“Cryptocurrency in games is just an additional form of entertainment”: How the metaverse will change the world of gaming

Right now,  Matvey Diadkov and his team are finishing developing a new gameplay-focused free-to-play metaverse. It is an open-world NFT game called Chainers. It means that all players will decide for themselves how they want to build their digital life in Chainers.

Matvey is the founder of an advertising network for crypto projects called Bitmedia. His first game is scheduled to launch at the end of the summer. While it is still in development, more than 35,000 people already want to play it. We talked to Matvey about Chainers and other NFT games and how they differ from more “traditional” online games.

All these years, I wanted to make my own game

I have loved computer games since childhood. Not only did I play, but I also learned to create them. When I was 12 years old, I accidentally found my dad’s book on programming. I studied on my own for two years and managed to make a pretty simple game called Tank Battle.

It was just the beginning. I graduated from university and created a number of IT startups. In 2014, I became interested in crypto projects. At that time, you could not advertise them through Google Ads and Yahoo! I solved the problem — by creating Bitmedia. It is an advertising network through which crypto entrepreneurs can place banners on specialized websites. We make it easier for them to find the right audience.

Bitmedia is my primary business, but I wanted to make my own game all these years. We have enough resources, expertise, and a team for this. In 2021, I decided to start on the game project. The Bitmedia team and I came up with the idea of ​​our own NFT game. Since then, we have been developing Chainers for about a year now.

Chainers is a pixel metaverse open-world game. Each player can play it how he wants and, in essence, create their own unique game. There will be many opportunities: mini-games, videos, communication, creating your items, and selling them. We even plan to do concerts right in the game.

We create Chainers using open-source technologies. Anyone can add custom mods to Chainers and even advertise them.

In the metaverse, things are different

In a conventional game, the developer makes all the game world rules. He controls everything and can do anything to any player or their items.

An example of this is Steam (a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve). At some point, people began to exchange in-game items from the games published on Steam for real money. Many shops and forums were coordinating these purchases. Steam didn’t like it because the company wasn’t making any money off these transactions. And some things cost crazy money; for example, in 2021, someone bought an AK-47 skin in Counter-Strike for $194,000.

Then Steam made their own store for in-game items with commissions on purchases. And all the others were declared illegal. It is an obvious example of centralization.

In the metaverse, things are different. They are decentralized. I will describe the main differences:

• NFT allows players to trade both in the game and on any external platform, such as an NFT marketplace.
• Thanks to blockchain technology, no one can take possession of your in-game items.
• The earnings of the game are shared between the developers and the players. Players receive cryptocurrency for actions within the game.
• Players can sometimes influence a game’s development. Along with the developer, they can create their own locations, quests, and items.

It is too early to discuss general rules or standards for metaverses and NFT games. The whole industry is only developing and is very flexible.

But the general principle is to transfer the power over the gaming space from developers to the community. So that it forms the rules, participates financially, and engages in the gameplay creation.

We will encourage leaders

We will make a lot of opportunities available gradually. At first, players will be able to create NFT interior items in the game. They will be able to sell them and set them around in their rooms in the game. Then it will be possible to create objects like a sword. Then, the locations. Then, the new gameplay itself.

We want the community to establish the rules of etiquette in the game. The original rules will come from us, of course. But immediately after the launch, the community will participate in shaping the new rules.

Over time, opinion leaders appear in any society. We will encourage it so that there are more such people. We will give them official positions and transfer management functions. These people will decide which player-crafted items will appear in the game.

It’s like the US electoral system: people choose a representative they can respect. And such persons, on their behalf, will be able to influence the game directly.

We hire people who are big fans of what we are doing

We develop Chainers on the PlayCanvas engine. The development process also differs from traditional games. Smart contracts regulate the content of blockchain games. You cannot change it like changing the code in any game.

I will give an example. A smart contract states that there can only be 300 characters with a sword in the game. At first, this is enough. But then the game grows, and there are not enough swords for everyone. But you cannot add new ones because of the smart contract. If, on the contrary, you allow players to make many swords, they are worth nothing. Therefore, a smart contract needs to be thought out so as not to destroy the game’s economy. It’s just like in real life.

We try to hire people who are big fans of what we are doing. And we want the same people among the players. We haven’t yet launched the game, but we already have a community of 35,000 people actively discussing plans for Chainers.

Our game will always be free. And there will be additional items and functions that you can pay for. To start playing with cryptocurrency, you need to have a crypto wallet. Specifically, in Chainers, the algorithm is as follows: you need to register a profile and link your crypto wallet to it. Users can buy a game token from us, which gives a kind of citizenship. With it, you can vote for new mods, choose which skins will appear in the game, buy land and develop your cities. Our citizenship will cost $50. But this is not the only way for a game developer to make money.

Most players do not come to make money

As a rule, you build NFT games using one of two models. The former implies that the more time you spend in the game, the more money you get. In the latter, the earning mechanism is a nice addition and not the whole point of the game. Chainers is a game of the second type. You can start playing for free.

Game developers can earn in many ways. There is a commission for transactions within the game. There is money that players pay for in-game items. Then you also have sponsorship and advertising, an underdeveloped direction in NFT games. We will actively work with it. When you have a lot of users in the game, you can make good money by selling their attention.

The main point of the game metaverse is always the same, to entertain the user. And cryptocurrency is just an additional form of entertainment.

Most players do not come to these games to make money. They want to have fun. For people, this is a hobby, a way of life, a way to get adrenaline. It’s just fun.