When John Smedley sat down with PC Gamer to talk about Reaper Actual, he had two messages. One, that this is the game he’s always dreamed of making. And two, that the Web3 elements powering it are not really his thing.
“I actually went out with no intention of Web3,” he told the magazine. “And I couldn’t get funding to make this dream game that’s been in my head for 10 years.”
That admission lands hard for anyone tracking the play-to-earn games space. Smedley, whose resume includes EverQuest and PlanetSide 2, isn’t just dipping his toe into blockchain gaming, he’s diving in, but only because no one else would fund his vision. His comments paint Web3 less as a belief system and more as a last resort.


