In this article, we're discussing where the utility side of NFTs/Digital Collectibles or even member passes will evolve in the coming few years. As protocols, smart contracts and standards increase their own utility, our typical ERC721(a/c/z) and ERC1155s have competition looming for sure. But for now, on the ground in the engine room of active development we have to back the gold standards and embrace utility at our fingertips. So here goes.
Do you even utility bro?
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or Digital Collectibles are rapidly evolving, with significant potential to disrupt traditional ownership models across many different sectors. Let's delve into the future of utility within the NFT space, particularly in the context of gaming, using our innovative 3D role-playing game "Hangry Animals - Onslaught" as an insightful case study.
In "Hangry Animals - Onslaught", gamers have the unique opportunity to customise and personalise their avatars with the use of NFTs. This feature has shown immense potential to enhance interaction and engagement rates, revolutionising the player's experience by making it more immersive than ever before. Much like Fortnite or many 3D Battle style games, allowing a player freedom to style their personal battle Avatar presents a more immersive brand and representational opportunity. Add to this the potential AI driven interactions in-game, and we start to see how multi player web3 connected experiences have infinite possibilities for play and storytelling tangents.
Starfield's uniqueness
Bethesdas recent release Starfield has had roaring success and glitches like infinite money, which will likely be patched soon! Go grab some free money in game while you can. Haha. Some of Starfields features and quests are very immersive and commands commitment from it's players. The companion feature that brings comments on the morality of your choices throughout your quests, add a great uniqueness to the challenges you face. These elements of game play, bring a personalised direction to the storytelling of each and every players experience, making the game mean more to the player than linear story mode.
Hangry metadata
The potential of NFTs backed players brings with it personalisation, achievements, leaderboard status and rewards in game. This extends further into the realm of collectibles beyond the game, allowing players to own unique digital assets that can be traded or sold in the Hangry marketplace but also on wider web3 marketplaces such as Opensea and Blur. The value assigned to these tokens is subjective but increases with player effort and immersion in game challenges. This inherently hinges on the demand within our gaming community and holders to own highly sought after traits or skins, creating an exciting dynamic market for trading. Each players NFT will essentially accumulate points for gameplay and training scenarios as we present players with the opportunity to beef up their stats through micro games across the ecosystem to bolster their gameplay within the main Hangryverse area of 'Onslaught' (Working title by the way).
Beyond their inherent value as collectibles, NFTs in "Hangry Animals - Onslaught" also serve functional utilities. They represent your unique identity within the gaming universe, akin to a digital fingerprint. Each token ID brings something new - a distinctive character, a special ability, or even access to unexplored regions in the game existing and yet to be built posessing even more special traits and weapons to tackle even the most challenging Shillarkis or Metavert alien enemy.
This combination of uniqueness and utility significantly boost player engagement. It allows gamers to personally invest in their characters and gameplay, fostering a closer relationship with the game and enhancing their overall experience. We feel this ability to take a players Avatar backed by web3 technology and the combination of on and off-chain metadata provides so much future utility inside and outside a single gaming experience. Let's not forget, most JPEGONOMICS are staking rewards and discount merch... When asked the question by Alex is Building on twitter:
Buy an NFT to get a product
Buy a product and get a free NFTThey seem the same, but the user experience is completely different.
98
We'd choose B every time. Why? because product first has the ability to onboard those who aren't familiar with NFTs and web3 technologies with immediate uses through quality digital and physical products, whilst A is for those already swimming in the broth of web3 today who more often than not, let's face it, which to speculate to make money as well as believe in a founder and their teams idea for a product. It's a tricky one to answer and the threat explores the many different polarising opinions for sure. But A has marginal success of the few and lucky projects that have managed to monopolise the fame and exposure to date. B brings more long term strategy and staying power as it permits the project the ability to grow gradually by showcasing good, well researched, well designed, well marketed product. Hangry for the win.
Gaming rewards
We're strongly leaning towards Polygon for the token and gaming rewards side of things as we develop our play to earn mechanics. In game kills and rewards will be session based transactions that accumulate points during play and claimed at the end of game checkpoints. These micro interactions are well suited to a low to zero gas layer 1 such as Polygon. At present $FOOD is a social token and is purely used as a thank you for early support. $FOOD will be exchangeable for NFTs within our own marketplace of Hangrys, but also holders will be eligible for our in game trading and rewards token $TARBAL on Polygon. Using a low gas and low fee EVM such as polygon with most activity transacting behind the scenes, we're focussing on bringing a mass web2 audience gradually into the tokenomics of web3 in normal gameplay. @Akio on twitter highlights the allure of AAA games is forgetting the simplicity of fun and playability of gaming experiences:
The Allure of AAA
Web3 game studios are in a race to produce the next AAA title, armed with cutting-edge graphics and high production values.
But we're really missing the forest for the trees...
Rediscovering…
Something we're also passionate about here. Creating a belief and buy in to the characters world, adventure and fun factor is key here. What these examples have in essence is a balance of challenge, fun and rewards with a gradation of difficulty that keeps a player coming back for the next dopamine hit. The psychology of gaming in favour of a focus on rewards is often a misshap on web3 endeavours. $FOOD for thought.
In conclusion, the future of NFTs in gaming appears bright, with "Hangry Animals - Onslaught" leading the charge for our ecosystem. As we continue to innovate and evolve, we remain committed to exploring new ways of integrating NFTs into our gameplay, paving the way for a future where digital ownership and personalisation take centre stage.
Big up the social army
Our push on social media platforms has played a pivotal role in spreading awareness about our game and its unique NFT features. Thanks to the meticulous planning and efforts of Ceri Angel, our social engagement rates have increase by 106% on both Twitter and Instagram. This serves as a testament to her efforts and mission to build our social profile and target audience to prove the utility and potential of NFTs, and their ability to captivate audiences across different platforms.
As always, we appreciate our communities efforts and support. This is a fresh strategy for us as we analyse our key target audiences and the differences that exist on each social platform. Twitter is our web3 savvy business and founder community, Instagram is our teen and art showcase, TikTok and Youtube will be our next adventure to ensure we capture the gamers and brand ambassadors for the hangry animals band of adventurers themselves.
Onwards
As we've spent the last 3 weeks sweating the details on IRL funding opportunities and speaking to some greats from the animation world, we've been refining a lot of the details surround the world building, character personas and dynamics to ensure the stories are grounded in believable relationships between our crew of hybrid beasts and the nemisis' they face. Our pitch decks for both Gaming and Animation series' are now primed for a plethora of investment strategies to ensure our growth as a business into the future. If you want to share or invite us to an AMA for updates or just vibe, email the main man Hangry Andy via dev@hangryanimals.com and we can get the coffee brewed and the Donuts glazed ready for a solid chin wag. Secondly, let's like, share, comment and vibe on socials and take Hangry to the next level! \m/
