In-depth analysis of full-chain games, is it a bubble or a new revolution?

Introduction: What is a full-chain game?

Recently, the pass card fomo of the full-chain game Sky Strife has reached 21000E (test network), and many non-full-chain game players have begun to marvel at the magic of this track. Since the advent of Ping Pong in 1972, the gaming industry has grown exponentially, from classic 8-bit games like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda to today’s highly complex games like Fortnite and League of Legends. , highly social online games, games are no longer a simple entertainment. The social, competitive, and immersive experiences these games offer are beyond anything we could have imagined in the past.

However, with the rise of blockchain technology and the development of cryptocurrency, the gaming industry is reshaping our experience in unprecedented ways. From innovative works like Axie Infinity that closely combine games with the crypto economy, to game projects like Stepn that focus on social interaction and innovation, blockchain games have gradually received high hopes as Crypto Mass Adoption, and people have gradually begun to explore In the new way of combining games and blockchain, in addition to putting assets on the chain, can more elements be put on the chain? Then the full-chain game was born.

So what is the difference between full-chain games and traditional games?

In traditional games, all our game logic, data storage, digital assets and game status are stored in centralized game companies. For example, when we play Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, and DNF, all game content includes in-game content. The assets are also owned by centralized companies.

The subsequent asset-on-chain games (commonly known as Web2.5 games), such as Axie and Stepn, put assets on the chain. On the one hand, players can have ownership of assets, and on the other hand, they can increase the liquidity of assets. However, when a game goes bankrupt, game assets will still face the dilemma of losing circulation value. The relationship between asset-on-chain games and traditional games is more like a complement than a replacement, similar to the relationship between takeout and restaurant stores. Similarly, Web2.5 games are also facing competition from Web2.5 similar games and Web2 traditional games.

The full-chain games that have attracted much attention recently put all interactive behaviors and states of the game on the chain, including the game logic, data storage, digital assets and game status just mentioned, all of which are processed by the blockchain, thereby realizing true Decentralized gaming.

In order to facilitate everyone’s understanding, I summarize the characteristics of full-chain games into the following four points:

1. The authenticity of the data source is ensured by the blockchain.
   Blockchain is no longer just an auxiliary storage of data, but the true source of game data;
   Not limited to just a record of asset ownership, but a storage center for all critical data.
   This approach makes full use of the characteristics of programmable blockchains to achieve transparent data storage and permissionless interoperability.
2. The logic and rules of the game are implemented through smart contracts.
   For example, various operations in the game can be executed on the chain, ensuring the traceability and security of the game logic.
3. Game development follows open ecosystem principles.
   Both the game contract and the accessible game client adopt an open source model, providing third-party developers with a broad creative space.
   They can creatively output content and share it with the entire community through plug-ins, third-party clients, and interoperable smart contracts, and even redeploy and customize their own gaming experiences.
4. The game is client-agnostic.
   This goes hand in hand with the first three points, because the key to a truly crypto-native game is that the game can continue even if the core developer’s client disappears.
   This relies on permissionless storage of game data, permissionless execution of logic, and the ability of the community to independently interact with core smart contracts without relying on interfaces provided by the core team.
   Thus decentralization is truly achieved.

Why do humans need full-chain games?

Before understanding why a full-chain game is needed, let us first briefly understand the current status and operating model of the traditional game industry.

Full-chain games are essentially games. Understanding the operating model of traditional games is very important and necessary for us to understand and analyze the future of full-chain games.

1. Current status of traditional game industryWith the development of the game industry, many excellent Web2 games have been born during our growth, whether it is FPS-type Counter-Strike and CrossFire, or RPG-type Dungeons and Fighters, Dragon Nest, or moba-type games. League of Legends, Honor of Kings, or card-based games like Onmyoji and Hearthstone, games have grown up with our generation and occupy a very important part of entertainment life.

According to data from Fortune business insights, the global gaming market will be US$249.55 billion in 2022, is expected to exceed US$280 billion in 2023, and will exceed US$600 billion by 2030. Comparing the film and entertainment industry horizontally, the global market size in 2022 will be US$94.4 billion. It can be seen that as an entertainment and leisure industry, games also occupy a very important position in economic development, and the depth and breadth of its commercialization are worth exploring. This place can be said to be the crown jewel in the leisure industry.

1) Why do humans love to play games?According to statistics from Statista, the number of game players in the world has exceeded 2.5 billion and is close to 3 billion. So how can games attract more than one-third of the world’s people to participate? The core reasons can be summarized as meeting the needs and weaknesses of human nature in many aspects:

• Escaping reality and restarting life:
  Games provide an escape from the stress and challenges of everyday life.
  In games, people can get rid of the troubles of reality, immerse themselves in the virtual world, and have a second life.
• Socializing without burden:
  For multiplayer online games, the game provides a platform for social interaction and is relatively friendly to social anxiety. Players do not have to worry about the eyes of others in real life, so they can do what they want to do and build relationships with others.
• Get rewarded for prompt feedback:
  Different from the real life where students and migrant workers struggle for study and work day after day, the game is very charming in that it provides a rich reward system and timely reward mechanism. After you put in the effort, defeat monsters, upgrade, and complete the challenge, you will soon be rewarded. You will gain new skills, unlock new levels or get new items. This incentive mechanism can inspire people to keep moving forward.
• Low-cost free exploration:
  Many games provide rich virtual worlds, allowing players to explore unknown areas, interact with NPCs and other players, and promote the development of the plot, which satisfies humans’ innate desire for adventure and adventure.
  In the real world, due to the constraints of money, energy, time and geographical location, the cost will be greatly increased compared to the exploration of the game world.
• Pursue achievement and self-actualization:
  By completing a series of tasks and goals, people can realize their desire for success and recognition. Whether it is rankings or achievement points, in the game people can more easily achieve self-challenge and character growth.

Targeting one or even multiple human weaknesses, the game can cleverly meet the needs and preferences of different users, making it play a good role in both covering the breadth of the population and providing a deep immersive experience.

2) Current status and development of traditional gamesNext, let us take a brief look at the current situation of the traditional game industry.

In traditional games, they are roughly divided into Shooter (shooting), Adventure (adventure), Role Playing (role playing), Battle Royale (battle royale), Strategy (strategy), Sports (sports), Puzzle (benefit) Intelligence type), Action (action type), Simulation (simulation type) and other game types.

According to Newzoo data, it can be seen that role-playing and adventure games all perform well on PC, mobile and console, and both rank in the top five. In addition, shooting and battle royale games perform well on PC and console. The console side is very popular. What is slightly different on the mobile side is that puzzle and placement games are also more popular among users.

1. The dilemma of the traditional game industry

However, traditional games currently face two biggest dilemmas: First, game distribution is restricted by version numbers; second, the cost before game release is too high, resulting in a slow payback cycle and prone to silent costs.

1) Game distribution is restricted by version numberThe game version number refers to the fact that in some countries or regions, publishing a game requires a specific license issued by the government. This system is designed to supervise game content and ensure that games comply with national or regional regulations, culture, and values ​​to protect minors from inappropriate content and maintain social stability.

For example, Germany has relatively strict censorship of game content, paying special attention to content that may have a negative impact on young people; South Korea and Japan have game rating systems, which are evaluated and issued by relevant national agencies.

In China, the impact of version numbers is even greater. China implements a strict game version number system, which is issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television. The game needs to obtain a version number before it can be released in the Chinese market.

After the release of 87 version numbers on July 22, 2021, it fell into a stagnant stage for a long time, and it was not until April 2022 that things gradually turned around. 45 version numbers were released in April 2022, and a batch of version numbers were announced in September and December. However, during the period of stagnation in version number approval from mid-21 to April 2022, only a few large companies survived. During this period, a large number of small and medium-sized game companies were facing bankruptcy. According to data from Tianyancha App, more than 14,000 small and medium-sized game companies (with registered capital of less than 10 million) have canceled their operations from July to December 2021.

China is the world’s largest gaming market, with more than 500 million people playing video games. The version number has become a pain for countless Chinese companies. Even if the version number release is resumed, the shrinkage or continuous adjustment of the version number has become the Sword of Damocles for every game project. In the days before the version number is released, you can hear the sighs of countless projects without capital chains facing bankruptcy.

2) The cost before issuance is too high, and it is easy to generate a lot of silent costs.In the development model of Web2 games, early human resources and infrastructure costs need to be borne during the game development stage, and there are idle time costs during the waiting for the version number. Only when the version number is released, the game is released, and commercial benefits are generated, can Carry out profit sharing.

It is not difficult to find that a large amount of costs are spent in the preliminary stage. Once problems arise in the development stage, version number stage, and user acquisition stage, all previous costs will become sunk costs. For a medium-sized game, the cost is usually in the millions of dollars. The long-term development and issuance process in the early stage makes the profit cycle very long, resulting in higher risks in obtaining expected returns.

1. An attempt to break through Web2.5 gamesFaced with these two dilemmas, Web2.5 games took the lead in breaking through. On the one hand, Web2.5 games bypass the restrictions of domestic version numbers by targeting global users and can be played by citizens of the world; on the other hand, by issuing NFT and tokens, games can be played in the early stages of internal testing and start-up. Income is obtained through market making, which greatly reduces the financial access threshold for game production.

In the attempt to break the Web2.5 game, very out-of-the-box games like Axie and Stepn emerged. The popularity of Axie among people in Southeast Asia has led many people to make a living through Axie, and the income is higher than the per capita working income in the Philippines; Stepn The move to earn model became so popular that many non-Web3 users began to ask: “How do you use those running shoes? I also want to run.” This sparked a craze for chain games to break out of the circle. However, as Ponzi’s economic model was broken, the follow-up of Web2.5 games never sparked the same sparks as Axie and Stepn.

Builders also began to explore in different directions. Some people went to 3A masterpieces to try to get a share of Web2 users. However, this resulted in 3A masterpieces of Web2.5, which not only needed to compete with Web2.5 games, It also needs to compete with Web2 games; another wave of people began to change their ways and decided to turn to full-chain games to explore new possibilities and value verification. In the emerging industry of Web3, there are always people who want to be pioneers and move forward on a new path.

Analysis of the current situation of the full-chain game industry

At present, the entire full-chain game is in a very early stage, and both game projects and related infrastructure are under development. In the industry map of the full-chain game field, it can be roughly divided into four categories: full-chain game projects, full-chain game engines, full-chain game chains, and full-chain game distribution platforms.

1. Full-chain game projectsThe current full-chain game projects are in a very early stage. Next, we will analyze several full-chain game projects to understand the current status of full-chain games.

In terms of game projects, there are the early well-known Dark Forest, as well as the recent Loot survivor, Sky Strife, Imminent Solace, Loot Rayale, etc. Most of the projects that can be experienced are basically still in the testing stage, and there are no full-chain games on the market that can be played. The quantity does not exceed 2 digits. The game as a whole is mainly SLG (strategy), and there are currently many new projects trying in the direction of simulated management.

Since most games are still under development and unplayable, here we mainly introduce several playable and distinctive full-chain games.

1）Dark forestFirst, let’s take a look at Dark Forest, a representative work of full-chain games. Simply put, Dark Forest is a decentralized strategy game created on Ethereum using zkSNARKs.

Dark Forest was developed by MIT graduate Brian Gu under the pseudonym Gubsheep. It was partly inspired by Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel “Dark Forest”. Other members include Alan, Ivan and Moe. This game project has not been financed, but its related new projects Argus Labs recently raised $10 million.

Dark Forest is one of the earliest incomplete information games built on a decentralized system. As a space conquest strategy game, players explore the infinite universe by starting a journey on their own planet, discovering and occupying other planets and resources. Grow your own empire.

The three biggest highlights of Dark Forest: two of them were just mentioned when introducing the full-chain game. One is that the game logic, data, and status are all on the chain, and centralized individuals cannot have single control over the results of their actions; the other is that Free and open highly combinable game ecology: The open source full-chain game model gives Dark Forest permissionless interoperability. It is essentially an Ethereum smart contract that any address can interact with, thus giving rise to a prosperous second-generation ecosystem. (plug-in), resulting in more ecological communities.

For example: Project Sophon wrote the Dark Forest local library so that users can start a round of games off-chain or on-chain; Ukrainian gaming organization Orden_GG built a trading market for artifacts and added a liquidity pool; Chinese DAO MarrowDAO|GuildW @marrowdao developed With many plug-ins including the artifact trading market and GPU drawing tools, its UGC ecology is very interesting.

(Source: MarrowDAO official Twitter)

In addition, a very big highlight of Dark Forest is the use of zk-SNARKS technology for information hiding, because for strategy games, if all information is transparent, the opponent will know its own position, and it will be impossible to implement strategic confrontation under full openness and transparency. . Dark Forest uses zk technology to allow players to hide most of the universe and opponents when they first enter the game. They will only become visible when the player explores hidden areas. Each time a player moves, a proof is sent to the blockchain that the move is valid without revealing their coordinates in the universe.

Since the end of the official v0.6 version Round 5 in February 2022, Dark Forest has not opened a new round of game versions. Currently, the entire game is in a state of stocking. If you want to experience the game, you can participate in some rounds organized by the community. For example, create a small universe in the Arena system developed by dfDAO to experience it.

(Source: The Arena system developed by Fred in dfDAO creates a new universe)

Overall, Dark Forest has redefined the possibilities of Web3 games. Many people have praised Dark Forest as a perfect example of the intersection between games and cryptography, and it has also inspired many subsequent full-chain game projects. According to According to previous reports, the cumulative number of players in history has exceeded 10,000+.

But the significance of Dark Forest is not just the game itself. As the first full-chain game that has attracted much attention, it is more like the spiritual totem of full-chain games, allowing industry builders to discover that based on full-chain games, there are The creation of so many free and open combination gameplay and a prosperous second-generation ecology has given people greater confidence in the possibility of realizing “Autonomous Worlds” autonomous worlds.

And after creating Dark Forest, the Dark Forest team and several other teams formed 0xPARC. Lattice, a sub-project of 0xPARC, found that the existing development costs were extremely high when developing full-chain games, so it started the MUD project in 2022, hoping to create a useful full-chain game engine around the ECS framework to solve the problem of contracts and customers. It solves problems such as end-side status synchronization, continuous content updating, interoperability with other contracts, etc., thereby lowering the development threshold and greatly promoting the development of full-chain games. To a certain extent, Dark Forest is a huge symbol and development booster for the entire chain gaming industry.

2）Loot survivorNext, let’s take a look at Loot Survivor. As a game developed by the BibliothecaDAO team, Loot Survivor is an important part of the Loot ecosystem.

Loot was released by @Dom Hofmann on August 28, 2021. Different from common PFP type NFTs, such as BAYC and Crypto Punks, each NFT of Loot has white text and black background. The right to interpret these words is very It is free and open, and its characteristics of autonomous growth are completely created by the community, attracting a large number of ecological contributors and related derivative projects.

(Source: OpenSea)

Among them, Loot Realms has been committed to the development of Lootverse since it was launched on September 1, 2021. Core contributors @lordOfAFew and @TimshelXYZ played an important role in this project, building the underlying narrative of Loot.and presented the gamification of narrative through Realms’ first project, Eternum.

The team proposed the core “Play 2 Die” concept as early as February 2022, and it was originally planned to be one of the expansions of the Realms series, called “Realms: Adventurers”. However, during the iterative development process, the team decided to quickly launch a smaller single-player full-chain game first, and Loot Survivor was born.

Loot Survivor is a text-based dungeon or Roguelike game. It debuted at the Full Chain Game Summit in Lisbon on May 25 this year (also the author’s birthday) and attracted much attention.

The overall gameplay of the game is relatively simple. You can defeat monsters through text interaction until you die, and through the ranking list, you can hope that users will continue to challenge themselves.

(Source: Fred’s game screenshots and performance rankings on Loot Survivor)

Overall, the size and playability of the game are small, and more of it inherits the Loot ecosystem in game creation and adds the gamification narrative of the Loot ecosystem; in addition, as one of the signature projects of the Dojo ecosystem, it also gives Dojo Ecology and Starknet ecology have been given a boost.

3）Imminent SolaceImminent Solace is a recently launched treasure-fighting chicken game based on the ZK fog of war, developed based on the Mud engine. The project team was developed by PTA DAO. It is a Chinese team that pays great attention to the whole chain game. It integrates PVP plunder, independent world exploration and PoW resource mining. The gameplay is similar to the dark forest, but the operation simplicity and user experience are higher.

The ultimate goal of the project is to create a war simulation game similar to EVE. During the game, players will suffer real losses in resources and assets and face strategic challenges.

Imminent Solace is a relatively playable game among the recent full-chain games, and the game interaction and experience are relatively good.

(Source: Fred’s game screenshots and rankings in Imminent Solace)

In addition, there are Lattice’s officially self-developed Sky Strife, OPCraft, SmallBrain’s word game Word3, the Web3 version of Werewolf Framed, the battle royale type Loot Rayale, and the cultivation and management type Genki Cats and other games on the road to full-chain games. Exploration, for the most part, is still in beta, and there are still only a handful of playable games currently developed.

Through research, it is found that the current full-chain games are basically all web-side games, and there are almost no PC and mobile terminals.

• On the one hand, this is also related to the fact that full-chain games do not require clients. Since full-chain games can have multiple front ends, the most important thing for the project team is to quickly create an MVP version for the community and users to play, and the web Compared with PC and mobile terminals, the development speed of terminal is faster and the development cost is lower, so it has become everyone’s optimal solution or even the only choice.
• On the other hand, full-chain games are still in the proof-of-concept stage. How to make playable games quickly and quickly to verify the value of the game is the key.

1. Full-chain game engineBefore understanding the full-chain game engine, let’s first understand the core essence of the engine:

Simply put, it is to stand on the shoulders of giants and see the world. A game engine is a universal code that integrates some functions commonly used in making games, so that later people do not need to reinvent the wheel when they want to create games.

For example, in the traditional game engines Unity and Unreal Engine, if game developers want to realize the movement patterns after the explosion of the universe, or the movement trajectories after collisions between characters, they can directly use the existing engines and focus on In the development of some differentiated game content.

Similarly, the engine of the full-chain game hopes to achieve a similar purpose. Compared with traditional game engines Unity and Unreal Engine, which can complete tasks such as graphics rendering, physical simulation, and network communication,Due to the characteristics of its games, the full-chain game engine pays more attention to issues such as status synchronization between the contract and the client, continuous updating of content, and interoperability with other contracts.

At present, the full-chain game engines include Mud, Dojo, Argus, Curio, Paima, etc. Among them, Mud and Dojo are currently the two most mainstream full-chain game engines, creating a situation where the EVM compatible ecology and the Starknet ecology are competing for hegemony. , here we mainly introduce these two game engines.

MudMud is the first full-chain game engine officially released by Lattice in November 2022. Mud’s team Lattice and full-chain game pioneer Dark forest both belong to the OxPARC team. As the earliest full-chain game engine, Mud is currently the ecosystem with the most developers. In addition to the earliest Dark Forest, projects such as OPCraft, Sky Strife, Word3, and the recent Imminent Solace have also been born. It is currently the full-chain game engine with the most developers.

DojoDojo was born from the Starknet ecosystem. It was initially developed around MUD under Starknet’s Cairo language and was officially released in February 2023. Regarding why we want to build a Mud-like engine on Starknet, we can see from the speech of tarrence.eth, the core developer of Dojo, his enthusiasm for the Cario language. He believes that compared with the solidity language, Cario is better at proving recursion and step-by-step proof. There are greater advantages.

But it can be seen from the speech of another core developer Loaf that as to why a Mud-like engine should be built on Starknet, the essence is not that Mud is not good enough, but because Loaf wants to build an ECS system on Starknet, so Choose to fork the MUD. In the same way, recently some other Layer1/Layer2 want to develop their own full-chain game ecosystem, such as Move and Flow, which have also begun to fork their own engines. Essentially, in order to prosper the ecology on the chain, we chose builder to build the infrastructure of the entire chain game.

The Dojo ecological project is backed by the big IP of Loot ecology, and many good projects have emerged. The Loot Survivor just mentioned is one of them, and Loot Realms: Eternum, etc. also belong to the Loot ecology. In addition, there are some other projects, such as Dope Wars and Influence, whose performance is also remarkable.

Just as traditional game engines have played an important role in promoting the development of the game industry, the rise of full-chain games is closely related to the emergence of full-chain game engines, which allow developers to create game works at a lower cost, Mud and Dojo The emergence of the Internet has promoted the development of the entire full-chain game track. In May, June, and July this year, there were events such as ETH AW Hackathon, Pragma Cario 1.0 Hackathon, and Lambda zkWeek Hackathon, which continued to promote the development of full-chain games. nourish.

1. Full chain game chainIn the field of game-specific chains, compared to the game-specific chains (not listed one by one) that have attracted much attention in Web2.5 games before, current full-chain game project developers prefer to use some general Layer 2 such as Arbitrum Nova, Optimism, Built on Starknet and so on.

The essential reason is that these user portraits who previously switched their games to blockchain are players who love to play Web2.5 blockchain games and AAA-like masterpieces. Such players are not very interested in types such as full-chain games with relatively simple and rough content. Therefore, these so-called game-specific chains are not very attractive to full-chain games.

In addition, it is worth noting that CaptainZ once mentioned that there is a contradiction in all current games on the chain: the contradiction between the push-based blockchain and the loop-based game.

Many blockchains are event-driven and passively trigger updates, triggering state updates only when new transactions or operations occur. In the existing application layer, many tracks are very consistent with this framework. For example, in the defi track, when a user wants to trade two Tokens in Uniswap, the transaction is executed after submitting the transaction. This process is event-driven. Similarly, many social platforms are also event-driven. For example, after you publish a tweet on Twitter, the tweet will be published and seen by others. It is also event-driven similar to the blockchain.

However, the architecture of many traditional games is based on loops (except for some asynchronous games such as turn-based and card games). The game system will actively process user input, update the game state and render the game world. Each loop is called a Game. Loop or Tick, many games need to run dozens or even hundreds of Ticks in one second to ensure the continuous progress of the game.

This will lead to a natural contradiction between the logic of the game and the current blockchain logic. Faced with this situation, some teams began to build proprietary chains for full-chain games, which can also be called ticking chains.

For example, the Argus team is building a new Layer 2 based on Polaris (an EVM module compatible with the Cosmos SDK). It is a ticking chain with precompiled ticking functions, named World Engine. Curio is also building a new Layer2 based on OPStack, which also has a precompiled ticking function.

Although it is still in the development stage, we are very much looking forward to the emergence of a new roll-up structured chain for full-chain games, which I believe will further promote the development of full-chain games.

1. Full-chain game aggregator/distribution platformFinally, we will also introduce the aggregator/distribution platform for full-chain games that is still in its infancy. At present, because full-chain games are still in a very early stage, there are very few playable full-chain games on the market. According to data from Composable Hub, there are no more than 30 playable games including alpha, beta and fully online games. .

So currently, for players of full-chain games, finding full-chain games can basically only rely on word of mouth and the spread of some small circles. There are not many aggregators in mature tracks like defi and gamefi to help users explore and choose. . Currently, there are two main platforms that specialize in full-chain game aggregators.Composable HubandCartridge。

Composable HubComposable Hub is an aggregation platform under Composablelabs that focuses on full-chain games. Composablelabs also owns the Web2.5 Gamefi aggregation platform Klick and NFT DEX Lino Swap. Currently, Composable Hub aggregates 56 full-chain games, of which 14 are fully online, 12 are in the testing stage, and the remaining 30 games are still under development.

(Source: Composable Hub)

CartridgeCartridge is a full-chain game aggregator of the Starkware ecosystem, dedicated to building Web3 Steam. It currently aggregates 5 games from the Starknet ecosystem: Dope Wars-Roll Your Own, Influence, Loot survivor, Briq and Frens Land. In addition, the Cartridge team has been promoting the development of the Dope Wars-Roll Your Own game and is also the core contribution team of the Dojo engine.

(Source: Cartridge)

The core advantages of full-chain games

In general, full-chain games make games fairer by putting all game logic, status, data storage and assets on the chain. At the same time, because both the game contract and the accessible game client adopt an open source model, it provides third-party developers with a broad space for autonomy, allowing the game to have more rules and gameplay developed by the community and third parties.

This openness changes the game from a binary differentiation of game companies as providers and players as consumers to a new model in which every player can become a builder and creator of the game.

1. From PGR to UGR, everyone has the right to become GodIn traditional games, all our game content is officially provided by the company. Whether we are playing Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, Fortnite, or Overwatch, we are all in the PGC (Professional Generated Content) model as a game. of participants. Of course, we also have the right to create. We can create some characters and novels around the content of the game to achieve a certain degree of UGC (User Generated Content).

However, this kind of creation does not involve the core of rules and gameplay. We can only be consumers of game rules rather than makers. We are powerless to strengthen and weaken game characters, and the collision between game values ​​and environment. We are still in PGR (Professional Generated Rules). For players who desire to create, it is a shackle to a certain extent. Human beings who are frustrated in the real world always long for the right to become God and long for UGR (User Generated Rules), whether they choose to resort to novels, movies, or games.

Most traditional games are unwilling to make open attempts due to business model, security and stability considerations. But we can find in many games that some projects have begun to transform towards openness and PGR, using modules to allow other developers to develop non-official game content. The most well-known example is Minecraft, which allows players to create and run their own game servers. Third-party developers can implement customized game modes, rules and content to create gameplay that is different from the original game, including the Minecraft version. Chicken, or even an online graduation ceremony during the epidemic.

Although Minecraft allows users to create multiple servers to create game modes, these new servers are separated from each other and not interconnected. These different servers need to compete for players’ energy and time. The data accumulated by players in this gameplay cannot be circulated in the server of the new gameplay. This kind of UGR is castrated and is its own small universe, not a universe shared by everyone.

The creation of new Minecraft gameplay requires building a new server, and the difference between full-chain games is that they share the same backend. Different modules and smart contract interactions only affect the frontend, allowing data to be available in different clients. Sharing and circulation.

Due to the characteristics of its game logic and rules on the chain and its support for permissionless interoperability, full-chain games allow players to freely build and create various game functions and experiences, and are not isolated from each other. This kind of free creation is possible This feature greatly enriches the content and functions of the game, such as trading markets, embedded games, customized clients, etc., making the game experience more diversified and realizing the transformation from PGR to UGR.

This also reminds me of the virtual world of Kyushu created by Chinese Internet writers Jiang Nan, Jin Hezai, Dajiao and others more than ten years ago. Through collective solitaire, a Kyushu universe was created, ranging from literary works to film, television, games and other industries. , forming a huge world.

In fact, by analogy with our lives, full-chain games are also very similar to poker. Poker cards themselves only have fixed suits and numbers, but people have developed various ways to play them, such as Landlord, Texas Hold’em, Tractor, Upgrade, and Panic. , fried golden flowers and other various gameplay methods, showing the diversity and flexibility of game rules. The same is true for full-chain games. By supporting open creation and interoperability, players can build a variety of different game experiences based on basic rules. In traditional games, everyone can only be a consumer of the game, but in a full-chain game, people can become the makers of game rules.

To sum up, the advantage of full-chain games lies in their openness and permissibility. It gives players greater creativity and freedom, allowing them to participate in the creation of game rules and content, thus forming a diverse , personalized and vibrant gaming ecosystem.

1. Fairness and transparency, experience a game environment that is not manipulatedAnother biggest advantage of full-chain games is the transparency of their game logic and rules after they are all uploaded to the chain.

Especially for gambling and gambling games, fairness and transparency are very important.

Just like in the popular movie “All or Nothing”, the gambling apps used by players are controlled by centralized companies. All results may not be random, but have already been written. For gambling card games such as Depp and Fried Golden Flower, the opaqueness of the game process and game status will cause countless players to become grievances. This is why many Web2 money-based gambling games are widely praised. One of the reasons for criticism.

The transparency of the game logic and rules of the full-chain game after all are uploaded to the chain can ensure the openness and transparency of the rules, and combined with some encryption technologies (such as the fog of war games Dark forest and Imminent Solace combined with ZK-SNARK), thus making the Game types that are strictly required for game fairness can get an experience that is difficult to achieve with Web2 and Web2.5 games on full-chain games.

Challenges and limitations of full-chain games

With the continuous improvement of infrastructure, the trend of full-chain games has begun to blow. However, although full-chain games have some unique shining points, there are still many limitations and challenges that need to be faced:

1. Poor user experienceGenerally speaking, there is a consensus among players of full-chain games that the playability of current full-chain games is generally much worse than that of Web2 and Web2.5 games. On the one hand, most of the current full-chain games have primitive or rough graphics. On the other hand, there are also the following four difficulties in the interactive experience:

1) Difficulty at the beginning: It is difficult to match players with whom you are playingFor multiplayer PVP games, four people are often required to play together. However, since the number of players in current full-chain games is generally very small, the number of people online at the same time often does not exceed single digits. Coupled with the fact that there is no matching mechanism, many multiplayer games can only open rooms and invite people to play, making it easy to lose interest in the game at the very beginning.

2) Halal or non-halal: Some games have higher artificial thresholdsIn addition to game experience, many games also set many artificial thresholds. For example, some games can only be played at a fixed time, and some games require an admission fee before playing, such as after purchasing certain tokens or NFTs. can only be played, thereby limiting the game cost for players.

Some game developers will retain the spirit of independent game developers and believe that paying for games is the most innocent belief. But Web2’s independent games do have some independent innovative gameplay or high-quality content to attract players.

However, in the face of the current situation that the playability of most full-chain games is so low, why are users willing to spend money to play a game that they are not willing to take a second look at in Web2? To some extent, it has also strengthened the understanding of some game players and the outside world about the full chain. Games often play on the stereotype of self-pleasure. Except for a few individual project developers and believers, how many people are really willing to play? Many players themselves are willing to play the beta version of the game just to generate electricity for love. The behavior of this kind of project team is somewhat discouraging for players.

3) Poor game experience: frequent bugsThe most important thing for players in full-chain games is faith, followed by patience.

From the PC to the mobile phone, the development of games is generally developing in a more convenient way. In full-chain games, a common scenario is that several players make an appointment to play full-chain games together, and find that most of the time they encounter bugs, whether it is page refreshes or various sudden errors. It is difficult for people without patience to complete the entire process of a full-chain game experience.

4) Big thunder but little rain: The narrative is huge and the playability is extremely low.Most of the current game projects are still in a situation where the narrative is very large, but the actual playability is extremely low. Most games are more difficult to play than web games from 10 years ago. It is expected that with the addition of infrastructure and more builders, the playability of full-chain games will continue to narrow the gap with the playability of Web2 games.

1. Game type restrictionsDue to the imperfect performance and infrastructure of the current blockchain, not all game types are suitable for full-chain games.

It can be seen from the current types of full-chain games that SLG (strategy) games are the majority, and the real-time requirements for games are not that high, while game types such as RPG, AVG, ACT, and moba require continuous, real-time status updates. The requirements are very high. If the data is stored on the chain, the current blockchain performance is difficult to support timeliness. This type of game is not yet very suitable for full-chain games.

The current full-chain games are mainly divided into two development directions. One is to take the small and beautiful route and accumulate users through playable MVP versions, such as simulated management, pet cultivation, tower defense and other light and playable games. type; the other type is to take the route of grand narrative and open world, and create an imaginative ecology through some grand world views and universe narratives. However, due to the current restrictions on game types, they are basically limited to the above-mentioned game types. How to make a game that breaks the circle like the next Axie or Stepn still requires our joint exploration.

1. True demand or false demandThe biggest challenge and controversy in the entire chain of games currently comes from whether demand is real demand.

Take the two core advantages of full-chain games as an example: 1) From PGR to UGR, on the one hand, there are many Web2 open games that can achieve this, such as Minecraft. On the other hand, there is also a question mark as to whether the server data needs to be circulated in different game clients. For example, whether the mounts, level 90, and flying wings in the RPG client need to be circulated into MOBA games, the necessity still needs to be explored.

2) Fairness and transparency are currently mainly reflected in gambling games. However, on the one hand, the number of people gambling online is far smaller than the number of people gambling offline. (The number of people participating in online gambling will be 120 million in 2023, while the number of people participating in gambling globally is approximately 4.2 billion every year.) The ceiling is not high. On the other hand, for real gamblers, what they care about most is the convenience of depositing and withdrawing funds. Compared with fairness and unfairness, people who love gambling are more concerned about whether the exchange of funds and chips is fast and whether the experience is convenient. However, when there is a significant gap in the entire chain of game infrastructure, this is the ultimate problem of current Web3 games. Big weakness.

Focusing on the two biggest characteristics of full-chain games, UGR and fairness, if there are some categories in the future that can make good use of these two characteristics, it may be able to solve the real needs of gamers and attract more people to participate. However, for now, there is still a long way to go.

1. A completely decentralized game may not be fun, but may cause chaos.Like two sides of the same coin, the other side of openness is chaos. Since human nature is lazy, for players who only want to consume but not create, those who are accustomed to the traditional game PGR mode care most about the playability of the game.

It is difficult for people who actually design games to transfer the content of the game to other people’s hands. Because each user’s abilities are different, ordinary gamers may design the game from their own perspective, making it difficult to grasp the playability and balance of the game.

Should professional matters be left to professional game developers or should the rights be given to everyone? It is a practical issue worth exploring. How to achieve a balance between democracy and meritocracy is a difficult problem.

Therefore, for the development team of full-chain games, it is very important to have an interesting and stable core gameplay while leaving space for players to create and extend new gameplay. It is important to achieve a balance. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into the two extremes of the game being too centralized or the game being too empty to attract players to participate in the creation of new gameplay.

For the full-chain game team, it is necessary to play the role of the “initial god” well, design the core gameplay of the game, and use reasonable incentive mechanisms to attract more players to jointly create and enrich the game world.

Thoughts on the extension of the full-chain game business model

Finally, let’s discuss with you the business model thinking of full-chain games. This is also a topic that both project parties and investors are very concerned about.

First, let’s analyze the business model of traditional games. The evolution history of traditional video game business models has gone through multiple stages, constantly changing with the development of technology, changes in the market, and the evolution of player needs:

1. 1970s: Coin-Operated Mechanism
   The earliest consumer electronic games can be traced back to arcade games in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, due to the hardware requirements for running video games, each game was placed in a separate physical device, including Pac-Man, Galaga, etc., and players invested coins in exchange for game time or lives.
2. 1980s: One-time buyout
   Early electronic games were mainly console games, sold through retail channels, and players purchased physical game cartridges or discs. This is an era where product sales are the main focus. Players purchase once and then can play the game.
3. Mid-1990s: Subscription renewal mechanism
   With the popularity of the Internet, multiplayer online games began to rise. Some gaming companies have launched subscription services where players pay a monthly fee to access game servers. A representative example is World of Warcraft.
4. Mid-2000s: Advertising model + prop charging
   The free-to-play model has emerged, in which the game itself is provided for free, but players can obtain additional props by purchasing virtual items or in-game currency. At the same time, some games adopt an advertising model to obtain revenue by displaying advertisements in the game.
5. Early 2010s: Prop charging model
   With the popularity of smartphones, mobile games have become mainstream. In-app purchases have become a major profit model, and players can purchase various props within the app to unlock features or speed up game progress.
6. 2020s: Cloud gaming subscription model
   Recently, cloud games have also begun to enter people’s field of vision. Players can stream games through cloud servers without downloading and installation. At the same time, some game subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now have also begun to emerge. Players can obtain a series of games through subscription services.

These changes in business models reflect the video game industry’s continuous adaptation and innovation to technology, market and player needs; similarly, the evolution of business models also affects game design, development and player experience to a certain extent.

With Gamefi, from Axie to Stepn, the business models mainly include the following categories:

1. In-game economic system: Most GameFi games have established their own economic system, using tokens, NFTs and in-game assets as value media. Players can earn virtual assets through in-game activities, which have in-game value and can be exchanged for real-world currency. For example, Axie Infinity is a well-known game. Players play by cultivating virtual creatures (Axies). These Axies are NFTs. Players can trade, sell, and earn cryptocurrency rewards in the game. \

2. Play-to-Earn mode: Players earn income by participating in the game, which can be in-game currency, tokens or other rewards of actual value. For example, after players join some game guilds such as YGG, players can earn profits by participating in games such as Axie Infinity, and receive incentives and loans from YGG. \

3. DeFi and financial product integration: Some GameFi integrates DeFi elements and provides financial services such as loans, liquidity mining, and transactions. Players can use DeFi products in the game to earn income or invest. For example, in Decentraland, players can purchase virtual plots and create their own buildings. These plots can be used for investment or trading, and the value of some plots will also increase in value in the virtual world.

For full-chain games that are still in their very early stages, the project parties of full-chain games are still exploring which business model to choose. However, judging from the characteristics of full-chain games, the future of full-chain games must focus on playability rather than Defi. It is difficult for a simple Ponzi scheme to reach experienced users.

The business model of full-chain games should better combine its own characteristics to improve playability. The future business model can be roughly divided into three directions according to the type of game:

1. For lightweight games such as business simulation and pet raising: you can consider using NFT+Token token charging method, which is free-to-play but requires payment to become stronger. \

2. For games with open-ended narratives and grand narratives: If the playability is high, you can consider setting a payment threshold and related subscription and membership models like independent games; but if the playability is generally low in the early stage, you can consider using something like The business model of lightweight games first attracts users to play. \

3. For games like chess and card games: the business model can refer to the commission method in the traditional/offline model.

However, the entire full-chain game is still in the stage of exploration and value verification, and we are looking forward to more interesting models emerging and becoming the next mass doption.

Summarize

Overall, the gaming industry has developed over decades from its inception to its integration with blockchain. Human beings are not satisfied with being just game consumers of PGR, but also have the desire to become creators of UGR.

Just as the birth of Dota originated from the custom map community of “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos”. This map editor allows players to create their own maps, one of which is Dota. From the earliest days when Eul created Dota, to Guinsoo taking over the development of the game, adding new heroes, items, and mechanics, to IceFrog introducing a series of updates and improvements that improved the balance and depth of the game, while also adding More heroes, skills and tactical elements have brought widespread recognition and success to Dota, and then Valve Corporation cooperated with IceFrog to launch DOTA 2, which has achieved great success worldwide.

The developers of the map editor for Warcraft may not have expected that a globally renowned game like Dota would be born in the future, and the crazy popularity of MOBA games. On the road of user creation, it often takes a certain amount of time and opportunities to create new hit products.

The same is true for full-chain games. In today’s pioneering era, there are still many shortcomings such as poor user experience and low playability. If you want to become a mass adopter, you need to face the problem of recruiting new people. In order to attract more Web2 players, the threshold for users to enter Web3 cannot be bypassed. The processes of registering a wallet, learning to purchase nft, purchasing tokens, etc. all have very high learning costs, and have become a stumbling block for all Dapps. Even if the difficulty of entering the game and depositing funds is simplified through account abstraction and the built-in exchange of Web3 projects, we still have to face the biggest question: What needs of gamers does the full-chain game solve?

Narrating for the sake of narrative and winding for the sake of winding are ultimately looking for nails with a hammer. How to make good use of the full-chain characteristics of UGR and fairness is an issue that every full-chain game builder cannot escape. The unique features of full-chain games can not only provide fairness (for example, the recently launched non-full-chain game Fren Pet, if the daily spin function is implemented on-chain, it will achieve more fairness, to some extent Reduce the user’s impression of their “capital plate”), and also give the game a new journey from PGR to UGR, giving every user the possibility to become a god.

The development of Web3 cannot circumvent the wealth creation effect, and the nature of games cannot circumvent playability. How to combine the wealth creation effect and playability still requires further exploration. We look forward to continuous exploration in the full-chain game track, and game projects that take full advantage of the characteristics of the whole chain and solve real needs will emerge. I also look forward to the future of full-chain games and the growth of a new universe in the ocean of openness.

Finally, I am very grateful to Teacher Ni, Constance, Joven, Karvin, Yolo, Xiaohu, Manda, Xiaoran, Norman, Alex, Carl, Justin, frost, Haiyu, Nico, Golem, yafon, Robinn and other partners for their help. , and everyone who was very willing to share their patience during the communication process. I sincerely hope that the builders in this track will get better and better!

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*Disclaimer: This content does not constitute investment advice or financial planning. Please consult a qualified professional before making any investment or financial decision.

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