As a hardcore ex-gamer I do have an opinion, and I'm willing to share it.
Gamers had already adopted the vision before Bitcoin provided it
It runs deeper than the general public is willing to see. Gamers were ready to accept crypto's innovations much before BTC was invented. Back in the day, gamers were a special bunch - they formed a special social layer of fantasy. Gamer societies were home to all kinds of future-thinking people and those who had alternative views of life. Old-school gamers like me, we were making our gatherings at the weekly meetings of fantasy and sci-fi novel writers in town, to discuss games with them.
The so called Real World was the world of stupid people who were living the boring reality of everyday life, deprived of magic. In games you could run away from the oppressing System, away from having to find a sh*tty job, getting robbed by the status quo every day, get an education you never wished for, raise a family just because you are supposed to and then slave away for the rest of your unhappy life. Gaming offered you the chance to reimagine the world in a form that you thought could make you happy - with more thrill, with more magic, with more obvious truths and less obfuscations to what is valuable in this accursed existence.
In other words, gamers despised the Old World and the status quo, but were too geeky and nerdy to seriously state their case in a philosophical and serious manner.
Gaming society strived for decentralization long before BTC brought DeFi
Gamers attracted the likes of all kinds of people who were unhappy with the world of their day. And, in response, the world refused to take them seriously, because the Old World hates and fears those who can foresee a greater future beyond the veil of the Matrix.
For it was just so - anyone who's been a gamer between the 90s and 2015, basically, can testify to that: we called "the Matrix" the so called Real Life, and we accepted the world of gaming as our truer reality.
Before BTC was invented, the gaming social layer was already maturing. People started to make a living through gaming, because they flat out refused to grow up! Older generations of gamers HAD to grow up, because the Old World was stronger, the Matrix people were much more numerous and they could make you grow up, even if you didn't want to.
But as gaming was maturing, more and more grown-up gamers, who were forced to leave gaming behind, were building a new kind of future for their children - a kind of future they themselves were deprived of. More and more gamer-fathers were leaving their children alone when they were playing PC games, because they could now relate to that childhood feeling. This was the case after 2007, when many of the 90s gamers grew up to have kids of their own.
So... when multiple generations of gamers started to overlap, they began building their own world - they wanted to be able to make money in gaming and make a living, despite the way the Old World was built. They started organizing huge tournaments with bigger and bigger prizes. Understand? Old gamers now wanted young gamers to receive prizes with REAL value, and not stuffed animals. So hard cash entered gaming.
It was all centralized, of course. The technology wasn't there. And tournaments had bigger and bigger prizes, but they were just for show, remaining inaccessible for 99% of gamers across the world. Only the best of the best were playing at those tournaments with real prizes, and Koreans were dominating (rightfully so, hats off to them and what they did for gaming around the world).
Soon after gamers started wanting fame too! They wanted to be recognized, just like all the other sports. So the term "e-sports" emerged, attempts were made to include e-sports and DOTA in particular in the regular Olympic games.
But the technology just wasn't there.
The invention of BTC found a fertile soil in gamers around the world right from the start
BTC was first mined with regular PCs. Gee, I wonder what audience was most accessible for BTC adoption!
Small wonder the blockchain and all developments of the DeFi and crypto are basically tailored for gaing. GameFi is not just a "play-to-earn" trend. Please... Neither is it a comfortable excuse to make use of useless NFTs.
The blockchain means board games turned into reality! E-sports is just a precursor to GameFi! Welcome to the future people!