last night I went through some of the "blockchain based games" that are out there. I'm sure there are a couple more, but it is truly unchartered waters. I can't believe why there aren't more projects? Especially the cards collection game genre, which has a proven track record of being very popular with almost every generation.
Anything from basketball cards, hockey cards, pokemon, magic gathering, and probably thousands of other more obscure collectable cards have been popular with humans for decades. Their limited edition makes some of them incredibly valuable. But in the digital age, physical cards have lost some of their attractiveness, especially to the young ones.
I remember we used to bike down to the town centre where I grew up when I was about 10. The woman running the yarn shop had been to a trip to the US, and she came home with a bunch of basketball cards. This was early-mid 90's so Harlem Globetrotters, rap music and all of this was going international thanks to Internet and globalization. And I remember the insane excitement of opening a package, and the sheer joy when you got a special back with only special cards in it. I still have my cards somewhere (but I forgot where. They are nicely taken care of in containers, so if I do find them someday, I bet they are worth a little bit)
Anyway, with blockchain you can take it a step further. You can create epic fantasy lore, or use all ready existing lore (dungeon and dragons, warhammer etc) and combine it with things that only a computer can do. Merge cards together, randomly generate cards on the blockchain making them 100% unique.
In Augmentorsgame (DATABITS) which I have written about earlier (and have invested in) they are going to combine augmented reality, I guess sort of like Pokemon Go with blockchain collectable cards. So basically you have an army of different creatures with different skills and value/uniqueness, and as you play, win and level up these cards obviously get more valuable in the game. These cards can then be sold or bought on an exchange using smart contracts.
I think this is brilliant, and I'm eager to play these sorts of games. So yesterday I tried out Spells of Genesis on android, which is probably the only decent blockchain based cards game.
The game is basically very simple. You have some cards and they shoot lasers (which is supposed to be magic) at enemy cards. There is some physics involved, which I think is sort of lame, and does not have anything to do with strategy games or rpg games. So it seems like they have focused more on those "cheap" effects than actual game engine. There is no sophisticated mechanics in the game it seems. Just attack vs save and some spells and healing.
And as you fight enemies you get gold, and you can buy more cards for that gold. You can also level up your cards to the point that they become "blockchain cards" meaning they are eligible to be traded on the blockchain with something called Book of Orbs Here you can purchase or sell cards with Bitcrystals or Foldingcoin. Unfortunately the transaction fees or gas is on the Bitcoin blockchain, which has resulted in what seems like abandonment. Cards value has gone dramatically the past year due to this.
Conclusion
It's sort of frustrating, because I see a potential gold mine - both for those who are able to make a good game in the collectible cards / fantasy lore /strategy-rpg genre. But in order to really succeed I think they need to make a really good game as well. It shouldn't be too hard to make a online game with the same rules or mechanics as warhammer or magic gathering or even way better where the cards are tradable on the blockchain.
I predict that the first game that is able to do that in a proper way will have great success (as Borat would have said) and people playing those games early able to have a lot of fun AND make a lot of profits on their gaming.
Augmentorsgame (DATABITS) is a step in the right direction I believe. There isn't much info on the game mechanics yet, but I'm very excited to see what they are up to. I think I will abandon my Saga of Genesis journey after only a day. If it's not fun, and not even very profitable either - I don't see the point. It should at least be one of the two, right? :)
I have no doubt in my mind that implementing blockchain into computer games will be HUGE. And I will throw money at any ambitious, creative and serious project that comes up.