Players and Roles
Diagrams | Matrices | Thinkers
Crypto games encourage broader and deeper ways to participate in the game. AI-native games extend this to humans, agents, and eventually robotic actors coordinating through shared protocols.
- worker bees: collecting, upgrading and selling to players unwilling/unable to spend the time
- investor: game's token investors as if it were a share in a company
- quasi-developer: organising the DAO and making decisions on behalf of the treasury
- traders: arbitrage opportunities inside the game
- Cultural Influencers: spending big collecting NFTs to shape narrative of an in-game guild
- Creators
- Coaches
- Investors
Fair Trade Roles
| Role | Contribution | Proof |
|---|---|---|
| Human operator | Judgment, context, trust | Decision artifacts and outcomes |
| AI agent | Speed, synthesis, execution | Task completion and quality metrics |
| Protocol maintainer | Rules, incentives, settlements | Contract logic and governance history |
| Device/robot operator | Physical execution | Sensor logs and verified tasks |
Use Questions and Problem Solving to define the right game, then measure outcomes on Performance.
Questions
Which player type — worker, trader, investor, or creator — extracts the most sustainable value from a crypto game over a two-year horizon?
- At what point do AI agents become legitimate participants in gaming economies rather than exploits to be patched out?
- How does the introduction of robot operators change the power balance between human players and protocol maintainers?
- Which game role most resembles a real-world business model — and does the similarity help or hurt adoption outside the crypto-native audience?