How Crypto Games Should Be!
Someone responded to one of our Tweets:
…and this made me want to write this article.
To answer the question — no, you don’t have to know what blockchain is to play Moonfrost, nor should you need to know.
What is a ‘blockchain’?
The most simple answer is — it’s a type of database.
Whoever sold a game based on what database it used??? “You should play Fortnite because they use MongoDB to store player data.” said no one ever. To the user, whatever tech is under the hood is not relevant. They just want to play the game, they don’t care about the tech, and that’s how it should be.
This is the key to mass adoption in crypto gaming. We need to move away from putting the technical things up front and on display. If someone likes the look of a game there shouldn’t be barriers to start playing. Ideally you just install, and off you go. Or easier still, if it’s browser based, just click play. No need for creating wallets or buying tokens, just play.
If you want to buy something in-game it should be no harder than in-app purchases in mobile games; [tap] bought!
With the advent of NFTs in games comes the idea of ‘true ownership’ of in-game items. This means you can take your items outside the game and keep them. That’s nice and all, but we suspect that most players will want to keep their NFTs in-game for convenience. We also think that given the choice, most players will prefer to trade those NFTs in-game, after all, the people most likely to want to buy these items off you are other players. There’s many secondary marketplaces meaning the market is fragmented. If you send your NFT to Magic Eden or Digital Eyes or wherever, then the audience that sees it will be a subset of the players. By having a marketplace in-game the whole process of trading is streamlined, no need to send it to another wallet (external marketplace), no gas fees incurred. No fakes will show up either because the game knows exactly what’s real and not.
This is not to say you can’t use external marketplaces, that option will exist for the more crypto au fait users. However, for players who aren’t into crypto there’s a steep learning curve to get your head around the whole process. When there’s many steps involved it risks losing those players forever, or puts them off playing in the first place. In the interests of making the game appeal to as broad an audience as possible, it’s best avoided rather than forcing players down that route.
Moonfrost will be a game that anyone can pick up and play.
