From Zeny to ETH The Past and Future of Gaming Currency

As steam removes all blockchain games, Epic must sing the opposite tone, and some traditional manufacturers also promote their participation, the conflict between the positive and negative poles of the blockchain among gamers has become intensified. Will this new thing eventually It's still too early to tell if it's part of the game. But it is said that "things have a beginning and end; things have an end and a beginning. If you know the sequence, you will be close." Before envisioning the future, or we can look back, the evolution of currency in the game may bring some enlightenment.

Nominal "currency"

It is said that at the beginning of Pangu, the world was deviated. Soon after the emergence of video games, there was a special item called currency. Players collected them during the game and exchanged them for some really needed items. Especially in the later RPGs, it became the norm. This kind of item only has the name of currency but not the reality of currency. Its flow is one-way. It is generated out of thin air and disappears out of thin air after being paid to the NPC. There will be no circulation in it. However, it was enough for the game back then.

The unnamed SOJ

Until the era of online games comes, the game is not limited to one time and one place. In particular, players are no longer teammates or enemies. They can neither be primitive communism that can be shared selflessly, nor are they competing with each other. Need to be paired, there is room for trading - Amazon takes the large shield and exchanges the crossbow in the Paladin's hand. Just like the evolution of economics in human history, there is a double-coupling problem in barter. The needs and resources of both parties may not necessarily match, but life will find a way out.

In the pioneers of online games and the classic "Diablo 2", people found SOJ (Stone of Jordan), which is a unique item, so its properties are completely fixed, which is called homogeneity in economics, and drops at the same time The rate is extremely low (rarity), and it only occupies one space for props (portability), which perfectly fits the economics' pursuit of currency and becomes a medium of exchange for people. There is no currency in the name but the reality of currency. Similar examples with no currency in the name but the reality of currency are the resources in "Ogame" (metal crystal deuterium), the mark of Bessos in "Dragon Online", etc.

electronic currency

As for the "currency" in the game itself, in "Diablo 2", the traditional game idea is inherited, and it is not designed to be traded for players. Because of the inconvenience of trading and the low relative value, basically only the functions for NPCs are left. On the other hand, the MMORPG, which was born out of TRPG, has swept the game industry and competes with the lobby game "Diablo 2". Since it is a "massively multiplayer online role-playing game", of course, the communication between players must be considered, including the transaction part. , the "currency" of the game itself plays the role of currency again. Anyway, tens of thousands of Zeny are worthless, then hundreds of millions or trillions, the currency itself is digitized, just like the real world cash is declining.

spam

However, this does not change the nature of "currency" itself only appearing and disappearing out of thin air. Its origin comes from players playing games. It is not like currency in reality, which is mainly obtained through transaction and circulation after central issuance. Game currency is While circulating, it is being produced in large quantities, just like the real government over-issuing money - or even worse, because no one can control the player's currency production. Therefore, MMOs usually have extremely fast currency inflation.

OLG and blockchain

Speaking of which, this decentralized currency generation mechanism is actually somewhat similar to blockchain currency. Referring to MMOs, the original Bitcion (BTC) proposed a method of control from the source to control the conditions of currency generation, so that BTC can increase steadily and slowly, which is more open than the one who only babbles about "2% inflation" . This comparison is not aimless. In the blockchain community, "Ogame" will be used to describe some early participants; "farming" will be mentioned. The origin is actually from the oldest existing massively multiplayer web strategy game "" Ogame"; even the recently mentioned "Second Life" is actually derived from the MMO of the same name, what kind of metaverse, we have been doing it nearly twenty years ago.

Control the game's high-speed inflation

Going back to online games, most manufacturers are unable to control the general high-speed inflation of OLG, and they often let it develop. "SOJ-style" transactions. A few, like the early days of "Mabinogi", strictly control the amount of output, and at the same time make the consumption huge. For example, fighting a monster only drops 10 yuan and 8 yuan, but the maintenance of weapons costs tens of thousands (and will fail!) , banks and other services will also charge fees, so that the production and disappearance of money can be balanced. This balance has been effective for a long time. Inflation in the early days of Mabinogi was very mild, even lower than reality. It was not until later when the team was changed like a movie and a painting that it took the old path of other OLGs.

Evolution of Destruction Mechanisms

This balancing mechanism has also been borrowed into blockchain currencies, from the initial halving mechanism of BTC to the token destruction mechanism that almost exists in new blockchain currencies (ETH was added later), and is different from those Zombies with only "2% inflation" have evolved from manual destruction to automatic destruction, to a more intelligent balance formula, which has been rapidly iterated in just a few years.

Mall system = official RMT

The era has turned another page. Another innovation of "Mabinogi" is the beginning of the "mall system" era, that is, the business model of "free play, paid items". Because of the amazing profits, the original fixed monthly fee to play "Good Old Days" end gradually. In fact, before this, RMT (Real-Money Trading) had already appeared, which exchanged real money with players for props or currency in the game. During the RMT process, the game operator did not make any profit, which caused various problems in the game. talk, and press), and are therefore generally prohibited. To a certain extent, the mall system can be regarded as RMT (course money) conducted by the game official.

The role of intermediate currency

Since it is game development/operation, it is not only RMT, but a more convenient system, which is the intermediate currency. Usually, players have to go through a layer of intermediate currency if they want to buy real money to buy the class gold props in the game, whether it is called points, magic stone or holy spar. These intermediate currencies are basically equivalent to cash, but are more flexible, such as "Bahamut of the Strike" (recently terminated update, RIP) and "This year must fall" "Puzzle & Dragons". Sending intermediate currency (or class money props), like drug addiction, attracts more people to charge money. At the same time, the intermediate currency also does not destroy the atmosphere of the game. Imagine it would be better to "exchange the magic sword with the magic stone" than "buy the magic sword with Taiwan dollars"? There is another advantage of intermediate currency. Unfamiliar currencies will make people lose their sense of money. Just like when traveling, holding foreign currency will make people more generous. This is also a non-game payment system. It also likes to add intermediate currency, and it is often very Pieces are not easy to convert easily.

Fiat currency in the game

To a certain extent, this intermediate currency, which is the "fiat currency" in the game, has become a lame multi-standard system/parallel multi-standard system with what is called currency in the game. The difference is that in reality, most of the lame re-standards are gold, precious and silver, but silver coins cannot be freely minted; on the contrary, in the game, gold is precious and silver is also cheap, but in turn, gold cannot be freely minted. As mentioned above, this leads to inflation in the game. It is bound to appear, and even bound to collapse.

It is also from "God Strike" that the transaction between players has been limited, because at this time the existence of RMT directly threatens the operator's profit. Take "God Strike" as an example, the official price is equivalent to 95 yen for tuition items, At that time, the black market (yahoo auction) was only selling for 25 or even 15 yen, and the ban on RMT alone was not effective. "FF11" is already considered to be very fierce to catch RMT, but some people do business, and soon a game that completely bans trading will become a game. mainstream.

In Japan, since 2012, due to the "Cinderella Set Gacha Rebellion", the Jingpin notation was revised, and under the guidance of the self-regulatory organization "Japan オンラインゲーム Association" (JOGA), the class money items are divided into paid (paid) and unpaid. (non-paid acquisition), the restrictions on paid stones will be relatively large, and free stones are regarded as almost regardless of the game content (if there is no distinction, they will all be limited by paid).

Change or Madness?

This goes back to what I mentioned at the beginning. Steam recently removed all blockchain games from the shelves. To a certain extent, they are also NFT games for "Play to Earn". The currency of these games is largely similar to paid stones, which are also converted from fiat currency. , used for game circulation, some can be converted into cash through official channels, and some can also be cashed through RMT.

The biggest difference between paid stone and blockchain currency is that in the past, the generation of such currency and even props was operated in a black box, and the number was not transparent. It happens (especially in Chinese games), players can only build on trust, or even "one willing to fight and one willing to suffer" at all.

The future of in-game currency

Interestingly, even if RMT is officially allowed, players sometimes resist it, especially games that claim to be able to turn into cash or even make money in the game, are often resisted by players, especially games with core players as the main goal. For example, "Diablo3" directly appeared in the cash auction, but the bad reviews and poor operation were eventually closed. The reasons are interesting and complicated. We will talk about it when we have the opportunity.

As an OLG player for more than 20 years, the author just disagrees with the "Play to Earn" ethos that NFT games often ask for. The author believes that the blockchain can make the mechanism credible and transparent. Regardless of whether it is a homogeneous or non-homogeneous blockchain currency, it can help OLG become more perfect as a tool. Of course, it is up to people to choose this path. There is no guarantee, that is the future.

condensed history

From the past to the future, the development of currency in the game, to a certain extent, condenses the history of human currency, compressing hundreds of thousands of years into decades; and the development of currency in the blockchain is to compress the history of game currency into ten years. . This is why the author originally said that the evolution of currency in the game may bring inspiration to the evolution of blockchain currency.