Gabby Dizon’s web3 rule: build the guild, then the game

Long before Yield Guild Games developed a game of its own, it was focused on something less visible but more foundational: building a decentralized infrastructure for players.

At the center of that effort was Gabby Dizon, a veteran of the Philippine game development scene, saw the metaverse not as a single 3D world but as a distributed network of opportunities. For Dizon, the goal wasn’t to chase flashy graphics or token speculation – it was to equip people, especially in emerging markets, with the tools to participate meaningfully in a digital economy.

Yield Guild Games, or YGG, is a decentralized network of gaming guilds built around blockchain-based economies. It helps players enter web3 games and rewards their progress and achievements with tokens and reputation. Beyond onboarding, YGG equips players with tools to join or create onchain groups, enabling them to showcase their skills and get noticed by web3 projects.

From its earliest days, YGG has been deeply embedded in the web3 gaming world as an ecosystem builder. It played a key role in onboarding players to Axie Infinity, supporting indie games through its Guild Advancement Program (GAP), and helping developers reach new audiences. 

For years, YGG’s presence was felt across the space without releasing a single title of its own.

The real foundation of 'play-to-earn'

Education has been central to YGG’s model from the beginning. Though informal at first, peer training and guild-based knowledge-sharing helped players understand blockchain mechanics, navigate token economies, and build income streams. YGG's commitment to education has been evident through various initiatives aimed at empowering its community.

YGG rose to prominence during Axie Infinity’s boom, when “play-to-earn” became a defining phrase in crypto. But from the beginning, YGG differentiated itself. It didn’t organize around a single title or community; instead, it served as a platform for many guilds, each operating independently within a broader support structure.

“Even in the Axie Infinity times,” Dizon told The Crypto Radio, “there wasn’t one YGG guild… There was a guild of guilds.”

That model became more than just a workaround – it was the blueprint for scale. YGG has continued to evolve its architecture, introducing tools and structures designed to sustain multiple guilds across the web3 ecosystem.

Now, with the recent release of its first web3 game, LOL Land, YGG is entering a new phase – one where the tools it built for others are being applied inward, to its own game publishing platform. But the strategy hasn’t changed: build the people first, then the product.

Education as infrastructure

Education has always been a quiet undercurrent in YGG’s operations – an unglamorous but necessary effort to prepare its community for participation in web3 economies. Early peer training efforts eventually led to Metaversity, a formalized learning platform focused on teaching job-ready skills in web3, AI, and other emerging technologies.

YGG’s questing initiative, GAP, has long rewarded participants for the skills they contribute to the community as well. YGG members receive recognition for their efforts in helping others onboard, whether through community moderation, content creation, or finishing or teaching Metaversity courses.

“Metaversity is very natural for us to get into,” Gabby Dizon said. “We needed an educational arm to equip people with the skills to thrive in the global economy through web3.”

Rather than taking a top-down approach, Metaversity builds on grassroots strategies once used by early YGG members to navigate platforms like Axie Infinity. Now led by YGG Pilipinas – YGG’s regional partner in the Philippines – the platform provides modular, open-access courses aimed at learners exploring careers in community management, content creation, marketing, and gaming.

For a player entering the web3 ecosystem for the first time, especially in areas with limited formal tech education, initiatives like Metaversity and GAP represent a rare on-ramp where learners also find community.

A first game with a long backstory

This year also marks a milestone for YGG: the release of its first internally developed game, LOL Land. The game is more than a casual title – it’s a proof-of-concept for the community-driven approach YGG has long championed.

For years, YGG supported external game projects through GAP, connecting them with a dedicated community of web3-native players. Having played hundreds of the industry’s most promising titles, as well as investing in many of them, YGG had rare insight into what the web3 gaming community actually wanted to play. 

LOL Land, launched on Abstract,  marks an internal experiment for YGG – a test of whether its experience in cultivating ecosystems of games, guilds, and gamers can produce a game that’s both enjoyable and economically viable. It also targets a specific audience: the “Casual Degen” – players who aren’t elite competitors but will stick around for a fun game with a simple reward loop.

With the launch of LOL Land, YGG is also doubling down on a core belief: web3 gaming only works when players are prepared – not just plugged in.

What sets YGG apart isn’t just that it built infrastructure before a product. It treated learning as the foundation of everything else.

“People in web3, they share a very strong bond. They’ve learned new skills and shared successes together. They’ve also learned hard lessons together. So they kind of identify more strongly with each other than most other people,” Dizon said. “It’s like we’re all in the same tribe.”

That sense of digital belonging, of economic and cultural access through shared knowledge, is what makes YGG’s vision so compelling.

In a sector where speed often takes precedence over substance, YGG is betting that the future belongs to the most informed players – and the communities that train them.