This is my first post on peakd.com, and any feedback is highly appreciated! I will talk about some strengths and weaknesses of the different blockchains many new games are based upon. I will also get into the well known game Splinterlands (STEEM based) and give an intro to the upcoming space CCG EXODE (HIVE based).
If you’re here for the giveaway it can be found in the bottom section of the post ;)
To kick it off I’ll tell a little story, based on recent real life events..
Recently I stumbled upon an upcoming game with collectible cards distributed as decentralised assets. Most days this wouldn’t make a lasting memory as these spring up daily. A large part of them are (in my opinion) too focused on offering limited supply promotional offers typically in combination with some referral system, and simply trying to lure in customers. Of course the developers intentions are (in most cases) good and they are just trying to crowdfund the development of their brilliant idea. In other cases it seems the aim is also to simply fill their wallets...
Anyway the game was called EXODE and it also had a presale, or at least it was evident that the sale was only a few days away. However, it also had a very active discord channel including the man behind the game: Elindos. He was active and happy to answer pretty much any question, provide road maps for the project and listen to the community’s ideas and wishes. The game was also one of the first to be based on the HIVE chain (a recent fork from the STEEM chain, read more here).
I started following EXODE on discord and in a few days I read most of the posts about it on PEAKD (read most of them here).
EXODE sounded interesting, but so does a lot of other games…
However a few things made me realize this game might stick out from the crowd!
First of all I continuously witnessed pleasant social interactions between the EXODE team and the gaming community. Questions were answered almost instantaneously, future ideas were discusses passionately, but even more important, I saw the game take several tremendous leaps on the development side!
They gave out free booster packs to apologize for a delay (of only a few days!), launched their [presale]@elindos/exode-going-live-in-30-minutes-here-is-our-full-guide-to-use-our-new-shop, and a player market!
One day later gameplay footage from the first part was released (watch it below) and a few days later the first playable alpha demo came out!
At this point I thought to myself:
"This is a team that can handle both speedy development AND social interactions"
Something I think a lot of other blockchain based games fail miserably at.
So I decided to get on board and bought a 10$ starter pack that included all three starter sets. Next up the team released a bit of the upcoming in-game currency called EXOFUEL. This was tradeable on HIVE-engine and would play a role in future gameplay. I decided to purchase a bit but had very little HIVE in my account. And this is where the story takes a turn as I realized what blockchain based games are really about:
Freedom of assets!
To acquire some EXOFUEL I converted a bit of STEEM into HIVE. This wasn’t enough to get the amount I was after, but then I remembered that the currency in Splinterlands could also be turned into STEEM, which could be sold for HIVE, which could buy EXOFUEL!
Suddenly and out of the blue I felt like playing Splinterlands again - something I hadn’t done for months, but now I could see that by having a bit of fun with Splinterlands I could boost my future experience in EXODE!
The flow was simple:
1: I would play Splinterlands, winning matches and completing quests awards Dark Energy Crystals (DEC)
2: I would sell DEC for STEEM using the market on steem-engine.com
3: I would sell STEEM for HIVE using the market on hive-engine.com
4: I would buy EXOFUEL for HIVE using another market on hive-engine.com
Now THIS was the cross-gaming economy I had been looking for!
Where gamers are free to choose which game they feel like playing this month, this week or just today - but where assets acquired, experience gained and time spent is not lost when they feel like shifting their attention to another game.
Imagine if I could have traded stuff from an old world of warcraft account into cards for EXODE, assets in Space Misfits or even land in Somnium Space - wow (literally), that would in my opinion be a great player experience!
In fact this is exactly what is possible through blockchain based games - if they share a common currency, or individual currencies can be exchanged there are no limits on movement of assets from one gaming experience into another.
Block chain based games also benefit the developers
As mentioned my excitement for EXODE made me return to Splinterlands for a while. I still play a bit every day to build up DEC and trade it for EXOFUEL. For the developers behind Splinterlands this means EXODE is not a competition to them, but in fact developers can benefit from new games - something quite unheard of in the gaming industry! In the long term I imagine even closer collaborations and partnerships will show up, and the dream of a gaming “multiverse” may be much closer than we think, and partially already existing.
Enjin got something right!
There’s a couple of pitfalls in the blockchain based model. Currently if a game development company closes down, their assets (NFT’s) will devalue pretty quickly since they loose their utility. They may retain some value as there will always be interested collectors out there, but that market is much smaller than the “casual” one where users expect utility from their assets.
However this is where I think Enjin (and others) got something right - their backing of NFT’s!
If a game closes down, Enjin backed NFT’s have a melting value - meaning an amount of Enjin which the item can always be turned into. This means their value is not only dependent on the game in which they provide utility, but also on the Enjin currency itself!
If Enjin at some point moons, or steadily rises in value as seen with i.e. Bitcoin, even items backed by small amounts of Enjin could become valuable. From a financial point of view this a quite clever move as it spreads the risk out on a currency, where value is dependent on a large number of games and not just a single development company!
Melting value is also an opportunity for game creators to show that they believe in the game. I.e. an MFT with a 100's of enjin in backing show a much more dedicated team than one with 0.1 enjin backing.
STEEM and HIVE also got a lot of stuff right
What I love most about STEEM and HIVE is what I hate most about Enjin: Transfer fees. STEEM/HIVE has with their no-cost transactions provided a much smoother trading environment. It seems much less risky not having to spend any hard earned gaming currency when trading items with others or liquidating items from one game, to move to another.
I believe this market speaks more to the casual gamers while Enjin speaks more to experts and investment interested parts of the game community. I hope the two communties will develop a good collaborative coexistence in the future and include all types of gamers - not just the investment ready experts!
The end
I hope you enjoyed my “short” post on why freedom of assets in my opinion is the biggest potential in blockchain gaming. I honestly believe these communities and developers will change the gaming industry significantly in the coming years - perhaps not in 2020 but I can’t even imagine what the landscape will look like in 2025!
If you have any interesting predictions about how the future of gaming, assets and cryptocurrency will look, please leave them in the comments section below :)
On a final note: Alpha launch of EXODE is only a few days away. That means the presale for EXODE only lasts until the 30th of April - less than two days left! After that discounts will be removed. If you want to join the space adventure all you need is a starter pack.
One can be acquired for 5$ (or the equivalent in HIVE or STEEM) and all three packs can be bought for 10$! Should you wish to go for it feel free to use my referral link or simply type in the referral code 3a32f33. If you use my referral link you will automatically receive 2 extra booster packs (value 6$) and possibly also a random epic character. I will also send 1 HIVE to the next 5 people who use it!
Shout out to my fellow EXODE pilots:
Please let me know your thoughts on the future of not only blockchain gaming, but of course also EXODE!
Shout out to fellow Splinterlands players:
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I’ve included a small giveaway. If you wish to participate add a comment, stating which of the 3 cards you would like to win. One winner will be selected on the 5th of May.
Cards to choose from
- Exploding Dwarf
- Sea Monster
- Goblin Mech
