This might sound like I'm swinging fists, but that's not my intention. I'm really asking questions of myself, of the community, and posing the possibility that we may have been taking the wrong approach after all.
I've been hearing for years that the appeal of Hive is the earning potential. I've also heard that without the earning potential, there is no reason for people to use Hive. My gut reaction is to disagree, but I have to try, we have to try, to understand what people feel when they say and believe these things.
To lay out the table, let's talk about Web2 platforms. After all, Web3, as much as we may claim to love it, is not really the norm. It's not really widespread. So I'll begin by asking one question:
Do most people use Web2 platforms for the money?
Actually, let me ask another question.
Do most people make money on Web2?
Do you see where I'm going? I guess that's a third question, but I can't help myself.
I hope the answers are obvious, otherwise my point won't land at all. It's my opinion that most people are perfectly OK with never making a single dime. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all of them. I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm willing to bet the gap is immense—the difference between the number of users on a platform and the number of earners on that same platform.
Now, I say this not because I'm arguing against the inflation allocation method, but more to point out that our focus on it, our tendency to make everything about it, has been myopic to say the least.
If we shifted toward building apps that were fun, intuitive, and simply enjoyable, the cherries on top and the icing on the cake would be the little tokens people earn along the way. The retention mechanism would not be monetary coercion, which seems to be what we've been doing all along.
With that in mind, I've been taking notes from @sagarkothari88 these days. Games. We need more games. But when I say games, I don't mean the next Zelda or the next Halo built on Hive, not that I would oppose those. I mean the gamification of the whole experience.
This week I began implementing games on snapie.io myself. As of now, three games are available: Chess, because of course; Quick Draw, which is a Pictionary-style game; and a Word Guessing game. A few friends have been helping me tweak them, making them more enjoyable, and although they are not in their final form, because software never is, they are already quite fun.
Imagine more of us focusing on that. Screw the price. Screw the bear. Focus on making this place fun again.
And funnily enough, that might be what turns the boat around.
Is that irony, or just a feature of existence itself?
MenO
For me the money has always been a side project bonus.
Its there, it stirs emotional triggers but ive intentionally attempted to make my experience creativity and community first and the money side as a bonus cherry.
Lol, cherry may be more of a raisin these days. 🙈
But hey, i like raisins too 😜
You are right, I wouldn’t be here still if Hive was only about earnings. The Fun factor is also very important. When was Hives‘ best days? That was the Splinterlands times, a Game that was fresh, cool and fun.
The problem with "having fun" is that, at the end of the day, someone has to pay the bill. Having planetary-wide fun together, from Indonesia to Poland to Ecuador is thrilling, exciting. But it cannot exist without someone "keeping the lights on"
And for that, a different, completely not fun attitude is needed. I think we've reached a point where trying to guess what would "turn the boat around" is only digging deeper. It's the attitude that brought us here. "Turning the boat around" cannot be done by pursuing the same rather nonchalant random walk we've being doing for the past six years (or ten years if we include Steem).
That doesn't mean games are a bad idea, quite the opposite. Indeed, developing fun games could be great to bring people to Hive ... necessary, but not sufficient! Developing fun games is the "easy part" (and we all know it's not really easy, actually). The hard but indispensable part is developing games that persuade people to BUY HIVE with fiat (or with other crypto). Or at least, to BUY more than they SELL.
That is to say that the key to turning the boat around holds in these words: people buying HIVE
Whether they buy HIVE because they need to spend it to play games, or they need it to pay for their food using @innopay or something else, it's less important, and actually the more reasons we give people to buy HIVE, the better.
On the other hand, developing fun games that attract people to extract value from HIVE (classical play to earn where you turn your skill into HIVE that you then convert to fiat end suck out of the ecosystem) is an illusion that might alleviate our problems for a while but that in the long term will only seal our fate
Of course the rewards will draw people in until the get disappointed by how little they get, but then they will nothing elsewhere. Part of the attraction of this blockchain for me was that it was not controlled by some corporation who would just exploit me. I still look at FB as friends are there, but the feed is full of crap. I've made friends on Hive and my feed is always interesting, so I want to see more cool people here.
The games may keep people engaged and I do play some, but we don't really want that to be all we see on Snaps. I may cut back a bit on games so I can get other stuff done, but if I'm stuck on a train then they pass the time.
Hive is small and imperfect, but I still like it. I don't have to like everyone on it :)
Well, if I had to guess, I have the strong hunch that regardless of the rewards, regardless of the earnings you could make on Hive. The real deal and crux of the matter in focusing on making this place fun again by dedicating more time, effort and resources to the platform, creating more dApps with games, new features and stuff is gonna depend more than anything in the true number of real and active users we already have on Hive.
Otherwise, we're just going to get more of the same. A heap of token miners & extractors who don't care in the least anything about games, fun, community, or interaction with others, but only and exclusively about how much money they can get.
On the other hand and to conclude, I must say that I also largely agree with a big part of what @sorin.cristescu mentioned in his intervention.
I think you might be on the right track with games. When Facebook first started up (before it got all corporate and toxic), it was both a place to keep up with friends, and a place to play games. Some of them were terrible time vampires, as we spent hours logging in daily and watering the crops in farm simulators or building defences in fortress games. But they were fun and expanded our circle of friends as we made alliances with people we didn't know.
I think Hive's biggest issue is that social media is no longer a void waiting to be filled, it's saturated with corporates that have deep pockets and an aversion to competition. But at least here in the UK (and probably coming soon to a country near you....) it might be the last hold-out for anonymity and privacy as the corporates with CEO's who can be fined or imprisoned bow to compulsory digital ID and state surveillance.
Making money has never been my main reason to be here , sharing my photos with other people was always the main reason , finding like minded people with the love of small details nature has to offer , with my macro photography .
And now i try to help to platform with nodes , but not all "instalation manuals" are user friendly / or not updated to work correctly.
Maybe that will change in time.
Sometimes hive looks and feels like a developer tool that seems to forget that there are also non technical people out there that would like to use it . Luckely we have other front ends that try to change that a bit, but the main strugle remains the bloody keys and what they are for .
I really would want to use Hive as the alternative to Web2, because of the massive changes coming up for Web2 social media, the next generation doesn't really realize that it isn't the end but the beginning of something new, parents and kids can get involved, the payouts are the bonus not the reason, it's gonna be the place to be. Basically using Hive is the new place, not just for my generation as a Millennial but for them as Gen-Z or even Gen Alpha. The bans on social media for the Under 16s and the alternative for it should be the big story for Hive and even for the games and more that is the biggest story! When I say I am for all of the Hive, that is my meaning.
Chess on snapie? Have to try it out!
hellz yeah... im going to play one right now with @ankalagonchik
Can you share a link? I don´t find where the chess is.
oh yes... go to https://snapie.io
I'll make a room now, and I'll tag you, so that you can join it. You don't have to open your mic (i know you are anon) its a discord-ish hangout that I'm adding games to.
I think Hive should be for everyone, those who want crypto, those who want to consume content, those who want to play games, those who want to post those who want to upload photos, interact, learn, sell it as a social network that generates profit depending on whether that's what you're interested in or not
When I first joined Facebook, everyone was sending invites to play games. I sure as heck don't want this to become another hub for Farmville and Candy Crush style money grabs, but then again, having a native token makes it better for that kind of development model, too.
I was going to comment, but since I'm using the App and am only allowed the same amount of characters to reply on a blog, like a snap, I couldn't get my point across fully. Because of that I abandoned the attempt. hint, hint 😁
I love games. Most of the games I've played in my life don't make me any money, but I have a lot of fun and I feel like I'm progressing. I've been playing My Candy Love for six years, and it's a game where you have to invest, haha. I haven't invested anything; everything I've achieved in the game has been by watching ads, haha. I already have my apartment, I graduated from university, I have the job I've always dreamed of, and I have the cutest guy in the university, haha. And I started with a five-year-old avatar... meaning I've grown up with my avatar. In My Candy Love, I'm 23 years old, and I don't have children because I want to get a mansion and have lots of cars. I think I'll have to watch ads for another ten years... before I have my first child...
Personally I didn't come to Hive because of the money, I got fed up with 'X' and Reddit and started looking for something new. Yes, definitely the earning potential is a nice bonus but foremost right now is a positive platform, which Hive is by miles compared to other offerings! :)
Genuinely quite enthused currently with the idea of forming my first Community on Hive and helping it grow, also a big Splinterlands fan tbh!
Long live Hive 😇
#hive #posh
Your gut reaction to disagree makes sense. If Hive were only about money, it would be fragile. Once earnings dip, users would leave. But if Hive can cultivate genuine communities, meaningful content, and unique experiences, then earnings become an extra rather than the only reason to stay.
By the way, I'm here because my Facebook account is always encountering restrictions. 🤣
You know, I love writing and expressing my thoughts through content creation. So, I'm truly glad I've found Hive. It's here where I feel free and I get to know/gain more friends all over the world. This platform offers intrinsic value: identity, belonging, creativity, or utility, beyond financial incentives.
Long live, Hive! Cheers!
100% agree on the why and what needs to be done/keep on doing..
This is such a deep and much-needed perspective @meno! Your artwork is phenomenal depicting the ecosystem as a fun carnival where people connect over games is beautiful. You hit the nail on the head: people originally came for the community and the fun, and rewards were just the bonus. Asking these tough questions about "The Fun Deficit" is how we grow stronger. Looking forward to reading your full thoughts on how we can bring that organic vibe back 🎡🔴✨
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