Recently, the concept of the metaverse has been hyped up, and this concept, in simple terms, is that users can do all the social and creative activities in real life in the virtual scene. Similar ideas have actually been mentioned in "The Matrix", "Accelerated World", "Sword Art Online", and it is the first time that they have been mentioned so frequently in real life. In recent months, major capital has been for the meta-universe concept platform, layout, in August, Microsoft launched the enterprise meta-universe solution, the domestic ByteDance spent 5 billion yuan to acquire VR company Pico, layout meta-universe. And this trend is caused and driven by a so-called "metaverse game", which is also the leader in metaverse games.
Trendsetters: Roblox
"Roblox" is the leader of this wave of cosmic trends in 2021. The company was the first company in the world to write the concept of a "metacosm" into a prospectus, and after landing on the New York Stock Exchange, the company's market value exceeded $40 billion on the first day of listing, and now it has exceeded $45 billion. Completely detonated the global technology and capital circle. One might not know what the concept of $45 billion is. You know, as a giant in the traditional game industry, EA has a market capitalization of only $40 billion. You know, "Roblox" was only founded in 2004.
Roblox went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March this year and is unstoppable
"Roblox" is not a game, but a game platform, its operation mode is similar to "G-mod", in the creation of game content, are ugc (that is, the gameplay content is created by the user players themselves) mode. As a result, there are tens of millions of games for players to choose from on the roblox platform. You can play battle royale, cs, Mario, and everything else you want to play here, limited by the player's brain holes and the abundance of resources in the pack.
Roblox allows players to buy, sell, and create virtual items, and the amount of money exchanged is naturally divided between players and platforms, but compared with the traditional pgc (where professionals create content rather than users) model, the game's development becomes players; operations and channels are concentrated on the platform. In the future, it is not difficult to imagine that the distribution channels and operations of the game will have the possibility of transferring to users.
In China, Roblox was represented by Tencent in 2019, and I can only say that I understand it. Now the country where this game is represented by Tencent can no longer be registered, and the deletion is suspended.
Tencent's agent of the country has been hung...
Having said all this about roblox as a game platform, do you think that this is the development model of the future metaverse? After all, the creative productivity of PGC is limited, and with the convenience of information and the popularization of education in the future, UGC is an inevitable development trend. Look at the b station, look at zhihu, these platforms almost have a steady stream of output capacity. In this way, it is not surprising that "roblox" is optimistic about major capitals, and the stock has gone all the way red. But as a metaverse game, Roblox lacks an important feature, that is, gamefi (game finance game economy), specific to the technical application of blockchain technology and nft technology in the game.
Blockchain gaming?
It doesn't matter if Gamefi doesn't understand it, but you just need to know that when the in-game Dao has the concept of gamefi, it becomes a unique existence in the virtual world and will never disappear. For example, when you draw a dragon sniper in cs:go, you can sell it for a high price for two reasons.
First: cs:go is stable enough that it doesn't suddenly explode, and in-game props become worthless.
Second: due to the existence of wear value, each skin is unique, which gives each dragon sniper a unique value.
But if cs:go is closed, not only can this dragon sniper not be sold, it does not even belong to you, and this gun is gone.
Cs:go's dragon sniper because of the wear degree system, each one is different
This will not happen with game props with blockchain-related technology, it exists in internet corners around the world, and it will always exist unless the internet disappears. It is also combined with nft technology to make its code unique in the game world and not reproducible. This makes the virtual product stable and universal, and has a high collection value.
Blockchain games use such technology to give high value to the props inside the game. Therefore, in today's hot metaverse concept, the development of blockchain games is extremely rapid. Now that we understand the concept of blockchain gaming, let's take a look at some of these representatives.
《Cryptokitties》
"Cryptokitties" is the first blockchain collection game, the entire game is based on the cultivation of cats and cats, through continuous breeding and breeding can have more cats and cats. Since the cats and cats in it have been processed by nft technology, after that, you can earn virtual currency by buying and selling cats and cats. When it first came to prominence in 2017, the game would give away kittens that had always been free, but now it needs Ether (ETH, now priced at $3807.27) to buy, and the cheapest one is also 1,000 yuan...
12345 corresponds to the price of the cat, the gene; the serial number; the generation; the breeding cooldown time, the basic system is as simple as that
《Decentraland》
Decentraland is the big brother in the blockchain game, also known as the first "meta-universe game". Some time ago, Lin Junjie made a lot of noise when he bought land in it. In Decentraland, you can buy and sell land freely, you have full control over your land, and you can visit everywhere as a tourist, but that's about it. Most of the time, in addition to decorating their own homes, it is to hang around and watch various NFT artworks, and the playability is very low.
The internal graphics of the game are currently rough and simple, and they are not playable
《Axie Infinity》
Axie Infinity is currently the most popular, circulating market capitalization and NFT trading volume of a game, its gameplay combines cultivation and combat. Players can collect, multiply, trade, and battle mobs named Axe in the game. The content and system of the game are more complex than the two games mentioned above, so they are also more playable. The core of the game's monetization is the same as the above-mentioned Cryptokitties, and it is also to cultivate new axes for sale.
In-game nurturing interface
brief summary
Having said so much about the so-called "metaverse games", you can also find that the essence of these games is quite simple compared to traditional games, and the final and most important step is focused on monetization. Do people who play these blockchain games really like games? Is there any playability in front of such a game in front of traditional games? It's just a new kind of money circle routine and gameplay. Open these game-related messages, what you see is not the game itself, it is all some words such as "prospect" and "making money". Under the trend of foreign large-scale games, many domestic blockchain games have also taken advantage of this wave of wind and want to make a big wave. On December 13, CCTV also issued a statement warning the public that such games in China are a new type of money-making method.
CCTV's report on the so-called "meta-universe game"
The game's information is all about how to make money, when to enter, a smell of copper
The concept of "metaverse game" I also recently learned, and the concept of "metaverse" is different, and there seems to be no clear definition until now. It seems that as long as it is related to the blockchain, do these so-called "metaverse games" really deserve to be called "metaverse"? Most are nothing more than a simple combination of system simplification and nft for traditional games. Although these blockchain games are called games, the gameplay is always boring and boring. Although "roblox" has rich game content and the development mode of UGC, it is only external, the economic exchange between the company and gamers, and the currency inside the game cannot be docked with the outside, nor is it blockchained.
A true metaversity, all-encompassing, ugc (ensuring adequate production content), infrastructure, and blockchainization (connected to the real economic system), all three are indispensable. To reach the game world like in the future science fiction films, there are high requirements for equipment, transmission, and player game quality, and this concept is indeed the future development direction, but it is far from reaching the stage of entering our daily lives and making us have a good experience. At present, the so-called "meta-universe game" can only be said to be just starting out, a new way of playing finance, and nothing more.