Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

spectrum.ieee.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 377 posts

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#341

Post by LoveMortuus »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #324
LoveMortuus wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the blockchain has been kind of tainted by the way it's been used for the past few years, but I do believe that there can be valid uses for it. Lately I've been thinking if it would be possible to have an MMORPG game where instead of a server all the data would be saved in a blockchain/linked list. The biggest concern I have though is the latency and speed. Could blockchains be fast enough or in some other way…

> Lately I've been thinking if it would be possible to have an MMORPG game where instead of a server all the data would be saved in a blockchain/linked list. What for? What advantage would this have over storing data on a server? > I've been thinking about this, because servers are expensive and doing it this way you would have, kind of, solved the problem of scalability - no queues. You're just offloading the cost o…

>What for? What advantage would this have over storing data on a server?

Mostly because I'm kinda poor and can't even think about buying it renting servers. That's why I thought that such a solution would allow me to keep developing my game while the players could still play the game.

If it would be possible, which from replies to my comment, I'm guessing isn't, it would also mean that even if I died, people could still play because the "servers" wouldn't shutdown.

>You're just offloading the cost onto the players, and offloading the queuing mechanic onto the blockchain.

That's kind of the point, MMORPG are, from what I understand, quite expensive to run. Thus if they were run by the community it would be cheaper for the developers and those resources could be further used to work on the game.

>I'm sorry to be rude, but this is another comment desperately trying to find a use for the blockchain, casting out a rod into infinite idea space, and pulling out a boot

I am surprised by the negativity that the HN crowd has poured onto me. Since it would solve one of the biggest issues with MMORPGs, which is - servers shutting down.

I love MMOs and it breaks my heart knowing that I'll probably never ever again be able to play Tera and many other MMOs...

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#342

Post by LoveMortuus »

JeremyNT wrote: post #327
LoveMortuus wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the blockchain has been kind of tainted by the way it's been used for the past few years, but I do believe that there can be valid uses for it. Lately I've been thinking if it would be possible to have an MMORPG game where instead of a server all the data would be saved in a blockchain/linked list. The biggest concern I have though is the latency and speed. Could blockchains be fast enough or in some other way…

"Cost savings" is never a valid reason to use blockchain technology. It is and always will be inherently more expensive than running a normal database. The only reason that users might be willing to eat that cost is if they believe they are "owning" an asset that will appreciate somehow (a la Cryptokitties). The second the thing they own stops appreciating, they stop paying to play.

Do you not think that keeping the servers alive for the game that they love would be enough?

It would be for me and since many private servers exist for many different games, it is for others too.

This would, if it would be functional, just spread the burden of the server to all players.

In that sense, just by playing the game, you would be keeping it alive.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#343

Post by landryraccoon »

zeven7 wrote: post #337
Chabsff wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things are wrong here: 1) The reason it can't be done with EVE is not because EVE is not on the blockchain. It just happens to not be possible because the devs didn't make it so. They could have, but they chose not to. 2) Something being on the blockchain does not make it automatically permission-less. It depends on how the smart contracts involved are coded. I think point 2) is something that a lot of people don…

> A property that any web service is capable of providing without the blockchain having to be involved. No, then you run into the Byzantine generals problem, which is the specific problem solved by blockchains. So maybe the problem is you still don't understand what a blockchain is.

You don’t have the Byzantine generals problem with a centralized database.

Whatever the database says is authoritative.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#344

Post by LawTalkingGuy »

pdntspa wrote: post #78
Kiro wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HyperDragons. Someone made a game where you bred dragons that could eat CryptoKitties to absorb their attributes. The composability and interoperability of the blockchain means anyone can extend your game and build mechanics with your assets, without your permission. It's truly an open API.

And what here does the blockchain offer that a database table doesn't? Other than the ability to monetize.

That the two projects both shared the same DB.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#345

Post by [deleted] »

Chabsff wrote: post #113
Kiro wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say I want to build a game where you can destroy your EVE Online spaceships to get bonuses in my game. How would that work? That's what happened with CryptoKitties and HyperDragons. Just to clarify: someone who owns a CryptoKitty decides to send it to the HyperDragons smart contract that handles the absorption. It's not about stealing anything. You use your assets in CryptoKitties to boost your dragon in HyperD…

This is not inherently made possible by the blockchain itself though. The mechanisms to transfer a Kitty to the HyperDragons lie within the CryptoKitty Smart Contract. This is not particularly different than a regular API, where the available operations have been chosen, specified, and made available to the public at large by the developers. The only real difference with a public-facing documented traditional API is…

[deleted]

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#346

Post by astrange »

dragonwriter wrote: post #330
astrange wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The setting was written in 1996 with Mahoutsukai no Yoru/Kara no Kyoukai. Also the other half of the setting is all about vampires, and it's definitely kind of like White Wolf Vampire, but not close enough to look intentional.

> The setting was written in 1996 with Mahoutsukai no Yoru/Kara no Kyoukai. Still three years after Mage was published.

Not in Japanese though.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#347

Post by nazka »

dexwiz wrote: post #193
naet wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check https://www.cryptokitties.co/guide/ways-to-play The reason it seems like they didn't describe the "actual game" is that there is no actual "gameplay". You just pay to collect cats. You can trade the cat tokens with other people, try to sell them on the marketplace, pay to generate semi randomized new cat tokens via "breeding", and... just have them under your wallet / name. There is no action, no RPG, no platfo…

> Why breed Purrstige Traits? Breeding a Purrstige Trait can be challenging, but it’s rewarding too. Because Purrstige Traits are time-limited, they’re particularly rare — and especially valued as a result. Plus, Purrstige Traits are always a nice visual treat, creating some of the game’s most beautiful and unique cats. From the docs, lots of talk about value. Not much reason why. It reminds me of the Beanie Babies V…

I can’t wait for the world to wake up from this insanity.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#348

Post by ETH_start »

dragonwriter wrote: post #331
ETH_start wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ceteris paribus, WotC can capture more value when the collectibles it issues are more valuable. It can sell them at a higher initial price. Whether post-issuance value capture is sufficiently increased by controlling the platform to compensate for the lower market value those assets can command can be argued of course, but I intuit it is not. As it is WotC captures almost no value from secondary market exchanges of i…

> Ceteris paribus, WotC can capture more value when the collectibles it issues are more valuable Obviously, but equally obviously we aren't talking about a situation where ceteris paribus even approximately holds.

Yes, I think it was clear I wasn't implying that it was, given I went onto address the other factors right afterwards. The ceteris paribus was just an analytical device to control for one factor - initial sale price - and establish what its effect is on WotC's profitability.

Re: The collapse of cryptokitties, the first big blockchain game

#349

Post by chris_wot »

everfree wrote: post #335
chris_wot wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he’ll continue paying for things he gets value from using a medium that works for him.

Mediums are themselves services that a consumer decides whether to use based on marginal cost and utility. They are services that are used to purchase products and services. Purchase decisions are made about these services in the same manner as purchase decisions about the end product, at least under the rational choice theory of economics.

So under that theory, the medium of Ethereum will increasingly not be chosen.
Post reply on HN