Will big IP be an attempt to break through the domestic blockchain gaming circle from multiple perspectives?

Original Title: "Pain Points, Opportunities, and the Freshest Cases in the Chain Game Track" Part Three: Will Big IPs be the Attempt to Break Through the Domestic Chain Game Circle? - Analysis from the Perspectives of Compliance, Traffic, and Users

Original Author: W Labs

(一) What are the major domestic companies doing?

W Labs from Guatian Laboratory has been producing articles about blockchain games and the metaverse. They have been quite diligent and have attracted the attention of some traditional game companies in the industry. They often communicate and discuss the strategies and future of blockchain games. It can be said that any large-scale game company is paying attention to blockchain games, with the only difference being the degree of involvement.

1, In the WEB2 game, there is still a chance to make a big profit, and it is currently in the research and observation stage.

2, several super large aircraft carriers have already formed WEB3 teams to make investments, but they have not yet developed and operated their own WEB3 projects.

3. Those who have established overseas architecture have already been deeply involved in specific projects. Funplus, which has announced its representative work, King of Avalon, has invested in Xterio to create a metaverse platform (they should have the first product preview by the end of November). Fans can pay attention to it. At the same time, everyone can gossip about how FTX Venture's investment shares will be handled, haha.

However, the core of this business model lies in the necessity of having an overseas architecture and team. Once it involves doing something in China, the first step will be met with severe scrutiny from the company's internal legal and risk control department, and after much discussion, there will be no result.

Is there a way to break through the circle in China? In the current ambiguous environment, it takes creativity and initiative to try to break through. Whoever is the first to step out will be the king who establishes the earliest moat.

W Labs has been conducting research in this area. As the saying goes, "Those who don't want to be lawyers are not good analysts." To tackle this issue, you need to interact with partners from various circles: policy circles, legal circles, gaming circles, and so on. We won't list the various research and argumentation processes for now, because there is currently no 100% consensus on how to proceed. The process of promoting the development of an industry in China is like "crossing the river by feeling the stones." As you feel your way along, you will gradually gain clarity. This was the case during the reform and opening up process 30 years ago, and it is likely to be the case with the recent "WEB3 Big Wave Rising in Hong Kong." Following the characteristics of this long article series, we will analyze a fresh and hot case, "Legend - Flame Judgment." Yes, there are already examples of blockchain games in China, and it was just released two days ago. Hahaha.

(二) What is the game "Legend - Flame Judgment"?

This is some official announcement that has been circulating on traditional and conservative official media outlets in the past few days, such as People's Daily, China News, and China.com. It is said that Century Huatong has developed a game called "Legend - Flame Judgment" using the model of the 20-year national game IP "Legend" and digital collectibles.

According to communication and exchange between W Labs and the team behind "Legend - Flame Judgment", this product aims to create the first legal and compliant WEB3 game in China! This is very exciting, but it may also raise many questions. Here, we will first introduce several concepts to our young WEB3 enthusiasts.

Century Huatong is a listed company with China's largest gaming company, Shengqu. Shengqu's predecessor was Shengda (we'll gossip about Shengda's story next time we meet). For players, mentioning Shengda brings to mind two super game IPs, "Legend" and "Dragon Valley". Digital collectibles are a transformed version of NFT that has emerged in China and has become a wealth creation myth this year. Later, it began to be regulated and is currently entering a standardized stage. You can check the Ibox for cases. Last year, WeMade Entertainment, a Korean gaming company, launched the popular chain game "Legend 4", which made countless players rich. Its IP is related to this "Legend - Flame Judgment", and we will talk about it in the next chapter. The gameplay of legendary games is MMORPG, with mainline + open world monster hunting, task completion, equipment dropping, and similar to the "Diablo" series style.

(Three) Love and Hate in "Legend"

It's time for Guage's favorite gossip section. To be honest, the biggest impulse to write this article is not to share a new business model for chain games in China, which we have studied for a long time, but to gossip about the stormy story surrounding the IP of MIR2 "Legend 2". Life is just a game after all.

Most melon friends know that last year's richest Chinese was Zhao Changpeng of Binance, and they also know that the previous richest were WEB2 giants Taobao Ma and QQ Ma, followed by Hong Kong Superman Li Ka-shing, and for a period of time, it was Wanda's national father Wang Jianlin. Do you know who was the richest 20 years ago?

Chen Tianqiao founded Shanda Company in 2002. With the introduction of a Korean game MIR2 "Legend of Blood", the company gained 70 million registered users and made a huge profit in China, earning 1 million yuan per day. Chen became the richest man in China 20 years ago at the age of 28.

Guage is a hardcore gamer who has been playing games for 30 years. The most frustrating thing about playing games during his student days was having to secretly play games without his parents knowing, because playing computer games was considered a waste of time and not a legitimate activity. In the eyes of our parents' generation, the hierarchy of disdain for activities was as follows: studying > reading extracurricular books > playing sports > flirting with female classmates > playing computer games > being a gangster like in the movie "Young and Dangerous". The status of computer games was only slightly higher than that of Haonan and Shanji.

The appearance of Chen Tianqiao surprised the parents of gamers. Can you really make so much money playing games? Then came the lament: how many teenagers have been harmed by games? This must cost a lot of money. Then, on one hand, they stare at us and say we can't spend money on games, and on the other hand, they encourage us to learn programming. Playing games is not important, but it is important to become the second Chen Tianqiao by mastering computer skills.

Shanda made a lot of money in China, which made the developer of the Korean game "Legend of Mir", Yoozoo (the one who developed the chain game "Legend 4" last year), very jealous. He said, "Brother, you're already the richest man in China, and I'm not even in the top ten in Korea. Let's talk about the profit sharing ratio again." Chen Tianqiao definitely wouldn't agree, what about the spirit of the contract? The cooperation between Yoozoo and "Legend of Mir" was cut off. Shanda was already prepared for this, they just forked the game and developed a new game called "Legend of World", and imported the users into the new game. Yoozoo was even more angry, this was blatant plagiarism! Then they started a lawsuit, which lasted for several years. In the middle of it, Shanda showed their financial strength and secretly acquired Actoz, the Korean company that owned the IP of "Legend of Mir" (which was originally controlled by Yoozoo). Hahaha, this is a classic case in business history: Yoozoo, you sue me for copyright infringement? I plagiarize my own copyright, what does it have to do with you? In the end, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement in 2007, and the result was quite complicated. Guage didn't quite understand it even though he heard about it several times from Shanda's friends, but it doesn't matter.

Speaking of Chen Tianqiao, I have always believed that his position in the history of China's Internet development is second only to the two Ma's. He has created many new business models, such as the "free-to-play + in-app purchases" model, which is still the main revenue stream for most online games. What is even more commendable is his strategic vision. After making money from games, he started Shanda Literature and monopolized 70% of China's literary IP, including Qidian and Rongshu Xia, which were later acquired by Tencent. He also started Shanda Box, which ultimately failed because it was too early and competed with television, leading to its closure. If it had succeeded, it would have been a comprehensive platform like "Xiaomi Box and other boxes + Youku and iQiyi content".

Unfortunately, later on, Chen Tianqiao was diagnosed with a brain disease and sold Shanda before moving overseas for treatment. At the same time, he invested heavily in the research and development of brain science. The once brilliant entrepreneur ultimately fell into the pit of health, which no one can avoid, and it is truly regrettable.

Chen Tianqiao and Luo Qianqian: A model entrepreneurial couple who share weal and woe

(Four) What is the essence of this business model?

Compliance: Games are games, and digital collections are digital collections. Both are compliant, and together they are also compliant. "Legend - Flame Judgment" has a version number, and the digital collection on the National Copyright Alliance Chain is a "National Version Chain", which is an alliance chain endorsed by government departments. Can it be traded: The digital collection of "Legend - Flame Judgment" (such as Legend Tokens, which we define as "Digital Collection A") sold on the National Version Chain at the end of November can enhance the drop rate of another type of digital collection game equipment in the game (which we define as "Digital Collection B"). More importantly, both Digital Collection A and B can be traded on the "National Version Chain" after holding for 21 days! This is the key point! One pain point of domestic digital collections is that they cannot be traded in a regular manner, and can only be traded OTC. As of now, according to W Labs' research on domestic digital collection projects, only "Legend - Flame Judgment" which is about to be launched, has announced that it can be traded.

Who are the users: In the process of communicating with the WEB2 game giants, W Labs has been emphasizing two points, who are the target users of your chain games? Is it the 300,000 active users among all chain game projects? Or the 3 billion game players in WEB2 games? Different positioning requires different strategies. Without exception, the giants are all thinking about attracting WEB2 game players. This is the century-old problem in the chain game industry, and there is currently no correct answer. I estimate that there is no unique answer, but without trying, there may be no answer. There are too many tangled points involved: traditional buying costs cannot save much money; problems with deposits and withdrawals; the problem of educating players to enter WEB3, and so on.

"Legend - Flame Judgment" clearly targets the old player group of Legend 2 to acquire customers, so the main method used now is the traditional game acquisition method. The idea is to use nostalgia to make Legend 2 old players realize that some of the equipment they dropped is valuable, can become their own assets, and can be listed for trading.

What type of game: If you want WEB2 game players to enter the chain game, the most effective way is to recognize the game IP, and not to promote it as a way to get rich quick. For example, if "Sword and Fairy" comes out with a chain game, I will definitely get involved with NFT. If WEB2 game giants want to try this area, it is recommended to use big IPs. The attempt by Century Huatong is very valuable. They should bring out the biggest "Legend" IP, instead of some 60-point games that are only slightly better than Axie.

"Legend - Flame Judgment" should start internal testing and digital collectible sales at the end of the month. W Labs will continue to track and observe this innovative case. A discussion channel has been specially established in the Discord community of Guatian. Some project details and information will be discussed and announced in the DC community. We hope that interested Guayou will join."

To sum up, the model of big companies with big IP and digital collections may become a new model for breaking the ice in domestic chain games. Several points need to be noted: the transactional nature of collections needs to be truly implementable; the methods and ways of WEB2 user drainage; the game's IP needs to be strong; and the violent rise and fall of collections need to be controlled to comply with policy guidance. Players come to play games and for emotions, those who want to get rich or lose money quickly can go gamble elsewhere.

Original Link

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia