Zima Red ep 109: Cagyjan - Gamer, Builder, Investor, Content Creator
Primer: If you have been following the GameFi space, Cagyjan would be a familiar name to you. In this episode of Zima Red, Cagyjan shares about his background, the things he have learned as a content creator, and his thoughts on the play-to-earn GameFi space.
Background
From the Dominican Republic
Came to the US when he was a teenager
Have always been playing games
Where Did He Get The Name Cagyjan?
His name is Jan
When he put his name on the Xbox Live Gamertag, it was already taken
It recommended Cagyjan as an alternative
Have sticked to Cagyjan since then
How Did He Get Into Content Creation?
Did not have many friends when he moved to the United States
Started playing more video games
Realized he could make videos and upload them to YouTube and Twitch
Got a job at MTV editing videos for Netflix, Amazon, etc.
“I knew I had the skills to entertain, I have the skills to edit, I had the creative background. So all of that came together. In my mind, I was like, dude, I just got to start doing it consistently.”
- Cagyjan
Started creating videos consistently after work hours
It started to pick up in 2020 when he decided to go into NFTs and gaming
Why Did He Decide To Target Twitch First?
He’s an entertainer at heart
YouTube requires planning
Twitch was more for people who are spontaneous
Twitch was more aligned with who he is, so he went ahead with it
In 2018, he attended TwitchCon. His cousin has already made it in the Twitch world and advised him to move to YouTube as its algorithm is more helpful for small creators
How Did He Learn About Crypto?
Started crypto in 2016
Had built an Ethereum mining rig
He and his brother have been creating businesses together:
Had a clothing brand
Developed a cleaning app
Read about Ethereum and went into it together
When Did He Move Into NFTs?
Got rekt in 2018
Did not want to go back to a corporate job
His brother and himself used their savings to get through 2018 to 2020
His interest in NFTs didn’t come until 2020
Knew about CryptoKitties, but did not consider it a real game
Found out about Lost Relics and Hash Rush. Realized that there were no content creators for those 2 games
“Why is nobody doing content for this? This is like a niche right here. This is a niche opportunity. I have to tackle this, I have to tackle this.”
- Cagyjan
Found out about Axie Infinity from his brother
Heavily invested in Axie Infinity, but did not find it fun
Started creating content for Axie Infinity
Why Did He Decide To Dedicate All His Time To Crypto Gaming?
A lot of gamers are not entrepreneurs. They are using games to hide their insecurities
As an entrepreneur and gamer, he tries to open his mind and see what is it all about
Saw in-game assets similarly to Call of Duty skins
Was trying to find a niche and NFT gaming clicked with him
Will He Expand To Other NFT Sectors?
Focuses on the utility of the NFT. If there’s no utility, he would not buy them
Thinks that artists should have gated communities
“A lot of these artists weren't thinking about exclusivity, it was just like, oh, yeah, support my art. So that didn't resonate with me. And in the traditional art world, it really does work like that. If you have a Picasso, trust me, you're hanging out with some top dogs, right?”
- Cagyjan
What Is His Content Creation Strategy?
It comes down to grinding every day
On average, he will produce 1 video a day
Have to relax sometimes to avoid burning out
Presents himself the same way he does online and offline
In the beginning, he used scripts. Now, he doesn’t use them anymore
Pointers On Growing Your Audience
💡 Andrew asked Cagyjan for some advice on how to grow his audience.
Videos are more engaging than audio only
Take clips from the podcast that he finds interesting and tag him on Twitter
It is in the interest of projects to retweet it because they need content
His cousin does art for a lot of games. For each game she does art for, she managed to grab a portion of the community
This enabled his cousin to have her own community
Cagyjan does the same thing as well. His audience is a combination of multiple communities
Insights He Has Learned From Creating Content
The more games he plays, the more he knows about the economy
He brings good ideas from one project to another to help them to improve
Shared with Lost Relics what he has learned from Axie Infinity and Aavegotchi, but they did not heed his advice
Today, Lost Relics is kind of dead
“One of the biggest strengths Axie had from the beginning was anything you tweeted about it, whether it's art, whether it's music, whether it's a video, whether it's a tweet, they would retweet it. They will make you feel important. And that's very, very important.”
- Cagyjan
What Is His Thoughts On Governance And Its Impact On The Game Itself
We are in the early stages and there’s a learning curve
Have seen Aavegotchi and Illuvium implementing it
Feels that governance should have proof-of-play — holders who play the game have more weight than holders who sit passively on their tokens
This prevents funds from coming in and saying what should be done without even playing the game
The weightage to proof-of-play should go down over time if someone is inactive
Getting The Community Involved
The founders need to engage with the community
He criticized Axie Infinity a few months ago
He wanted them to return to their roots and respond to comments, even though the comments are negative
Thoughts On Play-To-Earn
Need to transition to every asset to be found in-game instead of being sold by the developers
This prevents whales from buying everything
Thinks that Triple A games and their communities will enter the space
Play-to-earn is inaccessible for some people as they could not afford the in-game assets required to play the game
If people are not enjoying the game, your assets can go down in price
Is Play-To-Earn Fun?
Fun is subjective
Some people enjoy the grind
Current Favourite Blockchain Game
In terms of community, it is Axie Infinity
In terms of actually playing the game, it is Lost Relics. However, he doesn’t play it anymore
Synergy, Ember Sword, and Illuvium
General Thoughts On Axie Infinity
Don’t think they need to improve anything on the SLP side
They experienced massive growth in 2021 and couldn’t focus on a lot of things
People did not understand that SLP is just one resource among other resources
He knew about this from articles published in 2018. However, most newcomers would not know about this nor share in Axie Infinity’s vision
The team is now doing a better job communicating this to the community
There will be other ways to use SLP, which should result in a more stable price over time
However, the team cannot just rush it out, which is what people don’t get
What Has Got Him Excited For 2022?
A lot of games are coming out in mid-2022
Wants to see how the community reacts to a good game
Will be exciting to observe The Sandbox. The alpha gameplay has been released and Snoop Dogg will be hosting a concert in the Metaverse
His Grand Vision
When he had 5000 subscribers, he dropped a free NFT to them
A percentage of everything he makes on YouTube will be distributed to the holders of the NFT
The funds are kept in a vault
The holders can decide what the funds are spent on
Currently, the vault has $150,000
“That's one of the things that I see myself doing in the future, kind of have this vault, then we just start buying assets, and just have a big VC basically. And it's something that excites me because I did it for free, right? It's my money that I decided to give back to the community.”
- Cagyjan
As an entrepreneur, he doesn’t want to stop in crypto. He wants to build a coconut adventure park in the Dominican Republic
Tried to create an automated cooler that follows him through his phone
Single Favourite NFT
His CyberKongz
The CyberKongz community have a long-term mindset
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
Most of the games are not going to make it
NFT Ecosystem In 3 Years
Everything’s going to have an NFT
Celebrities like Justin Bieber could use NFTs to connect with their fans
Hotels and Airbnb could use NFTs for travellers to access their rooms. Once their stay is over, the NFT could become a souvenir for them
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