ESH U: Digital Ownership 101
“ESH U” is a series meant to help everyone delve deeper into the innovations we’re creating at Legendary Play for our newest title, Esports Heroes, around the concepts of “digital ownership” and “play and own”.
What are “Digital Ownership” and “Play and Own”?
These terms are used to emphasize the benefits of not only having content in game, but also owning it. This means that, as opposed to traditional games where you just spend time and money on building virtual characters, it is your decision to do whatever you choose with your belongings (including characters, gear etc.) once you have acquired them and invested time and effort into them. You not only have them for yourself to enjoy and play with, but other possibilities open up, you will unlock the ability to sell or trade your content and directly buy content from others. This is one of the reasons we strongly believe that our revolutionary product will bring a new level of control to the players, and open up different ways they can enjoy the gameplay and the interactions between one another.
How is all that integrated into Esports Heroes?
The Digital Ownership and Play and Own concept will be adopted in our upcoming game, Esports Heroes, in a way that will enable players to truly have control and ownership of their characters and even gear. Characters can be built and customized in countless different variations, so that each one can feel unique and true to the way YOU want to enjoy the game. Please visit our website, if you haven’t already, to see a more detailed version of our vision moving forward and all the awesome things we have planned for down the line: https://esportsheroes.gg/
So what can I do with the stuff that I have acquired and own?
The player has total control over their belongings in Esports Heroes. True to real-world items that you own, in Esports Heroes you will also be able to trade them, sell them, upgrade them, buy from others and many more, which will offer you new ways to enjoy the gameplay and your interactions with other players in the game.
How are all these things implemented into Esports Heroes?
To make all these cool features available to you, we are relying on the blockchain and the NFT technologies. They will enable us to fully give you control over your items in game, as well as make all these interactions between players possible (like trading, buying and selling etc.) Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic assets on a blockchain (web3) with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. To put it simply, any form of artwork, real estate, property rights etc. on the blockchain can be an NFT, which offers its unique advantages. If you are fascinated by the potential this new technology can offer to the gaming industry as a whole, you can read more about it in the following article: https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/nft-blockchain-gaming-industry#section-gaming-and-blockchain
Does this mean you are a web3 project?
Esports Heroes is NOT a web3 project. Our roots are in making mobile games for Esports fans, making accessible games that are free to download and play, and this is what we will continue to do. Our focus is on gameplay and creating an authentic game world, and we are using blockchain components only where it gives more power to you, the player. We want to give you the power of digital ownership, and it’s on you whether you want to wield it or not. If you prefer not to interact with the blockchain features we offer, we won’t force you — it’s entirely optional and only adds to the main gameplay, which continues to be a F2P game model that Legendary Play is known for.
But I keep hearing NFTs are bad for the environment and there’s usually a negative association with them. Why is that?
The answer here is not very simple, but to keep it short; no, NFTs in general are not harmful to the environment, although they can be. Many people who only hear the term, associate it with this prejudiced idea about NFTs and cryptocurrencies in general. While in some cases this can be true, things are moving to a much greener future in the crypto space, and NFTs are no exception. New chains have arrived, older chains have been upgraded and many other factors have been adjusted, in order to make minting (uploading on the blockchain) NFTs much more energy sufficient and not take a heavy toll on the environment with the emissions. These factors and the fact that many people are not up-to-speed with these developments, often lead to this general misguided thinking about the technology behind NFTs. Given how new this is, many people with malicious intentions also try to exploit it by running scam projects. You may have heard “horror stories” from users losing all their funds, which only means that we have to be extra careful how and to whom we trust our funds; something that rings true for all kinds of projects involving investment and funds, crypto-related or not. Our choice of partner is still to be decided but the choice is going to be determined by environmental factors. You can read more about NFTs and their environmental impact as a whole in this article: https://www.investopedia.com/nfts-and-the-environment-5220221
All this sounds good, but also very complicated… Where do I even begin?
We are aware that a lot of this information may be new to many of you and may sound overwhelming. This is the reason we are doing our absolute best to make it easy and accessible to all of you, in a way that will not require you to take any extra steps or go out of your way to read about wallets to hold your assets, manage them etc. Please stay tuned as we are preparing to reveal how exactly we can offer you all these cool things in very few simple and easy-to-follow steps.
Awesome. So how will you use these NFTs and what more will I get for getting involved early?
As a first step, we will use them to regulate Early Access for people who want to jump straight into it and offer feedback and suggestions. We will reveal all of the advantages you can get by getting involved with our game in this early, developmental stage very soon.
I am hyped! When can I get the NFT and dive into the action?
We will have more concrete information about the date and the release in the upcoming weeks. Please stay tuned and check back in for updates.
While this may seem complicated and a bit unorthodox, our only goal with this is to present you with a new gaming experience. We believe that blockchain technology can change the way games are enjoyed and we hope to bring that to you in a simple, efficient, and safe way.
How can I find out more about your game?
We hope you enjoyed this starting point for our “ESH U” series. If you have further questions, feel free to talk to us by joining our discord at https://esportsheroes.gg/discord or ping us on twitter at https://twitter.com/EsportsHeroesGG
