The Future of Blockchain Games: Insights from Top Producers on Asset Ownership and Player Experience

Recently, we had an in-depth conversation with a game product director, discussing the prospects of Blockchain technology in the gaming field.

The director shared his views on the innovations of a certain blockchain platform and how these innovations bring value to game developers, helping them turn their envisioned games into reality.

The following are the main points of this interview:

Q1: Can you talk about which game traits are particularly appealing to players?

A: Game designers often use Bartle's taxonomy to analyze player types. This framework proposes four main types of players: achievers, explorers, socializers, and killers.

Achievement-oriented players gain motivation through progress, competing with themselves and the game world for achievements. Exploration-oriented players enjoy exploring the game world and tend to prefer open-world games. Social players prefer to interact with other players, and many casual games fall into this category. Competitive players aim to defeat other players.

Most popular games are designed with different modes or gameplay to meet the needs of these different types of players, and they cleverly arrange the interactions between them.

Q2: What are the advantages and challenges of applying blockchain technology in games? Does it help enhance design capabilities for these four types of players?

A: The application of blockchain technology is mainly to improve the infrastructure of games, rather than targeting specific types of players.

In the early days, players bought physical game cartridges, which they could exchange or resell after playing. As the industry shifted to digital downloads and free-to-play models, players lost this ability to trade assets.

Blockchain technology can be seen as a further evolution of the free-to-play model. It retains the model of providing basic content for free while charging for additional content, and improves upon this model by introducing the concept of asset ownership.

For developers, Blockchain may also bring additional benefits. Any large-scale game will generate an unofficial asset trading market. Blockchain gives developers the opportunity to participate in these transactions and redefine the way value exchange occurs between them and players.

Q3: Are there any other features you would like to emphasize that improve user experience or developer experience?

A: Some new generation Blockchain platforms fundamentally change the way digital assets are handled. They prioritize the issue of asset exchange, adopting object-oriented design, which can better simulate complex game asset structures and multi-layered relationships.

For example, in a game with hero characters, heroes may have their own item inventories. These new platforms can accurately model this data hierarchy, providing developers with greater flexibility to express their creativity without being constrained by technical limitations.

Q4: How do you view the market's attitude towards Web3 games? What is the direction of future development?

A: A great game is a great game, regardless of the infrastructure it is built on. For players, the underlying technology of the game is not important; what matters is the entertainment experience of the game itself.

Currently, many top game development talents are entering the Web3 field. These developers, who have created successful works on traditional platforms, choose to build games on Blockchain infrastructure because they see the possibility of realizing their ideal gaming experience.

Early Web3 games may have overly emphasized financial aspects, but this is a misguided direction. Players play games for entertainment, to escape reality, and to immerse themselves in another world, rather than to work or make money. Therefore, building excellent games is the most important, and the underlying technology is merely a tool to achieve this goal.

Q5: Will players' behavior or psychology change in Web3 games, especially when they own assets in the game?

A: This is a hypothesis about how blockchain technology could improve the gaming experience. Empowering players with a stronger sense of asset ownership may lead to higher engagement and longer retention rates.

From a developer's perspective, this could impact the game's business model. It may increase the lifetime value of players, thereby altering the economic model of user acquisition and retention.

The core assumption is that when players truly own game assets, they will engage with the game in different ways. These assets become an extension of the player's self in the game world, altering their behavior and the fundamental experience of participating in the game. It makes the game feel more like a community where the player has ownership and belonging, rather than just a temporary visitor.

Q6: Blockchain technology has introduced many new concepts, such as wallets and transaction signatures, which may become obstacles for new users. How can developers build a game that serves users who just want to play games without dealing with technical details?

A: The design of the new generation Blockchain platform allows for a more streamlined onboarding process for Web3 applications. From creating wallets using social logins to enabling a sponsorship transaction mechanism where one account can pay transaction fees on behalf of another, these features make it possible to simplify the user experience.

For example, developers can sponsor the first few transactions for users, allowing them to skip cumbersome processes like identity verification at exchanges and converting fiat currency into game tokens. These tools enable developers to abstract complexity for users, providing a smoother gaming experience.

Q7: What is your long-term vision for games based on the next generation Blockchain?

A: My long-term vision is to enable every player in the world to own and manage their digital assets on a secure Blockchain platform.