GameFi and PlanetQuest
The problem’s of GameFi and how it ties in with the development and eventual release of PlanetQuest.
As the gaming industry continuously keeps on raising the bar in total value year-on-year, both in sales of games, but most importantly with sales of in-game assets, the question is how long will it take before companies as EA, Microsoft and other large players within the industry, will take a deep dive in to the blockchain driven NFT gaming, and follow suit of a giant as Ubisoft, which already released their own NFT-gaming platform Quartz.
It is hard to asses the total value locked in GameFi as it is the “tango” partner of DeFi in this dance of technological process and its effects on the broader financial market of our planet, I would like to dive in to another planet, or rather a specific upcoming blockchain game called PlanetQuest, and try to see potential problems that PQ might face, inherent to the GameFi as a whole.
Accessibility:
We all know at least one person or probably a few more, that think of blockchain technology as a scam, a pyramid scheme, and I have even heard of it as a NWO project to sustain control of the world financial system, its funny but lets leave the conspiracies aside and move on. The point is the accessibility for the average Joe. PlanetQuest hasn't made it easy for those without some form of “know-how” to get involved with the project, and that is true, since you have to first get your self a MetaMask wallet extension for your browser, then get connected to a layer 2 protocol (a layer 2 protocol is just a secondary framework built on top of an existing chain, in this case the Ethereum mainnet, to “help” with scalability and the speed of transactions) called ImmutableX. While you are at it, you will also jump back and forth between the PQ website and Discord (a popular communication platform within gaming) and only then are you registered and happy about the fact that you got a free NFT in form of an “insignia” of the game Faction that you chose while signing-up.
I asked one of the developers, why they chose to develop the game on the Ethereum chain and with a solution as ImmutableX, rather than for example going with something much easier to access for beginners as Niftyswap with Sequence wallet built on the Polygon side-chain. I will say I was impressed with the answer and the thought behind it, even though we had touched on the subject before, this snippets from our conversation should show you how well thought and clear in their vision the team behind PQ are:
On Polygon: “it’s not really tied in as a Zk-rollup yet (which means it doesn’t inherit as much of Ethereum’s security)”
On a different chain: “there is a lot more token value living in the Ethereum ecosystem”
And then, one of the developers continued on to describe the possibilities the team already have in mind for the future of PQ, that I wont quote and leave it as a mystery for you to discover on Discord.
With all said, I have to once again point out how impressed I was hearing that. Considering that being a miner and being involved with a few different L2 protocols, the thought of having some of my assets behind a Zk-rollup is comforting when it comes to transaction speed and security, but also knowing that any transaction on ImmutableX is pretty much free, of course after paying some gas fees as per usual when it concerns Ethereum, when transferring your assets over to ImmutableX.
The potential of L2 sharding after ETH 2.0 hits us, hopefully, some time this year, makes me confident in the choice that developers made. Easy and instant trade and transfer of assets, cost free while on L2 and best of all, the possibility of expanding further on to L3 protocols and interoperability, which could in essence mean expansion of the PQ ecosystem on to other blockchains through bridges. This my friends is what some would call a gem, that could propel the game to new heights and beyond, making the game ecosystem stable, balanced and for those in it just to win it, a mechanism for considerable financial gains.
So the conclusion is: is it somehow tedious to jump the hoops to get your free NFT and join the PQ project? Yes, for some it will be. Is it worth it? Absolutely! The fact that not only are you heading in for an amazing ride when it comes to the story, where you can vote on how it progresses (although somewhat scripted but still engaging), you join a non-toxic and great community on Discord, where you will be able to communicate with the developers in a direct conversation. You are also very early to join a project that has no sky-limit, and if done right, will consume many hours of your life playing it, but also could net you some good financial gains while you are at it.
As a side note on joining to play, here is a pretty awesome comment by one of the developers:
“We are planning to offer ways to make it easy even for people who don’t have a wallet to participate.”
Entrance:
Lets make this understandable. By entrance I mean the entry floor price or entry fee to gain an in-game resource to be able to generate passive income within any GameFi project. Now PQ does have the intention of being a f2p — p2e (Free-to-play — play-to-earn) game, but after spending over a month on Discord and engaging the wider community and non the less the developers, time after time I had my heart broken by evasive answers to the concerning and repeating problems most other blockchain games have, which is the buy-in cost, in case you want to invest fiat in to the project, and how accessible it will be for average Joe.
Now we touched upon the accessibility for average Joe, but there is another point of interest when it comes to accessibility, and that is investment. As many blockchain games have some form of a floor price to start playing and generating either active or passive income, as for example with Axies, having to buy 3 “toons”, which later can breed and fight, both methods generating active income. There is also the passive income aspect, again as with Axies, the price of which soared to heights, not accessible for the average Joe, the solution became Axie Academy, where players loan said “toons” to new players through Scholarship programs, and the owners generate passive income by taking a portion of the new players earnings, making it a win-win for both parts. This takes me to the main point, which is Guilds.
Now, not being part of a guild, but still wanting to invest a substantial sum of money in to the project, I was concerned with the issue of if I would be able to buy the needed resource so I could in turn generate passive income. Without a public whitepaper, it is hard to understand the tokenomics of the project. Although I know there is a whitepaper out there, but either corporate, for tier 1 and tier 2 investors, such as big crypto funds (akin to hedge funds)or big guilds like YGG, Mercit Circle and even GGG, or its not finished yet, which I highly doubt considering the scope of the project and the big names involved (Jon McCoy, I am looking at you).
The resource in question that everyone wants to lay their hands on is a Planet, just like land-plots in Sandbox or Cornucopias, Planets will allow the holder to generate a passive income, that is at least the thought. There are different rarities of planets in PQ (you can even earn some for free by being engaged with the community, voting on story line and referral program, I will post a link at the end). Now how will these rarities affect the scope of the income, and the ecosystem as a whole, is still unknown, but we do have some small leaks, rumours and speculations, again, check out Discord for all that good stuff.
My problem was in the issue of whitelisting for the sale of said Planets, knowing that most projects opt to deliver and cater to the “big dogs” first, in this case guilds, and only scrapings for the average Joe (me). This always leads to creation of “whales”, controlling entities of the ecosystem within the game, which in turn forces most players to either join a guild or be an obscure little fish trying to make it amongst a tightly controlled ecosystem. Example would be Upland, where I invested around 2000 USD, and now that the “metaverse” is in action, the “big dogs” got all the best stuff, as for example stores to sell block explorers (NFT “toons” roaming the map of Upland) that players want to sell while taking a nice fee for selling it on the players behalf. The problem we have in the real world, is also present in GameFi, the rich get richer, but in GameFi the poor don't get poorer but eats crumbs, but hey, at least they are eating, so that is already a progress.
Time after time I tried to make the developers slip and spill the info as how the rewards system will work, how the sale of the Planets will work and small bits in-between those issues. Concerned with the fact that I might not be able to own a Planet, while dedicating and investing a lot of time in to the project, although with joy as the community is amazing (the debates around the story vote can be pretty intense, in a good way), I was surprised and comforted by the comments made by developers, and it looked like this:
On community members participation in the Planet sale: “Yes, we’ll definitely try to ensure that great community members also have the opportunity to get in on major events like the planet sale.”
And then same developer dropped this on us: “We’re looking to do our planet sale in such a way that big guilds and individuals will each have their own avenue to participating.”
All my concerns flew away like Normandy SR-2 after blowing those Collectors in to bits, with a fancy explosion, but this time of my own joy.
To conclude this part, no matter small or big, there is a place for you if you would like to invest. And considering that Quantum is to be an ERC-20 token, you want to get in on this, especially as the GameFi tokens have been pumping like crazy (mind the bearish crypto market we are in now, all thanks to warmonger politicians on both sides of the pond and energy market as a whole, personal opinion, don't shoot me please). The potential to 10x or even 100x for Quantum is real and very much going to happen, albeit all depending on the tokenomics, cap supply and the possibility for deflationary actions such as burning of minted tokens, and controlled balance of their supply.
Economy:
I wanted to dedicate this part to go through the potentials of the PlanetQuest ecosystem. The effects of Insignias and their meaning, the connection to the whitelisting, the speculations around Planet sale and Quantum pricing, will the developers go by the route of an ICO or a private-sale, who is backing the project concerning tier 1 and tier 2 investors, a connection to a different project, speculations on Explorer packs (which will be ERC-721 tokens and are already earnable, link at the end of the article), the possible inclusion of an in game non-tokenized currency or the need for one for a stable in-game market for resources mined/earned by Planet exploration, the prospects for DAO and the potential within, staking options for Quantum, including LP’s through said DAO or sub-DAO’s, and much and much more, to be fair, my head starts spinning thinking of all the possibilities that the developers could include in the game and give the possibility for us to create by our own means.
But, and here is the but, and it is a good one, the developers keep throwing curve balls at me and the community as a whole, making it almost impossible to speculate, and for the sake of the article aging well, I do not want to speculate.
Why is it a good “but”? Because if the developers keep on throwing curve balls, it means that they not only want to release a beautiful game, through their own Genesis engine (I recommend reading about it on the official PQ Medium, as well as checking out the presentation of Jon McCoy, whom I hope to get an interview with for an upcoming piece about his artistry and more, so stay tuned), but because of their innovative mind’s, a constant in the archaic world of GameFi. I know that their innovative mind’s will bring us more than a GameFi project, more than a game, but something that could actually change the way GameFi works, where average Joe can have a place without the need to invest, or if he wants to invest, have an avenue for it without being squeezed out the fish tank by “whales”, where he can learn and enjoy DeFi as it is meant to be, archaic, decentralized, by the people for the people.
I hope you enjoyed reading this rant, I know its just an opinion, but I am happy that I am involved in this project as the average Joe, and hope you might want to join in with the rest of us (150k+ joined just in the first 2–3 week’s). I will post a sign-up link (choose Federation at sign-up, we are blue, and you should be too) as well as link to the official PQ Medium, for you to enjoy and be amazed by the project.
Danny “Moscow” Rush.
PQ Official Medium:
https://medium.com/@planetquestgame
