Games will drive the global Crypto Revolution in 10 years or less.
We are developing City States: Medieval, a multiplayer strategy game with cross platform support to introduce millions of players to blockchain tech in a non intrusive way. Follow on twitter, reddit and join us on discord!
Before we dive in, a few thoughts related to the crypto game space:
Games that call themselves Dapps just because they are using a token or have a part of their functions on blockchain are not decentralized. If the company stops to develop, ceases to exist or shuts down their servers, most games will be more useless than a game you can buy on Steam or Google Play. It simply stops working. For now, ‘Dapp’ is mostly a marketing scheme when it comes to games.
When it comes to crypto, an utility token is only an utility token when it has infinite supply. If the supply is limited or even decreasing it should automatically be declared a security because the person buying it expects its value to increase. Due to unlimited supply and the token supposedly be used in the script (and not to build a product), an utility token should have a stable price with a small margin to fill demand and supply.
Full decentralization and mass adoption is not going hand in hand. As much as we would love the masses to be self-responsible for their finances, it’s unrealistic on the big scale. For them, a fall-back is what’s needed. The future will be centralized wallets like we know it today from exchanges and accounts/wallets on different blockchains in custodian accounts where only the central entity knows the private keys.
The Problem:
Keep in mind that these problems are viewed from the average potential players point of view not some seasoned crypto user.
Accessibility:
The entry to start playing crypto games is too complicated for the average person. Due to requirements like metamask, scatter or meet.one, these games are for the most part not available on any of the big distribution platforms like Steam, Google Play Store, iTunes etc. The crypto games out already, are mostly prying on the existing fanbases of ethereum, Tron and EOS users.
The price to play:
If you want to be only slightly competitive, you need to pay ~$50–100 for a character or other in-game items. As of now, crypto games are basically Pay-2-Win mechanics on steroids and cost more than an AAA game on release date.
Even if the problem of accessibility through major distributors would be solved, there is still the problem of how the player can spend more crypto in the game without violating the stores Terms of Service or having to go to great length outside the stores capabilities (KYC at exchange, bank transfer to exchange, buy crypto, transfer crypto to game).
Make a test:
- Show someone you know that is not involved with crypto but plays games regularly some of the ethereum crypto games out there until he sees one he would like to test.
- Ask that person if he is willing to:
- Register on a crypto-exchange
- Fill out KYC/AML forms including sending a copy of his passport/ID
- Wait for a week or two (or however fast the exchange is)
- Make a bank transfer to the exchange (wait again)
- Exchange to the crypto he wants
- Open a wallet for ethereum
- Install the metamask browser extension
- Start playing — hopefully without paying upfront
Conclusion:
It’s too complicated, too expensive and too cumbersome for someone that is not yet involved with crypto to start playing these games.
The only reason for this is that the developers desperately wanted to slap blockchain/crypto/dapp on their project to exploit the untouched markets of crypto users.
A short lived test:
I was trying to test ‘Gods Unchained’, one of the high praised and even higher funded crypto games out there. I logged into metamask, opened my free pack of 5 cards and then was prompted to register my account via email.
How decentralized is a game when the account is tied to an email/password combination in a database on some server instead of the ethereum address I used? Not even talking about all the game assets being hosted on centralized servers. Server down — account gone.
After confirming my email-address, I was prompted to log in — which I tried but it didn’t work. I closed the window and was asked to buy more cards, I ignored it but guessed I’m somewhat logged in already. Trying to explore the other options or even play the game opened up the log in prompt again.
This can not be blamed on ethereum, metamask or crypto but on the developers only. I consider myself tech savvy, I’m well versed when it comes to crypto and ethereum applications — but even I was discouraged just 2 minutes after registering. This definitely won’t introduce NEW users to crypto.
The Solution is Simple:
Don’t act decentralized when you are not.
Gods Unchained could have made the ethereum part optional. Give those users that have an ethereum address the option to link their account and create custodian accounts for all others until they are advanced enough to open their own.
Our approach with City States: Medieval is vastly different.
First of all, nobody who wants to play our game needs to even know anything about crypto, let alone own any. There are no pre-requisites like metamask either which enables us to distribute the game using all the major storefronts. This removes the limitations other crypto-based games face where 3,000 players per day is already an achievement.
We are not using cryptocurrencies to buy in-game items directly. Instead, we are using an in-game currency (HEX), comparable to GOLD or GEMS used in other games. This in-game currency is issued as an asset on the Stellar Network but is neither a cryptocurrency nor a security. It’s a pure utility token.
The reason why it can’t be considered as a security is its unlimited supply. To balance the market, we can generate as much HEX as needed. Nobody in their right mind would buy this token expecting a return on his investment and it’s not marketed as such.
Players can save money using crypto
Just like other games soft currencies, HEX can be bought inside the game with FIAT using the distribution platforms payment process. Due to their 30% cut from every purchase, additional banking fees and the long time between payment and us receiving our share (net45), purchasing via stores will be much more expensive than buying direct.
We will also offer and heavily promote our direct downloads for desktop and mobile as well as the option to play in the browser.
In these direct versions, we will implement our own payment processors with a hefty discount compared to storefronts. For those that are already proficient in using crypto, HEX can also be bought with cryptocurrencies which lowers the price even more. The best price can be reached by buying directly on the SDEX at market value with no intermediate at all.
The signal is clear: Paying with crypto is way cheaper (~40%) and the player can benefit from learning about crypto.
Crypto for payment doesn’t make it a Crypto Game
While this would be enough for a lot of developers to call it a crypto or blockchain game, we are going several steps further:
- Resources and items in the game are issued as assets on the Stellar Network
- Every player gets a custodian Stellar account including the needed trustlines set up. Free of charge.
- Players can trade in-game items on the integrated SDEX
- Trades, offers and transactions are recorded on the Stellar Network
All players of the game will have access to the same global market where they can trade in-game items against HEX. We are creating a global game economy where actual demand and supply dictate the prices of goods. This is for fungible items that can be gathered, collected or crafted in the game.
Further, players will be able to craft their own unique legendary items for hero units like weapons and armor. Unlike most other Non-Fungible-Items (NFTs), these will be truly unique, are customizable by the player upon creation and can be linked to non-custodian accounts.
This is neither fully decentralized nor is it fully centralized but it’s what we think will ring in the real crypto revolution that will lead to blockchain being part of the everyday life. A combination of both worlds for the best possible result.
Continue reading Part 2:
Disrupting the Game Industry — Games as microjobbing opportunities
If you want to know more about City States: Medieval, what the game is about, how exactly we implement and why we chose Stellar and most of all how we are planning to bring millions of players into contact with crypto for their very first time, follow us on reddit and twitter or hit me up on discord for a one on one chat. We are not averse to early stage investors either.
