The 2x2 Matrix for Blockchain Game Ecosystems

An attempt to categorize blockchain game ecosystems by NFT supply and barriers to entry

It’s been over one year since My Crypto Heroes has been launched, which made me reflect on what’s needed in 2020 to push blockchain gaming adoption. When I talked with other promising blockchain games about game economies, most being different from the MCH economy, I realized:

We don’t have mental models for Blockchain Game economies to group, classify, or label them.

I’m convinced that standardization results in adoption. This blog post aims to start a discussion for categorizing blockchain game ecosystems, so that players and investors can better decide where to put their money, time, and passion.

TL;DR: The goal of this post is to give a mental model for NFT supply characteristics of blockchain game ecosystems and then group them based on NFT supply policies and investment barriers.

Before we get started, a few things upfront:

There is no “one-size-fits-all” description for ecosystems. I do not intend to take sides regarding which ecosystem decision is right or wrong. I think different ecosystems attract different players, so I’ll try to keep this blog post as neutral as possible. I’ll use references of My Crypto Heroes since this is the game I’m the most familiar with.

I will share my personal opinion in this post. My views and conclusions do not represent the views of doublejump.tokyo or My Crypto Heroes.

in this post. My views and conclusions do not represent the views of doublejump.tokyo or My Crypto Heroes. I’ll use the term “NFT” and “Asset” interchangeably. They both mean the same thing: A valuable (unique) digital asset, stored on the blockchain.

If you’re not familiar with NFTs, I highly recommend OpenSea’s NFT Bible. It‘s a bit of a read but 100% worth your time.

NFT Characteristics: Class, Type and Id

Across games, we see several kinds of NFT Classes (Weapons, Land, Heroes, Cards, Guilds, etc.), with each having different characteristics in supply, utility, and expected ROI.

Before we can discuss NFT supply policies properly, we need to agree on naming conventions for the different “layers” of an NFT.

I’d like to share our approach at MCH for how to label those different layers that give a gaming NFT its characteristics:

NFT Structure | Asset Class

| |-- Asset Type

| | |-- Asset ID

NFT Examples in MCH | Heroes

| |-- Einstein

| | |-- 0001

| | |-- 0002

| | |-- 0003

| | |-- 0004

| | | ...

| |-- Napoleon

| | |-- 0001

| | |-- 0002

| | |-- 0003

| | |-- 0004

| | | ...

| | ...

| Extensions

| |-- Sword

| | |-- 0001

| | |-- 0002

| | |-- 0003

| | |-- 0004

| | | ...

| |-- Axe

| | |-- 0001

| | |-- 0002

| | |-- 0003

| | |-- 0004

| | | ...

| | ...

Layer 1: Asset Class

Different kinds of NFTs are called Asset Classes. Those are the three different Asset Classes in MCH: Hero , Extension , Land

Each Asset Class has different investment characteristics and ROI dynamics. Technically speaking, each Asset Class is its own smart contract.

Layer 2: Asset Type

Within each Asset Class, there are different Asset Types. This could be different type of Weapons, Heroes, or even Elements.

In MCH, within the Asset Class Hero there are different Hero Types: Einstein , Napoleon , Goethe , etc.

Layer 3: Asset Id

Within each Asset Type, there are multiple unique assets, indexed with an Asset Id: 0001 , 0002 , 0003 , 0004 , 0005 , 0006 , etc.

The Asset Id refers to the unique asset that a user holds, which often determines the id of the actual NFT. For example: In MCH, Einstein has the Hero Type 5010 . The very first Einstein has the unique Hero Id: 50100001