Session: Play-to-own: What True Ownership Means for the Future of Games [Uplandme]

Traditional (especially FTP) games typically provide simulated economies controlled by the game creators. In the vast majority of cases, these simulated economies do not offer a marketplace to trade or liquidate their assets. Most traditional games neither allow true ownership of these digital goods to players nor do they allow players to monetise game creations or to resell digital assets (nor do these assets have life beyond the game) – a great source of frustration to those who invest significant time/money into a game. Moreover, in the case of games that enable user-generated content, these games don’t allow people to prove and verify the provenance of specific virtual items, which can lead to fraud, reducing incentives for players to spend and create in a game.

Players want to own and have greater control of their digital purchases – the ability to buy, trade and sell their digital goods, which is possible utilising non-fungible tokens/blockchain. Blockchain opens up new opportunities as to how goods can be assigned. This is the cornerstone on which we are building our virtual property-trading game/platform based on real addresses (Upland). We’ve evolved the traditional FTP in-app purchase model to ‘play-to-own’, resulting in more engaged players in terms of time/money investment and greater player benefit. By starting players as visitors that earn access and property they then can fully control, players are more invested, both in terms of time and money, while they see a greater benefit,

Similar to the FTP model, players can start playing Upland for free. However, in play-to-own models, any digital item acquired by the player always carries a tangible value as it can be liquidated in a marketplace or in a peer to peer transaction. Ownership gives people a sense of security and status and they can feel a sense of ownership pride. When people take ownership of something, they are inspired to care for it in numerous ways, including creative embellishments as well as ongoing maintenance. Just as in the real world, a house owner will always invest more time and effort to keep his house in good condition while a tenant normally doesn’t do so to the same extent.

Upland’s core assumption is that the perceived value of a truly owned digital asset is substantially higher compared to traditional business models. Play-to-own has the potential to be applied in any game, increasing retention and the value proposition, and opening up new revenue opportunities, which have not been possible before. Creating a real-world economy in games has long been seen as disadvantageous to operators because they are competing against themselves by allowing players to resell. But Upland’s hypothesis is that this would create a superior value proposition to the player, and in the long run, players will choose to play these types of games over traditional games and spend more money because of ownership security.