Play-To-Earn Games Deserve More Respect | The OpenDAO News
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Dear The OpenDAO Readers,
Time flies quickly! The first quarter may have been dubbed as NFT winter or bear market but we, at The OpenDAO, are only focused on building, shipping products and fine tuning the DAO foundation with the active involvement of the community.
Looking back at the incredible milestones we have achieved so far, our efforts have really paid off!
The 721Starter Launchpad is continuously bringing top-tier NFT project partnerships which we strongly believe are able to weather through the bearish NFT market conditions.
Our governance token, $SOS, has reached more than US$5 billion trading volume in a little over 3 months since launch, demonstrating the liquidity and popularity of the token.
We made a record investment of US$5 million in virtual real estate —Space via our strategic partnership with BigTime Studios as we project the further rise of the play-to-earn (P2E) video games industry this year. Read our feature article below on P2E to understand why we are taking a bullish position on this space.
We are also proud to announce the launch of The OpenDAO Podcast Series to reach a wider audience and provide our community with various channels to catch up on important discussions taking place in Web3 and in our DAO. We are giving away 1 million $SOS reward to the 1st 500 followers of the podcast on Spotify. See details here: The OpenDAO Podcast series campaign.
The 2nd quarter will not be short of exciting and innovative products in the making. Among them are the 20K PFP NFT collection; Zero Fee NFT marketplace; The OpenDAO Academy; and 721Max.
In order to support the successful delivery of these projects, there is an important live Snapshot proposal to replenish the operational budget. This time accounting for the marketing budget, which in the first quarter was drawn mainly from the operational budget. We urge you to read SOSIP 19 and cast your vote if you’re a $SOS or veSOS token holder!
Meanwhile we wish you a great spring week-end!
The OpenDAO Newsletter Team
Contributors: Angyts.eth | Badger | Head Poncho | Supernal | FT
Launch of The OpenDAO Podcast Series
We are proud to announce The OpenDAO Podcast Series, now live on Spotify. The Series are hosted by contributors of The OpenDAO and feature educational, informative, and entertaining content delivered over an engaging and interactive platform in association with industry leaders and trailblazers of the NFT marketspace.
The OpenDAO Podcast Series covers a wide spectrum of topical issues including; the challenges facing web3 protocols and early adopters alike; practical insights into the structure and operation of DAOs; trending developments in the NFT marketspace; real-time Alphas from industry leaders; developments in the metaverse; P2E gaming, cybersecurity and much more.
The Series is conveniently segmented into 6 titles:
The OpenDAO Presents
A deep dive into significant collaborations and partnerships between The OpenDAO and major stakeholders in the NFT and digital assets marketspace.The high-energy Bullish Show hosted by Suchi (aka, The Persian hype god!)
Centred on positivity, culture, mediation and mental health. All the while providing a platform to unique, innovative players in the web3 space to discuss topical issues affecting market players.Non-Fungible Tuesdays with Cyborg
An interview-styled show featuring notable pioneers and industry leaders sharing practical insights into, and in-depth analysis of new and trending developments in the NFT and digital assets marketspace.The education program, The Tao of the Dao by Angyts and Curiousjoe.
‘The TAO of the DAO’ translated as ‘The Way of the DAO’ is a practical insight into the structure and organisation of DAOs; the future of DAOs; and topical issues affecting web3 denizens and projects.The Spotlight With Laura Rod
A stage for creatives to take the audience on a candid journey into their early beginnings and how they ended up in the web3 space. This is an honest look at their wins, losses, frustrations, challenges, and how they overcame it all to end up where they are.
721Starter ALPHA
A 721Starter series featuring partnerships with high-profile projects such as Dape, UNXD, Antonym, to name but a few. Don't miss out on your early access to the ins and outs of some of the best NFT communities in web3.
Tune in to The OpenDAO podcasts as we anchor thought-provoking conversations with some of the biggest and most exclusive names in the NFT marketspace and the broader digital assets industry.
The OpenDAO on Medium
Read the recap of The OpenDAO’s progress in March here:
Play-To-Earn Games Deserve More Respect
Author: Supernal
For those of you who don't play video games or pay much attention to industry reports ( here & there ) regarding the growth of video games as a market, you might not realize the potential value that gaming can bring to the Web3 ecosystem. Even some gamers are pessimistic as to how NFT’s & cryptocurrencies might affect video games in the long run, having caused recent backlash across youtube. However, as a life-long gamer and crypto enthusiast, I feel we’re on the cusp of a new age of video game development with the introduction of the Play-To-Earn model. So, let’s briefly explore the history of video games, how their revenue streams function, and how this ought to be applied to upcoming blockchain-enabled games.
First things first, let’s take a step back and look at video games as a whole for a moment. I was born in 1992, so my exposure to video games begins with old DOS PC games and the first Nintendo consoles – I’m especially nostalgic about the following games: Descent, Mech Warrior, Jazz Jackrabbit, Super Mario Bros, Excitebike and Iceclimber! Back then, games and their relevant systems were as expensive as they are now; although with the introduction of micro-transactions in the 2000’s, the “cost” of a game has become more difficult to understand. Why is this? What happened?
^ I watched my dad play this when I was 4 years old. Image Source
It’s a bit cliche to say this, but…back in my day, you had to purchase a physical copy of a game, in-person at a retail location. Nowadays, you just go online, create an account on your preferred platform, purchase the game with a credit card, and within half an hour your game is downloaded and ready to play. Some games still receive physical copies to be purchased in retail locations, but this is more of a ‘niche’ market. Yeah, “physical copies” are a niche market now, when they used to be the dominant force. The internet has made it vastly more convenient to purchase games; while providing convenience is great, it has introduced a new problem.
The problem with digital copies of games is that you don’t actually *own* the game anymore. You’re just purchasing the access to a service that allows you to play the game. If your account gets banned, you lose everything. Permanently. Of course, you can appeal to get your account back, but there’s no guarantee. These rules vary from platform to platform, so do your own research, but this holds especially true for the Steam Platform. Steam does allow you to refund games, but only if you’ve played the game for less than 2 hours. But, back in the 90’s you could still re-sell the game after years of play – this is because there was a limited supply for games, whereas with digital copies the supply is infinite which makes reselling games impossible.
In my opinion, blockchain & web3 can easily solve this ownership problem: create an NFT, possibly with an accompanied OAT/POAP, providing proof of ownership for your game, which further provides access to download the game through a service. Then, whenever you want, you can re-sell the game on the secondary market! You can even make the supply limited, if you wish, but generally the supply should be unlimited. This also applies to any micro-transactions or DLC ( Downloadable Content ), which has become a massive revenue stream for most games. With that said, Let’s switch gears to focus on what makes P2E ( Play-To-Earn ) Games different and worthwhile.
Axie Infinity has recently become the poster child of the P2E ecosystem. Their native token, AXS, achieved a 1000x price increase within one year: from $.14 on 11/5/2020 up to $145 on 11/3/2021.
Absolutely insane.
Because of this, everyone is trying to make a copy of Axie to get a taste of those incredible gains – as such, we now bear witness to the rise of P2E games as a legitimate force. However, many P2E games are either in early alpha development, or barely have much of a “game” to play; this is causing concern amongst investors, especially after the significant market drop this past January. It’s normal to be concerned, especially with something so new. Personally, this problem is due to some games trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, thus ignoring how video games actually make money.
Presently, video games are a mixture of Free-to-Play ( F2P ) and Buy-To-Play; some games also require monthly subscription fees, such as Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft. Big “AAA” companies are willing to spend vast sums of money on marketing and development budgets, because they can calculate the exact number of sales they’ll need to cover their cost-basis. Indie games are often half the price of a “AAA” game ( $30 or less, rather than $60 ), because the development is much smaller and they have limited to no marketing budgets. Both models have evolved to include early-access passes, providing players with a head start, along with special cosmetic items. In addition, the introduction of additional in-game purchases, which often feel required to enjoy the game fully, but are ultimately entirely optional, has now become the norm for many games, especially select F2P titles. Mobile games follow these same models as well and popularized in-game purchases during the rise of smartphones in the early 2010’s. As the next generation of gamers flocked to mobile games and adjusted to these new revenue models, they helped establish gaming as we know it today. But, what else are F2P games doing to make them so popular?
F2P games allow you to try the game out before you decide to spend money and take the game more seriously. This is the modern equivalent of a Demo, which was very popular back before 2010. In fact, most people who utilize Torrents to “illegally download” video games only did so because official demos for games became non-existent. As a way to avoid games being downloaded for free through certain websites, companies opted for online-only games, which fit perfectly well within the F2P model. However…the same problem I mentioned earlier rears its ugly head: how do you resell your in-game purchases once you’re done with the game?
The P2E model is the solution for being able to resell in-game purchases. Since any of these transactions will either be an NFT or a standardized token ( multi-chain gaming, anyone? ), you can easily resell your items on the market over time. Speculation is one thing, but just being able to get most of your money back is what we all want. The value of this utility is massive.
Which P2E games am I personally excited for? Well, considering I purchased a Gold VIP Pass for BigTime recently, that answers your question! The OpenDAO is creating a gaming guild for BigTime, and since we’re the largest DAO that invests in BigTime, we’re taking things seriously; but not too seriously, we want to have fun and make new friends. If you’re interested in joining our gaming guild, please join our Discord Channel, and leave us a message. We’re also developing a gaming podcast soon, and will plan on live-streaming BigTime upon its official release.
Supporting Emerging Artists
There have been a few campaigns throughout March that were intended to support the emerging artists in our Discord. TheOpenDAO team encouraged the community to produce artworks that could be used for campaigns both on Twitter and in Discord via bountied tasks or art contests. Don’t miss out on the next campaign if you’d like to contribute on a DAO work in the creative department!
In addition, here’s an on-going campaign together with NFTwiki.org that could benefit you. Check it out!
New Forum Proposals
SOSIP 19- Replenish Operational Wallet
Community Updates & Feedback
On our Substack newsletter launch last month, we rolled out a promotional campaign where we have rewarded our 1st 1000 subscribers with 500 thousand $SOS via our DAO tipping tool Tip.cc. The reward has been airdropped to the Discord names of the winners. Join our Discord and navigate to #giveaway channel to check if you are one of the winners.
To coordinate the gaming guild for the Big Time P2E partnership, there are now dedicated channels for the community members to discuss the forming of gaming guilds as well as to share game resources and materials in our Discord.
Learn More About The OpenDAO
Take a look at our Notion page and our social media websites to learn more about The OpenDAO!
I haven't any sos 😪 for giving vote,sorry 😔