Why does this need a blockchain, as opposed to snippets of scripting sitting on the server that the game itself runs on?<p>It reminds me of a 3D version of Screeps, an indie browser survival MMO where you write Javascript for each unit to control their movements, mining, attacks, etc. That doesn't need blockchain.<p>I can see how smart contracts would be useful in a decentralized trust model, but if the EVE company is running the game centrally anyway, what benefit does it give?
As long as games like this put an EXTREMELY strict rule against exchanging currency and items in-game for real money, they can really thrive without being turned into minmaxxed dystopias full of bots and people in third world countries grinding in net cafes.<p>Path of Exile is a great example of a game with an available trading API that cracks down on RMT, and it's mostly enthusiasts and cool community projects like Path of Building, PoeDB, Poe Ninja and Filterblade. There's still an underbelly of bots and RMT-ers but nothing on the scale of Axie Infinity.
Can someone ELI5 what is the blockchain part of this? i.e. what emergent behaviors can it unlock that a DB will not.<p>I tried reading what redstone blockchain was but I cannot make heads or tails out of this:<p>>> Redstone is a chain built from the ground up for onchain games and autonomous worlds.
This is an experimental game. CCP inc. is owned by a venture capital firm Pearl Abyss, and are occasionally funded a moonshot game here or there.<p>tl:dr:
I'm an EvE Online Veteran of many years having participated in many game-defining events from a variety of levels. I think this game has a near-zero chance of surviving, but maybe the contract language will be interesting enough to generate some interest.<p>EvE Online gameplay is defined more by an interaction of social, economic, organizational and strategic interactions than a particular gameplay loop. This is kind of unusual in my opinion and as a result CCP inc. is not very good at creating the kinds of arcade or MOBA experiences that people are used to.<p>From my position it looks like CCP inc. is kind-of sort-of trying to create a game with aspects of Second Life, and the "hardcore" feel of EvE Online or its sister company's property, Black Desert Online.<p>One of the reasons I can see that a "blockchain" "smart contract" might make sense is that CCP inc. prioritizes interoperability and third-party functionality. For example, we have an Official MS Excel Plugin. they are quite serious, with very fine grained APIs and players have many, many complex software suites ranging from mapping, (GIS), communications, organizations (SAP-alike systems) forecasting suites, analysis, intelligence gathering, it is endless.<p>There have been many issues with the maintenance and interoperability of these APIs, so its possible that they see the blockchain smart-contract as a way that they can enable a similarly vibrant third-party development community around another game in a way that will put people who are interested in doing so in a first-class position, being integrated directly in the game.
Why do you need a blockchain for this ? The implementation resembles a hyperledger instead where people can write smart contracts but it is permissioned and instead of mining you use a standard raft consensus model.<p>Modding a game isn’t unheard of but instead of using a blockchain just add hooks to the engine where people can enforce new behavior and persist it. Like just an JavaScript electron app and a API that has a built in API key when you create your character (they seem to be making an electron app or browser integrated into the game already.
I think EVE has the potential to really push the limits of blockchain gaming. The ability for users to develop and leverage their own smart contracts in game could allow for some really innovative ideas. While it might ruin the game I think the experiment will benefit the industry overall.