John Linden: Making NFT Games Mainstream

11/29/21 • 43 min

NFT games is the new topic that’s been gaining major momentum in the metaverse/web 3 conversation. The fundamentals of NFT games is that the ownership model of game assets are user owned and transactions are encoded on the blockchain. This creates a utility value for NFTs where it can actually live in an environment where it brings tangible value to people, rather than just being say a jpeg piece of digital art that’s hard to show off.
The magic of NFT games shows through the economic opportunities that it creates for people. A simple example is Axie Infinity which is the most popular NFT game right now. In the game, people can buy these axies, which are these adorable pet creatures that you can train to get better and better at battles. As your axie wins more battles, it appreciates in monetary value. Based on the work you do ‘training’ axies, you can make money off of your hard earned work (through the appreciation of that asset). In fact, a huge fraction of the population in the Philippines have started to rely on playing axie infinity as their main source of income.
While the Axie example is straightforward, as you can imagine, for more sophisticated games and experiences, the infrastructure to power these transactions gets more complex. In this episode, we will explore the building blocks to help foster the NFT game ecosystem for developers, players, brands, influencers, etc.
ABOUT THE GUEST

John Linden is the CEO of Mythical, a next-generation game technology studio creating universal economies driven by player ownership of NFTs with utility. Prior to Mythical, John was the President of Seismic Games (acquired by Niantic Labs), developer of Marvel Strike Force and Magic the Gathering: Valor’s Reach. Prior to Seismic Games, he was a Studio Head at Activision Blizzard on the Call of Duty and Skylanders franchises.

Before entering the games industry, John was the Co-Founder / CTO at Adknowledge and at OpenX and built his own startups, Planet Alumni (acquired by Reunion.com) and Litmus Media (acquired by Think Partnership)
SHOW NOTES

[5:50] What are NFT games and how do they make games better for people?

[13:10] Understanding collectables culture

[16:10] Economic engine behind NFT games

[18:00] How to have zero gas fees

[23:15] Developer interest in building game economies on the blockchain

[25:50] Focusing on assets over tokens

[29:10] How can NFT games live on the Apple Store?

[31:10] New roles and jobs that NFT games can create

[36:55] Why are NFT games becoming mainstream now?

[5:50] What are NFT games and how do they make games better for people?

[13:10] Understanding collectables culture

[16:10] Economic engine behind NFT games

[18:00] How to have zero gas fees

[23:15] Developer interest in building game economies on the blockchain

[25:50] Focusing on assets over tokens

[29:10] How can NFT games live on the Apple Store?

[31:10] New roles and jobs that NFT games can create

[36:55] Why are NFT games becoming mainstream now?

Previous Episode

Jacob Navok: Computing and Network Needs of the Metaverse

Jacob Navok is the co-founder and CEO of Genvid, which is the leader in interactive streaming technology. They are working on one of the most interesting problems in the pursuit of the metaverse vision which is, how do you get millions of people to concurrently be participating and interacting in one live experience with no latency (delay or lag)? This is as opposed to what’s happening right now with server sizes of around 50 people in say Fortnite concerts.

Jacob was the co-author of the networking and compute articles in Matthew Ball’s Metaverse Primer series. There he outlined the technical and infrastructural limitations and challenges we have today to make the metaverse a reality.

Beyond the buzz around what kinds of new use cases and consumer experiences the Metaverse will enable, it’s important to think about the foundations. What is the infrastructure and computing power we will need to actually power this future? This is not something that will be solved by any company alone, but a collective effort of all the builders of the internet.
ABOUT THE GUEST

Prior to founding Genvid, Jacob led worldwide business development and strategy at Square Enix Holdings, reporting to the CEO. He also built their cloud gaming division, Shinra Technologies, where he met many of his Genvid colleagues.
SHOW NOTES

[5:20] Definition of the Metaverse

[7:20] Why VR is not representative of the Metaverse

[13:05] Concurrency and the challenges of hosting live, synchronous events with millions of people

[17:35] Twitch as the first example of massive multiplayer concurrent gaming

[19:40] Rival Peak, Genvid’s Live Interactive Multiplayer Reality Show with AI contestants

[22:50] Hacks for the concurrency problem

[25:30] Why decentralized systems don’t work well for live 3D experiences

[27:15] Future use cases of live synchronous events

[30:30] Social platforms like FB, Twitch, Discord as identity systems of the Metaverse

[37:15] Why FB keeps investing in AR/VR

[39:10] How will life in the Metaverse be different from the real world?

Next Episode

Gaby Goldberg: Web 3 and DAOs

Web 3 has become the canonical term to describe new internet products that are decentralized, user owned, and orchestrated with tokens. It is compared to web 1 where the internet was user owned, but highly technical and not user-friendly and web 2 which formed centralized, and eventually extractive platforms that offered consumer friendly experiences and enabled billions of people to access the internet.
DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) have become the primary social organizing entity within web 3. Gaby describes it as basically a group chat with a shared bank account. As a member of a DAO, you own tokens to that community, and therefore fractional ownership of the group and ‘skin in the game’. You have liquidity so you can leave the DAO as soon as you sell your tokens.

In this episode, Gaby helps us understand the emerging social behaviors and products that are being created within the web 3 paradigm and why they are better solutions to today’s socialization needs. She helps us walk through web1, 2, and 3 and their distinct characteristics, we explore the idea of the modern friend, we get into detail on the mechanisms of DAOs and some of its current benefits as well as flaws and potential solutions.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Gaby Goldberg is an investor at TCG Crypto, where she focuses on the firm's investments at the intersection of consumer and crypto. She previously invested in early-stage consumer and internet businesses at Bessemer Venture Partners and Chapter One. Gaby writes regularly about culture, identity, and ownership in web3 at https://gaby.mirror.xyz.
SHOW NOTES
[3:50] Shortcomings of social products in the web 2 era

[5:05] How online relationships look like today

[8:50] Why online social behaviors emerge from same core motivators as offline

[10:50] Key characteristics of web 1, web 2 and web 3

[15:40] Is web 3 really better?

[20:00] DAO explainer, successful examples and existing shortcomings

[23:05] Canonical technology stack of DAOs

[27:40] Positive outcomes that have come out of DAOs

[30:40] The social token paradox