Web3 and deep play: Blockchain gaming in the Global South

Abstract

The article argues for the sociocultural contextualization of Web3 affordances by examining play-to-earn gaming in the Philippines. It first outlines how socioeconomic factors promote blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Against this background, and based on scholarship in cultural communication, anthropology, and critical platform studies, the article illustrates how sociocultural frames shape the interpretation and enactment of blockchain-based gameplay affordances. A Grounded Theory analysis of interviews and documents reveals that players identify persistent access and ownership as technical affordances, performing them through the cultural frame of cockfighting and its digital economy version, the side hustle. The study challenges universalist notions of Web3 adoption, highlighting how technical affordances both support and disrupt sociocultural and economic reproduction through narratives of family, competition, and inclusivity. The research calls for comparative studies on how platform corporations structure societies in emerging economies, how platforms exploit culture as use value, and how adopters strategically utilize Web3 technologies.