Because I care. And I sincerely believe the game might be a banger, attracting both Web3 and Web2 players. Fingers crossed! I bought an Alpha Vial about a year ago and will probably get a few more. Personally, I’m fine with spending a hundred dollars on a lottery ticket of a kind, hoping to hit the jackpot. Besides, while I am far from being a gamer, I have a hunch I might actually enjoy playing Holozing. Yet I can’t support the proposal as it currently stands, from a business standpoint. Especially given the recent events and discussions around DHF spending—but honestly, I felt the same a few months ago. Anyone who’s heard me speaking on one of the Hive Discord shows on this topic lately can easily guess what this post is about. But let me perhaps shock you:
I believe Holozing should ask for way more money. In a completely different manner, though.
Hive is a community. Yet it’s also a company in which every single one of us is a shareholder. We should decide what to invest in for future development and growth of our enterprise. And when it comes to DHF, we shall put all emotions, sentiment, and resentment on hold, and simply think as businesspeople. Sad, but true. That’s the split between the buying-vials me and the not-supporting-proposal me. DHF proposals should essentially be business plans and managed as projects. A lesson we should learn from the past, especially from the rather unsuccessful ones.
Just a side note: Failures happen. Even the best business plans can fail, so let’s not blame anyone for what happened in the past. To err is human. Let’s just not make the same mistake twice.
Let’s run proposals as projects: With clearly defined, measurable goals, preferably SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). With a clear and detailed scope statement and scheduled milestones. With budgeting, defined roles, responsibilities and resources, and so on. Anyone can google these things. Please do not perceive this as a critique, it’s merely a statement. Holozing has been delayed for over a year. And when I asked about the updated roadmap, I learned that it was still hard to say. However, I am sure a skillful project manager can navigate the rough path and, apart from writing down the project, actually oversee delivering it. Sure, this person won’t work for free; it’s the first addition to the rather decent original budget. On the other hand, I am quite sure that a well-managed project would turn out to be cheaper, and delivered on time (or almost).
And, most importantly, marketing strategy. Have you noticed how poor we are in promoting ourselves? Hands up—who among us has managed to onboard more than five people who actually stuck around?
A brilliant idea, gifted digital artists, and seasoned developers led by a skillful project manager will likely deliver a perfect game. Yet it’s not often about producing goods. Hive is a top-notch blockchain, and just look at its market cap. The proposal should include a ready-to-launch marketing strategy and a budget for it from day one. If the game launches in six months, it’s about time to start marketing it. We can rely on word of mouth (as Hive generally does) or a referral system (which Hive also uses to some degree), but I’m quite sure that isn’t enough.
The marketing budget would be enormous, you might admit. Quite likely. I am not a marketer myself (we might have some among us, though). On the other hand, Hive desperately needs new active users of any kind. Be they gamers, be they VSC users… Actifit is my sleeper pick in this game; I believe it has huge potential, but that’s a completely different story. Imagine Holozing spends, say, $500,000 from the DHF to onboard 10,000 real unique long-term users. Does $50 per person sound too high? Still, it would likely become the top-performing project in this field. Is it even realistic? Well, let’s perhaps hire someone who knows the trade and can estimate the cost per player.
Anyway, while $20 (the cost of the vial to play the game) isn’t a particularly high threshold, persuading brand new players to actually make the purchase will likely be the key part of marketing the game. That’s where potential players would likely lose interest. I can imagine motivating the players to “earn” that vial through blogging, snapping, commenting, and so on while setting 
TLDR
I would love to support the proposal because I want the game to succeed. However, I believe it should be rewritten, preferably as a business project with the typical structure and include a ready-to-launch marketing strategy. Then it would likely ask for twenty times the current budget, but if executed properly, it could easily become the most successful project on Hive.