While crypto based games are getting more and more popularity, none of them managed to gain real "mainstream recognition". On one hand, this is understandable, as most such games are of low production quality. The selling point of those products are prospects of potential income, that overshadows poor gameplay, or cheap and rushed execution of the game. Looking at this sort of projects, I can't help but think that 90+% of their player base are there solely to earn NFT/crypto and sell it for money to other players. So you end up in a situation where players buy those NFT, only so that they can more efficiently grind new NFT's that they can sell to players who buy them only so that they can more efficiently grind new NFT's that they can then sell to players who buy them only to... Well, I guess you get the point. There is a name for situations like this in economy and it has something to do with Egypt :) In order for the game to be truly "healthy" it needs player base who care about fun that comes from it, and not how much money they can earn while doing it. This way, the game has natural "sinks" of in game assets - people who want to have them so that they can use them and sell for profit. For that the game needs to be actually fun, and of high production quality.
And... personally I believe that GU is a fun game with high production quality. It was the reason for me to start playing - I was a Hearthstone player so it was obviously appealing, and since the first run it did not feel cheap. So, one could say that GU has potential to be the sort of quality games that draws people in because of gameplay, and not money earning potential. Unfortunately, as it is right now, GU might not be a particularly friendly environment for mainstream players.
We need to understand that most players do not want to have anything to do with crypto. Not only is it a difficult new field that requires knowledge, but also makes your game inconvenient to setup (like having to have and link wallet to be able to really play). Moreover crypto has very bad PR - in general due to amounts of scams that happen with it - and in gaming in particular due to some studios trying to make money out of it, with quick cash-grabs without providing actual value. Crypto gaming community does not really help either. Landing on webpages of some of the new projects, I am being hit with whitepapers, NFT sales and texts about tokenomics instead of game screenshots or even gameplay descriptions...
Whether we just enjoy Gods Unchained for the experience it provides, or treat it as a P2E/investment - most of us GU players should care for the game to continue to grow in popularity. In order to do it, it needs to appeal to wider audience, and for that - it needs to abide by standards of the gaming world.
No wallet setup required.
We should not require players to setup any wallets. You register to the game, and you are good to go - have access to 100% of features. How to achieve that? When setting up an account, GU server should automatically create a wallet that would be managed by the game devs themselves. Player would not even be aware that this wallet has been setup. At any point, one could switch to his own wallet - and all the assets he gathered would be transferred to it. On the other hand if one just wanted to play, he could do it without worrying about it.
Everything in in-game client.
Player should not be forced to leave the game client in order to do anything within the game. Card market should be built in the client (at least when trading in $GODS). Tokens ought to be claimed automatically without necessity to click anywhere (it is not something most players are used to).
Hide that crypto.
Cryptocurrencies and NFT's should not be at the front of marketing. Most players do not even need to be aware that GU runs on chain. It should be marketed as a Hearthstone-like game with an option to trade cards between players, and maybe even cash out on in game assets. My guess is that we already have majority of crypto community - time to market for different audience.
Only $GODS and credit cards.
People who just want to play, do not need an ever growing plethora of cryptocurrencies in their games. There should be an in game currency - $GODS, that is used to perform all of the transactions. This currency should be buyable by standard card payment, and all transactions should be possible to be performed in that currency (including buying packs and trading cards).
Payout in cash, not crypto.
While I said that we should focus on players who want to play the game, and not earn money, an ability to cash out can still be very interesting to a lot of people. The issue is that currently, cashing out is a multi-step crypto hell with 15 minutes tutorials on Youtube, and never ending ill defined list of fees on the way. We should have a crypto exchange on layer 2 built into GU web client (we do not need it in the in-game client as that would confuse players who do not care about crypto). Moreover, you should be able to request payout of gods on standard bank account - Immutable X would handle all the steps for you - like selling gods for ETH, converting ETH to fiat and sending it on your bank account. In exchange, it would be taking an upfront defined cut. Easy - one click, and money on your account in a week.
Steam.
GU should be on Steam. That's the most convenient way for standard players to install it. Also gives the game extra credibility. Epic, and other launchers are also a very nice option.
Very good points, although sadly I think the GU team has plenty on their plate already to consider any of this year. While I'd like GU to go more mainstream, IMO its biggest roadblock right now is still the overall user experience in-game, which I hope they'll get around to fixing soon. New users aren't going to be very happy with laggy animations and bugs even if you can get them past the onboarding stage.
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Well, one thing is for sure, GU should be running like League of kingdoms on Polygon. Low fees and faster... and you're right it should be easier to sell cards and cashout.
And We should be able to buy packs in USDC or other stablecoin on Poly. The way it is right now, there's no point in cashing out.
That's for now where Splinterland is better than GU.