Blockchain Adoption in Gaming - Gameflip Approach

Boxmining

9.7K views 176 7 years ago

Description

Gaming is all about the items and it seems so logical to apply blockchain to gaming, and yet we don't see widespread adoption. Gameflip has proposed a top-down approach to encourage adoption - is this...

Gaming is all about the items and it seems so logical to apply blockchain to gaming, and yet we don't see widespread adoption. Gameflip has proposed a top-down approach to encourage adoption - is this the right approach? https://gameflip.com - Gameflip Website https://goo.gl/FYBEpm - token presale Disclosure: I have been in direct contact with their CEO JT and may consider contributing the the ICO.

AI Analysis

The world of video games, with its endless supply of unique items like guns, knives, pets, and gold, seems like a perfect fit for blockchain technology. This is because blockchain is fundamentally about tracking items securely and transparently. However, despite this natural synergy, widespread adoption of blockchain in gaming has been frustratingly slow. Gameflip is proposing a new, "top-down" strategy to encourage this adoption, focusing on incentivizing game publishers rather than relying on a "bottom-up" community approach.

Here's a breakdown of the key points and thoughts on Gameflip's approach:

* Why Blockchain and Gaming Are a Natural Fit: Games are fundamentally about items that players invest significant time and effort into acquiring. Blockchain's ability to securely track and verify ownership of digital assets makes it ideal for these in-game items.
* Current Problems with In-Game Items:
* Lack of Real Ownership: In older games like World of Warcraft, selling valuable in-game items for real cash was nearly impossible and often required resorting to risky "black markets."
* Platform Restrictions and Fees: Modern platforms like Steam allow developers to integrate items for sale on their marketplace, but they take a hefty 15% cut. More importantly, when you sell an item, you only get "Steam credit," which means you can only use it to buy more games on Steam, not convert it to real money. This forces players with valuable inventories back to "gray markets."
* Scams in Gray Markets: These unofficial markets are rife with scams. Buyers can claim a "chargeback" from their credit card company, stating they never received the digital item (which lacks a tracking number), causing sellers to lose their payment. Sellers, on the other hand, might misrepresent the item, leading buyers to receive something different than expected.
* How Smart Contracts Solve These Problems: Smart contracts are perfect for this situation because they can be programmed to automatically release digital goods only when funds are received, and the payments are irreversible. This transparency protects buyers by guaranteeing item delivery and protects sellers by ensuring payment once the item is sent, effectively eliminating risk and uncertainty in transactions.
* The Barrier to Adoption: Despite the clear benefits, blockchain isn't widely adopted by game developers because they lack the experience and are hesitant to take on the perceived risk of integrating such a new system.
* Gameflip's Top-Down Approach (JT's Strategy):
* Understanding the Gatekeepers: JT, Gameflip's CEO and a former game publisher (Aeria Games), recognizes that publishers are the key. They fund game development, are risk-averse, and need to see a clear profit incentive to adopt new technologies.
* Building the System for Publishers: Gameflip plans to build the necessary blockchain system for publishers, reducing their development burden.
* Incentivizing Adoption with Flip Tokens: Gameflip aims to raise funds through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for their "Flip" token. This token will facilitate game and item transfers on their platform. Crucially, 40% of these tokens (40 million tokens) will be reserved and distributed to publishers as an incentive.
Reducing Publisher Risk: These tokens will be locked and distributed to publishers quarterly over a year after* they integrate blockchain technology into their games. This approach significantly reduces the publishers' risk, as they are guaranteed a sum of tokens, which gain value as the network grows.
* Targeting the Right Games: While developing an entire game on blockchain is expensive, this incentive could appeal to medium-sized developers or larger studios looking to implement blockchain for a specific, smaller part of a game, like a new "loot drop box."
* Experienced Team and Connections: Gameflip has assembled a strong team of gaming industry veterans, including co-founders from Aeria Games and advisors from major companies like Electronic Arts and Glu Mobile. These connections are vital for reaching and convincing publishers.
* Thoughts on Gameflip's Strategy:
* A Step in the Right Direction: I believe this approach is a much-needed step forward. We need new ways to encourage game developers and publishers to embrace blockchain, as they've been aware of the technology but slow to adopt.
* Importance of Industry Connections: Having advisors with strong industry experience and connections is absolutely critical for gaining traction and attention from major publishers.
* Funding Innovation and Incentives: By contributing to Gameflip's ICO, you're not just sponsoring the development of smart contracts and SDKs; you're directly helping to provide the financial incentives needed to get publishers on board.
* The "Unfair" Reality: While it might seem a bit unfair that the cryptocurrency community has to pay a multi-billion-dollar industry to adopt a technology that ultimately benefits players, it's a necessary step to achieve true item ownership in gaming. This push helps the entire cryptocurrency community gain broader acceptance.
* Challenges Ahead: I acknowledge that getting publishers fully on board is a difficult task, even with existing connections. Securing full collaboration for major titles like the next Assassin's Creed will require significant effort and likely some trial and error.
* Long-Term Value: Despite the challenges, I firmly believe that cryptocurrency offers immense value to the gaming community, and Gameflip's approach is one way to accelerate this integration.
* The Wider Debate: This approach contrasts with a "bottom-up" strategy (like Enjin Coin, which relies on community adoption). Some developers, like Blizzard, actively choose to lock items within their ecosystem, which goes against the core idea of tradable, player-owned digital assets. The ultimate goal is to empower players with true ownership and liquidity for their in-game possessions.

Transcript

What's up everyone my name is Michael and welcome to box mining so I have a background in the video game industry and one thing I really want to see is the application of blockchain technology in video games so why is that important why do I want that it's because video games is all about items you have your guns your knives your weapons your pets and even your gold and these are all items and blockchain is all about tracking items and that is why it just seems like such a natural match the thi...

What's up everyone my name is Michael and welcome to box mining so I have a background in the video game industry and one thing I really want to see is the application of blockchain technology in video games so why is that important why do I want that it's because video games is all about items you have your guns your knives your weapons your pets and even your gold and these are all items and blockchain is all about tracking items and that is why it just seems like such a natural match the thing is right now we don't see a widespread adoption of blockchain technology in video games and I made a video about this previously about how we can try to grow this and use a project like engine coin to kind of go this one bottom up to get the communities to adopt blockchain and to force gaming companies to do that certainly JT from game flip called me and he proposed to me a different alternative strategy for that and I want to talk about that in this video so I do want to revisit why we even want to apply this in the first place so if you look at a game like World Warcraft which I used to play then you have a lot of items in there for example you have your gems which are very valuable sometimes you have to fight raid bosses to get these gems you have weapons you have your pets and when you leave that game then you have a hard time selling those items for real cash and the thing is they are extremely valuable so at that time if you want to sell these items leave the game change games it'll be really hard and you have to resort to the black markets so these are people that are kind of dealing and selling items but the thing is it's not official and there's a lot of risk in doing so there's a similar situation for current games as well so for example you have CS go we have expensive knives and guns and you also have player unknown battlegrounds which also is also going the itemization route the thing with these games is that they're on the steam PC platform and valve the company behind steam provides a way for developers to integrate and create items that can be sold on the steam marketplace but there are still two disadvantages one is that they take a 15% cut of every items sold or traded and another issue is more importantly is that when you sell item you only get steam credit which means you can only buy future games with that and you can't trade that for real cash even though it is exactly behaves like real cash so again if people really have a lot of items and they want to sell that for real cash they have yet again resort to gray markets so the thing with gray markets is this vulnerable to scams so one type of scam is a buyer scam where the buyer buys a digital item and the thing is once they receive the digital item they can go to the credit card company and say hey guess what I never got the item and can you ensure a chargeback and reverse this transaction the thing is usually the credit card company will go to seller and ask for a proof of sending the item the thing is because the item is digital it doesn't have a tracking number and in most cases because the seller can't provide that tracking number the payment does get reversed and seller gets nothing there's also a seller scam where the buyer pays money but the problem is additional item that is arrived or received isn't exactly the same item so they are there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of risks to using gray markets the thing is this situation is right for smart contracts because you can write a smart contract such a way that it will only send the digital goods if the tokens or funds are received and the thing is because the transparent contract can be transparent the buyer has protection knowing that you'll get the item once the payment and sent and also the seller will have the protection because the tokens are not reversible so this is a situation where we can eliminate risk and eliminate kind of this uncertainty in dealing with these item transactions and you know we've been talking about you know the digitalization of real-world assets for a while but this is digital assets to digital assets so it should be on a smart contract the thing is right now this kind of system is not implemented because developers don't have the experience and they also don't want to take the risk in adopting such a system that's why we see currencies out there trying to solve this issue but we don't see widespread adoption yet so this leads us to JT so JT is currently the CEO of game flip and is a currently running marketplace for in-game items and games and previously he's worked for area games which is a game publisher and it's this experience as a publisher that's extremely important and prudent to this idea the thing is publishers are responsible for funding game development and they really want to reduce risk and that's why they're the ones that kind of are the gatekeepers and also the ones that kind of don't really want to adopt this because there's intrinsic risks in using blockchain for games and for games that their studios produce for publishers to adopt this they must see a reason to do so and they must see profits so what he's proposing is that he's gonna try to provide incentives and to build the system for the publishers for them already and then with the incentives they now have a objective and a reason to adopt the system he's built up a team of gaming industry experts for example his co-founders from area games but also he's got a bunch of advisors some of them are from electronic arts agree we got perfect world and also glue mobile so they got the connections to reach the publishers and get their attention with the team assembled he's trying to raise money through an ICO for the flip token and the flip token will be used for game transfers and for item transfers and also as an incentive to get publishers on board as well so flip is an extension to the game flip marketplace but it's also a project by itself to convince publishers to adopt blockchain in their games the idea is to reserve 40% of the tokens to be distributed to publishers to provide network growth the idea is to lock certain portions off that 440 million tokens and to give them to publishers after they adopt blockchain so now this will greatly reduce the risk for the publishers to adopt blockchain technology and adopt a flip token because now they have a guaranteed amount of sum of tokens afterwards after adopting the system and also bring value to the network once they adopt because once they adopt and start using the token then the value of the token goes up this will amount will be distributed almost every quarter for a year so there's 40 million tokens there to try to incentivize developers to go on board of course this doesn't mean every developer can hop on board that is because developing a game is immensely expensive costing you know for small games 5 million is quite easy to pull off and for most expensive games 20 to 30 million per game so this incentive will probably be for a combination of medium-sized developers or if big developers want to try to monetize and use a blockchain on a small portion of a game so it won't be for the whole game entirely but they can potentially be incentivized to try this out for the next item loot drop box for example so taking small steps but with the right people is the kind of aim for of game flip so what do I think about this project well I feel like this is a step in the right direction we definitely need to have another way for game developers and publishers to hop on board we definitely they've definitely seen blockchain technology around and it's been around for a long time but we don't see the adoption and having advisors with experience in the industry and pull in this industry is extremely important for the adoption so in a way by contributing to this ICO not only are you sponsoring the development of this project the smart contracts as the SDKs for it kind of paving the way to make it go forward but you're also providing a way for the publishers to get tokens and to be incentivized to go and hop on board it is kind of a little bit unfair if you think about it they are a billion dollar industry and they should be the ones coming to us but it does turn out that of course if you want true item ownership this is something that we do have to fight for and it's something that will get allow the cryptocurrency community to gain overall on the whole of course you are trusting flip to be able to get these publishers on board and this is something that is quite difficult so I will make no exceptions there negotiating with publishers even if you have the connections inside is quite difficult and getting a good collaboration going is hard you know you can get a promise of a collaboration but to get the next token in the next Assassin's Creed game or in the next glue game like the Kim Kardashian game or whatever that's going to come out is going to take a little bit of effort and there's going to be a lot of trial and error before this is over but I do believe that overall cryptocurrency does provide a huge value to the gaming community and this is one of the ways to push for that what do you guys think about this I would love to hear your comments below do you think this approach is valid do you think that having the publishers on board and persuading them to go from the top down approach is good or do you think the bottoms up approach is good how do you think is the best way to solve this problem and get cryptocurrencies adopted and what do you think is the best way to get blockchain technology used in gaming because I really think that this is something that gaming is dying to accept of course there are other games that are trying to use new tradable items but they don't have tradable items and that might be because the developers really just want to lock them into that ecosystem so we see Blizzard going that way as well and what do you think about this movement do you agree with that do you think items should be tradable leave a comment below and I'd love to hear what you guys have to say thank you guys so much for watching this video remember to subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell to receive notifications of new videos thank you guys so much for watching see you next time