From: thepipeline_xyz
Scott Herman, co-founder of Wagmi Games and VP of Strategic Partnerships, has made a notable transition to crypto and gaming after a successful career in the fitness industry [01:12:13]. His background as a YouTube fitness creator has provided him with unique insights into community building and trust, which are now invaluable in the web 3 gaming space [06:35:00].
Fitness Career and Philosophy
For 13 years, Scott Herman was known for his YouTube fitness channel, “Scott Herman Fitness,” where he provided educational content on health and fitness [01:30:00]. He grew the channel to over 3 million subscribers, earning YouTube’s gold play button [01:49:00]. His motivation for fitness stemmed from a childhood experience of being bullied, leading him to desire strength like his favorite superheroes, Captain America, Superman, and Wolverine [03:18:00]. He focused on health, education, and helping others, choosing to remain natural throughout his fitness career and never competing on stage [04:42:00].
Lifelong Passion for Gaming
Despite his prominent fitness career, gaming has always been a parallel passion for Scott Herman [02:02:00]. Born in 1984, he noted that career options in gaming were limited to coding at the time [02:09:00]. His love for fitness, anime, collecting, and comic books were intertwined, with comics and anime even inspiring his initial venture into fitness [04:03:00]. He even maintained a gaming channel alongside his fitness one, streaming mobile games like Call of Duty and Dragon Ball Z’s Dokkan Battle [12:24:00].
Opportunity in Web3 Gaming
Around two and a half years ago, Herman identified a significant opportunity in web 3 gaming, particularly with the rise of NFTs and the concept of owning digital assets [02:25:00]. He recognized that gaming was the most compelling use case for NFTs on a massive scale, allowing players to own their in-game assets [14:57:00].
A key motivator was his frustration with traditional games like Dokkan Battle, where he would spend significant money on character summons but couldn’t share or give away duplicate characters to his community [14:10:00]. This limitation made the concept of NFTs in gaming instantly appealing to him [14:46:00]. He also expressed a desire to buy rare in-game items directly rather than dedicating extensive hours to grinding, a need that web 3 gaming can address [16:10:00].
The Power of Trust and Community Building
Scott Herman’s extensive experience in building a large, trusting community in fitness has been a tremendous asset in the crypto gaming space [06:35:00]. He notes that many people in Web3 recognize him from his fitness content, instantly establishing a level of trust that is often hard to find in an industry known for anonymous teams and “rug pulls” [06:38:00].
This established trust has allowed him to rapidly expand his network [06:55:00]. Wagmi Games embraces this transparency, with a fully “doxed” team (publicly identified) rather than anonymous developers [10:21:00]. They prioritize constant communication with their community through weekly “Wagmi Wednesdays” on Twitter Spaces, ensuring transparency even during slow periods [38:50:00]. Herman attributes his success to building relationships one person at a time, responding to every comment and DM, and fostering genuine connections [40:13:00].
Wagmi Games: A Game-First Approach
At Wagmi Games, Scott Herman and his team are focused on building a fun, high-quality mobile game first, with web three elements integrated seamlessly in the background [23:05:00]. Their first title, Wagmi Defense, a mobile defense game, has been in development for two and a half years, emphasizing that building a quality game takes time [17:37:00]. They aim to avoid the common pitfall of rushing out “reskinned” or repurposed games just to leverage the token integration or NFT hype [17:54:00].
Key aspects of Wagmi Games’ strategy include:
- Hiring experienced game developers: Bringing in experts who know how to build and deliver games [19:40:00].
- Focus on user experience: Ensuring a smooth first-time user experience with engaging core gameplay, short tutorials, and immediate fun [19:53:00].
- Rich Lore and Characters: Developing an extensive lore, original characters, comic books, and even an anime to create player attachment [20:15:00].
- Live Operations: Planning weekly or bi-weekly campaign events for new characters, skins, or story progression [20:51:00].
- Mobile-First Approach: Recognizing that 53% of all gaming revenue comes from mobile, Wagmi Defense is designed for mass adoption on mobile devices, especially in regions without access to high-end PCs or consoles [26:38:00].
- Free-to-Play: Ensuring the game is free-to-play to reach a wider audience and allow players to invest only after they’ve enjoyed the game [26:58:00].
- Simplified Onboarding: Leveraging partnerships like Immutable X’s Passport system, Wagmi Defense creates a wallet for users upon email login, making NFT ownership and trading seamless and abstracting away complex crypto steps like seed phrases [30:30:00].
- Multi-Chain Strategy: Building a backend bridging system to allow players to trade assets across different blockchains (e.g., Monad, Immutable, Base, Solana) to prevent fragmented player bases, similar to cross-platform play in traditional games like Fortnite [33:34:00].
Challenges and Future Outlook
Scott Herman acknowledges the challenges of introducing NFTs and tokens to traditional gamers, who initially reacted negatively, comparing it to past resistance to battle passes or microtransactions [22:12:00]. Wagmi Games’ strategy is to ease players into Web3 elements by making them almost unnoticeable initially. Players collect characters and upgrades as NFTs without knowing, only later being educated that they own these assets and can trade them on secondary marketplaces [24:15:00].
Personal Insight: The Power of Human Connection
Scott Herman’s “final alpha” or piece of wisdom is about the importance of genuine human connection [47:39:00]. He emphasizes that one never knows who they’re talking to or who might become significant in the future [47:49:00]. He advises against being dismissive, encouraging people to always put their best foot forward, be open-minded, and show interest in others by asking questions [48:19:00]. This approach, he believes, leads to organic relationships and business opportunities, and ultimately, “just be a good person and it’s funny even in my life uh there’s been times where I’ve like helped random people on the side of the road and then like a few months later bump randomly bump into them and they’ve helped me with something like it’s crazy how life works so I I guess my statement is and I talk a lot of smack I’m sure you guys probably thought that as you were listening to this and first experience with me uh that’s just because I’m from the Northeast we we just talk a lot of smack and that’s just the way we are but we’re lovable people um we we have a good time I could see D um just be a good person and just know that if if you’re a good person and treat others with respect you’ll get it in kind and back” [49:17:00].