cause no one likes a post with no pictures
Summary
In a market that can't seem to decide if blockchains,NFTs,etc. are the next big thing or a bane on every industry it touches. I think there is an unexplored angle to using these technologies to better the Game Development community and the players, without resorting to the usual gaming models adopted by blockchain games.
Below I will lay out a summary of each concept to be accompanied by a full in depth article of each.
Act 1: eSports how about dSports(DeSports)?
We can work on the name
One of the most exciting things to evolve in the world of video games was the advent of the eSport genre or more to the point the creation of sporting events that revolve around a game and its community.
The Problem
The only legitimate servers that count towards a players progress are those run, audited, and maintained by the company that released the game. This makes the genre almost impossible for small to medium sized studios to break into, and far harder to stay in once there.
The Solution
What I propose is that game servers can run similarly to the way nodes work on Hive. Each server admin can request to become a sanctioned "League" (Powered by Hive) which then keeps track and reports all events on the server to the blockchain in order to synchronize with others. In return the developer of the game can offer these community server admins a return for running the game. Of course the idea doesn't stop at distributing costs, or income. But far, far more. All of which I will touch on in a full length document. coming soon
Act 2: Sanctioned Mods -or- DDLC (Decentralized Down Loadable Content)
DLC is one of the greatest gifts modern games can offer the end user (assuming the price tag is right and the original content was complete to begin with.) It breathes new life into old titles, allows users to enter the world again without starting over, it unlocks new and interesting modes, and at the very least gives you new things to play with. DLC is, in a way, developer created mods for the game.
The Problem
DLC and Mods are nearly identical in concept, you take an aspect of a game, and through replacing models and tweaking settings you create an all new thing to be enjoyed. Most of the time these mods are only client side changes, meaning you can change the characters or models as much as you like, but for any network player they still show as the original model. This is for good reason, as modified characters or items could change how a competition is handled or how a mach plays out so the current market would rather disallow all community created content or only allow them in the strictest of scenarios.
The Solution
What I propose is an on ramp for artists to add their creations to the game and allow them full creative ownership of the content. They can set the price, allow trading, allow resale, etc. All powered by Hive. The mod-er would need to be registered on the system and quality checks would need to be in place to keep the games running smoothly, but this coupled with the above proposal could unlock amazing potential for any game adopting these ideas. More on this in the full document, when created. These wouldn't be exactly the same as NFTs in that scarcity isn't the name of the game, but more as a means for everyone to become a part of the game in ways that are often unheard of in competitive gaming.
We'll go over this in more detail at a later date and how it differs from games that allow you to build things in game (which is also super cool).
Conclusion
These concepts will be explored in @rhemagames' up coming game Angular Velocity (See my posts about the game) and we hope to have the underpinning ready by the first demo.
As always I welcome opinions and suggestions. Feel free to follow me and @rhemagames for more updates!