Not so long after the last gaming token CoinList crowdsale (Gods Unchained), we have another gaming token up for sale. Guild of Guardians is also built upon the Immutable X (IMX) Layer 2 for Ethereum. It appears that Immutable X is really gunning to solidify their place as a the "goto" layer 2 for gaming and NFTs, which puts it in direct competition with the Efinity/Enjin (EFI/ENJ) solution. It may be my paricular bias and echo chamber, but it appears that the much younger Immutable X is doing better at the moment with the slicker looking games and announcements.

Anyway, gaming tokens aren't really the sort of thing that I like to dump money into... I find that games tend to be a bit of a fleeting phenomenon, and the style of games that I like to play and support are more hardcore than the money making casual style games that are probably much better investments! If I have a choice, I generally prefer to dump my money into the infrastructure that backs these games... the games come and go on consumer whims, but the infrastructure is there for the next hyped hit. It is more like investing in Steam instead of the individual games/publishers that pop on the platform. Of course, if you can pick the right game... you probably will end up with much better returns... but that is the big "if"!

Unlike platform tokens, gaming projects need to have a much slicker presentation package for the investors. So, you have a bit of a cinematic teaser that doesn't show actual gameplay (there is an alpha gameplay trailer later in this post)... honestly, these gaming trailers are a bit more interesting to watch than the usual token slide-deck. However, they are pretty generic in their own way... still, nice to watch.

So, let me get this out of the way early... GOG will NEVER be associated firstly with this game for me. GOG is Good Old Games... period!

Anyway, now that my little crankiness is appeased, lets see what sort of game we are looking at. Multiplayer (yuck...), fantasy (ok...), aRPG (yuck). So, I'm the type of gamer that doesn't really like the gameplay loops and mechanics of multiplayer games, and I'm even less keen on them when there is an economic (real/token) component to it. Competition based gameplay is bad enough, but competition with economic envy... sigh. Bring me a good single player narrative-based game any day of the week... aRPGs (think Diablo or Torchlight) are not that exciting for me either, it is that Skinner box loop gameplay that I find quite distasteful and ultimately hollow.

... honestly, I'm even more troubled by the number of Play-to-Earn games that are launching that are promoting their ability to disrupt the gaming industry. Sure, there are lots of problems with the gaming industry, and if Play to Earn replaces Free to Play games... well, I have no problem there. But where I do have a problem (like Free to Play gaming) is where all these tokens (or microtransactions) start to infect single-player games, or just remove funding from the hardcore single-player games just so that gaming studios can build their next addiction cash-cow. As you can see, I have mixed thoughts (or perhaps not mixed at all) about the Play to Earn model of gaming...

So... much of this slide recaps much of the misgivings that I have about Free to Play and Earn to Play. There is no talk of narrative or story, or development of character... all the things that you would want in a meaningful entertainment medium. How is this going to be anything different than a habit forming addictive game?

I'm not keen on the highly accessible on mobile aspect either... in my experience, mobile games are the worst when it comes to cheap, shoddy games that are only designed to milk player time and money.

Much of the pre-alpha gameplay doesn't really fill me with that much confidence either from the gameplay point of view. If the game is going to be "highly accessible" on mobile devices, then it will be expected that most of the gameplay is going to be both highly automated and relatively shallow.

So, if you have read this far... it might look like that this is not going to be a CoinList sale that I will take part in! And I wouldn't blame you if you came to that conclusion... however, I know that my gaming tastes are not the gaming tastes of most of the world. What I like doesn't necessarily accord with what is profitable... in fact, it is highly likely that it is the complete opposite! So, approaching this from the point of view of an investor... I don't have to like or play the game in order to try and make money from it... Sure, I probably shouldn't support something that I think is not a good idea for the games that I like, but on the other hand, quality games survived the freemium obsession that publishers had for a while, and some of the counters to that model have turned out to be amazingly good!

So, long story short... I will invest if I win a purchase spot, because I know that I don't know what will moon or not! So, no harm in taking a punt on a CoinList crowdsale, because in general... they have done pretty damn well! So, more like trust in the CoinList vetting rather than my own instincts in this case.

So, the usual CoinList two round format for the sales. The first being the more expensive option that has a quicker unlock time, and the second with the riskier longer unlock cliff with a significantly lower purchase price. As usual, I will gun for both... and if I get my usual priority queue tickets, then I should be able to get into at least one of the two rounds!

Again, the timings are just perfect for Western Europe. Early in the evening and one just after midnight... actually, not exactly perfect... but better than the middle of the night ones that occurred earlier in the year! Another curious country restriction was the Australia one... Australia was also restricted in the Gods Unchained and Immutable X sales. I'm not keen about that, seeing as I will be returning back to Australia in the near future... and I would like to continue to take part in as many CoinList sales as possible!

The use cases for GOG are very similar to the ones that were listed for Gods Unchained. Nothing out of the ordinary here, they enforce a token sink but requiring 20% of trading fees be paid in the currency, which is returned back to stakers. Interesting circular economy.. but like many tokenomics, it is a fine balance and time will tell how resilient it is to shocks, and where the economic equilibria lie.

So, the CoinList sale represents 6 percent of the total supply with 5 percent having gone already to the private sales. There is a large pool for the running and development of the game, and I guess a large chunk for marketing and all of that fluff.

One critical thing to watch out for is the vesting schedules for the various token holders. The Round 1 public sale is in the initial supply, and the private sales come unlocked at around 12 months which is the time frame for the Round 2 sales. So, in 12 months expect a pretty nasty price shock!

These days, a pretty important metric is the social stats of a particular project... sad but true. For a gaming project, this is even more important... especially if the game is going to be a multiplayer game. Well, you need a strong and committed player-base (which again, leads me to cry about skewed developer incentives in order to retain a long tail of players...).

So, the development team appear to have some pretty decent experience in the traditional gaming industry. Much of the gaming does appear to be with Ubisoft games... and a good chunk of them are not really the types of games that I would ordinarily be intrested in. Well... Hitman is... but it depends on whether it was before or after the abomination that is now the franchise?

Meet your friendly dumpers who will poop on you as soon as their vesting schedule allows. Sorry, take profit in order to cash in their highly risky until investment? What I have found interesting here is the fact that Ubisoft is listed as a partner! It is curious that the existing gaming publishers are starting to take notice of this field... although, Ubisoft isn't one of those with the best track records, and I suspect that it is more to do with money making instead of some revolution in game development! After all, much of the crypto gaming platforms are designed with the existing publishers firmly in the crosshairs!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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