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Category: Crypto

I don’t hate Web3

Published by Paolo on 29/09/2023

Every time I hear about web3 I feel mixed sentiments. Some week ago at a local games fair, an executive I know asked me “Why are you against NFTs?“. The fact is that I am not against any technology.

I just have my point of view, probably wrong on many points as every point of view. Today I want to expose the contrast I have.

I will always support creators

First of all, to me attacking any creator is like a mortal sin. There are people really struggling for innovation working hard every day. I admire and respect those people. They have also the luxury of playing with new toys (blockchain, NFTs, and so on). I worked for one client on a project like this and I clearly saw vision and passion. It may work, it may not. But the passion is there.

Nobody should attack the others for their ideas. I blocked very smart professionals who spend their time attacking others (including me). To me, spaces like LinkedIn are to lift others up. So, to any creator out there: go for it!

Web3 is about solving a problem

On the other side, I have my experience and my career. And what I know is that game companies are not tech companies. Tech companies create technologies to solve problems, their business is there. Games companies, instead, are in the entertainment business. In games, we use many technologies to entertain people and also to improve our business operations.

When I read things like “web3 has proven to be the revolution…” honestly I smile. Web3 means nothing for people and gamers. If they want to play a game, they run their console/mobile/PC and play. Someone plays on web browsers. They look for entertainment, not for web3 entertainment. They choose where to play, at a desk, on the sofa. Web3 offers no new places to play. So that it’s not a revolution.

Web3 is a set of technologies that can in the future solve the huge issue of payment systems and platform fees. Everyone dreams of skipping those costs, so I understand why it can be important. But consumer side, there is nothing valuable to me.

When I play a game with a progression system, a strategy, or an RPG, I already have the feeling that I own what I have inside of the game. What I have inside of a game makes sense only inside that magic circle. There is no value in bringing it outside. Some game like Baldur’s Gate 1 lets you export your character for the second chapter. And that’s cool, but you don’t need web3 for that.

As long as I don’t see any new venue to play or a revolutionary form of entertainment for the players, I will never give credit to any web3 storytelling.

When a game designer steps in

Published by Paolo on 11/07/2022

There has been a lot of talk lately about the usefulness of video game fairs. This year at the most important fair in Brazil, BIG Festival, game designer Mark Venturelli confirmed their usefulness.

He envisions a show fully sponsored by new brands that have received massive funding to promote their pyramid schemes. Imagine seeing logos of brands that have never created a successful video game or console invade your spaces little by little.

This is where heroes like Mark Venturelli enter the scene. With the excuse of presenting a speech on the future of game design, Mark instead explained why NFTs are a nightmare. Explaining the obvious, but giving a pure game design base, our hero got a standing ovation.

Video here:

Slides in English here:

Last post on crypto games

Published by Paolo on 06/05/2022

After many months studying and deepening these technologies in detail, I have come to an important conclusion. The video game industry deserves to broaden the audience and encourage access to more people. We don’t have to shrink if we want to grow.

Crypto technology was developed with the sole objective of evading controls of banks and states on the circulation of value.

There is an attempt to force these technologies into video games, as video games have demonstrated their ability to attract people’s attention.

These technologies are not necessary in video games. The video games are necessary for these technologies!

All implementations are solutions designed for nonexistent problems. We don’t need this bullcrap in our industry.

I understand that there are a lot of investments. We are facing another fever for the novelty. But we are because people, especially those who move money, do not delve into the history of the video game. All significant revolutions have resulted in a broader audience and a significant improvement in accessibility.

These crypto-bullshits, on the other hand, unnecessarily complicate things to create pyramid schemes designed for people who get drawn into these traps!

Superbiased rant on NFT Devs

Published by Paolo on 28/04/2022

Digital goods are taking on a great importance in our lives. My LinkedIn profile has value to me. This blog is a digital good. Scarcity and authenticity are two values ​​that can be found in some digital goods. Guilds in video games are composed by a limited number of Players and this scarcity generates a market. On Twitter many want the blue symbol of verified profile, authenticity. Scarcity and authenticity of digital assets are the real potential of NFTs.

Three types of people are making NFT video games: newbies, f2p explorers and the old guard.

Newbies

Newbies are groups of people who have never made a video game and want to start on the hardest part. Some of them worked in e-sports, so that they have experience in community management. They include game mechanics that bring Players to purchase NFTs. There are huge technological challenges, aside from the normal struggles of making a great game for the right people. 

F2p Explorers

They have spent a period of their lives in the f2p industry. Both SaaS professionals and AAA veterans have joined the movement of free games as a service. They have explored the importance of connecting people in order to create services that can last for years. In NFTs they see the possibility of creating groups of people that stick in a game to be part of the elite. People who, in exchange for a hefty investment, will connect with other wealthy people like themselves. The main value added to the market with the disruption of free-to-play was democratisation of gaming experiences. So that they are most willing to look for the right balance between the two philosophies. 

The Old Guard

Well-respected names, successful game makers. These folks seem to be absolutely fascinated by the potential of NFTs and are using their way of making games to experiment with this new toy. Of the three groups, they are perhaps the ones who have the most chance of getting something interesting out of it. Something that will probably be copied and improved and people after them will get the real economic benefits. Not a problem for them, those people are already wealthy!

Conclusion

NFT are a solution in search of a problem to be solved. I came to this personal conclusion after a careful analysis lasting a few months. Maybe in 10 years we will see something interesting coming out. 

What the sector needs right now, urgently, is to speak the language of Players. All the content I see and hear out there is speaking the language of traders. This is attracting the attention of people interested in an easy way to make money. We should put our focus on goals, experiences, rewards, entertainment, competition, self-expression. Our aim should be the people looking for “gamename tips for doingthat” and not “how to make money with gamename”.

This is my superbiased rant, hope you liked it!

Art explains tech trends today

Published by Paolo on 21/02/2022

Is video game art for you? For me it is. What is the result of human creative work and comes to attract the attention of other people can be defined as art.

If the video game is art, it is interesting to study the history of art to understand many of its facets. Part of the history of art is the time when living artists realized that they could have very large profits from a simple certificate of originality of an artistic work.

Which explains a lot of the NFT movement that has fully invested the video game in recent months.

This reporter explains it better than me. Enjoy it.

If a videogame is a piece of art, instead of creating multiple NFTs why not embed your whole masterpiece in a single NFT?

Two ideas for video games of the future

Published by Paolo on 23/11/2021

The approach I see when people talk about NFT and decentralized technologies is about two sides: money and technology.


Money is useful for starting a project and is the result of the value that the game gives to people. 

Technology is the medium that allows us to develop our games.

If we really want to find value though, we have to talk about the base of game design: the experience that we desire to give to our Players. Their emotions and their feelings.

I don’t like the expression “play-to-earn”, I have never liked it. It sounds like work, not like a game. I don’t think the play-to-earn model is the ultimate model that will blow everything else out. I don’t think it will be the dominant model of the next few years in games. Probably I am wrong, I have been wrong many times anyways.


I believe, however, that there is a chance that these technologies will be a very important part of the gaming experiences of the future.


The first idea I believe in is in the strength of assets that can be sold by developers and that represent collective achievements. Imagine finishing an epic mission in a virtual world with a thousand other Players. A mission that changes the history of that virtual world forever. A virtual painting that represents the result of that collective mission could be of great value to the players who participated in it. Being a painting, it could be hung in any room of any other game that accepts it.


The second idea I believe in is the possibility of trading NFTs for other NFTs. Many players collect NFTs and don’t want to sell them. Some of them would trade them for others. Imagine connecting your wallet to a swap service. Imagine being able to list the NFTs you want to trade. So imagine seeing other people’s NFTs and proposing exchanges. You can swap one NFT for another, multiple NFTs for one or maybe add some cryptocurrency to reinforce the proposition.