The Blockchain Playground: Past Lessons and Future Visions in Gaming | KBW2023

I'll give hand hand over my microphone to Mr pck thank you thank you oh nice we got a nice crowd here well happy afternoon everyone my name is sebas I'm here with some awesome people and we're going to talk a bit about the future of gaming now y'all may know that gaming has gone from you know arcade consoles to mobile to web 3 to Ai and all these new things are happening in this world and these fine folks want to talk about some of the really cool impacts and so I think really a good place to start is sort of the evolution of what at least I would consider one of the core web 3 game Studio Publishers in Sky Mavis and so if you want to grab your microphone right there I think it's on testing yeah there you go so talk about publishing talk about what it looks like in 2023 to be you got it yeah so hi everyone I'm Bailey I cover the ecosystem at uh Sky Mavis mainly on roning blockchain so I think the uh important thing to say is of course um roon becomes the winning ecosystem when we help games succeed so right now I think the understanding regarding how to build a web three game is still quite primitive we have seen x infinity done it so our company of course created x infinity now with that learnings we are trying to kind of generalize it apply it to some of the partner Studios that we have so that's uh actually what we are currently doing and then this web tree publisher involves things like Solutions engineering community building and also um let's say go to market strategy regarding the nft launch and also the game launch and also post game launch right thinking about UA what does it look like in a web web three setting so that's what it looks like yeah I mean Bailey that's actually a really good point I think this is something that people in the audience will talk and wonder about which is like how do you view publishing as differentiated in this current world and and especially with Sky Mavis versus you know what we used to see with like the Activision blizzards of the world yeah so I think uh the very important thing to highlight is of course how we started with AI Infinity I think AI wasn't started as a play to earn game specifically when it started it was like an nft people had fun breeding it collecting the different parts of the axis and then over time people got more and more involved with the breeding activity things became profitable people wanted to buy axis Farm s so so I think the community building aspect is actually what's missing maybe right now in the web2 world how does it look like like in a web setting using nfts how do you make promises but not um over promise as well so that's something that we've learned right Community expectations has to be managed so that that's all I mean that's that's really cool and actually it it ties really into what we were all fortunate to meet up yesterday and talk a bit about this but Yan you had a really good point about this yesterday with how you know you guys have gone from the user acquisition side of steppen to all the socialization of it dog could you tell us a little bit more about that uh yeah of course um I think um let's say the past experience of building the web3 product I think the X run has to become come up and um we find that will be actually a very um uh productive tool for using uh for user on boarding but the key question is what next after you have let's say collect your first batch of user and uh from the experience of running step and for the past two years is that uh we fund we have to do something on the social side so that's where we're starting to build the uh offline event you know we run a lot of offline event last year and this year we move a lot of event to the online but uh we're still running good offline event and we are not satisfied with uh you know just running the event so the question becomes can we incorporate um social feature into the web product and uh so that the energy the value we created in the game can be one Amplified through social and two curated on social and three is where we can um um uh extend to more user using the social impact because looking at Twitter right um there are so many people talking about the web stre the cryptos on Twitter the the Twitter is actually the ultimate um you know uh web use and boarding tool but imagine that we building some sort of a social feature into the game and that that's what we are actually going to do next is to incorporate social feature into Steen by building uh Steen 2 and also building a social strategy game uh called gas hero which we're going to release toward the end of this year I'm not super exciting I think it's called X now as opposed to Twitter so we got to switch our jargon but you know it's it's interesting because when you talk about the social interaction and this I think is ties really way uh really well to what K you've been working on with especially user generated gaming content and especially what it looks like in the future and this is a talk about future of gaming like given what we're hearing from Yan and Bailey like what what are your thoughts on ugc and especially as it relates to your company for sure hey guys my name is Kay U the CEO at ztx uh maybe just a quick intro we're the web 3 initiative of zetto which is the largest metaverse in Asia with more than 400 million uh registered users so um when it comes to ugc I mean ugc content is the future of games uh with democratization of tools and ease of use there are more creators than ever before including all of us here we can all be creators and with that you know we've seen in our web two business in zapeto just the rise of digital fashion creators making up to six figures per year if not more and they're more than 4 million creators today um who are uh successfully uh creating and selling their digital fashion items more than 3 billion items have been transacted to date on the platform so as this ugc driven nature of our web to business grows we at ztx uh we want to cater to the new demands of creators who are looking to expand Their audience um by launching there and a few collections on an onchain virtual world where they can better engage with their audiences and more robustly participate uh in governance uh and new economic opportunities that's I think really now now that we gotten everyone through and and we've been able to talk a bit about sort of how our heads are currently I think this is something that's come up over and over again I knew came up yesterday in our conversation which is some of the philosophical underpinnings of the games we work with that there's a lot of interoperability that there's the ability for the community to interact Bailey like I know you've been at the Forefront of this especially with working with other partners what are you seeing out there like what are the games that are coming to you and also how you guys are able to add value to them yeah I think maybe I'll touch on two points so the first point is of course from the publishing side we have been advising them in different ways to build the web Tre side of the game how do they add web tree incrementally into a game not every game needs a token of course but uh starting from an nft to build community slowly progressing to a stage where use tokens as a marketing budget to grow the game so stuff like that is what we help with and then um another point is on XE so XI core is something recent that we've built I think that's microphone yeah we can hear you all right yeah so exit core is something that we have uh recently launched I think it's about creating deeper and wider experiences for XI holders so by wider I mean we have things like this thing called The X experience points it's found in different games that we have partnered with so users can actually go to this game get this amount of experience points go to that game get some materials eventually collecting these materials to craft and upgrade certain visual aspects of of AI deepening the emotional connection you have with the asset I think that's something that we are working towards and then you can think of this as a way to drive our users through different games as well economically because there's of course people that demand for certain materials collected in different games so that's also a way we're actually qualified to drive a certain amount of users to different games and have them actually try out play test and then eventually help those games succeed right so you're saying not only is it helping with the retention of your core games but also drives user acquisition to the new games as well correct correct so that's the ecosystem we're trying to build I think where most of the games they come on they see a lot of value being part of this ecosystem and that's how we all win together we attract the best games the best games we offer them to help they need the support they need of course and also the economic incentives uh through this new exore ecosystem and and Yan I mean you are working with launching a new game like how how do you feel about the interaction between stepping and the new game um so we did one thing is that uh the new the new game called gas zero right and we created a gas hero badge in steppen so you have to burn like uh you know 10,000 GST on the Chan and so that we cly gas here right you burn gas and then you get the get the badge and then the badge will then uh give you some uh uh Early Access uh some resources you know uh we're s to air drop to the the batch holder so so I think we actually see this is a pretty effective tool because now once we down the 10 sorry the 1,000 uh badge holder this 1,000 badge holder going to be the initial user for the new game and uh and they will be the people that uh you know posting um x uh about the game content uh what's going on you know so and then people follow them right so and go back is um it's all about social signal know right so people see oh this is cool thing and I want to get access and then I got stopped because you need Activation Code system you need to have some sort of uh resources to get start and people just say oh I want to compete you know for that white Le right so I think that's the reason the nft got really really hard in the beginning is that you can just not get the nft you have to wait for it almost like uh you know her back you know the the rolexx watches it's the urge of formal and the urge of um you know trying new things so that's also very important is thatth we cannot just build same thing all over again right we need to try new things exciting things things that people haven't seen before and that that's the reason that say oh I want to try you know this is something I I haven't experience but look pretty fun right from this person so we do this like one two three steps right so one is that um we unboard a small portion of user and two is that this small small portion of user will get some fun time in the in the app and they will they will talk about it right and then they'll talk about it on the socials and um and then we're going to spread it through socials right so we can have like referral code you know that's the first thing we done with steppen you can now just go to steppen you need to get somebody that already play steppen to give you a code and people say where's the code where's the code so and the people see it say oh what's going on here right so this code seem to be pretty valuable right I want I also want code right so this is you know when when you're doing the uh uh was a group thing right this is called I want it everybody want it and I'm I just also want it so um using social using new things um to on board product from A to B and B to C C to D I think uh will be a pretty effective way uh uh going forward I that's that's really insightful and and you know K like we were talking if if you don't if you all don't know and apologies for the yall Texas uh if you all don't know zedo has 400 million users it's like the one of the biggest metaverse so companies by users in the world and like your ability especially as etx to leverage the type of relationship there how are you feeling about that Next Movement be it for onboarding people who are not only creators but also consumers of the ugc content yeah absolutely so I mean it's a very long-term sort of uh you know agenda that we have in migrating our web two users into web 3 successfully um and we need to kind of do this in a very careful approach because our web users are new to crypto and oftentimes there gen Z female uh users uh who may never have purchased an nft before um so what we need to do at ztx is to educate uh our users in the web tal but also partner with key projects in web 3 um and so just as an example um you know we partnered with the gods one of the top nft communities out there where we provided a token gate experience to their collectors where their collectors got to claim a d God's hoodie virtual hoodie uh through our Avatar Builder uh feature so I think you know we were just talking about Partnerships here it's really important for us to all Build Together collectively and grow the pie so to speak as opposed to having our own goto market and just focusing on on our own projects uh user growth um so yeah education partnership very important I think one last thing I I would love to kind of share with you guys is just about two weeks ago uh we run a small secret pilot project uh for our webt users of zedo uh where we uh basically had this campaign for them to claim a ztx virtual hoodie um now they did not know that this was an nft uh but we made this very simless and easy for them to claim uh and partnering with a uh smart account uh uh wallet provider called Obi where there was a blockchain wallet that was created on the back end the user did not know and at the end of the day it was a crossplatform between zetto and ztx um campaign that we were success successfully um able to run and this resulted in 200,000 new users or uni wall is created so um yeah would love to kind of share more maybe after this panel too if you guys have any questions about that uh but uh yeah just looking forward to more of these pilot projects that rewi yeah and and that's the thing that's so cool when we think about about new technology at the intersection of gaming I think that's something that you all are really good at and it it shows in part because unlike some of the other ecosystems we've seen historically it is a rising tide lifting all boats here and it's really acquiring users and I think I was going to say Bailey like one of the things that I love about what you guys have done with the Ronin chain is encouraging that behavior right and being able to bring people into that could you tell us a little bit more about like how that's evolving in your how you you've looked at the world the last 3 to six months and what it looks like for you now yeah so it's a big topic I think um maybe you start from the start right so axi breeding is really like a sort of a referral system you breed certain axis and then your new player coming in has to own a certain set of axis to participate in the game so there's sort of a referral Loop in that and then that helps to bring in more users like what um yon has said is about creating the foro the group thing everyone wants to own an axi and then that potentially helped the uh the the rise of AI right and then in more more recent terms I think for Ronin um I've been thinking about how do we let's say keep um a lot of user data how do we put some of that um user preferences actually on chain so things like badges um that that actually talk about um your preferences for playing a certain type of game the assets that you own they all point to some sort of uh preference of the user right to play a certain genre of games so that is something that we incre increasingly encouraging we call it trying to build your onchain reputation so in in such a setting uh where the wallet wallet where the wallet owns more and more Rich um assets and metadata I think that's where things get more interesting in terms of a user acquisition from a game developer standpoint so game developers now if imagine you're building a let's say You're Building A mobile game you want to find the users with high affinity for to try a game to play test it to give you feedback and perfect that Loop that you want want to go to market with that's where things get more interesting right because now you have a way to see okay these are the list of wallets that you want to involve in your air drop campaign you want to on them and also convert them into your community I think that's um that's the ecosystem that we want to encourage where applications games anyone looking to market products can find their High Affinity users I that's so cool like especially after the at changes with Apple's privacy work like that is so valuable correct yeah so web tree I think offers us a new method to try and solve this uh and privacy and ATT trying to cut um the game developers understanding of their users so yeah I think it's a a new um method that a lot of game developers are increasingly aware of and they want to experiment with the nfts direct relationships with the wallet uh owners yeah and it's I think especially when we see The Cutting Edge of things especially my role at bit craft and with Infinite Campus we're seeing a lot of work right now with integration of AI and I don't think it's possible in 2023 to have a conversation about the future of anything but specifically of gaming without AI Yan you had a great story yesterday that I would love for you to share with the audience about your guys' integration and how it's really changing how you're viewing the user base yeah so uh we now have two AI product uh one is integrated in Steen uh we actually just released the uh newer version of the smack which is the anti Ching mechanic we had um I think this is go back to where the Bitcoin started where um the mining has to be verified right by the peers and uh with you know stepen where you move outside you get verified by the AI right so see are you cheating right so because there are so many ways that you can um let's say if you use straa you'll be able to trick straa thinking you're actually running but you're just shaking your mobile on your bike right so we spend well past year and a half just to build the AI right so to make sure that the verification process is in fact um uh in improvable or impenetrable with with the cheating that's one thing that we did and uh the second thing we did which is now more on the consumer end is where we have a GNT uh called generative nft tools and uh so the GNT is is embedded into the nft uh Marketplace we had which is called more um and people can create NS uh with tech to PR right so we basically say I want to create um so we have different versions right so the latest version you can create your own pH so you upload um 15 or 10 of your selfie and then can turn yourself into nftd or nftd collection um and uh other ways people can use this is to create derivative art so we have template where people can create like derivative art for uh board ape you know mutant ape uh clone x uh we have a few that uh launch through our platform that can create so those are also um uh uh like a tools for um bring user activities for this nfts uh Community right so I can't own a B I just have a you know derivative I can also get involved in the conversations so that's another way of um um uh Ai and the Third Way of using eyes where we having a followup function for the g&t called Fint so this this is basically you can mint not just one NF you can mint up to 300 to a th000 nfts also through AI right so you basically generate your anchor nft so okay I have generate 10 nft I'm satisfied with and then I will elaborate we get AI to elaborate turn this 10 L into a thousand lfs and also you can write the metad data as well so this give our creator a tremendous amount of u tools basically to turn themselves from steepen user to a nftd Creator so we have about three 300 to 400 steepen user now become nft creators and then they provide utility for their nfts so that's I think um two things right we're building for the yeah I mean you know for for me person personally at campas like our belief that creators and consumers become one for one is something that I think we all of us agree on and and K especially given that ugc is the future and we see already with what Yan is saying as well as just the ecosystem re large at how people are able to create content so much easier it must be a boon for you guys right like how are you guys thinking about this implementation yeah I think you know as ztx our vision is to empower creators and the communities to thrive uh by building an on chain virtual world that's immersive uh where you know creators can engage with their communities in a new innovative ways and so I think AI implementation if you're a Creator yourself whether you're in web two or web 3 definitely something that you've been studying and I'm sure and I think um you know having partnered and will be partnering with a lot of these top nft projects this is something that is constantly in our conversations um and I know some artists may not be Pro AI U they want their work to be pure you know manual um based on their sort of uh own uh skills and there are some artists who fast to adapt um uh to this implementation of AI and so I think we're seeing a very interesting sort of um you know dynamic uh sort of reception here and again us as a platform where we're really uh providing an infrastructure layer for nfts avatars and digital identity for us all we can do is just support our creators and what you know uh so they can do whatever they they want to do Bailey yeah I think I think regarding topic of AI probably I'm not the best person to answer it I think internally we have been researching ways we can apply AI to let's say how to interact better with your AIS how do you apply some kind of personality to the AES for example so deepening the emotional bond right which I spoke about um but right now I think we don't have anything much to share we don't want to over promise anything yeah I mean I think that's so intuitive and and honestly speaks loudly about how yall and Sky Mavis think about these ecosystems you guys are so careful to make sure of these things yeah so the community is definitely the first thing um it's the only thing that we really own I think um the relationship with them it's what we prioritize right like safety we've purposely chosen to make Ronin a more curat experience we don't let anyone just deploy whether that be like scams or low quality applications it goes through a very stringent selection process as well so I think that Community aspect is always something that we we priortize and put first right security being one of it I think we have done we have made a lot of learnings over the years as well and and that's great and one of things that we can't fit into a 30 minute panel and you know certainly can't fit into a 10-hour panel even it's just all different parts of this and so one of the things I always recommend is these are some of the world experts when it comes to these intersections right now they are seeing the things that are happening before it's even talked about in the press and so in that sense Bailey like what's the best way to reach you yeah so I think you can find me on x.com I think that's what it's called nowadays I'm I'm on that's what we've been Tau that got Memo from the back yeah bottom dog I think that's my handle dog with a zero um and then also on if you are you guys are interested to work together on a partnership basis um definitely go to roning chain.com there's also apply to deploy with us um button that you can access same question for you okay yeah so uh ztx official on on x please follow us so I regularly participate in various Twitter spaces with the rest of our team uh we recently did our Genesis home mint on openc I had just the reveal celebration I think 5: a.m. kst this morning uh so yeah just uh continue to follow us we have a lot of exciting updates there I'm based in Soul Korea actually so if you're based in Korea and want to uh you know meet up have various questions just reach out last but not least Yan yes um yeah people can reach me on X and uh you know follow Steen you more gaso door so those are the product we built and uh yeah also don't forget to attend our um um offline event uh here in Korea have some running event and barbue AMA Ruffles that's on the ninth on the 9th yeah where um at uh H is near the airport we have like a we run a park where we can have the barbecues nice you got anything else for us I know that's all sounds great well thank you all for coming where can people find you oh well appreciate you yes you can find me on on Twitter I'm just going be a rebel for a second oh you can find me on next I'm at se Park you can also find me on LinkedIn at Sebastian Park so it's been an absolute pleasure if you have any questions about gaming these are the people to talk to and thank you so much for coming out thank you thank you thank you very much ladies and gentlemen once again please a big round of applause to all these