Blockchain Gaming: The Successes and Failures of the First Generation
Editor's Note: This article comes fromBlue Fox Notes (ID: lanhubiji)Editor's Note: This article comes from
, Author: Zane huffman, Translation: SIEN, published by Odaily with permission.
Foreword: Since the birth of Bitcoin, people have had the idea of using cryptocurrency in games, and have done a lot of practice for it. The real blockchain game is a deep combination of gameplay and blockchain mechanism. In practice over the past few years, there have been some successes, but more failures. From these practices, we can see that the gameplay is gradually increasing, and the degree of integration is gradually improving. Of course, blockchain games are still subject to issues such as performance, cost, and ease of use. For ordinary users, truly usable and easy-to-use blockchain games are still on the way.
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Crypto Games Vs Blockchain Games
Crypto games refer to games that incorporate encrypted assets to some extent. By this definition, all blockchain games are also encrypted games.
However, not all crypto games are blockchain games. A blockchain game means that some or all of its gameplay is executed directly on the chain. In other words, gameplay inputs or activities in blockchain games look like transactions broadcast by players into the network. In a "true" blockchain game, 100% of the game happens on-chain. This means that the game world runs on the network, and there is no central server.
While the incorporation of cryptocurrencies at any level is interesting and potentially valuable for game development, this article will focus on blockchain games, and even more on "real" blockchain games. The greatest potential of blockchain technology in the game industry in the future comes from the emergence of real blockchain games, which will be a paradigm shift for the entire industry.
It's the game, not the spinach.
Decentralized applications (dApps)
Decentralized applications (dApps) are user-facing projects that interact through a blockchain network. Many encrypted games are decentralized applications based on various blockchains. In fact, all blockchain games can be represented as dApps.
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The current iteration of blockchain game projects started with Cryptokitties in December 2017. A recurring theme among bitcoin pioneers has been the effort to integrate bitcoin into online games.
In retrospect, many of these integration practices were often outdated and ineffective. That's not to say that the first generation of crypto games was a failure. Projects like Huntercoin and Spells of Genesis are considered successful within the community, with each project helping to create the first-generation infrastructure to introduce today or tomorrow's blockchain games. Below, we explore first-generation cryptocurrency games and blockchain games.
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cryptocurrency game
It's hard to pinpoint which exactly represents the first instance of crypto gaming. Discussions on the Bitcointalk forums as far back as 2011 indicate that there has been historical support from independent developers interested in Bitcoin since its inception. However, many of the ideas and games proposed on the forums never blossomed. By 2013, there were several mature games operating on Bitcoin. There was a similar increase in 2015, but its next wave expanded to various altcoins.
1. Bitcoin PvP game
By 2013, the bitcoin game was on and growing. Seals with Clubs is an up and coming online poker room with hundreds of players constantly active. Primedice has been in operation for some time, and its users have expanded to hundreds of thousands of users.
Player-to-player gaming via Bitcoin represents the most logical step forward. Rather than playing against a dealer, these PvP games offer simple gameplay between players. (Blue Fox Notes: PvP games refer to direct games between players.)
Back then the most popular and successful PvP gaming site was called Gambit. Launched in late 2013, Gambit offers a range of board and card games where players can compete against each other using Bitcoin. These games include many encrypted derivatives of classic games such as Monopoly, BattleShips, and Risk. Much of Gambit's appeal to players is its generous bonuses. Each game allows users to earn modest bonuses without buy-ins. The Monopoly game has a maximum prize of 0.00025 BTC for no buy-in winners. At the same time, there is no limit to how often players can log in to the game.
Unfortunately, Gambit's rewards are too attractive. Players simply don't think about betting with their tokens, instead sticking with free games, hoping to play enough games to earn a bonus and then quit. (Blue Fox Note: Due to the design of Gambit, users who log in are allowed to participate in the game without buying bonuses, and there is no limit on the number of games. .)
Over time, the site has lowered the bonuses and introduced new features, such as monthly leaderboards with top player bonuses. Except for bitcoin bonus game sites, though, they haven't been able to gain much traction. The website is still in use, but in 2015, Bitcoin was removed.
Other PvP games have suffered a similar fate. Their success depends on the attractiveness of bonus earnings, but it's a delicate balance. If it's too little, no one will play it; if it's too much, game operators will lose money. Other examples include Bombermine, an online Bomberman spin-off where players wager with bitcoins, and Gamerholic, a highly competitive arcade gaming site. There are also some websites that serve as peer-to-peer betting platforms to bet on some traditional games, such as League of Legends and CS:GO. However, none of these projects were able to gain enough attention.
2. Minecraft server
After PvP games, the next branch of development comes from an interesting medium: Minecraft. Back in late 2012, Unlimited Modulation's sandbox block game installed Bitcoin's dedicated servers. Developers have created open-source plugins that give in-game avatars to maintain bitcoin wallets, and many dedicated server owners have built custom servers around this functionality.
The first recorded Bitcoin Minecraft server is MinecraftCC. On MinecraftCC, players can earn weekly bitcoin bonuses for every action they take on the server, such as placing blocks, killing monsters, and building structures. Administrators have found creative ways to fund bonuses, such as auctioning off paid advertisements through Bitcointalk forums. However, by 2016, the scheme became unsustainable and the bitcoin earnings were removed. The servers are still active, but the role played by the cryptocurrency is unclear.
Another interesting example is BitQuest, which was launched later than the other two but is still in operation today. BitQuest has an innovative approach that turns server hardware into bitcoin miners, allowing mining revenue to become in-game items that gamers can earn by killing monsters (in-game items). However, with the fierce competition in mining, there is no more bitcoin income for playing games.
Over the next few years, there were other servers that included different altcoins. Most notably, there have been attempts to create dedicated servers running Dogecoin and DigiByte.
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Source: Bitquest
3. Indie games
Of the three categories, indie games represent the most exciting and groundbreaking genre of gaming. With varying degrees of success, different individuals and studios have put together games that operate over Bitcoin and other altcoins.
In many ways, Dragon's Tale is the most successful indie game to run on Bitcoin. Starting in 2011, it was also released earlier than other projects. Dragon's Tale is an MMO game with soft RPG elements, and its gameplay focuses on spinach. There are many different games of luck and skill to bet on bitcoins, as well as simple questions and exploration to win bitcoins. Dragon's Tale started to fail after a few years, and its activity basically died down sometime in 2015-2016.
Other examples include Hammercoin, Island Forge (sandbox island jumping MMO), Bitfantasy (MMORPG game paid to play with Bitcoin). All of these projects have failed without exception. The recurring issue is that the bar for Bitcoin as a game currency is getting higher and higher, and this includes slower and slower transaction times and higher transaction fees, making it unfeasible to grow every game.
The first cryptocurrencies to introduce their own assets with a more modern approach have had greater success. The most popular and first widely successful example was Spells of Genesis. Spells of Genesis is an RPG where you play as a bubble shooter. The economy of the game is denominated by the homogeneous Counterparty asset BCY, and the card is represented by the non-homogeneous asset XCP.
Gamecoins
With effective token and card pre-sales, and a token economic mechanism for burning, Spells of Genesis can see impressive growth on the Google Play Store, and at the same time, its asset valuation. After a soft launch in 2016 and a main launch in 2017, SoG has amassed over 10,000 downloads, while BCY has grown its market capitalization into the eight figures through most of 2016 and 2017.
In the same space, shortly thereafter, Nexium appeared, a multiplayer online arena (MOBA) taking place in outer space, where players compete against each other in space battles in different Odaily, betting with its token NXM. It's similar to what SoG and BCY did in 2017, but then dropped off.
GameCredits took a different approach, focusing on creating new games specifically for GAME. Three games were developed in 2016 and the first half of 2017, although those projects were canceled before they came to fruition.
blockchain game
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blockchain game
Huntercoin
While the first cryptocurrency games certainly played a valuable role, and they were the basis for future projects, the most ambitious and impressive developments during this period were the world's first generation blockchain games. Since there is no framework for developing games on the blockchain, the number of projects for the first generation of blockchain games is much smaller.
The most notable projects in this category are Huntercoin and Motocoin. While each is very different, with their own successes and shortcomings, they are the inspiration behind blockchain games today and may dominate in the future.
As far as the standard blockchain game historian, enthusiast, evangelist or other title goes, Huntercoin is, in my humble opinion, pure gold. Forked from Namecoin, Huntercoin is a custom blockchain whose network fosters a virtual Huntercoin world where players control characters to fight, defend and collect HUC tokens.
The Huntercoin mainnet (and game world) launched in February 2014. Players interact with the game world by running Huntercoin nodes. They create and direct their characters using Huntercoin transactions to collect HUC tokens as they create maps. Huntercoin adopts a joint mining method with Bitcoin, and miners get 10% of the HUC block reward. The remaining 90% of the tokens need players to enter the map to collect, which is the so-called "human mining" method.Huntercoin originally planned to run a trial for a year to test the utility and lifespan of this endeavor. However, it was a huge success and the community pushed for the fork to shorten the time. This in-game timelapse shows the activity of its first 500,000 blocks, with thousands of players competing as members of each of four teams to collect millions of HUC.》）。
As a proof of concept for blockchain gaming, the game was an astounding success, and even more impressive is the way it creates value capture for players. Huntercoin players have earned a total of over $1 million worth of HUC, which is traded against Bitcoin and has good liquidity on Poloniex. The Huntercoin blockchain has generated millions of dollars in profits for players just through its spread and the creation of HUC. This is the basic guidance of the "play-to-earn" model (Blue Fox Notes: "play-to-earn" mode refers to the mode of making money by playing games. For details, see the article "
Motocoin
Blockchain Gaming: Where Are the Opportunities?
In this "play-to-earn" model, blockchain game developers seek to create games that allow gamers to earn real-world profits for their activities. Although the game is still seeing activity today, Huntercoin was delisted from exchanges in early 2019.
Motocoin is a motorcycle racing game that generates blocks in a procedurally generated environment. The first player to complete the race gets a MOTO block reward. The characters are reset and the map is replaced when each new chunk is generated.
Motocoin saw a certain amount of activity after launch, however, the game was dominated by zombies which crippled it. The fastest path to the finish line is easy for a robot to calculate and can run faster than any manual player, killing the MOTO gameplay. According to official statistics, Motocoin still has a market cap of around $500,000, but the token has seen no significant trading activity throughout its lifetime.
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