2 min read

Progressive decentralization (final part)

In case you missed it, here's part 1 (TL;DR - start by bridging your game assets to crypto, then use blockchain instead of an inventory database), part 2 (TL;DR - mint tokens for your players and transfer them, then let your players mint directly), and part 3 (TL;DR - move your matchmaking system on chain, then decentralize cheat prevention).


When you hand over control of cheat prevention to your community, you're sharing the responsibility of keeping the game fun for honest players. You can (and should) still involve yourself in this activity, but you're not alone in your efforts. You can think of it like community moderation. Same as you would see on Reddit. You establish the rules then let the community enforce the rules.

This is highly tactical. It assumes your community will always be on board with your strategy. So, the final step for progressively decentralizing your game is to hand over strategic control.

User generated content

Games like Minecraft are all about creation. The actual game itself is relatively simple. It's only as fun as the content that players make themselves.

Other games like Hearthstone, WoW, Fortnite, etc. are all about the play experience with the rules and content created by the game studio. These sorts of games frequently have community members coming up with cool ideas about new maps, cards, items, etc. with no way to implement their ideas themselves. Your studio is presented with an awesome opportunity here, but it's typically difficult to capture the creative energy of the community.

The task here is to offer a creative freeplay mode in your game. Let players design their own content for your game and share it with the broader community. Let players try out others' creations, comment on them, rate them, modify them, etc. This game mode engages your community's creativity to design your next expansion/collection/DLC for you.

Strategic governance

The content created by your players will still need to be curated and polished. It might need new art, power balancing, or even code clean up depending on how open your creative mode is. Curation would typically still fall to your studio, but you have an opportunity to decentralize decision making with blockchain. DAOs (or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are just a way for people to make proposals and vote on decisions on blockchain. You issue a governance token and grant voting privileges based on ownership stake. This allows your players to decide what direction your game should evolve in.

If you do this right, your game could take on a life of its own and outlive your studio.

-Luke

P.S. The ultimate decentralized game has no centralized servers and no centralized authority. You don't have to go all in on decentralization to grant some of the benefits of blockchain to your players. Start small and build up if it makes sense.