On September 12th, Gametaverse is honored to have Craig, the Head of Community for Blockstars - a music management simulation game on Solana, join us in our #ama Discord channel. He has shared important insights about the GameFi market as well as their promising project.
Here is a recap of this AMA session:
Session One: “A Revolution in Gaming“
Q1: How do you view GameFi as a new category/subset of crypto or the blockchain system? What concept attracted you to join this sector in the first place?
There are two things that really drew me to GameFi on the blockchain 1: Economic tools and advantage 2. Ownership & partnership with the community of players.
Game economies are very tricky and can be hard to manage in traditional spaces. The gameplay feeds inflation and your success/reward as a player diminishes. As an example, in FarmVille, coins were inflationary by their very nature vs. Farm Bucks which were pay to play.
Players ended up earning millions and millions of coins because the game design gave them constantly but offered no real use. "Buy another cow for 10 million coins please!" Boring!
Blockchain is letting us take advantage of GameFi and build a better economic model with anti-inflationary game loops that make sure the coin you earn ($ROL in our case) holds value better. Because people can buy a token to get in, we don't need to have the "Hard money currency" in a game and the inflated "Oh it's fun! Coins."
Game ownership and partnership are even more impactful. In web2 games the goal is to get you into the game and paying within minutes. That's why you see all the "New player bundles" on a mobile game.
Very few people ever pay in web2, like single digit %'s. So the game company will do almost anything to get you to convert and then, in six months or so when you are done. You've got nothing but time spent and (hopefully) entertainment. GameFi obliterates that. Our players are our partners. Our community are our advisors.
We can talk with them openly about our game and its economy because they are all "payers" in web2 language - and they all stand to benefit if we get it right. On top of that, you own the tokens. We don't. So we get to focus on building a great game around those tokens. We don't have to take them back or force you to buy more.
Q2: What major pain points or opportunities did you identify and decide to leverage with your project?
Opportunity: Economic tools
Like I mentioned before, the economic tools of web3/GameFi are very attractive compared to web2. I want to be clear, the economic tools in web2 are much more developed and robust right now vs web3 where the creation of tools is in it's infancy.
That noted, a well run web2 analytics and economic setup is focused almost entirely on "What's it going to take to get people to give us money today?" GameFi, as we build it out (as a community of developers) is letting us ask new, better questions. "Is our economy under control and protecting our players’ investments to the best of our rational ability?" "What value do the players and community at large see our project and game offering?" (holders) "Are we returning an interesting and compelling reward for the time invested?"
Because Blockstars is a management sim, the game is all about spending time reviewing your financial results as a player - and trying to find opportunities to have your songs do better on the singles charts vs. other managers.
Another perk in the Opportunity category is that reward for investing in a project. 100% of a projects holders are "payers" in web2 parlance - so that's not a point where we need a robust GameFi economic model to tell us when someone is frustrated enough to buy and play to win. Instead we get to monitor their play and ask ourselves if we are making it fun and rewarding. It's about making a fun game that people don't want to quit. And all of the behavior and player activity monitoring that you expect from a web2 game is just flipped to "Are we providing value and entertainment."
Nobody is going to get a Lambo flipping a Blockstar, but they can play our game as we continue to build it, earn rewards in the game that can transfer out of it, and - when they get tired and want something new - the option to hold for future value, or exit for the liquidity.
This is a revolution in gaming. It's the reason, I believe, that web3 is going to become dominant. We are, by every measure, doing the right thing when we think about making something fun and rewarding for our players.
The last opportunity that's major is that It's.Your.Toke. That ownership is more than just the "Oh 100% have paid" factor. It's yours. You can take our tokens to the metaverse (we give 3D files). Everyone says that, but it's interesting and true. More important: You can use them how you see fit.
Another gaming project could literally be making a music game and say "Instead of funding an art budget, let's make a game that let people who hold a Blockstar play. Let's save on art, get existing web3 gamers and make Super Mario Blockstars Brothers.
If you made a game to use the actual Minecraft art in the same way, Microsoft would (rightfully) sue you into oblivion. They own the game. You just play it. Web3, the opportunity, perhaps the most important one - is that you own it. We made thee tokens, we minted them, and now they are yours. We're just making a game that uses them.
Q3: What are the unexpected obstacles you’ve encountered and insights/best practices you’ve learnt along the development and marketing process?
There are two significant obstacles we've found since we got started (we minted in February). Both of them can be summed up with "While we are going to web3 for GameFi, we are not a hype project poised to pump & dump and leave anyone holding the bag." When we minted, the Discord/Twitter accounts blew up to about 30,000 people each.
The activity was crazy and yeah, fun – BUT everyone was in full WEN MOON mode and we had to quickly focus on making it clear that we weren't sending. We were, and still are, building a game - you can play and earn for sure, but it's a game first. It has to be fun.
Axie is play TO earn and a trap. People started playing it as a job. It didn't have to be fun, they were drawn to a better paycheck, which meant the development team now has this burden of somehow staying alive as a game project, without turning all the people who rely on it for income away. That's almost impossible over time due to economies
We are, adamantly, play AND earn. Nobody is going to quit their job to play Blockstars as the primary income. BUT we hope everyone who does play has a very fun time AND manages to exit with value when they are done. If you play for a year and have a great time and then liquidate for enough money to get into another game? That's awesome. it's an ideal.
A paycheck? Nope. That's not Blockstars and, especially at mint, it was a huge obstacle to communicate. Because people were too busy flooding the channel with hype that we ended up needing to counter with very clear language. Our goal is to make a game, which is, the other side of the coin. Not only did we need to teach people that we are not a pump and dump... we had to explain that we aren't pure P2E with a promise of profits.
All along the way everyone has asked us to chase the meta of the week. Conflip, Casinos, Marketplaces, Auction Houses, A Rugged TOkens Tool, etc. "Why aren't you X like ?" and it's because we are building the game. That's what we do. We are doxxed - go look (Craig Dalrymple on LinkedIn).
We make the games. We don't pump and dump and we don't chase trends of the week. That would distract us from making the game. A bit back "gameplay" was meta of the week and that was nice. This has been an obstacle because a lot of Solana GameFi players aren't used to that so they don't know what to think when they see us. We end up being "Boring" but the secret there is that boring is good.
Bear market? We didn't change our plans. Solana Summer Slump? We didn't change our plans. Meta of the Week? We didn't change our plans. We know what we are making, we communicate it clearly to our players and talk with them about other ideas, and then we get it done. I had people point me at hundreds of projects who did meta of the week "Why aren't you like these people?" At this point my answer is "They didn't have focus and have collapsed over the summer." A great thinning of the ranks has happened - Blockstars stuck to the plan and it carried us through.
Making sense of that for people who expect us to pump and dump or meta out like crazy is a challenge - but I love it because our plan has integrity. We make games that are (hopefully) fun.
Q4: What’s your business model and how’s it different/innovative compared with other projects in the same category?
At the risk of being repetitive - we are play AND earn instead of play TO earn. That difference speaks a LOT to the business model. We are working on a game business that's self-sustaining, tuned well economically, and is rewarding to our players. I don't think we are the only play AND earn team out there - it's beginning to pick up steam as play TO earn starts to show its weaknesses......but that's what we've been from the start, so our roadmap didn't have to adjust to this change.
It's also what makes us different than web2. If we did Blockstars on web2, we'd have to figure out how to get people to play to win. That entire platform/model is just how it goes there. It's proven. Investors will fund that. Web3 let's us partner with the players instead of forcing them to pay to enjoy it.
Another differentiation is that we are a music management simulation game. The only one on the blockchain to our knowledge. There are games focused on music, but they aren't a management sim. If you don't know what that is, look up Football Manager. The game is about managing an entire team as a business.
Blockstars is like that but you are the manager of bands. Epstein to the Beatles as an example. You win when your bands win. Management sims are HUGE but a small corner of the mainstream gaming market. So we are different by working in that (sizeable) niche, and by embracing the strengths of web3. In both cases, the answer to "What are you doing?" is "Making a game that thrives on Solana."
Our governance token, $ROC has been vetted by one of thee top U.S. legal firms in crypto. So we are absolutely taking care of that side of the business and keeping it legal ...but we are making a game.
This is the best link if anyone is genuinely interested and I'm not speaking clearly https://whitepaper.blockstars.gg/. I was hired the week after this dropped. I read it on Sunday and was all in. On Monday we started talking offer letter. Beyond that, absolutely follow @Ana|Twitter Host on Twitter. She showcases Blockstars and so many other projects.
Q5: What’s your opinion on the current GameFi market? Bullish or bearish? Why?
I'm a BULL. I have not flinched at all with the bear market and slump. It's real and it's created projects with a ton of potential - but that's the nature of marketplaces.
This is an extremely good time to ape into projects that will stand the test of time (NFA, DYOR) and that's the approach I'm taking. Right now GameFi is at the "I play Snakes on my Nokia phone!" level of success.
People know about it, but it's not all compelling and nobody at the time would have imagined the iPhone creating and defining the truth strength of mobile games. Taking this assumption as the foundation of my view on the market? I want to find the Web3 Apple. None of us know who that is, they may not exist yet.
I'm making my marketplace bets with that in mind. I got burned on one last week, I'm still alive and as far as that pertains to Blockstars. Like everyone else, I need a paycheck to pay the bills. I feel secure in what we are doing. I can’t promise we are going to be that iPhone app store for web3 (we aren't making an app store), but I believe we will be here in five years - which is a few web3 lifetimes.
Is it hard times right now? Yes. That said, I think the hard times are just pulling weeds. People who didn't have a plan, or are hit with unfortunate surprises they can't adapt to are being culled. It's no fun, but it's reality in any market, including GameFi.
Session Two: About Blockstars
Q.1 A lot of NFTs projects are trending now. A lot of projects come out related to NFT. If we are to rate the potential of the #blockstars, what can it bring and how do you deal with security threats of your project?
I see two questions, so I'll try to answer each briefly!
What's the potential of Blockstars? Only our community knows! If we do our job well, it'll hold value while delivering fun and we will continue with new sets to add new game features and value dynamics to the game. We minted a "Buy One Get One Free" price of 1.0 SOL (0.5 each).
Right now we are at 0.45 SOL after the entire summer, a bear market, and people who only wanted pump and dump to fade. In terms of that kind of value, we've held even when others have tanked. I'm proud of that and confident that it speaks to our future.
How do we deal with security threats? We have this creature known as Cojo. He's our CTO, very experienced in online gaming, and security. Nobody is bulletproof, but he and the team work hard to make sure we are as secure as can be, both in terms of codebase/network stuff, and us other humans making mistakes. Ultimately, that's more than several projects have right now (it's early). We do security reviews and other things you'd expect.
Note: We are two tokens away from 0.5 in terms of value - at which point it's a break even on the SOL price (though SOL is still down of course), i.e. I think we are showing our community of player owners the long term path!
Q2. How necessary is ROL for your project and what is its role and objective, and what are the benefits of letting it hold?
Full details here for the curious: https://whitepaper.blockstars.gg/tokenomics/gameplay-token-usdrol.
Shorter answer: $ROL is mandatory for gameplay. If you are managing a single Blockstar and you tell them to go practice their instrument, you have to pay their daily wage for every day they practice. Why do that? Because they'll be better and when they perform they'll earn more $ROL.
So, the goal of a manager is to quickly get their Blockstar(s) in a state of $ROL generation. This is why we run a lot of community contests for the $ROL prizes. To help people start, someone also listed $ROL in a liquidity pool on Raydium so you can buy in or sell out. Https://raydium.io/swap/?inputCurrency=sol&outputCurrency=4k3Dyjzvzp8eMZWUXbBCjEvwSkkk59S5iCNLY3QrkX6R&outputAmount=0&fixed=in.
The baseline $ROL to get started is not a crazy amount - and varies by Blockstars. The best way to assess earning potential and the salary, before buying, is to check the Oracle. A tool made by some of our friends (free). Pop in a Blockstars token # and you can see all kinds of gameplay info https://blockstars.tools/oracle/.
Q3: How do you plan to spread awareness about your project in countries/regions where English is not spoken well like Indonesia, Vietnam India Bangladesh and Iran? Do you have local communities for them to make a better understanding of your project?
We absolutely have drawn in players from around the world to Blockstars. I think it'd be almost impossible to make a web3 game that doesn't cross borders. That said, right now our only focus is on getting the game to v1.0 which can be thought of like this: "I can buy a Blockstar(s) and profit as a band manager by having them work.
If I work hard and figure out the optimal path, I can even have my Blockstar(s) cut singles that chart well and make me significant $ROL returns!" That's a LOT of work, starting from zero last December. So we don't plan to localize outside of English until the game is actually complete.
Localization is a hard process that's well worth it - but we need to get a game built first. THEN we show the world. Right now on our Discord (https://discord.gg/blockstars), we have language based channels for Chinese and Spanish because there was enough demand to build them a room to speak about the game and help each other translate our English. The actual gameplay won't be localized yet, but when we do...I have several contacts in the countries mentioned who want to help us promote!
Q4: The crypto market has expanded rapidly. Many sectors and new technologies have been incorporated in combination with the traditional one. Who are the strongest competitors that Blockstars has and how can they develop in that regard?
That's a great question and really hard to answer. I think that the strongest competitors have yet to emerge. It's all so early. In several of our spaces we like to use this quote: "A rising tide lifts all boats." And we take it to heart. Any time a Solana project wins and brings new people to our blockchain, we win with them! We thank them!
Any time a GameFi game/project brings a web2 gamer over to web3 and they finally see that it's more than PFP's, we win with them! It's not about driving anyone out of the market (competitor); it's about building the market with them. The more we all do that, the better. One day it'll get competitive. Right now I think that's a bad business plan. There are a few million people gaming on the blockchain. There are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS in web2. Why compete? Work together to convert (from web2). Every music game or sim game that comes to Solana is a treasured friend and gift.
Q5: Do I need to hold an NFT or hold a certain amount of tokens in order to enjoy or play your game?
Yes, anyone new to Blockstars needs to hold two things:
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A Blockstar they want to manage (https://magiceden.io/marketplace/blockstars).
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Sufficient $ROL to pay their salary.
Magic Eden Blocstars are FP 0.45. 100,000 $ROL on the Raydium LP is 0.14 SOL.
So for under 0.75 SOL you can get in and play. Solana's sitting at just shy of $38 bucks so that's less than a new game on Steam or your console. Short answer is "Yes, at least one Blockstar and some $ROL". Longer answer, I just linked the tools you need to DYOR! Also join us on Discord and you can ask the crew anything before you ever buy.
Session Three: The Team & Gameplay
Q1: Does your NFT rarity have some hidden benefits in game or is it just some aesthetics?
This is a very good question and important to understand! The cosmetic rarity of a Blockstar is hard coded to the chain and will not change. It's exactly what you might expect from the PFP perspective. Certain looks, instruments, etc. are rarer.
Only one PFP element impacts the game (to my current awareness). The background color for the Blockstar. It's somewhat of a reflection of their personality, which will play into our upcoming Bands features and more. We haven't shared deeply about how it all works, so that's something you'd want to come ask about at a Town Hall ("How does the color work")
EVERYTHING ELSE about a Blockstar's ability to play music and improve is independent of their starting rarity. i.e. You can't change their hat, but you can make them a better Tuba player.
Q2: How many blockchains are supported by #BlockStars? Do you plan to integrate more?
Currently just Solana. The team spent a good amount of time (this time last year) researching all the different chains and what they offered for GameFi.
We chose Solana and will develop there as a priority - but are not against the idea of cross chain later in the development path.
Q3: Could you please tell about your team members? are they qualified and professional in their fields? what are the recruiting qualifications for team members for your extraordinary project?
In general, we are all doxxed so it's easy to quality check our ability to make a game. Our founder and CEO is Niko Vuori who has been in gaming since the early 2,000's and successfully built and sold the mobile game company Rocket Games. Sherrie Chen is our Chief Product Officer and worked with us at Zynga back in the day. She's also been with other Silicon Valley companies/startups and is well tuned to being here. Cory Johonson (Cojo) is our CTO and was also at Zyga - he also worked on EVE Online so coding for an economic game is something he's done before. Our credentials are strong, we've done this before and are realistic about what it takes. We can do it; we just stay focused.
Q4: What are the requirements or qualifications for playing your game, and who is eligible? Is there a step-by-step guide or tutorial available for those new to your game?
Anyone with a Solana wallet and enough $SOL to buy a Blockstar and some $ROL can play. Solana + Wallet + Internet Access on a web browser We aren't building for mobile until some future date. We are uploading the tutorials on Discord later this week (https://discord.gg/blockstars) and have a sponsored YouTube stream/show that teaches gameplay. Plus, we'll help anyone.
Q5: Will you intend to recruit non-crypto investors to your project? Because a project's success invites new investors to the crypto sector. What are your plans for getting the word out about your initiative outside of the cryptosphere?
Yes, our main goal is to appeal to management simulation gamers. Right now we need to make noise for the ones who are also into crypto, but as the game gets to v1.0 and releases we will push out of crypto into the mainstream and say "Hey! Here's a good/fun game that you can consider and here's why! Also look at this amazing community. It's better than you'd ever know!" It means some traditional marketing, press releases, interviews, etc.
Anyone that wants to know, please ask us on Discord or join us this Thursday on Twitter. We do a weekly Town Hall/AMA for our players.
At last…
We’re proud of each and everyone in here, showing support and enthusiasm towards our project and Blockstars. Hope you enjoy this recap! Follow us on social media to receive timely news, and stay tuned:
Twitter: twitter.com/GametaverseDAO
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOjqmiPOPAqQYSCUev-I0w
Discord: discord.gg/px9EY6zz2W
Telegram: t.me/gametaverse
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