July 27, 2016 - This presentation was featured during the July 27, 2016 webinar for the Metagame Book Club on how blockchain technology can influence the future directions of game design and game development. For more research and webinars on game studies, game design, game-based learning, and gamification, visit the Metagame Book Club: http://bit.ly/metagamebookclub

1. “The Blockchain Effect on
the Future of Game Design”
Sherry Jones
The Metagame Book Club (Summer 2016)
http://bit.ly/blockchaingamefuture

2. Watch the July 27, 2016 Live Webcast!

3. For an introduction on how the blockchain technology
works, and on its effects on ownership, copyright, and
intellectual property, see this presentation:
“The Blockchain Effect on the Future of the Humanities”
by Sherry Jones
http://bit.ly/blockchainhumanities

4. Blockchain: A New Frontier for Game Design and
Game Development
This presentation serves as a forecast on how the blockchain technology will
influence the future directions of game design + development.
Some predictions mentioned in this presentation are currently in
development by a few, independent game studios and independent game
developers, but their methods of development have yet to reach mainstream.
Other predictions are based on my own views of how blockchain technology
could be used to improve game design + development.

5. Blockchain and Decentralization
● In terms of the web, decentralization
refers to the process of distributing a set
of data as separate pieces to be hosted
on multiple processors, rather than
hosting a set of data on a single server,
or a central servers location.
● To decentralize is to shift the power of a
central authority to multiple authorities
or collectives.
● Decentralization prevents hackers from
accessing the entire set of data, when it
is distributed to multiple servers.
● Blockchain can decentralize data.

6. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
1. Decentralized and Unhackable Games

7. Current Problem in Games: Saving Gaming History
● Hacking - Game developers currently save gaming histories on their own servers. In
other words, all information is saved on central servers. This means that hackers
can gain access to all the game information at once.
○ Ex. If the central servers go down, due to hacking for example, then the
gaming history can disappear.
○ Ex. If hackers gain access the game’s backend programming, they can alter the
programming to make the gameplay unfair, or render the game unplayable.
● Cheating - Players can use external software as a method to cheat or manipulate
the gaming system, thereby changing the gaming history for their own benefits.
○ Ex. Players can use external software to cheat by raising their game level,
increasing experience points, earning coins, obtaining characters, outfits,
objects, etc., all without having to play the game for an extended period of
play to earn those game assets fairly.

8. Blockchain Powered Decentralized Games or Play
Systems
● Game developers are interested in using blockchain technology to make certain
parts of a game, or the entire game, decentralized.
● A decentralized game is less hackable.
● A decentralized game can imply a shift of many types of authorities, one of which is
for the game developers to relinquish some of their powers or responsibilities to
the community of players.
○ Ex. Community of Players record and maintain the win and loss gameplay data
of their guild, or of individual guild players.
○ Ex. Community of Players maintain their own in-game economy.
○ Ex. Community of Players control and maintain game assets.

9. Huntercoin, the first decentralized autonomous video game
that relies on human mining.

10. Blockchain Powered Decentralized Play in
Huntercoin
● All game data are controlled by the Huntercoin community of players.
● All game data (coins, characters, maps) are stored on the Huntercoin blockchain to
make the game unhackable.
● Players are incentivized to play by conducting human mining, where they mine in-
game coins, and receives 10% of the block reward, or 1 HUC per minute.
● Player actions are recorded as transactions on the Huntercoin blockchain, using
SHA 256 encryption.
● Players communicate with each other via a decentralized P2P Network.
● Forking of the game is possible when disagreement arise.
“Gaming on the Blockchain: The Huntercoin Saga” by Andrew Wagner (Feb. 2, 2016)

11. Peerplay, the first decentralized tournament management and
wagering platform.

12. Blockchain Powered Tournament Management in
Peerplays
● Peerplays utilizes blockchain and smart contract technology to manage player
tournament gameplay data.
● All tournaments held between players are recorded on smart contracts, and all
gameplay data is stored on the Peerplays blockchain.
● Blockchain records all wins and losses of player actions (as transactions on the
blockchain), so to ensure that the competition is fairly recorded.
● The management system offers a fee sharing program, or Fee Backed Assets (FBA).
○ “This means the blockchain automatically distributes a percentage of the fees
from every jackpot for every game on the entire network to the holders of
Peerplays core tokens.” -- Peerplays

13. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
2. Trades of Virtual In-Game Objects

14. What are Virtual In-Game Objects? Who Owns
Them?
● Virtual In-Game Objects, or Virtual Game Assets, are art elements that are
displayed in a game, or are playable during gameplay.
○ Ex. The “tubes” in Super Mario Brothers; the “Infected” type zombies in the Last of Us; the
“Chocobo” character in the Final Fantasy Series; the “Pokeballs” in Pokemon Go.
● Currently, virtual game assets exist solely in their own game
environments. The game developers own the assets.
● Problem for Players? - Ex. If a player has created her own character in the
game, Oblivion, she cannot port that character beyond the game itself.
Game developers also do not guarantee character permanence.

15. Freemyvunk is a blockchain powered virtual game assets
exchange currency.

16. Blockchain Powered Virtual In-Game Objects via
Freemyvunk
● Freemyvunk assigns virtual in-game objects to a blockchain based token,
so that a person can own the rights to the virtual in-game objects in the
forms of tokens.
● The company calls “virtual junk” as “vunk,” as their currency as VNK.
● The virtual in-game objects are, in a sense, “freed” from their native game
environments.
● Players can trade the virtual in-game objects tokens with each other. In
other words, a player can release her ownership of a virtual game
property to another player via token exchange.

17. Deckbound Quest, a game that allows players to trade virtual
cards.

18. Blockchain Powered Virtual Cards via Deckbound
● Deckbound is a developer of a blockchain powered collection of digital card games,
in which digital cards can be traded between those games.
● All gaming histories are saved on the blockchain.
● All the “cards and their attributes are permanent, and their abilities are mapped
specifically for each game based on their genesis block” -- Deckbound
● Two games have been released, Deckbound Quest and Deckbound Heroes. Both
games offer collectable virtual trading cards.
● Players who play the two games can trade cards between the two game worlds.
● Whether or not players can trade Deckbound cards beyond the platform itself is
currently unknown.

19. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
3. Game Worlds on Blockchains

20. Possible Future: Traveling Between Game Worlds
via Blockchain?
My vision of a game design scenario that has not happened, yet:
Playstation asks all Vita game studios to record their games on the studio’s
blockchain, and join the studio’s blockchain to the Vita blockchain. Each game
studio’s blockchain genesis block includes rules and maps that govern the world
and environment of their own studio game.
Now, Playstation Vita players can travel between the fantastic game worlds of
Bastion and Danganronpa 3 via Vita blockchain.

21. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
4. Game Characters Crossing Worlds

22. Possible Future: Game Characters Crossing to
Other Games via Blockchain?
My vision of a game design scenario that has not happened, yet:
Nintendo and Niantic ask that all Nintendo game studios who are interested in
forming a “game alliance” with Pokemon Go, to record their studio games on the
Pokemon Go blockchain. The genesis blocks of the studio’s game contain rules that
govern character design and behaviors.
Via the Pokemon Go blockchain, players of Final Fantasy Series can move their game
characters across to the augmented reality (AR) world of Pokemon Go, in which the
game characters are behaving according to their original design in the new game
environment.

23. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
5. Sharing Games Across Platforms

24. Possible Future: Sharing Games Across Platforms
via Blockchain?
My vision of a game design scenario that has not happened, yet:
Using a combination of blockchain with VAR-Port, a virtual augmented reality port
for hosting virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games, game studios can
turn their VR/AR games as VAR-Port apps that are saved on the studio blockchain.
Players can now play and share VR/AR games on VAR-Port, along with games that
are created for different platforms, such as PC, Mobile, Unity, Unreal, Oculus Rift,
Hololens, Nintendo NX, etc. via the studio’s blockchain.

25. Possible Blockchain Effects on Game Design:
6. Games and IoTs in Blockchains

26. Possible Future: Connecting Virtual In-Game
Assets with Physical IoT Toys via Blockchain?
My vision of a game design scenario that has not happened, yet:
A player uses Freemyvunk to collect and record virtual in-game objects as tokens on
a blockchain, and record physical internet of things (IoT) toys on that blockchain.
Now, the player can access both the virtual in-game assets, such as a virtual
Pikachu play card, and access information of the physical Pikachu stuffed doll, from
the same blockchain. Both physical and virtual objects, of which each carries a
different hash value, are saved to the player’s blockchain, proving that the player is
the owner. Players can then trade either physical or virtual object tokens.

27. Presentationby:
Sherry Jones
Philosopher | Educator | Game Designer
http://about.me/sherryjones
Access Slides
http://bit.ly/blockchaingamefuture