A large part of the world population spends billions of hours a week between them playing video games of every sort. Whether this is time well-spent or not may seem to be largely a subjective matter. However, as far as the gaming industry is concerned, much of this time is objectively wasted. Neither the players nor the game developers get as much value out of it as they could. This is especially true when it comes to marketing: Ads in games are a commonly cited irritant among gamers, which can actually cause them to backfire, driving away potential customers. At best, they are simply ineffective.
Mfun offers a new paradigm for game marketing, one in which time spent playing is also spent earning and saving money. Its platform would allow game companies to engage more directly with their players, rewarding their loyalty and interest while phasing out expensive and misguided ad campaigns. Meanwhile the players would receive direct incentives to engage with marketing efforts, turning a nuisance into an opportunity.
How will the Mfun Platform work?
By adding their games to the platform, game developers will become part of the Mfun token economy. That means making some amount of proof-of-stake mined Mfun tokens available for use in various smart contract-powered reward schemes for their players. Tokens could be awarded on a regular basis for time spent playing or (if the player accepts this option) for additional actions, such as watching video ads, taking part in surveys or installing new games. Those tokens could then be spent on in-app purchases elsewhere on the system. It will be possible for users to upvote games, which will determine the size of Mfun rewards their developers get from the platform. Mfun will levy a 5% fee on all transactions to replenish its reward pool.
The users' personal data will be secured by them not needing anything more than an account, a wallet and a phone number to engage with the system (the latter being used for authentication purposes). Non-personal data on the userbase, on the other hand, will go to the developers directly. Machine learning-enhanced algorithms will be used to both refine the activity clocking system (used for time rewards) and identify and suspend bot accounts with the help of an ACL system. A limit-request-per-minute system will work to deter spam. SDKs will be provided to partner businesses and game developers to help them integrate their applications with the Mfun platform.
What might make Mfun a winning proposition?
Mfun was developed by an experienced IT team with a strategic focus on South-East Asian markets. Its idea is a good fit for this region, as games, particularly the casual or social games of the sort this platform is likely to attract, are currently very popular there, yet local companies struggle to compete with better-funded foreign ones. A more decentralised and direct marketing solution would therefore suit them well. Already, it has received the support of several prominent Indonesian companies in the field.
It is clear that the system has a lot to offer to its stakeholders. For users, its design will reduce the risk of data theft while allowing them to earn tokens for doing things they would likely have been doing for free anyway (playing games, watching ads). Those tokens could then be put back into the ecosystem or else sold for real money. Companies, meanwhile, will have considerably expanded opportunities for cheaper, more precise and efficient marketing and better engagement with their target market.
ICO details
The ERC-20 Mfun token pre-sale is meant to take place in August and September 2018, while the public sale is scheduled for October.
Constructing a unified gaming ecosystem
Video game marketing solutions are a crowded field. This speaks to the appeal of Mfun's suggestions, but also suggests they may face stiff competition from other companies working on implementing token reward mechanisms. While it does well to pay attention to security concerns and ecosystem dynamics, the main factor that makes this company stand out is its geographic focus. South-East Asia's casual game market may prove to be a springboard for the global success of the Mfun platform and its model.
Whether it will or not depends in no small part on the kind of games it will attract. Its early partnerships, at least, suggest that it will have some games to start with, but it would surely flounder if it relies on the offerings of one game company. On the other hand, if more companies decide to try out its model, it may gain widespread acceptance and corner the local market. So far, the signals sent out by Mfan are mixed. Its engagement with prospective supporters has been rather limited. On the other hand, it did receive positive press coverage, particularly in Indonesia. Perhaps that will be enough for it to start and interested game developers will do the rest.
Links:
Website: https://mfun.io/
WhitePaper: https://mfun.io/Mfun-White-Paper.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/mfunofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mfunofficial
Medium: https://t.me/mfunofficial
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4415738.0
Author: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=980049
mhgeekiyanage https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2164538;sa=summary
