Will you still play DrugWars?

In one of the most recent posts made by @drugwars, they mentioned that they have stopped using "custom_json " operations to commit users' actions to the Steem blockchain. In addition, they also removed the feature to share to Steem.

Is it still a Steem app?

Removing the feature to share to Steem is not so much of a problem as they still maintain the feature to share to their TokenBB forum. As I know, @tokenbb is also built on Steem, so I think by sharing on the DrugWars forum, users will still get votes. This is overall a good change as I do find those battle sharing posts on Steem a little annoying.

However, the decision to remove "custom_json " operations was what raised many Steemians' eyebrows. Many Steemians question whether DrugWars is still a Steem app if they no longer commit users' activities to the blockchain. Here are some of the comments made by Steemians,

@onthewayout said,

"In other words, officially drugwars is no longer a steem app. It doesn't contribute to increase demand for steem nor to spread awareness for it. It was "fun" while it lasted.
The only link it has to the blockchain is when users post on the forum. Good luck with your project, sincerely."

@therealwolf said,

"You've removed pretty much any connection to the blockchain (besides your own tokens), converting it essentially from a hybrid dApp to a standard centralised browser game?"

@bryan-imhoff said,

"Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the changes... but with dropping the custom JSON, is there really any substantive connection left to the Steem blockchain? Is any of the data archived to Steem periodically to create that verifiable asset ownership or does linking your Steem account simply enable a sort of funds withdrawal route if desired?"

While "custom_json" is removed for each action, @drugwars did mention in one of the comments that they still send 1 "custom_json" operation to the blockchain everyday for each active user. I thought they meant they batch 1 full day of users' action into 1 "custom_json" operation and store it into Steem blockchain. However, that doesn't seem to be the case as the JSON data seems to be just keeping track of a datetime value. Probably just tracking if I am an active player?

Hence, I say that DrugWars is no longer a Steem app. And when @steemdapps did a dpoll on this topic, I voted "No".

What I appreciate

Amidst all these changes, I do still appreciate @drugwars effort to promote Steem to the greater audience. This is pretty evident on their login/registration page. They are encouraging potential users to create a Steem account through Steem Ninja in order to gain an advantage.

They still maintain Steem Connect as a login option,

Overall, I can understand why they want to improve they gaming experience by switching to a centralized model. This is obviously to gain a wider audience. If they are able to achieve that, it will still be beneficial to Steem if they continue to allow Steem to be used for in-app purchases.

What I think could have been done

I think there are 2 main reasons why they switched to a centralized model. First, they want a faster and seamless gaming experience for users. I think speed issues became obvious ever since they introduced this change to allow quick spying of targets.

By clicking on "Spy", the game automatically send out a Spy to the target. In effect, it is as though the gamer head over to the "Battle" screen and add 1 spy to the battle and send it to the target. This change is good. It streamlined the overall process of spying. However, the developers likely noticed that gamers are spamming the "Spy" button too quickly and some of these activities are lost as not all of them can be committed in time to Steem blockchain.

The quick spying feature is the only function that I had problem with prior to @drugwars changing to a pure centralized model. The other features were working pretty smoothly since gamers will typically not spam too many actions within a short span of time. E.g. You won't be buying troops or buildings very quickly. Hence, I thought to fix this, they could have easily use a multi-select method to allow users to select multiple targets and spy at one go. This is similar to a "shopping cart" system. This way, they can commit 1 big transaction to the blockchain instead of multiple small ones and fix the speed issue.

The second problem I see is @drugwars trying to allow Google/Facebook logins. This means that there might be new users who are not already on Steem. When that happens, they will not be able to commit activities from those users to the Steem blockchain.

I think this can be solved by having @drugwars temporarily committing activities on behalf of these new users. They can add a new JSON data field with an userID and commit activities to Steem using the @drugwars account. They can then create a mechanism to map all these activities to the non-Steem user later on if he/she ever create a Steem account.

Conclusion

This post is meant to be an objective view of the recent changes related to DrugWars and I am not trying to berate them for the changes. In fact, I am still playing DrugWars and I still enjoy it. The @drugwars team have been making continuous improvements in terms of gameplay and usability. Hence, I still think that this is a game worth my time.

Objectively, DrugWars is no longer a Steem app. So my only ask is for the team to not market the game as such because this will be an awful misrepresentation. If the team is more forthcoming to admit this, I think many angry Steemians will be more understanding.

Thanks for reading and do let me know if you are still playing the game. If not, is it because it is no longer a Steem app?

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Will you still play DrugWars? | Ecency