AMA Highlights: Gamee
By Daniel Dal Bello, Director.
November 5, 2021–8 min read.
On Tuesday 2 November, we welcomed Bozena Rezab of Gamee into the Hillrise Group Telegram chat for an AMA.
Gamee is a gaming platform with over 25 million registered users on its platform. Their games are highly social in nature due to strong integrations with Telegram.
They recently launched their Arc8 play-to-earn mobile blockchain gaming platform with 1.3 million users, pushing Polygon to surpass Ethereum in daily active users. And their limited edition G-Bots NFTs, through which they are driving NFT innovation, has recently been launched.
We were eager to catch up on their progress toward driving social casual gaming with cryptocurrency.
In this post, we have compiled key questions and answers from the event.
Rowan Zwiers
Thank you for joining us again today, there is a lot to update on since we last spoke in this channel about four months ago, from the sharpening of your visuals to the launch of your first game on Polygon and in-game NFTs.
Before we start digging deep, can you give us a general update on the accomplishments of Gamee during Q3 2021?
Bozena Rezab
Four weeks ago, we launched Arc8 — mobile games meeting crypto-rewards — with 10 games and gaming tournaments for GMEE tokens. It immediately got the attention of gamers, now with 1.3 million people registered!
In 1 hour (2 November) — we are opening the G-Bots, game characters (NFTs) for pre-sale!
We are VERY excited about both!
Raymond Reijnders
How has public perception been so far? I can imagine that people have compared the G-Bots to the recently released Meka NFTs.
Bozena Rezab
Our G-Bots are utility NFTs at their core — game characters. GAMEE has a large gaming audience, so we build for them. So far most other NFTs are collectible-first, but in our case, we focus on building a gaming experience for them from the very start.
Rowan Zwiers
We’re seeing your newly released play-to-earn mobile game Arc8 standing firmly in the top 5 of Polygon apps by volume, and you announced to have attracted 1.3 million users but user/volume/transaction numbers are erratic.
Can you tell us more about the introduction of Arc8 and your view on the user-base/community development and retention?
Bozena Rezab
Arc8 takes blockchain closer to mainstream gaming. You get the mobile app in-store and play casual-style games in tournaments against other players, where it all depends on your skill. Players use GMEE tokens as entrance fees and earn them in tournaments as rewards.
However, this is only the first part, where the team is in charge of games, setting tournaments, and prize pools. Next year we will take Arc8 on a decentralization journey, so that the community can vote on prize pools, get their games launched and host custom tournaments for others.
@Belmont_J0seph
For the G-Bot NFT sale, what measures have been set up to stop bots from buying out the entire supply?
Bozena Rezab
There is a limit of 2 packs per transaction, also the sale is in GMEE token on Polygon, which is a currency you earn on Arc8. So there needs to be some effort to get ready for the sale.
Rowan Zwiers
As today’s AMA coincides with the first edition presale of your G-Bot NFTs, I’m curious about a few things.
Firstly, we can see 1,000 G-Bot packs will be sold in pre-sale, in the form of 4 tiers of packs with different odds of capturing a G-Bot of higher rarity. Each pack will contain 1 G-Bot.
Is there a fixed amount per pack type available and how is the actual lottery system/randomness of the G-Bot received upon opening the packs determined? Is this a transparent process?
Bozena Rezab
Yes, this is a transparent process, there are specific probabilities for each pack to include G-Bot of certain rarity. There are 3 classes and this is randomized, so a pack will include 1 out of 3 classes.
Rowan Zwiers
I am still curious, is there a fixed amount per pack type available (out of the 1,000 packs can all be legendary packs, or is that capped?), and how is the lottery system/randomness determined exactly?
Bozena Rezab
There is not a fixed amount, there is a probability set with each pack.
Rowan Zwiers
Based on the pack types and range of their prices this G-Bot pre-sale will raise between USD$35,000 and $1,750,000 — in GMEE tokens.
How will the raised funds be used and the GMEE tokens managed?
Bozena Rezab
Proceeds from sale and also collected fees in GMEE from Arc8 are going to a treasury. The purpose is to build a way to have the community vote on prize pools and rewards when we take both Arc8 and G-Bots towards more decentralization.
Raymond Reijnders
In the desktop environment the experience with a multitude of games and player rankings has it’s play-to-earn mechanism expressed in USD ($), which are to be paid out via PayPal above $10.
What is the reason for sticking to PayPal/USD and are you looking to expand into decentralized solutions as well?
Are you looking to integrate GMEE into all of your play-to-earn game mechanics in the future?
Bozena Rezab
The company has a long history of building games for 7 years. On gamee.com, you see our ‘old’ product, which is not blockchain-powered and has a mass audience of casual gamers (30m users). In the next weeks, we will introduce a connection between this product and Arc8. So that old GAMEE is a source of players for Arc8 and G-Bots — as an onboarding station.
Specifically, this will work like this. You win prizes with GAMEE and earn GMEE-tokens, you can only claim it on Arc8 by GAMEE. Here you have a blockchain wallet, you have the first token, and you are ready to play. If you play well, you earn enough GMEE to buy a G-Bot, which gives you extra benefits.
So all of our products are connected and have a role.
Rowan Zwiers
We’ve read that the G-Bots come with their own stats and utility in the Gamee games. Which games are they integrated with and how does it impact the gameplay experience?
We’re curious since the G-Bots provide an exclusive membership and game environment not available to regular players with exclusive prize pools and a new token $ET to be earned.
Can you tell us more about this? Why did you decide to bring exclusivity to your gaming experience that is primarily focused on casual/social gaming?
Bozena Rezab
The first utility of G-Bots will provide access to exclusive tournaments on Arc8. There are many tournaments on Arc8, so really everyone can play, but we wanted to bring a benefit to G-Bot owners early on. G-Bots grant access to the tournament and the stats play a role in the game you play, specific stats will give you an advantage in the game, but you still need your skill to win.
We decided to include a second token to be able to reward pure play, as this token is only earned through play and will be used to upgrade G-Bots, which can be sold powered-up to players who wish to save time.
That is just one example of use, but the difference is really one token created through play only ($ET) and the other one traded on exchanges and available to purchase. Both have strong utility in G-Bots.
Rowan Zwiers
Will it technically be possible to trade $ET although that’s not directly supported? Will the tokens be minted on-chain?
Bozena Rezab
On-chain, so technically possible. But we will not sell the token, only players who earned it.
@leo517
It is mentioned that the G-Bots can be staked, and can also be used to play in exclusive tournaments. Could G-Bot owners do both at the same time, or if they choose to stake are they unable to use the G-Bots in other activities?
Bozena Rezab
You will need to make a choice. Staking is passive earning, playing is active.
Rowan Zwiers
Generally, how has the success and adoption of the play-to-earn mechanics of Arc8 been, especially considering it has integrated the GMEE token for play-to-earn mechanics?
Bozena Rezab
We expected the majority of users to play token-free experience only, but we actually see the opposite. People engage with the token, first practice, and then play 1v1 matches for tokens. Many participate in big tournaments, where we sponsor the prize pools with GMEE tokens, split among the best players.
Rowan Zwiers
Great to see the casual gamer demographic adopting crypto, the wallet is a clear element in Arc8 — it took long enough for people to familiarize themselves enough with that concept.
Bozena Rezab
It will still take time. For example, we will have to explain why we have GMEE on Ethereum, but in Arc8, you need GMEE on Polygon. For crypto-natives, this is clear, but mainstream gamers struggle.
@leo517 — Community member
Since the platform is on blockchain technology and is therefore decentralized to an extent, how is the platform stopping bad actors from exploiting the platform? For example, players use a program that gives them an edge in-game.
Bozena Rezab
We are working on improving tools for detection and preventing this, people are creative, that is true.
We have always seen attempts where people tried to find how to get benefits in games, long before blockchain.
Raymond Reijnders
With the mobile game Arc8 and the G-Bots NFTs, the first real examples of the direction and dynamics for your blockchain-based play-to-earn game is starting to take shape.
What are your strategic priorities moving forwards? Are you looking to improve/deepen the current IP, or are you actively developing new games that continue on the established dynamics (integrating GMEE tokens and G-Bots NFTs)?
To what extent is their third party involvement? Will there be other gaming studios developing games that integrate with your play-to-earn models?
Bozena Rezab
Our priority is to build a basis around Arc8 and G-Bots, products, tools, and community and get it ready for decentralization. This is so that game creators will be able to get their game on Arc8, host tournaments for G-Bots, and host community votes on prize pools. That is a big quest, we are at its very beginning, laying down the foundation as we speak.
So yes, we will welcome 3rd parties to get their game to Arc8. Our intention is to have the community drive this.
Hillrise Group supports ambitious Web3 startups with early-stage venture capital and fundamental research.
Gamee is a casual gaming platform bringing crypto-gaming and NFTs to an established userbase.
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