Putting an entire game onto the blockchain is a solution in search of a problem, or so they say.
I’ve been building an onchain game for the last year, and here are some of the real problems onchain games solve: 🧵
I’ve been building an onchain game for the last year, and here are some of the real problems onchain games solve: 🧵
First, new products need to solve problems that weren’t previously solvable, or else incumbents will eat up any market share.
Luckily, fully onchain games are a green field with no incumbents competing for attention. We don’t need to compete with Rockstar for player attention.
Luckily, fully onchain games are a green field with no incumbents competing for attention. We don’t need to compete with Rockstar for player attention.
But to do this, it is crucial to make sure new problems are actually solved. For games, this means new types of experiences that players cannot find elsewhere.
Onchain games are slow and clunky, so the experiences offered need to be especially different from traditional games.
Onchain games are slow and clunky, so the experiences offered need to be especially different from traditional games.
1. Assets with real value
Crypto assets are just numbers, but because of decentralized consensus, we ascribe real value to them.
For normal games to ascribe value to their game assets, they need to be huge established companies. For an onchain game, this happens on day one.
Crypto assets are just numbers, but because of decentralized consensus, we ascribe real value to them.
For normal games to ascribe value to their game assets, they need to be huge established companies. For an onchain game, this happens on day one.
2. Value transfer
Money in games is full of regulatory and technical constraints for custodying assets. Devs generally cannot custody $, and banks have no API for devs to build apps on top of.
Onchain games allows for assets to be transferred between players through gameplay.
Money in games is full of regulatory and technical constraints for custodying assets. Devs generally cannot custody $, and banks have no API for devs to build apps on top of.
Onchain games allows for assets to be transferred between players through gameplay.
3. Stakes
Stakes allow for otherwise boring gameplay to be fun. The oft-cited Poker is a canonical example for this.
Gameplay for onchain games is simple, but stakes can make them significantly more exciting because they're built on crypto rails.
Stakes allow for otherwise boring gameplay to be fun. The oft-cited Poker is a canonical example for this.
Gameplay for onchain games is simple, but stakes can make them significantly more exciting because they're built on crypto rails.
4. Depth of spend
Traditional avenues have limits on purchases. In-app purchases, for example, have a limit of $99. This makes for poor UX for anything costing more than 0.03 ETH.
Crypto has no limits on depth of spend. Games can be as high stakes as players wish.
Traditional avenues have limits on purchases. In-app purchases, for example, have a limit of $99. This makes for poor UX for anything costing more than 0.03 ETH.
Crypto has no limits on depth of spend. Games can be as high stakes as players wish.
You might’ve noticed I omitted the usual examples of decentralization, persistence, and composability.
In my view these solutions tend not to reflect real problems players have, and thus are not great reasons to build an onchain game off of.
In my view these solutions tend not to reflect real problems players have, and thus are not great reasons to build an onchain game off of.
On decentralization:
Players want more updates and content. Live ops in traditional video games is a significant component for a studio. Decentralizing a game will erode this role.
Balancing and nerfing is usually done for the benefit of players too. There is merit to Vitalik’s WoW story, but unbalanced gameplay deters more players in the long run.
However, for running a game economy, trustlessness will play a large role in its viability.
Players want more updates and content. Live ops in traditional video games is a significant component for a studio. Decentralizing a game will erode this role.
Balancing and nerfing is usually done for the benefit of players too. There is merit to Vitalik’s WoW story, but unbalanced gameplay deters more players in the long run.
However, for running a game economy, trustlessness will play a large role in its viability.
On persistence:
Games are primarily hits based, decade long retention from players is fairly rare. The issue for games isn’t that they’re shut down, is that players run out of interest in them.
Just because a game can “live on the blockchain forever” doesn’t mean that more people will go play it.
Games are primarily hits based, decade long retention from players is fairly rare. The issue for games isn’t that they’re shut down, is that players run out of interest in them.
Just because a game can “live on the blockchain forever” doesn’t mean that more people will go play it.
On composability:
Writable plugins are awesome and can create significantly more interesting player dynamics, but building onchain does not uniquely enable this.
Web2 games could have had plugins available to them, but many opted not to because players preferred to consume, not build for the game.
There will be a reason for players to build, but composability as the reason to play the game is not likely to work.
Writable plugins are awesome and can create significantly more interesting player dynamics, but building onchain does not uniquely enable this.
Web2 games could have had plugins available to them, but many opted not to because players preferred to consume, not build for the game.
There will be a reason for players to build, but composability as the reason to play the game is not likely to work.
Overall, fully onchain games can solve problems that aren't otherwise possible by Web2 (or even Web2.5) games.
Most of these lean heavily around the first principles for why anything is built on chain.
Most of these lean heavily around the first principles for why anything is built on chain.
The most important point is to provide fundamentally new experiences, however.
Virtually all crypto games today do not do so. They're either normal games with a token (Web2.5), or a normal game that runs entirely on chain.
Long term, no real players will play these for consumption.
Virtually all crypto games today do not do so. They're either normal games with a token (Web2.5), or a normal game that runs entirely on chain.
Long term, no real players will play these for consumption.
We have lots more to do!
Join us at @primodiumgame if you want to tag along!
(disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, please check with counsel before proceeding)
Join us at @primodiumgame if you want to tag along!
(disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, please check with counsel before proceeding)
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