In this episode of DeFi Podcast, Andy Boyan joins JF Saine & Morrissey to discuss the state of gaming in the blockchain ecosystem.
Read our notes below to learn more.
The Potential of Game-fi
- Many traditional games already have in-game purchases.
- In crypto gaming, the in-game assets could be sold.
- Adoption, building the game, and design are far deeper than deciding the financial aspect of the game.
Game-fi: Gaming or Casino?
- Criticism of Game-fi last year was everyone was getting funding and then deciding on what to build.
- There are a lot of different types of games that crypto hasn’t gotten involved in yet.
- Trading cards like Pokemon cards as NFTs are already in crypto.
- There are many different experiences that people like about games that don’t have a number-go-up mechanism.
Future Game Genres in Web3
- Traditional gaming companies have marketplaces where many games are sold.
- Crypto needs a marketplace like the Playstation marketplace where people can buy and play games on the blockchain.
- There will be a lot of room in the future for Indie games (games created by independent game developers).
- When hardware manufacturers align with crypto adoption, blockchain gaming will emerge successful.
Web3's Offering Vs. Existing Game Markets
- It is still unknown what benefits a marketplace like Steam would get leaving the current system to become blockchain-based.
- If the players of the game demand their in-game items to be owned by them on the blockchain, the platforms could be forced to move to blockchain.
- Composability is yet to be fully explored in the blockchain gaming space.
Technical Roadblocks in Web3 Gaming
- There are some technical limitations but it is about figuring out the best structure that works.
- Still difficult to look at the collection of NFTs a wallet holds on OpenSea.
A Web3 Gaming Standard
- ERC 5050 token standard allows NFTs to be modified by other NFTs. A spell NFT can be cast on an NFT and change the state of the NFT.
- This is the early stages of Web3 Gaming and everyone’s trying to figure out how to build.
- Way out questions to sort out before there is a standard in Web3 gaming.
The Current State of Game-fi
- Some web3 gaming studios already have communities with tokens and it gets difficult to manage decisions like should the studio focus on number-go-up or should the studio build a fun game.
- Game builders are currently building for the whales who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their game.
- It is easier to get funding for a game if the game’s idea is well-known in traditional gaming.
Player Ownership Games
- One of the challenges is if the game has a token model and ownership of in-game items and if the point of the game is to make money that limits the number of players interested in the game.
- Early-stage investors in games will have the same advantage early-day miners of Bitcoin have.
How Did Infinity Keys Come To Exist
- Andy got into crypto full-time in 2020 and worked in Chainlink during the middle of DeFi summer.
- Andy had an idea of creating treasure hunts, mysteries, and puzzle-related games in crypto and started Infinity Keys when he felt the time was right.
- Players could be rewarded with NFTs for completing a game/puzzle.
- NFT rewards could be made as a requirement to play another game and that creates composability.
Building Community
- Projects build for their communities after raising funds.
- Events and POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) could help build the community.
Preventing Exploits/Bots
- Building a game is complicated as the team has to decide the number of activities people have to do and also decide the difficulty of the game at different levels.
- Web3 games can be built to make sure that bots are not exploiting the game.
Final Words
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