BAC Games: Exploring Social Games Tailored for Web3 Users

Foreword

With the official announcement of the approval of the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF, the crypto space has experienced a four-month rebound from the bottom, with BTC reaching around $40,000 from $16,000 at the beginning of the year. The bull market is gaining consensus by the market. During these four months, the inscription track, the Bitcoin Ecosystem and blockchain game track became the three major engines leading this bull market.

What new narratives and opportunities will blockchain games, or WEB3 games, have in this bull market?

1. The Past Three Years of Blockchain Games

The journey of blockchain games may start from the beginning of 2021. Professionals now believe that DeFi was extremely popular at that time, attracting a lot of capital from outside the crypto community. For ordinary non-professional users, games seem to be a more easily understandable option. Therefore, early blockchain games can be seen as DeFi wrapped in a game shell, or the narrative of the “metaverse” is added to the economic model of DeFi.

Perhaps, in 2021, coinciding with the frenzy of the previous bull market, the wave of blockchain games alarmed the entire crypto space. Users in the crypto space are rushing to participate in new games. Haven’t played games before? Not interested in games? None of this matters. These were not important because, at that time, game operations only required a few mouse clicks each day but could bring substantial profits.

With the support of the bull market, all economic models seem to be feasible, but a simple Ponzi scheme model will surely quickly enter a death spiral. The two black swan events of Luna and FTX in 2022 taught newcomers in the crypto community a harsh lesson. During this period, even though the approach of each project was still the same as before, without the boost of the bull market, the survival cycle of most products began to decline significantly.

Therefore, major project teams began attempting to captivate crypto users again with game quality and playability. “Our game quality is much higher than Axie’s, so we will definitely be stronger than them and earn more,” many project teams from the WEB2 gaming world confidently said in 2022. They may have hoped to use game quality to counter GameFi 1.0 products, but as of now, no WEB3 game has emerged that can surpass the blockbuster hits like Axie or StepN. Perhaps everyone is waiting for a perfect opportunity that may come in the bull market of 2024-2025.

What comforts players is that in 2023, traditional WEB2 giants with financial strength and background have finally arrived! They bring not only high-quality games under big IPs, but also trial funds from old-money players in the gaming industry in the new blockchain gaming track. Typical representatives include Matr1x, Seraph, Metalist, Metacene, and Crystal fun (Outer) and so on.

Industry professionals also refer to such projects that have both financial strength and gaming expertise as WEB2.5 blockchain games. Different from GameFi1.0, which is purely a Ponzi scheme project, WEB2.5 blockchain games have made a leap in game playability and quality, and its long-term and rhythmic approach to NFT collections during its operation has also deepened the consensus of many WEB3 users on such product.

2. Is Emulating Traditional 3A “High Playability” the only Way Forward for Blockchain Games?

Indeed, improving the quality of blockchain game products is a necessar path for the entire industry to upgrade, because the real playability of the previous wave of blockchain games was indeed too low. Whether it is a game user or a WEB3 user, if there is no money-making effect, it should be difficult to stimulate dopamine when playing those GameFi1.0 products.

But is following traditional 3A games to improve playability the only way forward for the current state of the blockchain gaming track? Will current WEB3 game users buy into this approach?

Let’s first take a closer look at who is currently playing WEB3 games. After all, it takes a lot of time to analyze the current user characteristics before developing any product. Not caring about what users currently like and maintaining absolute confidence in being able to captivate users with a product is an estimation only achieved by Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs.

In the aftermath of a two-year bear market, those who continue to participate in the WEB3 game sector are considered seasoned participants. Spending so much time playing a blockchain game, especially after a grueling bear market, just to be told it might not be profitable is incomprehensible for these seasoned players. They would rather play “Genshin Impact” or “Phantom Beast Palu” if it’s for fun. From the perspective of seasoned players, a high-quality blockchain game represents not just high playability on the surface but signifies that the project has capital, a dedicated team, and technology – the so-called “value investment” in blockchain gaming products.

In reality, most users do not necessarily agree that big-budget productions can attract more outsiders. The prevailing thought is that if a big team spent a lot of money, they wouldn’t focus only on a few minor players. This indirectly reflects the fact that since significant funds have already been spent on preparation and research and development, the likelihood of the project exit scamming is relatively low.

Most of the seasoned players come here just to make money.

What about new users? Currently, there hasn’t been a substantial influx of new users during the current bull market, making it challenging to pinpoint their preferences.

There’s also an unresolved issue: Crypto giants with huge bankrolls don’t spend a lot of time playing games. This also results in the fact that large funds can only be used to purchase assets and cannot truly enter the core mechanism of the game. Large investors would rather put their funds in DeFi for mining. In most games, small funds are used for PVE gold farming or strategic interactions. The entire life cycle of the game is limited to the entry speed of new users, the amount of funds of the project party, and the ability to obtain funds from outside the sector.

Acknowledging this reality, we must concede that the current user profile for WEB3 games closely aligns with that of the crypto community. They are all here to make money and are not real game users. Therefore, improving game playability may not directly meet the needs of current WEB3 game users. Their approach follows a logic where high playability leads to a well-funded project, increasing the probability of early users making profitable returns.

In addition, high playability is easy in theory, but in practice, money funds draining away in a fast pace. With a team of dozens of people and various outsourcing endeavors, the initial investment is huge. What’s even more embarrassing is that because most of the current WEB3 game users are not real game users, they may not be sensitive to the fact that the project team spent millions more on UI and graphics. Project teams aspire to communicate the value of their product through exquisite design, but users often lack the judgment to appreciate it. This disconnect leads to an awkward situation, similar to miscommunication between genders – a mismatch in understanding.

In addition to improving playability, are there other development paths for blockchain games to captivate both existing and new users? Undoubtedly, one such path is through social interaction! In 2024, the leisure game series BAC Games arrived with the philosophy that “playing WEB3 games is engaging in social interactions.”

3. “Strengthening Social Interaction Outside the Game” - Breaking the Mold

Social interaction in the gaming industry takes on a unique definition compared to traditional socializing. In gaming products, social interaction involves bringing people together through game mechanisms. Initially, users bond through shared in-game tasks, gradually expanding discussions beyond the game, capturing the emotional value of users. The ultimate goal is to create an effect where, even if the game is no longer enjoyable, the friendships forged within the gaming community remain entertaining. The game serves as the medium linking these individuals.

WEB3 games have unique advantages in social networking. WEB3 users basically work in distributed offices and are often isolated in small rooms. The person they see the most every day is the delivery boy. They have a special psychological need for social interaction.

So if social interaction is introduced into blockchain games, and multiple members discuss and make decisions together, get excited and fight the national war together, what kind of effects will it bring?

• First, meticulous players who focus on efficiently earning in-game assets would transition from being rational to emotional. If our alliance is bullied, everyone upgrades their equipment and fights back together – would they still consider a slower return on investment at this point?
• Second, the social dynamics generated could lead to discord and disagreements among members, resulting in productive friction that extends the token’s selling pressure.

So is there such a game?

4. BAC’s Novel Social Gameplay

BAC, a blockchain game, focuses primarily on social interaction. More accurately, it is “strong social interaction outside the game”. The core model design of the game is “Group to Earn”, akin to the concept in the movie ‘Ready Player One,’ where the main character relies on the support of his team members who risk everything to help him reach the final stage – ‘No brothers, no speed.’ From the information presented so far, BAC approaches the social concept in the following manner:

It is closely integrated with Blast, the second-layer public chain of EVM (https://blast.io/, founded by the Blur team and invested by Paradigm). Even the game’s name is a clever play on words, “Blast Auto Clubs”.

There’s no need to mention the Blast team’s social activities. “Form a group to pledge ETH for airdrops” is a social innovation that directly hits the pain points. After Blast started staking in November last year, teams everywhere were attracted to join the team.

BAC Games is a series of casual games. The first game is called BAC. Its economic model is very special, called “Group to Earn”, which means that users must join a car club to participate in the operation in order to share the profits, and these car clubs are similar to alliances in traditional games.

The grafting idea is very delicate: BAC directly airdrops Vetoken to Blast users who have staked ETH. This Vetoken can be used to upgrade character NFTs and establish clubs in the game. In other words, it provides liquidity to users whose ETH is currently locked in Blast: since you’re not using it, why not come play with the Vetoken we’re giving you for free? Blast already has car clubs, so why not bring your club members along to play?

The project team said in an AMA before: It is necessary to make money for early users, so as to generate initial traction; otherwise, social networking cannot be done without a sufficient user base.

From this tweet jointly announced by Ultiverse and BAC Games on January 3, 2024, it’s evident that BAC Games is a project that Ultiverse strongly supports. I believe everyone is familiar with Ultiverse. It is invested by well-known large institutions such as Binance and Sequoia Capital, with a total financing of $9.5 million. With the recent anticipation of token airdrops and the remarkable performance of its Electric Sheep NFTs, with prices soaring, Ultiverse has gained significant attention. Moonlight, Ultiverse’s community manager and a top-tier KOL in the crypto community, is also a gold medal host of Binance Live. In a recent AMA, BAC revealed that Moonlight has become an ambassador for BAC Games, consistently introducing BAC in various Chinese and English AMAs.

The relationship between BAC Games and the Blast team has not seen any relevant statements or disclosures so far. I believe there will be official news in the future. However, the launch time of BAC Games is closely related to the time when Blast goes on the mainnet, which basically confirms that BAC will be the first blockchain game on Blast.

Now let’s take a look at the economic model V1 that has been released so far:

The above is the V1 of the game, which is the PVE version. The main process is that users randomly obtain 3 types of character NFTs by purchasing blind boxes. Different NFTs correspond to the production of different materials. Subsequently, users join a car club, contribute the materials they produce to build cars, and deploy various types of cars to different cities for Uber services. This, in turn, generates income for the entire club in the form of BAC tokens. BAC tokens are automatically distributed to members’ wallets based on their contribution points within the club.

It is worth mentioning that the Vetoken mentioned above will be used to build clubs and upgrade character NFTs. In the early days, those who could own VeToken were users who participated in staking ETH on Blast. It is reported that more than $1.3 billion worth of ETH have been staked on Blast, so the entire game is also an empowerment to these users. So BAC had a huge Blast user base from the beginning.

It is reported that V1 will be playable after the Blast mainnet goes online from February to March 2024. There will be a closed beta with 300 participants before the mainnet launch. Currently, BAC’s DC community is undergoing an internal test, which qualifies for this closed beta, and at the same time, this closed beta bonus will be converted into a must-win bonus for the subsequent genesis character NFTs.

The image above is the content of the BAC V2. In addition to the three levels of PVP, it also adds fans, races, auctions, and even inscriptions. The V2 is expected to be released in the Q2 upgrade. The blue box in the picture also indicates that PFP NFT will be released in the future, which represents the top-level empowerment of the whole BAC Games series.

5. Blockchain Games More Suitable for Web3 Users

During our communication with the project team, it is evident that BAC Games has a clear strategy:

• First: Most of the current WEB3 game users are most suitable for easy and casual games;
• Second: It is necessary to quickly guide users to social scenarios and build community consensus.

Therefore, in terms of economic model design, BAC products have two very eye-catching innovations: a grafting model and “group to earn”, which is very similar to Blast’s “fleet mode”, which directly targets the pain points.

“Not being able to afford 3A is not the issue, but social games have better cost-effectiveness.” ​​In 2024, the blockchain gaming track has already begun to flourish. Apart from the quality and playability of the games currently being rolled out by various top blockchain games, could games like BAC Games, with their light gameplay and emphasis on light gaming and social attributes, carve out their own path? We await with anticipation.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [TechFlow]. All copyrights belong to the original author [星野、瓜哥，瓜田实验室]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
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