internet bubble.
People want to make rapid gains. Easy money and then people might be disappointed. However, the true builder that brings real value to the market and customer stays and will, in time, prevail.
As the founder of My Lovely Planet, what can you tell us about it?
My Lovely Planet is a Web3 Game for the protection of the Environment. When you plant trees in the game, we plant trees in the real world! We address the 100 billion and 1.7 billion players mobile gaming industry, with an Environmental Mission that makes us unique and that brings players back to the game.
Our mission is to create a community of 100 million players by 2030 to: Plant 1 billion trees, to clean 1 million tons of ocean waste, and to protect biodiversity (40k endangered species). We are part of the Ubisoft Lab incubator, and we have won the Unity For Humanity!
Since our 2 million euro token fundraising, we have structured the team with exceptional hires in the casual gaming domain. Skills in this field are rare and challenging to acquire.
The success of My Lovely Planet is intimately tied to our ability to create a great game, meaning our ability to recruit the best talents and get them to work together with passion and determination toward a common goal.
Our environmental mission allows us to recruit profiles with experience in the world's leading casual gaming studios. Currently, our team consists of 18 talents, all moving in the same direction: creating a Match3 game that ranks among the world's biggest.
Speaking of environmental responsibility, do you consider this to be a collective responsibility?
Of course, it’s a collective responsibility. It’s a global issue, and we all have our part to play if we want to reach real and global solutions. However, it’s a prisoner dilemma but at the scale of the world. It’s absolutely an unprecedented situation in the history of mankind.
It’s the kind of situation that calls for innovation and boldness. We must use all the tools at our disposal if we want to have a chance to live in a sustainable world. And I don’t even say that for our kids but also for ourselves.
We are already seeing serious consequences of global warming and pollution, and it will get much much worse if we don’t act quickly.
What are the ways by which you intend to address this problem?
My first observation is that it is a global issue, so it requires global solutions. Every person that only thinks local or even national without thinking of how it can be global doesn’t tackle the issue in the right way.
Secondly, you must think about solutions that will have fast and global adoption and have a direct positive impact at scale. For this, I don’t see any tools more powerful than the internet and blockchain. Both are transnational, fast, scalable, and powerful.
And gaming is also an industry that is “used” by most people in the world. So, it’s only logical to use all these tools to develop solutions at scale.
That’s what we are going to do with My Lovely Planet. We are going to create the biggest community for the environment the world has ever seen with the biggest fund for environmental projects thanks to crypto and gaming.
You mentioned ‘100 million players to save the planet.’ What does it entail?
First and foremost, a great game and a great product. That’s a sine qua non-condition for success. To achieve greatness, you must have a great team. The best team. That’s why we have an eye for the best team in their field to build the best mobile game.
We have recruited the lead game designer of King, the studio behind Candy Crush that have created several games in the top 100 in the world. Our art director is the former art director of Candy Crush. We have the project manager of Royal Match the current biggest mobile game in terms of revenue that has surpassed Candy Crush.
Once you have a great team and a great product, you need powerful distribution. For that, we are also experts in our field. We manage to create viral videos on social networks that reach millions of people. In terms of business, it means an almost zero cost per acquisition which is, and I quote an industry specialist, “Unheard of.”
Can you shed more light on how “web3 gaming can boost ecological awareness”?
More than “ecological awareness” it can be a game changer for the environment. Gaming is a 100-billion-dollar industry.
Web3 and crypto hold more than 2 trillion dollars in value. You would be surprised by what amazing things people could do and innovate for the environment if you could give them the means to do it.
We could together clean up all the plastic waste from the ocean. Capture more than 100 Gt of CO2 from the atmosphere thanks to reforestation which is absolutely massive.
Any parting words?
In light of the difficult challenges but exciting time ahead of all of us, I’d like to quote one of my favorite authors “They didn’t know it was impossible, they did it” - Mark Twain.