Arcade Galaxy w/ Thomas Vu — From the Arcade to GameFi
What Gaming Means To Us
Games are participatory — the promise of interactivity distinguishes it from all other forms of expression. As designers, we can present audiovisual experiences that envelop players in almost any world. As players, we can progress and make those worlds our own.
With Arcade Galaxy, we draw inspiration from a variety of experiences that gaming has provided over the years. From the golden age of arcade gaming to the user-driven MMOs of today, our goal is to deliver a robust experience like no other.
We are a team that appreciates this medium’s ability to break technological boundaries and bring new communities together, all with user-created content, customizable avatars and planets, and competitive tournaments. At this early stage, our investors and advisors are helping to make this dream possible.
A Chat with Thomas Vu
For this discussion, we reached out to one of our investors — Thomas Vu. You may know him as an industry veteran who has served as the Head of Creative and Franchise Development at Riot Games. Vu is one of our most experienced advisors, and he was kind enough to offer us insight from the formative years of modern gaming. He also shared why he thinks Arcade Galaxy is bound to make its mark in the gaming landscape.
Remembering the Classics
Vu recalls that, as a child, he grew up without TV shows. Instead, he had the chance to find fun through the newfound wonders of gaming. The Atari 2600 was his first console in the 1980s.
A few of his favorite games included Defender, Yars’ Revenge, and Combat. It was a “unique upbringing,” mostly playing games from a wide range of genres and settings. The emergence of beat ’em ups and fighting games were another memorable development; Vu found many combined hours of enjoyment through the arcade classics. He was particularly fond of Street Fighter, Final Fight, Shinobi, and Double Dragon.
Around that time, he also immersed himself in classic adventure games on the i386 PC. These games showcased that genre’s ability to give players agency in how they unravel virtual narratives and the challenges within. Vu points out LucasArts classics like the Monkey Island games, Day of the Tentacle, and Sierra’s King’s Quest series as pivotal examples of where that adventure genre flourished.
It is no doubt that point-and-click adventures were among his personal go-to games in those days, as those kinds of experiences were lauded for rewarding curiosity and experimentation.
When it comes to Vu’s favorite game, Blizzard’s Diablo II reigns supreme. Looking at the lineage of action-oriented dungeon crawlers, Vu says that games like Gauntlet were inventive, acting as an early blueprint for the hack-n-slash archetype for later Action RPGs. Diablo would go on to cement that subgenre in wider gaming culture, embracing an iconic mix of gothic fantasy, online play, and highly replayable dungeons. For Vu, 4-player action games like those found in the classic TMNT and Dungeons & Dragons cabinets were another stepping stone in originating the cooperative gaming communities we know today.
What GameFi Can Offer Players
Beyond those memories, we discussed how future titles might evolve from previous paradigms. Vu states that “GameFi has the chance to make the ownership economy more robust, giving players more agency and freedom.” In this space, Arcade Galaxy can exist as a way to give players more power to trade as independent members of a virtual market. In many ways, these dynamics are comparable to trading systems from Diablo II to MMOs like World of Warcraft. Vu points out that “gray markets already exist in [games] where players can sell their in-game items and gold,” but GameFi proposes a decentralized implementation with an obvious real-world value.
According to Vu, “the ownership aspect of GameFi is not necessarily new [in games], but the value proposition feels new for most gamers.” He thinks this is where Arcade Galaxy can really thrive as a marketplace for creativity and competition — creating entirely new economic models.
One hurdle is that NFTs can be a controversial subject in the gaming community. Many have raised concerns about the validity of the content that is provided as well as questions surrounding the environmental impact of blockchain technology.
At Arcade Galaxy we continue to build off of sustainable technologies like Avalanche so that we can deliver value and fun without compromising on our principles. Vu elaborates on this topic, “NFTs can be a turnoff because it can oftentimes feel like a popularity contest. However, there can be real value for players that is [yet] to be realized, especially if it is designed with a player-first approach.”
NFTs encompass many different types of projects and blockchain platforms, and our goal is to legitimize the technology as we accommodate more organic use cases. This perspective informs our strategy as a pioneering force in GameFi.
In the past, whenever there has been the introduction of new technology or economic models, there has been resistance to adoption. DRM and Free-To-Play gaming are just two comparisons that Vu reflects on. “Initially, these [developments] were reviled by players,” but eventually DRM and Free-To-Play gained widespread adoption when AAA content was built around them and in ways that made sense to players. Once that happened, consumer-positive advancements “allowed those new models to succeed.”
With Arcade Galaxy, Vu says that there is “immense potential to empower people with ownership and control over the digital goods they purchase,” but that it also requires developers to be forward-thinking to prosper in this space. In this respect, he believes that our platform has a great chance of succeeding as we listen to players and build alongside you — the audience.
Ultimately, this will be the beginning of a new wave of game dev, as projects like Arcade Galaxy enable creators to build and monetize original, playable content on their own. Transparency, responsibility, and having a high standard of quality are all key. Finally, Vu emphasizes that it requires devs to be “good stewards to their communities” — and that is the example we hope to embody.
Wrapping Up
While we are betting on GameFi and blockchain-based solutions for this project, we also recognize that this is truly the frontier for many hardcore gamers.
Arcade Galaxy aims to integrate economics and ownership into our platform, but we also know that this means nothing if we are not receptive or accountable in our mission to prove the potential of gaming with DeFi. That is why we think it is critical to share what we really appreciate about games — including our philosophy and how our partners came to discover just how fun, diverse, and engaging games really are. Together, we can play, create, and revolutionize what gaming can mean as Web3 innovations come to fruition through projects like ours.
From everyone at Arcade Galaxy, a genuine thank you to Thomas Vu for his time, insight, and support. We still have a lot to share ourselves — we’ll keep you all updated on our status, so make sure to follow and connect with us on our socials. We are building towards some of our largest reveals yet, and we can’t wait to share more and also see what you will accomplish amongst the stars!
