AI could screw gaming economy, The Voice Coach Battle, Axies: Web3 Gamer
AI could flood the market: ArenaX Labs co-founder
ArenaX Labs co-founder Wei Xie — the company behind AI battle training game AI Arena — believes artificial intelligence could help smaller game companies compete against the industry giants. But he warns it may also disrupt the entire gaming economy.
“AI creates a slightly more level playing field for smaller companies or groups, giving them the ability to compete against the very large enterprises with extensive resources. This could lead to a renaissance period for indie gaming,” Xie tells Web3 Gamer.
“In the future, we may see smaller teams able to develop impressive games at a lower cost and faster velocity. This trend is clear and shows no signs of slowing down,” he adds.
He argues that AI “amplifies the capacity” that gaming companies have to develop games, allowing for the “frictionless creation” of new characters and environments.
However, friction usually acts like a scale in the gaming economy and balances out the competition in the industry. When resources are scarce — such as top expensive developers — and there is fair competition to create the best games, it allows for market equilibrium.
“The removal of friction, which typically acts as an arbiter mediating competitive forces and ensuring balance within the economy, may create significant headwinds when it comes to economic design,” he says.
If AI makes everything too easy, there’s a risk of flooding the market with too many games and creating an oversupply of developers who will no longer be needed.
“In Web3 gaming, where games are financialized, this poses a challenge as it can massively distort the supply and demand curve,” he adds.
Another issue is in companies using off-the-shelf AI solutions to build games without understanding what’s going on under the hood.
“This may lead to interesting technical challenges that they cannot overcome, or hidden issues with using AI in the context of gaming that only become apparent once the game is live or distributed to an audience, making it difficult to fix,” he explains.
ArenaX’s player-versus-player fighting game AI Arena, claims to be the first game to integrate human and AI collaboration.
Xie paints it as a cross between classic fighting games Super Smash Bros and Pokemon, except you can train super smart AI characters to play exactly how you want them to.
“In the context of AI Arena, human players are training AI models to play games like how they play, through a process called imitation learning. The AI learns via demonstration and observation of the human player’s actions.”
Even if it’s not really your thing, it’s worth a look just to see how it’s going to make our jobs disappear in the next decade.
The game kicked off on May 1 and held an airdrop competition where more than 700,000 battles were fought in just nine days.
Crush dreams from home, The Sandbox teams up with The Voice
Ever wanted to be in one of those swivel chairs on The Voice and either make or absolutely crush a singer’s dreams on The Voice?
If you’ve missed the singing competition juggernaut, The Voice is where typically contestants appear with clips of themselves at their regular office job, then go on stage and blow the room away, get a standing ovation, one or all four celebrity judges hit the buzzer, and then spin their chairs around to get their first look at the person behind The Voice.
And then, a year later, most of the contestants are back at that same office job.
Sounds fun? Well, you can now get a taste of being a judge and play along with new episodes of the TV series without leaving the comfort of your own home in The Sandbox metaverse.
Teaming up with the Virtual Brand Group and ITV Studios, The Sandbox has introduced “The Voice Coach Battle,” which says it’s a “Web3 gaming adventure.”
“Just like on the TV show, players must select music, choose a fantastic wardrobe, perfect stage lighting, and offer advice to their artist at each stage. In addition, players must complete quizzes on the TV show’s real celebrity coaches,” according to a recent statement.
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So not only do you get to play a game but you also get to practice some pretty important life skills like mentoring, difficult conversations (if you get a dud singer), and artist management.
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are also on offer to coincide with each new episode of The Voice series.
If you accurately predict which contestants advance through the elimination rounds each week on the actual show on NBC, you will receive an exclusive NFT.
But it does mean you will have to sit through watching The Voice…
Hot Take: Duet Monsters
At first, Duet Monsters might seem like a game for kids, with its catchy musical tunes and overall look. But it kept me hooked much longer than I expected for a game where fruit falls from the sky.
Released on May 9, the alpha version of the mobile dual-rhythm music game is a collaboration between Sky Mavis — the creators of the hit game Axie Infinity — and Cadenverse.
In a nutshell, you’re in charge of handling two Axies, making sure they catch all the falling fruit with their mouths.
Even though I’ve now covered 99% of the game, I will keep going.
The screen is split into two halves. At first, you just need to focus on one Axie at a time, getting it to catch the fruit in its mouth on one side of the screen. But as you progress, you’ll have to multitask and juggle both Axies at once.
Easy, right? But then it gets slightly quicker and quicker, with fruit eventually falling at the same time for both Axies.
Every fruit caught in the mouth plays a musical note. So, among the rising intensity and stress of the game, you’re also composing a whimsical tune in the background.
If you have a Ronin Wallet and 2 Axie NFTs, you can earn up to 3,000 AXP and 20 SLP daily. If not, you can play as a guest without connecting your wallet, but you won’t be able to earn any crypto rewards.
It’s a much simpler game than Axie Infinity by Sky Mavis, but with its musical elements and the task of moving the Axies to catch the fruit and create music, it also has a bit of a Guitar Hero vibe.
Every time I lost, it gave me that “one more” feeling you get from arcade games like Stacker — a game where you have to stack the blocks to the top row to win a prize.
How hard can it be to feed two furry creatures falling fruit?
There’s also a leaderboard for the top 1,000 players worldwide, so it’s a good opportunity to jump on this game earlier and see if you can get a spot on the leaderboards.
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Other News
— AAA first-person extraction shooter game Shrapnel has integrated direct $SHRAP token purchases with credit or debit cards ahead of its STX3 playtests.
— Web3 AAA mobile base builder strategy game Heroes of Mavia has introduced its Ruby Marketplace, allowing players to trade NFTs and mint new skins, directly within the game.
— The chicken-racing game Chicken Derby, created by Final Boss Games, has launched $BAWK tokens and revamped its in-game economy. Now, players who hold Chicken NFTs can earn rewards by staking them within the game.
— Blockchain platform Enjin has rolled out the “Spark Program,” providing gaming developers with incentives such as hundreds of thousands of free transactions and access to Enjin’s Slack channels for collaborating with its developers.
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