Forte cofounder and CEO Josh Williams does a deep dive on “Opportunities for Crypto and Gaming.” Williams explains that blockchain technology could have an even bigger impact on gaming than the internet because it’s not just connecting people, but potentially changing business models by aligning the incentives of developers and players. It can do this by allowing players to truly own the assets in games and verify their provenance, and by enabling developers to code rich incentive systems and rewards into games. By incorporating these mechanisms, Williams believes, an already exploding gaming industry will grow and create multi-billion-dollar marketplaces within games that will truly benefit players and developers.
Andreessen Horowitz’s Crypto Startup School brought together 45 participants from around the U.S. and overseas in a seven-week course to learn how to build crypto companies. Andreessen Horowitz is partnering with TechCrunch to release the online version of the course over the next few weeks.
Find more Crypto Startup School videos plus additional reading and info:
[Music] Next up we’re gonna jump straight into Next session which is going to be a Fireside chat with Josh Williams is the CEO and co-founder of Forte which is a New blockchain gaming platform that aims To help align developers and players and How they earn economically and Interviewing Jeff it has going to be her Josh it’s gonna be Jeff tunnel who is The founder of monster ideas and a Number of other companies that he Founded earlier where he designed Directed produced hundreds of games so Jeff and Josh come on up alright so in My long career is a game and game Technology creator I’ve seen lots of new Platforms and new technologies come Along that have like totally changed the Way we had to make games probably the Biggest one of those well obviously the Biggest one was the advent of the Internet and it took our industry you Know 10 years to figure it out and I Think we’re kind of still figuring it Out but that was when it really started To happen and one of the games that I Created is called tribes and it was a First-person team-based shooter kind of One of the first ones that really Incorporated a lot of what was going on In the internet and it was kind of Controversial for us inside the company At the time because it was a big project
When we got to the end and we didn’t Have time to put a single player into it And so we launched it as a multiplayer Only and which seemed it was really that Was really risky at the time but it Ended up that it did work now it just Seems really obvious that everybody Releases a lot of multiplayer only games And they’re all internet connected and I Think in the future it’s gonna be kind Of similar for blockchain it’s going to Really cause some big disruption in Games and I think josh is gonna tell us Some what blockchain will be able to Unleash force in games Yeah hmm I think exactly as you said Jeff it’s a good analogy blockchain will Disrupt and change gaming and I think a Very similar way to the Internet might It might be cause even even bigger Changes because the internet helped Interconnect players and tribes was Really an example of a a great Innovative game designer you who embrace The bleeding edge technology early on to Create a game that was really Revolutionary and I played tribes a lot When I was a kid watching it will be Similar and maybe bigger because it’s Not just interconnecting people but Changing potentially the business model Of games and creating the potential for A lot better game economies that align Developers and players and work much
Better for both of them and it can Really do that in in four ways so the First way is by leveraging blockchain Technology games can allow players to Really own the assets in their games Today’s players in games spend about a Hundred fifty billion dollars a year Purchasing games and digital goods in Games and the majority of that revenue Actually is is purchasing goods inside Of games but players don’t own any of Them so that’s the first one when you Introduce ownership it could really Change the way that the games are made And played and how the economies work The second one is blockchains enable you To have the provenance of every item in Every asset in the game so that means You know you can know the history of Every item in a game the third is games Can create really rich marketplaces or Blotching can create really rich Marketplaces inside a games so when Players own these assets and you can Determine whether or not an asset is Real you know its history and provenance You can create rich marketplaces around Those items and the fourth is because Block chains can incorporate smart Contracts code that executes Autonomously through the blockchain you Can create these rich incentive systems That reward players and participants in The game in different ways yeah so that
That’s our really quick overview we’re Gonna delve into A little bit more let’s talk about the Ownership a little bit sure a little bit More deeper yeah so you know if you Think about it the ability for players To really own things inside of games Their virtual goods and virtual Currencies inside of games it it Transforms the player the the purchases That players are making from pure Expenditures where again players are Taking over a hundred billion dollars a Year out of their wallets to purchase These goods it transforms them from Expenditures to assets that the players Own and so players could choose to you Know resell assets if they if they owned Them they could choose to incorporate The assets into another asset that might Be in the game and the thing about these Assets being stored on blockchains is no One can take the asset away from the Player now the player truly owns it and They don’t have to trust a third party Including the game developer themselves That they truly don’t truly only ask That yeah and I think that’s probably What most people think about when they Think about crypto technologies or Blockchain technologies and games but it Really is important you know I I’ll just do like a pretty obvious Example here but you know imagine you’ve
Played well for a year and you take your Rogue up to level 70 and you’re tired of Playing it and you want to become a Warrior if if that was a blockchain Enabled game then you could take that Character and either give it to your Friends so they can come back and play Play the game with you or or you Couldn’t you can sell it to somebody and Maybe get back a little bit of the of Them of the money that you’ve paid in an In your subscription for the last year Yeah that’s exactly right and you know When you play a game and you’re really Into it you get to really care about the Assets you have in the game you care About your characters you can sometimes Put a lot of money into those things and So to see real value and to truly own Those things and to be able to do what You want with them as a player would be You know great as a player and Transformative for games as a whole and You know touching on the second point Which is really the provenance of the Items of the assets in a game that Blockchain is enable what that lets you Do is know that when someone is claiming That they have an asset and they have a Right to an asset you can verify that That is true you don’t have to trust Anyone to do that so you can imagine in A real in the real world you know Outside of games if someone was trying
To sell you a basketball jersey and they Said hey this is the jersey that steph Curry wore at the final game of the 2015 NBA championships but when they won and So it’s gonna cost $1000 you know you Would just have to trust them that That’s true or you know maybe find a Third party to trust that has somehow Certified that that’s the real deal What’s cool about games and blockchain Is because the assets are digital if They’re stored on a blockchain you you Don’t have to trust anyone when someone Says that hey this item maybe it’s a It’s a sword this is the sword that was Used by the first player to ever take Down you know the biggest baddest boss In the game you could know that it’s you Know that collectible unique item and And maybe that it’s got some you know Special characteristics unlocked because It is that unique that unique item and So blockchain enables that as well Yeah and that’s actually I mean I might Sound kind of trivial at first but but It does kind of it can take an asset and Make it more unique more collectible and That’s again kind of an obvious thing But when you start really thinking Deeply about this it it it makes it it’s Pretty important and then you can also Kind of start seeing how people could Take do things like maybe there’s an Enterprising person that goes out and
And collects this open information from Tons and tons of games and puts it all On one website and maybe it’s kind of Like an appraisal website so that you Can go and you can check the value of Your you know +18 sword in the game Mm-hmm yeah and that leads to the third Point which is you can create these rich Marketplaces in games right so one Player is owned the assets and they’re There for and they know they own it and So they therefore ascribe value to them And they can verify without trusting Anyone that the history of the assets And its authenticity you can start to Price items you can start to trade items Together and create these rich Marketplaces and the rich the richness Of the marketplaces can be not only Enabling trading between players and the Transfer of assets and value between Players but also pretty complex economic Designs around how that value gets split Up And this is where developers can start To benefit as well so that they might Take a share of of transactions if you Know you had these assets that were Owned by you know that that example we Used of a sword that was you know used To take down the biggest boss in the Game for the first time the player that That killed that boss with that sword Could always take a share if if the the
Smart contracts were structured this way Of every transaction every trade of that Sword subsequently so you can open up All these new designs that were never Possible prior to blockchain er or Weren’t possible without solely trusting The game developer themselves yeah and You could also use that that kind of Thing for incentives to move your Players around to to help them do things That you want them to do and also that They’ve kind of wanted to do anyway in The game that’s right Yeah and that’s the fourth one it’s Designing incentive structures in the Game so when you have a game that has an Economy based on real asset values that The players own you can have currencies You can have assets in that game you Could start to grant you know as a Developer you can write smart contracts That essentially incentivize or reward Players through grants of currencies and Assets and items when they do things That are helpful for the game and for Other players so you could reward Players for you know maybe maybe senior Players who have experienced a lot of The game you could give them you know Currency you could drop into their Account currency for helping new players You know get through a dungeon for the Very first time and so you can create These really rich incentive mechanisms
And in a game and in ways that again Just weren’t possible previously if you Start to incorporate blockchain Technology and there’s a lot of cool Stuff we’re working with developers to Do like that we’re working with a battle Royale game battle royale games are like Are like fortnight it kind of Incorporates a bunch of the things we Just talked about the skins there are Skins in the game right now that so Those are cosmetics that you can equip On your character to make them look Differently it doesn’t affect the Gameplay and in this case but but it Personalizes the character for you this Developer that we’re working with is is Tokenizing the skins in the game so They’re putting the skins on the Blockchain they’re letting Truly owned them and they’re making his Skins tradable within the game and that Creates a new revenue stream for the Developer and it gives the players much More agency much more ownership in the Game and you know it makes the game more Fun for the players because now they can Benefit from the game not only from it Being fun but by doing a good job Unlocking new skins and and potentially Earning an income from them yeah so I Actually have some personal experience That where this would have helped me out Tons on one of the games that we created
We created a game for Disney and played Emotion city it was a it was a social City building game that was on the Facebook platform back back when that Was going really big and we ended up I Was a hit it had two million daily Active users my mom played it my sister My wife first time in my career with it That I had that happen but and so that Was an interesting and aside but but Well while the game was very successful Was making a ton of money we were really Worried about the business model because It was really just selling digital goods You know put a new building and put a New road in put a new sidewalk in and You could see where we were going to hit A wall in that so we were in the back Room just like squirrels running as fast As we could go trying to figure out a Way to make an economy but back then we Just did not have the tools it would be So wonderful to have these block team Tools so I’d like maybe talk a little Bit about how you build these community Economies or for these games yeah so you Know social city was it was a big hit it Was one of the earliest and most Successful free-to-play games in the West and it kind of Jeff as you were Talking about it hit the same problem That pretty much every free-to-play game Today runs into as it as it grows and Free-to-play games dominate the the
Games industry today they kind of took The industry from you know ten to forty Billion dollars 20 years ago to you know 150 billion plus dollars a year today Because what they do is you know they Allowed players to play a game for free For the first time and that aligned that Aligned of For some players a little more than they Had been in the past prior to Free-to-play games players had to Purchase the game upfront without really Getting a chance to see it and so you Couldn’t get these it was really hard to Get these massive audiences in games and Players you were asking them to spend Fifty or sixty dollars in a game without Even knowing what it was really like to Play it free to play games you get a Little closer to the player a little bit More aligned with the player in that Okay you guys you let the player come in For for free which is great that’s a Benefit for the player but then you have To have to figure out how to monetize it Because you didn’t monetize it upfront And you run into this problem that Social city and every other major Free-to-play game runs into which is you Constantly have to pump out new content As a developer you have to sell players More and more of these goods inside of a Game because it’s your only way to make Revenue and the really pernicious thing
That happens in in this model even Though it’s maybe friendlier in some Ways to players then pure upfront Purchases is a small percentage of the Audience ends up purchasing anything at All and you know our team and myself We’ve seen some of the most successful Free-to-play games in the world and Almost across the board a very small Percentage of the audience 5% or less Typically makes any purchase whatsoever And very frequently less than 1% of Players in these in the top free-to-play Games account for 80% or more of the Revenue so what that means is you have a Very small percentage of your audience That you end up catering to and those Individual players often spend hundreds Of thousands of dollars or millions of Dollars a year even though it sounds Crazy in these games and so you have to Produce content that caters to them Without somehow without alienating you Know the rest of the players that don’t Do it it’s an incredibly thin that’s an Incredibly challenging design problem It’s incredibly frustrating for players To feel like you know the people that Spend the most might be able to get the Coolest stuff in the game or be more Powerful in the game and so there’s Still misalignment even in the Free-to-play model what blockchain Technology and those four new
Interaction models economic models new Capabilities that blockchain enables for Games can can really do is align players And developers where as a developer You can start to pull a marketplace so The ownership that players have of the Items in your game you can start to pull A marketplace around those into the game And create win wins with players where Players now own value they can transact Value they can even earn an income from The game and you as a developer can Create a bigger economy without just Having to create new content all the Time if you allow players to trade just As a simple example you can earn a Revenue stream from those trades as they Occur over time so yeah I mean I might Be kind of obvious but one of the first Things you would think about doing there If we talk about win-win or community Economies would be a lot of really big Games nowadays they have the gray market That’s out there that you know for Buying World of Warcraft gold or you Know different skins for different games Or even trading accounts around will get You banned from the game nowadays but Now you could you could bring that Economy into the game and get rid of a Lot of the fraud and things like that That’s happening out in rolled that’s Exactly right and you know players want To be able to do this as we as we
Discussed earlier you know when you Invest a lot of time or money into your Characters or assets or items in a game You want to be able to trade them Sometimes and sometimes you know a game Might be designed to require you to Spend a lot of time in order to get the Cool stuff that you want and you would Love as a player to be able to just go Buy that thing sometimes and so players Do this there’s massive kind of side Economy outside of that 150 billion Dollars a year where players are just Trading with each other outside of the Games but it’s problematic because the Developers don’t earn any revenue from Those transactions and players are Always subject to the risk of counter Priority fraud as Jeff said so you know If you’re trying to buy a new item from A game from another player in a game and It’s not sanctioned by the game itself You’re going to go to some third party Website enter your credit card Information and risk you know someone’s Stealing you know your your your Identity or your credit card information And it maybe not even get the item that You were trying to purchase in the game Despite taking that risk when you Leverage the blockchain To enable these marketplace these Marketplaces and economies inside of a Game you can do that in a secured
Trustless fashion by leveraging the Security of the blockchain itself yeah I Mean it’s really just hard to express How powerful that that is from the from You know producer or designer of a game To have these these tools it’s Incredibly powerful I would like to you Know I’m a convert now so you know I’m Barely touching the ground but but when I first when Josh first started talking To me about these blog team Incorporating blockchain into the games I went on started doing my own research And and probably many of you if you went Out and looked up there you kind of feel Like it’s kind of scamming out there Everything feels a little bit like a Pyramid scheme and so I was like I don’t Know about that but then you know the More you talk about it when you get into It there’s just some there in addition To those the four types of things that Block 10 can interlock it it that adds Up to something way way bigger and I’d Like Josh to explain that because this Is this is the conversion moment right Here I think yeah when we talk with Developers about these systems they can Incorporate it in their games what what Really starts to get compelling about it Is you know when you think about it Games today is as Jeff said in examples Like social social city or the top you Know most successful games today
Developers are really just acting as Merchants where they’re selling goods to To players and and and that’s it when You start to really get deep on what Blockchain technology could enable for Games you realize there’s many more ways For developers to benefit from the games They create and to create games that are Better for players as well and so it Kind of shifts you from being just a Merchant to managing you can think about It like you know creating in your Virtual world that you that you create In your game you’re also creating an Economy that’s more real so the operates Just like the real world where we all in The real world you know we own assets we Earn income we conduct commerce and Trade with each other And blockchain can enable that inside of Inside the virtual worlds of games as Well so developers got a shift from Being just a merchant selling goods to It’s almost like you’re managing a Little country and trying to create the Biggest economy that you can for the Citizens inside of your country and that Unlocks new ways to earn revenue for the Developer as well so you know there’s There’s again four four things you can Do with that so you can still continue To sell goods inside of the game just Like you do now and those goods don’t Have to be on the blockchain you can
Still sell goods that players don’t home So you don’t lose anything by you know Incorporating watching into your into Your game but you can also sign around Player ownership and the marketplaces We’ve talked about and so you can start To set up the equivalent of fiscal Policy essentially in the parlance of Macroeconomics and and governments you Know you can think about what sorts of Taxes and fees you want to operate in Your economy so players own assets and You can set up the rules for you know How people can trade with each other and You can also set up what what the fees Are and what the taxes might be as Players start to trade with each other Maybe you as a developer take five Percent or ten percent or thirty percent Of every transaction and it’s really Cool to think about how developers and Players get aligned here because a Simple-minded developer might think well I’ll just make the fee as high as I can I’ll charge 70% on on every trade and You could do that but sure game probably Would be less successful than another Game that charges lower fees and is more Beneficial to players and encourages More more trading so what you really Want to do is just you design your Economy there’s kind of second the Second portion of it with the fiscal Policy to encourage the creation of the
Largest possible economy which means Players are benefitting more – because They’re owners in the economy as well so It really lines up players and Developers the third way that developers Can benefit the third revenue stream can Beep so so again you have to sell link Sale of goods you have taxes and fees Like a fiscal policy the third way is You have assets in these games and Players on them and developers can own Them too so you could have a reserve of Assets and You know the bigger you make your game The better job you do and designing the Game and making it fun and designing the Economy the more valuable the assets in Your economy could be for both you and For the players and so you as a Developer could sell off those assets They’re not just virtual goods they’re The assets that are on the blockchain And so that’s a third way that Developers can benefit in a way they Really couldn’t prior to the Introduction of a blockchain Yeah and it’s actually really amazing if You if you start calculating this out And think of maybe a total addressable Market here I’m gonna show ya this great Yeah I think you know well before we get To you know thinking about what the Total macro picture could look like that The last way developers can make a
Revenue stream here is is you can set a Monetary policy to just like you would In in a country so you can have whatever Macroeconomic design you you think will Work best or you kind of experiment and Learn will work best inside of you Inside of your game so you can set rates Of inflation and you can as we discussed At the beginning you could reward Players for different types of behaviors And that might deflate or that might Inflate you know the the economy by Producing more currency when you’re Granting players you know maybe free Gold or free coins for performing Certain actions maybe it’s logging in Every day maybe it’s helping other Players but you if even despite that Inflation if it helps players contribute To the game or or perform actions that Help the economy overall it could grow The total size of the economy and you as A developer can also participate in Those rewards you write it in a smart Contract so that you can’t change the Rules willy-nilly but let’s say you Reward you allow players to create Content in your game and then you reward Them through these inflationary kind of Monetary mechanisms for the content that Gets used the most by other players Right so it could might be you know a New dungeon that someone creates or a New script of dialogue that an NPC a
Non-player character in the game says And you might give more rewards to the Most popular pieces of content for Players you could do the same thing for Yourself as a developer you’re a great Content creator maybe the new content You create also participates in those Rewards and if it Popular with players that’s worth it Because it grew the total size of the Economy so if you step back and put all These pieces together again you’re kind Of creating a more market economy inside Of games instead of a Command-and-control economy or just a Pure merchant economy which is the case In games today and you know market Economies are how the world works today And you know they’re the world’s economy Is much bigger today than it was in the Past and the same thing will happen in Games and a simple way to understand That might be you know there are games Like for tonight today they have Hundreds of millions of players that Play them every single month and those Games are wildly successful the most Successful games that have ever been Created are being created today but they Do you know a couple billion dollars a Year in revenue at their peak today Which is massive but if you think about It you know if you had a game that Incorporated blockchain technology to
Create a real market economy for players Inside of the game and you got just a Million players that were earning just a Minimum livable wage like say thirty Thousand dollars a year inside of the Game because you created this rich Economy then that game a million players Making thirty thousand dollars a year From the game which would have a thirty Billion dollar a year economy which Would be by far the biggest game that’s Ever created with only only a million Players that are able to achieve that And that you know on its own would be Larger than the entire global music Industry and it’s not difficult to Imagine a game that could do that by Incorporating these these mechanisms hey Yes I had a couple quick questions so I Wasn’t I guess I’m still curious about What’s the material difference between Having an SDK for implementing a lot of These economic type of interactions for Games versus having it be blockchain Related sure and if the issue is Trusting the developer I’m actually also Curious some I’m just not sure about how Big the trust issue between a game Player and game developer actually is And like are their yeah yep so everybody Could hear the question so The reason to put this on blockchain Versus just having an SDK or a central Database that you know opt read to
Operate the economy is twofold one it’s That it’s really hard to secure these Things as an individual developer and by Leveraging the public watchings that Exist you’re inheriting the hundreds of Literal hundreds of billions of dollars Of security and stored value that exists On these block chains today instead of Having to try to figure out how to Secure your database from hackers or Exploits you know from from gamers so That’s the first part and it’s the Simpler part but but it’s still Important the big thing is really the Size of the economy you can create so Your players might might might trust you As a developer Especially your ardent fans who have Maybe been loyal to you for years but You know a new player who comes into the Game and doesn’t know who you are as a Developer and doesn’t have a lot of you Know investment and engagement in your Game isn’t going to trust you as a Developer as much as they will trust you Know the broader marketplace that was Represented by these block chains and The assets that they that they live There if they know these I asked that’s Live on a blockchain and the developer Actually can’t control it even if they Wanted to you’re gonna have more trust Than you would and the important point There is not just trust it’s that it
Creates a larger economy the reason We’re able to conduct commerce today is Because you know we have an idea of Safety and soundness and in an economy We we think even though we’ve seen it Fail many times you know and there’s Been different financial crises people Believe in the dollar enough to conduct You know transactions and so basically The more you can and and the promise of Blockchain is that it can be totally Trust less and unlock all these new Economic activities where people are More sovereign and can choose who to Trust and so that just unlocks more Economic activity and it’s the same Thing in games where if you can maximize Trust you maximize the size of the Economy and so you want to do everything You can to maximize basically the degree That players can trust the economy Itself as opposed to any one actor Including the developer To pick properties of blockchain our Interoperability and transparency isn’t It the case that that actually undermine Business models of of game developers Because actually any other team can Instantly like take over the user base Quite quite easily because it’s all on The blockchain they can simply deploy Some other solutions as like I do that I Airdrop or something like that so so Like it starts to be a very competitive
Market isn’t it actually a threat for Blockchain games so it’s a good question But there’s a bit of a misconception There right so if you think about it Just because it so totally the smart Contracts are open they’re transparent They’re interoperable and that’s a Beneficial thing and that again you know As a player that you know you can Transfer value from one game to another Right but that’s it doesn’t mean that You can just copy a game smart contracts Or the way it’s designed its economy and Somehow shift all of its players over Because if you’re the developer of a Game and you’ve published these smart Contracts and you set up the rules for Your for your economy and you’ve created You know a game that attracts a lot of Players those players then store value In that economy so you can’t just you Know copy the code you can’t just design A game that’s interoperable and does Some airdrops and give some gifts to Players you have to actually convert Those players to move to your game first Of all and spend their time and energy There and start spending dollars there But also transfer the value that they Have stored in the assets in your game To your network as opposed to just being Able to use the items [Music] [Music]
Yeah well yeah so what was so since There wasn’t microphone so everybody can Hear the question its if these assets Really live on the blockchain and users Can do what they like with them couldn’t They take the asset from from one game To another or transfer the value of the Asset from one game to another and in a Traditional game like World of Warcraft You can’t do that so that kind of Creates a protective a walled garden Around the game itself and so and so That’s true but the flip side of it is You create like you also limit how much Value players ascribe to the game itself And how big that economy can be so if People are willing to spend you know ten Dollars on an item in in World of Warcraft and know that it’s just an Expense they don’t only add them and They can’t do what they want with it you Know well that’s great they’re willing To spend ten dollars but if they knew That they can own it and they can Transfer it to another game if the Developer you know displeases them or if There’s another game that’s even better And can interoperate with the same Assets they might pay a lot more it just To know that they could resell the good So you create a bigger game economy this Way and it’s this what you’re describing Is the same thing as you know back in The day there used to be a feudal
Economy system where there was a Lord of The land who controlled everything and Everybody else was just a serf and yeah It was great for the Lord of the land at The time because they were the boss and They got to set all the rules and the Serfs didn’t really own anything but Economies got a lot bigger and people Did a lot better when you open things up And you had a market economy where Everybody owns things and everybody has To compete including developers and the Best developers in this new world where You incorporate blockchain games will Will embrace this and create games that Are really designed to empower players And grow the biggest economy possible And then as a player you won’t just Simply you know take your asset from one Game to another your Go to the game that has the richest Economy and the most players and the and The and the best gameplay and you know It has your friends there so it is a Mindset shift and there is a risk in the Sense that boy I’m a developer I’m used To just controlling the whole the whole World but the downside of that is you Have a much much smaller potential Economy than if you open it up and Create a real market economy but also From from just a pure game design Standpoint taking an asset from one game Whether you own it own it or not taking
It into another game is alright I think You would actually have to design that Into the game you would have to have Several games that got together and Talked about our designs so that you can Get an asset out of one game and go take It into another game I think the Ownership is more that I have it I can Give it to my friend I can sell it to Somebody or I can auction it off yeah That’s right definitely transferring a Particular asset from game to game is a Lot of people talk about that in terms Of interoperability of FTS but it Doesn’t really make sense for most game Designs like the particular you know you Can’t move a sword in an RPG over to a Racing game you know a racing car game Or you can’t even within two RPGs the Mechanics work differently you can’t Transfer the value all right if you can Sell the sword or the or the car and you Can move that value and get it back and Put it into another game but again all Your all your thinking there is Developers basically our players today Just assume that when they make a Purchase it’s a it’s an expense and There is no value they can transfer so There’s really not any downside in and You know players will still make pure Expenses right but there’s only upside And letting them also you know expand Their purchases to things they own we’re
Here hi This is awesome I’m learning a ton cuz My knowledge of gaming is fairly limited But I’m really curious to see how y’all See the notion of identity evolving it Seems like there’s almost a dichotomy Between kind of the blockchain community That really wants a prioritize anonymity And privacy versus players who I mean it Seems like they’re almost incentivized To be known On platforms either for money or I guess Platform status yeah yeah it’s a good Question too so there’s a mix of things That happen with with games today There’s definitely a lot of pseudonymous Or anonymous players and games like in Some of the games I play like I played We talked about world of warcraft and Many other games I didn’t want anybody In those games to know who I was and in The in the real world so you know I had Player aliases and players even will Have many characters or many accounts Within an individual game sometimes and You can do the same thing in a Pseudonymous world with with blockchain As well one thing that is really Interesting to think about which Blockchain could unlock is is the idea Of sovereign identity and the ability For players to carry an identity from Game to game in a way that is verifiable Trust lessly and that’s something that’s
Not really possible in games today when You when you can’t do that you could you Could say things like hey I was the Leader of this the most successful guild In World of Warcraft I mean I I Josh was Not actually that person but whoever That was could say that and then maybe That helps them recruit players in Another game in the future so you can Use blockchain in both ways you can use It to empower pseudonymous play which is How most games work today or real Identity potentially in the future as Well which again just unlocks more Design possibilities I this Andre so you Said that bludgeon allows a player to Own the asset but isn’t it the game the Off chain engine of the game determines The properties of the assets so like Even if blockchain recommends this sword Has a power of 100 game developers can Easily override it or even stop Recognizing that item just curious What’s your comment yeah it’s a really Good question too So there’s there’s two things one you Know if if a developer is just Willy-nilly changing the you know the Values of like the what the items do Like have the characteristics and how They behave Then they’re gonna limit the size of Their economy because players will trust Them you know less so yes the players
Own the assets but the developer is Changing the way that the assets work Inside of the game too much so what Would happen is players can start to Sell those assets off because they’re Displeased with the developer for making Too many changes so it gives the players Much more control and ownership than They would have otherwise where the Developer could do that anyway well this And so and so the best developers that Really embrace these market economies Will put more and more of the Characteristics that determine how the Items work and and their provenance and The history of changes onto the Blockchain so that they can’t change it But the second thing is you know there Will be a world that the larger if we Really started to see examples of games That do that create you know even Smaller games that create like 30 Billion dollar-a-year economies in the Example that we talked about then There’ll be a huge incentive to figure Out how to get more and more of the Compute that happens in in a game more And more the processing that happens in The game to happen trustless leap and That doesn’t all need to happen on a Blockchain there’s a lot of emerging Technologies now for trustless general Verifiable computation and we’re working With some folks in that space that you
Know over time the bigger these games Get the more incentive there will be to Create those to accelerate the creation Of those solutions where all the Properties of the way that the items That are stored on them blockchain you Know that the value might be stored on The blockchain and the rules that govern The transactions or the transfer of the Items might all be on the blockchain but To compute associated with how the items Are used in the game might move more and More to these trust lists off chain Systems your physics and your rendering In the game and you know all the things That really just affect the gameplay Experience that doesn’t really need to Be on a blockchain but the way the items Are used the way their characteristics Work you know will be increasingly Trustless the more that these market Economies are adopted in games okay Thank you guys really appreciate it Thank you thanks everybody [Applause] [Music]
