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Big Time's Bold Vision: A Web3 Game That Appeals to All Gamers | Developer Interview | MMONFT | MMOR
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Big Time's Bold Vision: A Web3 Game That Appeals to All Gamers | Developer Interview | MMONFT | MMORPG.com
Fantasy MORPG Big Time just hit Pre-Season with some stunning dungeon-based gameplay. The Big Time Studios team addresses gamers that aren't into Web3, and how their NFT cosmetics are completely optional.
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The first red flag is the use of Web3 in the marketing.
Please view the prices on the Open Loot page.
They'll sell you a weapon for $35,000.00
Now that we've all been insulted....
Lol i was just looking at that myself. You can use their web3 bigtime coin to craft items, including hourglasses which are for collecting bigtime. That page has like $35k weapons and it wont work as pay to win? You can also rent items for weeks / days for cash apparently. Scary thought to have a couple beers relaxing playing one of these kind of games, could really cost you.
Not often a game and a song with the same name kind of mesh but Peter Gabriel's was at least satire.
Big time
I'm on my way-I'm making it
Big time
I've got to make it show yeah
Big time
So much larger than life
Big time
I'm going to watch it growing
Big time
My car is getting bigger
Big time
My house getting bigger
Big time
But i am definitely not the target audience for web3, blockchain's etc so to each their own i guess.
They do not provide a gameplay advantage as far as I can tell.... except the hourglasses seem to be the only way to get the currency you need to craft cosmetics. And I'm not entirely sure what the forge stuff does.
It's kind of crazy to see some of the items and what their listing price is, but even crazier when you see some of these cosmetics have sold for 5,000 or more. I'm all for collectibles, sure, but high prices like this feel like such a losing "investment". No ordinary game would sell items of rarity for 35,000 dollars.
The limited mint Fangs of the Celadon Exile VIII skin listed for 35,555 doesn't appear to have any activity on the marketplace. so at least that hasn't been traded on the market afaik.
I gotta be honest though, Digital collectibles are kind of a crapshoot as a monetization model. Is it player forward? Kinda. But I haven't seen any web3 games where a cosmetic only shop has had long term success. The most cosmetic forward game I know of shut down their game, and now is attempting to do the same thing on a different audience. The NFTs are useless unless they can transfer them, and even then it's highly likely that any value they held will be reduced to near worthless.
So, yeah, if they sold cosmetics that deal on volume rather than strictly rarity, maybe it would be worthwhile. But even the shop they have now, some of the weapons are just reskins of other weapons.
Another interesting tidbit is that in-game items that may provide an advantage, such as the pocket watches mentioned in the article, are not allowed to be sold or the users are at risk of suspension of their account.
That's definitely trying to curb the play to win aspects, but it also kind of invalidates the original vision of itemizing NFTs. Most blockchain games cite that the items you earn are yours to own and do with as you want. Some games like MIR4 even go so far as to put everything on the market, including your characters.
But here, the ownership seems to be strictly the NFTs crafted, and the threat of loss of account is still present. I don't disagree with it necessarily, but it seems ... I don't know... weird? If you get banned due to selling pocket watches what happens to all of your cosmetics? And if you can still sell them, couldn't you just transfer them to another account anyways?
I guess the big issue would be gas fees. Looks like they're running on ethereum. Gas fees are less now but still there. Most games are on stuff like immutable X or polygon.
Anyways. Not sure if I'm going to jump into this one, but since it's invite only, doesn't look like I'll have a chance anytime soon. I might give it a go one day, but seems like they have a lot to work out still. Also.... their Discord is full of sellers trying to sell. I don't feel like this is the side you want to show of a game that is "game first" and built for more than just blockchain gamers.
Fishing on Gilgamesh since 2013
Fishing on Bronzebeard since 2005
Fishing in RL since 1992
Born with a fishing rod in my hand in 1979
http://twitch.tv/woetothevanquished
Also looking at their blog they seem to "balance" the economy from time to time. Sounds like they are having issues getting it right, though this is my guess without firsthand knowledge
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Thing is I had already purchased all the storage tabs. I needed them just like how much storage I had purchased in Path of Exile I felt it was something I was willing to spend and it was necessary.
The weekly pet thing really upset me a lot. I mean you rent the pet and you have to dish out cash well you can sell enough on the AH and buy the pet but that was never going to be how I earned it ever. I am terrible in every game at making in game currency so real money was how I was going to pay for it and that really irked me a lot.
Finally I justified it by looking at the number of hours I was spending playing the game and I decided I would pay for it. It never set well with me and I was quite surprised by my decision to participate in something I was dead against in the very beginning. I suppose it is the classic frog in the boiling pot syndrome.
I am just saying if you play and enjoy a game you can very much surprise yourself at what you might be willing to spend your money on. The key word here is really the 'fun' factor. If you are truly having 'fun' then rewarding the game company for that 'fun' isn't something so alien that it is never going to be something you might do. I bought outfits on Path of Exile to reward the developers because they gave me a game I was having a blast in.
I think having a choice on how much you are willing to spend ultimately works in the game companies' favour because it isn't forced upon you like a subscription so the resentment isn't as profound.
So never say never as I did and have to eat those words down the line.
This web, NFT, Crypto and blockchain thing right now isn't a game I will consider playing and the fact that the integrity of your purchases is not guaranteed is a disturbing factor and one that must be taken into consideration. Nothing chafes as much as having your purchases change in their power or characteristics. That is a nasty shady thing for the developer to do and I would not trust them even as far as I can throw them.
If you are already dealing in these variables and facing a market that is sceptical the last thing you want to do is change people's purchases. This is an indication that the buyer is never in control of what they own. I know 'own' isn't something one can associate with this technology but it's never good to show the instability and ephemeral nature of the purchases. You're just shooting yourself in the foot going in with this type of a developer. So thank you very much but no thanks.
Big Time is truly free-to-play. nothing makes you have to participate in the NFT/token aspects of the game. it is merely a additional component of the game. As far as end game content and aspects to appeal to traditional gamers , Big Time still has a ways to go before launch but looking at their road map they are on course.
As far as the NFT/cryptocurrency aspect or economy, it is all strickly cosmetic. No pay to win. Its just like buying a skin for a weapon in COD. But when you buy this skin/NFT, you own it. You can apply it to you weapon, sell it on the Open loot marketplace or move it to your wallet completely out of the Big Time/ open Loot space. If you buy a skin on fortnite and the game servers shutdown the next game, you no longer have access to it anymore and its gone.
As for the the maket place prices on Open Loot, all prices are set by the players. Big Time do not control the prices on Open Loot. Currently with balance changes to the economy this can indirectly after market prices but in the end the players control the price of what is sold on the openloot market place.
Alot of commenters have shot this game down before even playing it or experiencing it just because of web3 label. I urge you to try it before you knock it. You maybe pleasantly surprised.
You're right you own the token. The NFT's are utility NFT's though, and the game is its prime utility meaning if the game shuts down, the token is worthless, even if you can transfer the item to others.
NFT's are essentially a cryptographic token assigned to an in-game virtual item. Once the game is no longer displaying said item, you may have a visual representation of the item on something like Openloot or alternative gray markets, but you don't own that super special sword anymore. It no longer exists.
As a "web 3" "gamer" myself, I would request you check out games like Blankos Block Party and F1 Delta Time and see what's going on with the NFTs people spent tons of money on after those games shut down.
Blankos *might* eventually transfer the tokens to their mobile game, but for the moment, they're generally worthless. For F1, the tokens themselves are useless and animoca provided replacement cars in other games, but NOT assigned to the same tokens, meaning the original tokens, however great it is to own them are useless, and optioned to be swapped (essentially burned) for usable assets in another game.
So while yes, you "own" the token, the premise of ownership is only an illusion at this time.
Will it always be that way? Probably not. Eventually someone will create a third-party system where models can be imported from other games. Several developers are trying to unify web3 development through certain engines in an initiative to make importing of assets to other games possible. But that's many years off, and likely won't be part of anything that's currently on the market.
Otherwise, I agree that people should give more web3 games a chance, especially where the blockchain portions of the game don't interfere with the actual gameplay.
But we're still waiting for a great web3 game that "can't be missed" so I'm not going to be a stickler about people staying away from Bigtime rn.
"Jeff "Jihoz" Zirlin, a co-founder of the Axie Infinity blockchain game, lost around $9.5 million as two of his crypto wallets were compromised. The thief stole 3,248 ETH ($9.5 million), which they quickly laundered with the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency."
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=jihoz-zirlin-wallet-hack
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
mmorpg junkie since 1999
No thank you! (nice colors though)