Play-to-earn Mechanics

Okay, hear me out.

What is “play-to-earn”?

PTE is a new design mechanics at the intersection of crypto and gaming: users are given tokens in exchange for some in-game activity, and these tokens can be used for valuable in-game uses or traded for real world money.

Even the wild success this method has enjoyed in recent months - e.g. Axie Infinity - comes without the core game actually being that enjoyable. I think this is Ashes’ opportunity to seize.

Isn’t this just p2w by another name?

No. It could be, but if those valuable in-game uses for tokens were restricted to current monetization (I.e. cosmetics, subscription fees), then it is effectively the same in this regard.

Why do this? What are the main pros cons here?

Pros:
- Creates a strong user acquisition flywheel
- Massive revenue driver (studio-reserved tokens increase in price as demand goes up, supply decreases/stagnates)
- Retention driver (incentivizes power usership)
- Lucrative for community alongside studio
- If industry shifts this way eventually, will have a lead and/or not be cannibalized by those offering this

Cons:
- Technical overhead
- Legal overhead
- Additional hires
- Communication to new users

What form could this take?

This is really the art of it, and takes a lot more discussion than this quick post. But, for e.g.

- Embers are turned into an ERC20 token
- User accounts are linked to Ethereum wallets
- Embers - as now - can be spent on cosmetics and subscriptions
- Embers are earned by playing the game (whatever activity Intrepid wishes to incentivize, or simply passively for active playtime)
- Above perhaps dynamically tethered to amount spent in-store by users on that day/week/etc
- Embers are listed on a decentralized exchange (e.g. through an IDO with SushiSwap’s MISO platform or similar), so users can trade for real world money
- Embers have a supply cap and/or deflationary mechanisms (e.g. x% of purchase cost is burned)
- Studio and team have own store of tokens that forever increase in value as demand increases and supply decreases/remains constant

TL;DR

An idea for Intrepid to make money by making users money.

Obviously we are literally testing download/install and client/server performance right now, so there is more than enough on the teams plate as-is. Yet, there is a significant early-mover advantage to thinking about this sooner rather than later.

Thoughts?

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Comments

Noaani

No.

Dygz

Daily by any other name...

Nerror

No no no. Once you add real world money drivers into the mix, you change the player mentality and vastly increase toxicity. Ashes has to be in its own little ecosystem, where any cooperation or fighting isn't tainted by real world money.

Any MMORPG that does this in the future, I will never support.

CriminalCupcake

Bond wrote: »

Okay, hear me out.

What is “play-to-earn”?

PTE is a new design mechanics at the intersection of crypto and gaming: users are given tokens in exchange for some in-game activity, and these tokens can be used for valuable in-game uses or traded for real world money.

Even the wild success this method has enjoyed in recent months - e.g. Axie Infinity - comes without the core game actually being that enjoyable. I think this is Ashes’ opportunity to seize.

Isn’t this just p2w by another name?

No. It could be, but if those valuable in-game uses for tokens were restricted to current monetization (I.e. cosmetics, subscription fees), then it is effectively the same in this regard.

Why do this? What are the main pros cons here?

Pros:
- Creates a strong user acquisition flywheel
- Massive revenue driver (studio-reserved tokens increase in price as demand goes up, supply decreases/stagnates)
- Retention driver (incentivizes power usership)
- Lucrative for community alongside studio
- If industry shifts this way eventually, will have a lead and/or not be cannibalized by those offering this

Cons:
- Technical overhead
- Legal overhead
- Additional hires
- Communication to new users

What form could this take?

This is really the art of it, and takes a lot more discussion than this quick post. But, for e.g.

- Embers are turned into an ERC20 token
- User accounts are linked to Ethereum wallets
- Embers - as now - can be spent on cosmetics and subscriptions
- Embers are earned by playing the game (whatever activity Intrepid wishes to incentivize, or simply passively for active playtime)
- Above perhaps dynamically tethered to amount spent in-store by users on that day/week/etc
- Embers are listed on a decentralized exchange (e.g. through an IDO with SushiSwap’s MISO platform or similar), so users can trade for real world money
- Embers have a supply cap and/or deflationary mechanisms (e.g. x% of purchase cost is burned)
- Studio and team have own store of tokens that forever increase in value as demand increases and supply decreases/remains constant

TL;DR

An idea for Intrepid to make money by making users money.

Obviously we are literally testing download/install and client/server performance right now, so there is more than enough on the teams plate as-is. Yet, there is a significant early-mover advantage to thinking about this sooner rather than later.

Thoughts?

There will be No Real Money trading in this game..... Not for Ashes...

cyanideinsanity

I can't really see any good coming out of turning the game into a literal job. I know people worry about mega guilds, but now I'm curious as to how it would play out if this was a thing and became profitable enough to convert venezualan goldfarmers from OSRS.

Plutar

I'm usually on the other end of a discussion with Noaani, but they said it best here.

Noaani wrote: »

No.

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