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On the transition layer of Web2.5 games: great games, do not do multiple choice

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If the chain tour is difficult to make progress, how to do a good job in the transition period, the chain tour can do the optimization?

Original title: "Big Game", No multiple choice -- on Web2.5 Game Transition Layer By W Labs Carol

Original article by W Labs, Melon Field Laboratory, CarolW

Dawn breaks the circle

Today, blockchain's emergence has gone through the ICO boom of 2017, the DeFi summer of 2020, and most recently the NFT wave of 2021. However, the current Web3 space is still very niche. Most projects take wealth speculation as the attraction point, and there is a lack of applications to solve industrial problems, generate real value and bring new economic growth points in the ecology. In this bear market, there are two questions that have inevitably been on the minds of all concerned about development or potential projects: What will be the next circuit? Does it have real application value?

With the continuous maturity of Ethereum Layer2, side chain, cross-chain and other infrastructure, Axie Infinity has exploded in Southeast Asia represented by the Philippines. It has set off a "movement tide" in the circle of friends, and Stepn has more than 60,000 daily active users. Volkswagen is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in the chain tour circuit that combines "Token" with music. However, until today, the chain tour as if still short of the last step can not break through. It seems like with tech support and token-enabled gameplay, what's missing?

Axie infinity

Where is one foot at the door

Opinions vary as to how to kick the impending kick:

The "quality people" insist that games need to be better, and that against the triple-A standard, fun is king.

The "infrastructure school" thinks that the application will come naturally when Layer2 and cross-chain technology mature and the status is settled after the competition.

「模型派」要改革链游的经济模型，抵制庞氏骗局类机制，期望于成熟且稳健的 Token 模型一鸣惊人……

以上内容我都认同，但是却都觉得不是最适宜的可行项。看齐 3A 的愿景太理想化，等待基础设施尘埃落定太漫长，成熟稳健的 Token 经济又似乎不是重点。那么，有什么方面是可以在短时间内着眼并弥补的呢？

Change the perspective of thinking, may become open, at the same time can be the above perspective of thinking tolerance. I put it all together and put it all into one concept -- the "Web2.5 gaming transition layer." In a nutshell, lowering the barriers to entry brings Web2 gamers to Web3, with GameFi's money effects and NFT assets as the highlights. Since the widespread improvement of game quality and the maturity of public chain infrastructure will not be enough to attract more capital and game companies to make the decision to do some migration, it is better to break the circle directly with user growth and strong momentum in the early stage, stimulate them to join the circle, and then realize the wider Web3 trend. In fact, the third stage of breaking the circle (NFT) is also like this model: first, it gathers people through the mode of "low threshold participation + strong incentive dissemination", and then attracts big brands to transform and strengthen the out-circle effect.

Back on the chain game, this is what the "Web2.5 game transition layer" is all about. So specifically, what would an ideal "Web2.5 game transition layer" architecture look like, I've outlined a few directions for you to talk about.

Web - v - web3

1. The platform

First of all, for the new field of chain games, traditional game users are at a loss. As I am used to the guidance of Steam and game application market, the guidance of landing page and navigation page of Web3 games is of demand value. By aggregating or filtering data on linked game apps, displaying reviews and other data, users can find games that match their preferences directly on the platform.

At the same time, the subsequent platform can also add a mechanism co-created by the decentralized community, so that players and users can recommend the desired, high-quality and novel games on the shelves, supplemented by their own links to the game evaluation articles, and then unified to the community vote. If the game is featured successfully, the recommencer will get a share of the revenue generated when the game is on the shelves.

2. The tool

Learn what's available and what's not enough for your appetite. It is also important to start playing smoothly. However, at present, the threshold of entering and leaving gold/games in and out of chain games is very high, which requires the configuration of wallet plug-ins, the need to hold tokens or NFT and other preconditions are many and complex. So let's analyze these problems one by one:

第一，购买 Token 或者 nft，需要注册钱包，入金购买。那么，一个低门槛、理想的 Web2.5 的钱包应是免去复杂的助记词注册、KYC 身份验证环节的;第二，在交易平台或市场购买后还需要提到钱包检验；第三，一般情况下，钱包里要有多余的 Token ，以支持 gas 费消耗。这一系列的操作非常复杂，且消耗新用户积极性。对于二和三的问题，如果能够通过信用卡直接买 NFT、买游戏 Token ，便能大大降低进入门槛。类似Moonpay为用户购买 Opensea 上面的 NFT 提供了便利的渠道。

At the same time, Halliday is also a game tool of Web2.5 recently, which allows users to purchase NFT without burden through the form of credit card loans, and gain income by entering the game to make money.

3. Game architecture

Building games is complex and requires solving huge engineering problems. If all game logic and digital assets are deployed on the chain, the technical and economic factors will lead to slow speed, high cost, player cheating, etc.

High latency - if every player transaction is sent to a smart contract and they are read and registered in the game. This strong on-chain behavior tends to cause network overload, resulting in high game latency. High overhead -- in the case of a strong on-chain game, every state change in the game needs to be registered and recorded in the blockchain. If the user wants to perform any action, they need to sign a transaction for each action, which means a lot of computational cost and too much overhead for speed-demanding games. Information Leakage -- Competitive games rely on some level of imperfect or incomplete information. But blockchain is open and accessible to anyone in the world. In the case of strong on-chain games, players' trading information and state changes are publicly accessible on the chain, which may be monitored by others, who can predict players' next actions, adjust strategies to cheat according to players' behaviors, and thus control the game process and even the operation of funds.

Therefore, Web2.5 games are more suited to a hybrid model, where the core of the game logic runs on off-chain proprietary servers, with a few stack components, contracts, and so on deployed on the chain.

4. Gameplay

For Web3 highly closely combined with the new play of native tokens, Web2 players are easy to feel acculturated, and even have strong resistance. For example, the Discord team did research on "Do you want to link wallets?" and "Do you want to introduce NFTS?" and most of the players objected to these questions. Therefore, how to design a gentle and inclusive gameplay requires critical thinking.

First, the discussion of free versus paid.

Web2 的游戏一般是免费的，偶尔才需要氪金，不付费并不影响整个游戏的流畅度和完整度。而在 Web3 中，目前很多游戏存在进入的 Token 门槛，或者后面的重要环节需持有 Token 才能解锁。这一定程度限制了新玩家的进入，严重干扰了用户的游戏体验。

An ideal Web2.5 transition layer game would include both free-to-play and Gamefi gameplay. It allows the user to experience the whole process for free, but also opens up some advanced or derivative boards for users to spend money and gold.

Second, in-game assets, data and other links.

In the context of incomplete infrastructure, there is no need for all data to be linked, and losing functionality and practicability in pursuit of "meaning" is a drop in the bucket. For example, a large number of low-end assets, such as the game does not have practical significance of the land will be issued at any time, there is no need to make NFTS.

For the purpose of breaking the circle, the practicability of the real experience is more important. Take NFTS as an example. At the beginning of the industry, there were very few NFTS that stored Metadata on IPFS. Most images were stored on a centralized server. The NFT fire, however, continues unabated. The reason is that new users care about innovative technical narratives, embedded cultural functional attributes, etc., and don't demand perfection early on in the new thing.

Third, the longevity of the in-game assets.

Traditional game props by the centralized control at any time on the shelf, off the shelf, remove, gift. Many Web3 games are owned forever, and this model completely guarantees the ownership of users, but it is easy to bring risks such as whale hoarding control game, no deflation mechanism affect the in-game economy. For Web2.5 games, setting it up to consume NFTS with a lifetime or seasonal reset, written into contracts, is a more sustainable way to compromise.

Fourth, community participation.

传统游戏的游戏社区，用户多只能提建议，无法深度参与。Web3 链游的社区具有 DAO 的天然属性，实行的治理模式也是更加纯粹而直接，根据持有 Token 数量多少为权重开展民主决策。但是该直接民主制也有弊端，比如以 Token 数量为权重投票容易收到巨鲸控制，开放的议题太广泛核心，一旦社区投票不慎将干扰大局……

Therefore, Web2.5 transition layer of games do not need to be too radical, gradually achieve decentralized autonomy is appropriate.

从提案内容来看，项目团队中心化控制经济模型，但是对于一些玩法升级、游戏地图调整等治理开放讨论，实行简单、少数的放权，给予 Token 持有者等有限的治理权利。培养玩家感受到所有者意识和文化氛围。

In addition, the proposal is open to the full community, but the voting system suggests the use of a representative system, which can delegate to a working group or other trusted and competent community members who are relatively most likely to make the right decision, while still being accountable to the DAO voting body.

5. Token 经济

Token 经济模型是 Web3 游戏的重中之重，设计复杂度也相当之大。对于 Web2.5 游戏，首先需要考虑的是游戏受众的广泛性及多来自圈外 Web 2. 游戏玩家。他们更加追求游戏内涵和功能。金钱只应作为一个激励手段，而不是主导动机，因此在设计 Token 经济时，我们要明白优先级顺序，要将市场游戏与核心游戏循环本身分开，把整个经济系统的可持续性和健康发展需要放在第一位。一方面，不需要设计极度通缩的 Token 模型，使价格暴涨而短时间强势出圈。另一方面，play-to-earn 的机制需要根据市场及游戏形势不断调节，以维护游戏内外经济系统的可持续发展。

6. Enlightenment

Thought is the most fundamental unifying force. Therefore, it is of great significance to popularize the ideas and knowledge of chain games, Gamefi and Web3 data ownership to the Web2 public.

"Real digital ownership means that you as a player in the game has in fact is you. You can sell them, you can trade them, you can use them to do whatever you want to do. Game developers can use this technology to monetize the secondary market, give full play to the players in the game between the possibility of using items."

-- Sawomir Bubel, CEO, Hoard

Ideas can be spread in a variety of forms, such as serialized courses, quality research articles, player forums or streaming media. Observed, foreign countries are doing well. The course education, certificate system, become a guide for players to systematically enter and advance; In the Chinese-speaking world, The original content is very bright, do have the attitude of the temperature of the players to create a sharing community; Mymetadata Information is rich and timely, helping players quickly capture the industry trends.

conclusion

Finally, to the point of pleasure, we might as well end with a little poem:

The dawn is leaking, and the door is only waiting for a step. And ask, where is the best place to work? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. However, wait for a place to move to pull the whole body, but it is exhausting.

The only way is, the golden mean through the ancient and modern, the quartet embellish in the circle. It is better not to ask, "first step out" and then talk about him.