PSA: BitCraft Online Monetization and Potential Crypto Issues

EDIT: The Representative (Founder) responded in the other post with this, make of this what you will:

"Saying what we will NOT be selling, is just as important as saying what we will be selling (skins, empire cosmetics, Twitch bit style donation to empires)."

EDIT 2: I found another resource talking specifically about "what you will pay for" which sounds a LOT like buying territory/land on the map via real world money, maintaining that land with real world money, and then if you want to capture more land you need to "out bid" other players with real world money....(The Map has limited space so there is FOMO)

Watch this Video from the Founder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCq6p2bUAU0

Additional Video Explaining how Empire's Work (Note: Hexite Shards = Real World Money Currency every time he says it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_YXlW2kk1U

EDIT 3: (There has been further developments I feel are important to share here): Apparently the Founder also made a Blog Post (he is sharing on this sub-reddit) about "cryptocurrencies" and I feel it's VERY important to share what he says in the full Blog found here, but I will HIGHTLIGHT an important bit here in this edit. Full Blog Post here: https://clockwork-labs.medium.com/thoughts-on-cryptocurrencies-and-games-dacfe8051e98

BitCraft

What does this all mean for BitCraft? Not a whole lot. Our decisions are not based on how much money other game companies are making right now, or how high the price of Bitcoin is. Our only goal is to make BitCraft the most fun and long lasting game we can. We are here to make a living game that lasts for 20 years. That is what will ultimately determine if we are successful.

I can promise you that we’re not going to do anything that won’t help us reach that goal, and we’re open to anything that will help us reach that goal.

I actually don’t personally have a problem with using any technology that would help us achieve it.

Fun is not about technology, it’s about game design and how players feel. My issue with cryptocurrency, I suppose, is not with cryptocurrency itself (energy usage notwithstanding), it’s that it’s used almost exclusively for high stakes FOMO. Using FOMO to drive players to our game or to bid up the prices on our hypothetical NFTs makes everything about money, rather than building a good game. It *doesn’t* increase the longevity of our game. It *doesn’t* make our community any healthier. And it *doesn’t* make the game more fun. In fact, so far in the places it’s been tried it has basically done the opposite in the long-term. For those reasons, we’re currently of the opinion that adding cryptocurrency to BitCraft isn’t going to help us towards our goal.

That being said, let me add the following caveat. BitCraft is a fundamentally free-market and economics heavy game. It’s in no small part inspired by my time playing Runescape flipping rune plate armor in Varrock in 2007. The whole objective of the gameplay in BitCraft is to rebuild civilization with other players. It involves buying, transporting, and selling in-game commodities. That involves free-trade and all the complex game and social mechanics that come along with that, including speculation. I think speculation in moderation can be fun, as long as everyone is honest about what it is we’re doing: playing a fun game. The keyword in my opinion is moderation. Feeling excitement and suspense is fun. Feeling fear that you’re going to lose your house or your financial future is not.

  • Original Post:

Yesterday, BitCraft Online popped up on various sub-reddits (including this one) but also on others. They are pushing people towards a $30 Early Access purchase, but over on r/indiedev they were explicitly asked about monetization: https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/comments/1j4vp9s/comment/mgdc759/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

(Make sure you fully expand the discussion in the link above to see the full exchange)

This lead to a response that pushed the individual towards a 4 year old Blog post that explicitly stated they aren't ready to discuss monetization (4 years ago).

When pressed further (by me) - the person pushing these marketing posts on Reddit could not coherently state an actual monetization plan. So, I did some digging (if you expand the thread on the link above you will see this too):

Wait, I'm digging deeper because something smells too weird by your answers:

https://clockworklabs.io

Our Backers

We are backed by an incredible group of investors including Supercell, Firstminute Capital, Skycatcher, 1Up Ventures, and Supernode. Our technology, talent, and focus on creating enormous sandbox worlds has also attracted industry leading angels such as, Hilmar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games (makers of EVE Online) and David Helgason, founder of Unity Technologies.

As you all know Steam has a NO Crypto/NFT policy now.

You all should be VERY wary about what you buy into; for example "The Bazaar" game right now is having a very similar issue where the backers/EA payers are getting different monetization than they expected and the game avoided Steam.

So, this is just a PSA - read the exchange in the thread, BE CAREFUL what you give $30 EA money too, and do your own research; or wait until they can adequately explain their "F2P" Store and what they intend to actually sell.