Off The Grid Success Shows ‘Invisible’ Blockchain Is The Winning Game – Cointelegraph Magazine

Off the Grid, a blockchain-infused battle royale shooter, had an electric debut, with players driving 9.12 million wallets and over 100 million transactions in its first month.

But Off The Grid's use of blockchain technology is more optional than mainstream. The graphics and gameplay do not run onchain and NFT in-game items are opt-in. The game intends to open a marketplace where goods can be sold on the Gunz, Avalanche subnet. The launch GUN token will be an in-game currency used to purchase items and skins.

Its success shows that highlighting the best gameplay on blockchain elements can be a winning move for those who want to enhance the experience. Building on Q3 funding raised by game startups to $517 million, Gunzilla Games, the studio behind Off the Grid, has been helped by reliable backing from VanEck.

Some of the industry's most high-profile games, such as World of Dyspian or the new Champions Tactic: Grimoria Chronicles by Assassin's Creed developer Ubisoft, follow this formula.

Many players hate blockchain anyway

Many players are deeply suspicious of extractive game developers that employ NFTs, which means that game companies may be better off distancing themselves from blockchain tokens but slowly allowing their players to steal their fingers.

“The players are still angry about their game [graphic] Cards have been used to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum and have never forgiven the blockchain people,” Victoria Haying, founder of Base Layer-3 gaming chain B3, told the magazine.

“Every time any big publisher said they were going to try something in blockchain, all their fans rebelled against them and posted on Discord to shut down the whole initiative.”

A number of blockchain and gaming organizations told the magazine that the key to getting more players on board with Web3 is to make blockchain itself “invisible.”

“If you load it with a bunch of hops and a weird wallet and set a pedigree, people will get into it.” […] Attention is incredibly limited, and people have unlimited options for how to spend their time and what games to play,” Amit Mahajan, founder of blockchain game studio Proof of Play, told the newspaper.

Anthony Palma, head of gaming partnerships at Sui blockchain developer Myston Labs, shares a similar vision. The sweet spot for their sector is when their content isn't referred to as Web2 or Web3 games, but simply “games.”

Blockchain is often a supplement to anything else.

Alexander Larsen, co-founder and CEO of SkyMavis – the developer of Ronin's blockchain – classifies most blockchain-based games as “Web2.5” today. Larsen's company created Axie Infinity, the most successful blockchain game to date, although its popularity has waned from its glory days.

“Even when you look at games like Axie Infinity […] A lot of transactions are off-chain,” Larson told the magazine.

For a game to be fully on-chain, it requires massive technical breakthroughs such as scalability, speed and low cost. Additionally, many competitive online games require real-time computing, or at least something close to it.

We don't really have the technological advances to put all the information we need on a chain. So, there are a lot of trade-offs that need to be made by game developers building with blockchain technology,” Ciko Knights, head of ecosystem development at Moonbeam Foundation, told the magazine.

Which blockchains are best for games?

Like the northern star, Solana was once seen as a front-runner for hosting the blockchain world's best games, but the chain has mostly been used for memecoins and decentralized finance, although the latest Breakpoint has featured impressive-looking titles like Aurory and the long-awaited Star Atlas.

Meanwhile, competitors such as Sui have emerged. Based on the Move language developed by Facebook (now Meta) to bring its stablecoin project to the world, the theoretical throughput is set at around 300,000 transactions per second. That's near-instant for modern applications, and if it can hit that in the real world, it's ideal for some competitive online multiplayer games like shooter Bushi or multiplayer online battle arena Last Salvation.

Other blockchain platforms are progressing in the gaming sector.

Immutable X, using ZK-rollups, stands out for its ability to trade or model NFTs and zero gas fees, making it a popular choice for game developers who want to incorporate blockchain without sacrificing user experience. Avalanche also differentiates itself with a subnet architecture that allows the creation of custom blockchains that optimize performance for specific game requirements, such as Gunz for Off The Grid.

Online games today

While high-end chains like Sui are needed to achieve technically superior gaming experiences, another option is to design games around the limitations of existing chains.

Mahajan's Play Studio certification doesn't make computationally intensive games like Off The Grid. Instead, it focuses on casual games with few “movements”.

In the year In 2009, Mahajan helped create Farmville, a viral Web2 social farming simulation game, and discovered that such a model could be as popular as any. FarmVille was acquired by Zynga in 2009 and joined the game portfolio in 2012 with a monthly player base of 300 million.

“We are 100% on the chain,” Mahajan said of Pirate Nation.

According to Mahajan, most players don't care if their game is on the blockchain or not, but once they do, there are assets they will worry about in the long run.

For one, a Web3 native game cannot be closed, and runs forever. That was not the case with Farmville, which closed in 2020.

For FarmVille players, the time and investment they put into the game could have been saved if blockchain games were around back then.

“If FarmVille was open source and onchain, someone would continue to make the game. I mean 300 million people – I'm sure someone actually cared enough to go and run the game,” says Marjajan.

Play Proof runs the game on Arbitrum Layer-3 Apex and Boss. The two chains are among the biggest gas spenders on the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem.

Blockchain as the main character

A frequent criticism of web3 games is that they are not as fun as blockchain games. Blockchain adds an economic layer to gaming, and players are often caught mining tokens or NFTs.

But Sky's Mavis Larsen argues that games don't have to be “fun”. Instead, he sees games as an entertainment platform that can create a myriad of emotions for players.

“When I play Dota or Diablo, I play to compete. I'm not smiling, but for me, I'm having fun.”

Larson added that the opportunity presented by blockchain technology addresses a need beyond gaming.

Deeper game economies can provide revenue for players around the world, just as Axi Infinity was a lifeline for Covid-ravaged communities in the Philippines during the pandemic.

“I really believe that this is a new market, where we are used to new types of behavior [and] As people around the world spend more time in digital spaces, it's only going to get stronger going forward.

As Axie did, blockchains offer alternatives to the current system.

For example, in August 2021, China imposed a strict three-hour weekly gaming limit on minors. Following the new law, Chinese authorities have imposed a nine-month freeze on new game licenses during which no new games can be launched.

In response to China's strict gaming laws, including a three-hour limit on minors in August 2021 and a ban on new game licenses for the next nine months, game companies have explored new solutions to market access, Heing said.

“The solution there is to take some of these teams and start with offices in Vietnam and Singapore to bring the game to market through blockchain because blockchain has no barriers to entry,” says Heing.

Access to the future of blockchain games

Studios across Asia are more open to embracing blockchain elements — though none have made a real breakthrough with the technology.

“If you look at the difference between East and West these days, Eastern studios … are more excited about new technology and are more willing to be more first movers,” he says, while Western studios tend to be more cautious and conservative. For a successful design before they take the risk themselves.

In Japan, major gaming firms have already boarded Blockchain Express through Blockchain Oasis, a platform dedicated to gaming. Developers start their game on layered networks called “Verses,” which are essentially customizable ecosystems within the larger OCC network.

Oasys' roster includes major studios such as Ubisoft and Sega, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and once the world leader in home consoles. Today, his Battle of the Three Kingdoms trading card game runs on the OCC.

But Ryo Manzoku, director of technology at Osius, told the magazine that getting gamers on board is still difficult.

“We haven't seen a successful blockchain game in Japan,” Manzoku told the magazine through a translator. “Currently, it's very difficult to find users with blockchain games, but if only one of the games is very successful, it will be easy to find more partners on the OC,” he said.

Sui Palma thinks a big breakthrough is just on the horizon.

“One can understand that in the next year or two, the major studios will pay attention,” he says.

John Yun

Yohan Yun is a multimedia journalist who has been reporting on blockchain since 2017. He has contributed as an editor to crypto media outlet Forkast and covered Asian technology stories as an assistant reporter for Bloomberg BNA and Forbes. He spends his free time cooking and experimenting with new recipes.