This week one of the team, Polemos game expert and presenter Cavan “Caveman” Roe, took out the first WildCard tournament. I’ve been talking about this game, from Playful, and its intriguing spectator mechanics for some time. Now I invite you to go and watch the play yourself … I found it compelling even though I don’t yet understand the game. Apologies for the low quality screen capture video.
The whole thing reeks of live sport: the two commentators – one of whom is Playful CEO Paul Bettner – the shifting camera angle, the stadium and the crowd noise all add up to a sense of occasion and shared experience.
That feeling, the sense of community you can build around shared experience, is going to unlock a great deal of success for future games. It ties into something Sam Peurifoy told me this week: “The more social fabric that we build around something, the more real it feels to us.”
Caveman apparently played a pretty impressive game. Well done, mate. Read
Wallet Wars 2
So, Sam Peurifoy: I’m indebted to him for spending another hour with me this week discussing how 2023 is going to be the year of the battle to own crypto wallet sign in.
Why would this matter?
To understand the central role crypto wallets play in the ecosystem, consider the very first thing that someone must do to enter the blockchain world: download and install a crypto wallet.
And to play most existing blockchain games, they must then use that wallet to sign in. It’s a fearful barrier to entry and it’s being worked on feverishly as we speak. From the article that will be published shortly:
Peurifoy is one of my favourite thinkers in the industry: rapid fire and always connecting detail to the big picture. He is convinced and convincing about the role games will play in the widespread adoption of the blockchain.
This has to start, in terms of both individual user journeys and industry progress, with crypto wallets: the secure containers where individuals store their blockchain stuff. It’s a hotly contested area.
“I think a fair comparison is internet browsers, if you consider the wars that went on between Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc, a decade or so ago. That’s a brutal fight for very real territory.”
Please check the Polemos homepage tomorrow for that piece, I’m waiting on a compliance clearance to publish.
Illuvium delays launch of Zero season 1
The Illuvium team was due to release the next version of their mobile and desktop city-building, resource farming game Illuvium Zero this week. They missed the deadline, apparently because they want to include marketplace functionality in the release.
There may be just a little more pressure than normal on Illuvium with the season 1 release this week of Axie Infinity Homeland. On time. Read
What would it feel like to borrow $210m?
The three operators of the Mech Minds project must have had sweaty palms for the few minutes they held the 126k ETH loan they used to buy their own NFT this week. They sold/bought it, taking advantage of OpenSea’s zero fee offer for commission-free sales, and accordingly shot to the top of the charts, thereby gaining much attention and boosting their price and prospects. Interesting project. Read
The Fabled play test shows Caveman in action again. Slaying and getting slayed. Read
Polemos’ Mogglin won third prize in a hackathon! Plenty of good ideas in this story. Read
The biggest gaming company in the world wants in on the blockchain. Read
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