Research Report | BigTime has survived until now, relying on "nesting dolls".

Many different types of research reports are available online about BigTime. Gold players focus on production, merchants, and prices, while cryptocurrency traders pay more attention to trends, consumption, and popularity. Everyone prefers to see which game can make money, has higher popularity, and offers more profits. This report, on the other hand, explores the future development and solutions of blockchain games from a gaming perspective through the study of economic models.

Before I proceed, I would like to provide my current analysis and perspective on blockchain games: The current direction of most blockchain games may not be correct, and “Play to Earn” may be a misleading proposition. Play is of utmost importance, while Earn is merely an add-on. “Play and Earn” is the development trend of blockchain games.

The article mainly includes:

One, BigTime Strategy Analysis

二、Big Time Economic Model Analysis

Analysis and Outlook.

Four, Basic Information of BigTime

1. How does BigTime do it?

First, let me state the conclusion:

BigTime’s production team clearly understands that the “Earn” aspect of Play to Earn is too obvious, so they want to create a game with stronger playable attributes. Therefore, they have made BigTime into an experience that is close to a Web2 game, with more emphasis on playability and graphics, while the economic system and skins are on-chain. However, fundamentally, although BigTime is very close to Web2 games in terms of gameplay and graphics, it does not mean it is successful. Combining the fact that domestic and foreign game developers release thousands or tens of thousands of games every year, it is extremely difficult to succeed because in this competitive market environment, it cannot be guaranteed that players who play BigTime are here just for fun.

But no matter what, BigTime’s exploration in blockchain gaming is successful. Countless gold farming guilds have joined, yet they have not had a significant impact on the game’s economic system. What exactly are they relying on? We have summarized three points:

1. Horizontal + Vertical Reservoirs

2. Player type balance

3. Strong Centralized Control

1. Horizontal + vertical reservoirs:

Horizontal and vertical water tanks can be understood as nesting dolls. Horizontal nesting dolls refer to nesting dolls in terms of gameplay, while vertical nesting dolls refer to nesting dolls in terms of game economy. Multiple rounds of horizontal and vertical nesting dolls gradually form a complex, long-term, and sustainable process of mining, withdrawing, and selling for players, further extending the lifespan of the game.

In BigTime, horizontal nesting mainly refers to the switching of game scenes, dungeons, and characters, such as switching between different scenes like the snowy mountains and forests. We continuously upgrade the gameplay and playability by adding more features. Vertical nesting, on the other hand, focuses more on weapon upgrades, starting with the armory, furnace, and time guardians. Different time guardians and furnaces have different levels. For example, time guardians have ten levels of rarity and five models, resulting in nearly 50 possible combinations of rarity and models. Furnaces and armories, which are functional NFTs, have hundreds of possible combinations. We can understand that each combination is like a reservoir (fund pool), and these reservoirs and fund pools are the core equipment for gold farming (generating $BIGTIME tokens). This also means that it is not possible for players to simply mine and sell, creating a chain of interconnected assets.

From the perspective of obtaining tokens, players need to purchase space in the secondary market and then purchase Time Guardians. Time Guardians can produce Time Hourglasses, which require Time Crystals to charge. After the Time Crystals are fully charged, they need to be inserted into the slot to produce $BIGTIME tokens. This also leads to the high cost of producing $BIGTIME tokens, which prevents users from completing mining and selling in the short term. At the same time, the role of various reservoirs in the game has further reduced the players’ need to cash out.

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2. Player Type Balance

BigTime divides players into four main types, namely ordinary players, gold players, landlords, and krypton bosses, among which there are different types of gold players.

• Ordinary players: focusing on the game content, including non-heavy players, paying more attention to the playability of the game.
• Gold Farmers: Focusing on earning profits, they earn NFTs and tokens through gaming and sell them, without caring about playability.
• Landlord: Balance the playability and gold income in the game, and generate income by renting NFTs.
• Splurging Pro: Values game content and degree of amusement, gains more sense of identity and emotional value through gaming.

BigTime adapts the game experience of different player types to achieve a closed loop, so that the gold players only focus on gold playing, and the krypton gold boss only enjoys the game while consuming the output of gold players. Ordinary players act as a game lubricant, injecting liquidity into the game in disguise and making the game process run smoothly, while landlords can rent equipment for gold players, krypton bosses, and ordinary players to meet the needs of different players. Finally, the game can bring a sense of honor to the big guy, entertainment to ordinary players, and income to gold players.

With the emergence of different gold farmers, the current shortcomings of the game are also quite obvious. For example, there are hardly any equipment merchants currently, and the reason is that there are not enough real big spenders in the game. The insufficient consumption slows down the overall skin economy and reduces consumption. Although the necessary guards and hourglasses for gold farming are intervened by the official, the prices are still high, resulting in large price differences in various assets at present. At the same time, there is insufficient consumption of the $BIGTIME token (single currency) and crystals (gold standard), and there are not enough application scenarios.

Regarding the balance between gold-farming players and regular players, BigTime hopes to maintain a ratio of 10% gold-farming players and 90% traditional players to ensure the stable development of the game economy. Although BigTime does not directly explain how to control the proportion of gold-farming players and traditional players, it is evident that there is currently a severe shortage of traditional players. From the prices of goods, it can be seen that the furnace and arsenal used to generate skin NFTs are priced very low, while the essential Time Guardians for gold-farming are priced high. At the same time, the game’s promotion in the Web2 field is insufficient, and its promotional model still follows the conventional path of Web3 blockchain games.

Leasing system, in essence, is a stake lending, also known as DeFi gameplay. Nowadays, many game developers believe that it is better to stake NFTs instead of tokens, which can reduce market circulation and achieve a form of lock-up. In a stable market, long-term stable rental income will make players unwilling to sell NFTs, thereby achieving the purpose of lock-up. However, for gold farming players, obtaining weapons and equipment at low prices will further lead to a decline in gold farming income, which needs to be resolved through natural market regulation and official intervention.

In summary, the leasing system allows NFT lessors to achieve the purpose of indirect lock-up, but it relies heavily on the long-term stability of market prices. If the market is unable to stabilize, a death spiral is likely to occur. The following diagram illustrates the profit situation under ideal conditions.

3. Centralized Control

Centralized control is mainly reflected in the macro-regulation of the game economy by game developers. Frequent short-term regulation may be disliked by many players, but from a long-term perspective, it may be beneficial to the game.

In the early stages of the season, the official found that due to the extremely low cost of recharging the hourglass, a large number of time guards were producing hourglasses, resulting in a serious over-issuance of hourglasses in the short term. The official intervened in a timely manner and increased the cost of recharging the hourglass to balance the role of the time guards. However, this incident also led to the emergence of time merchants who are specifically responsible for selling hourglasses. Subsequently, due to the fact that the time guards are key functional NFTs that produce $BIGTIME tokens, some people monopolized the business, causing the price of the lowest-level time guards to increase tenfold in the short term. After the official noticed this, they intervened again and controlled the NFT price by increasing the airdrop amount and drop rate. Transparency is key for strong centralized control. The official statement from BigTime states that all $BIGTIME tokens can only be obtained through gameplay and will not cause a massive unlocking possibility.

2. Economic Model Analysis of Big Time

Skin:

For many traditional Web2 games, you need to deposit money to buy the desired skins and items, which also means that most game skins and items cannot be resold. This operating model prevents many players from cashing out their items. If they want to sell, they can only sell their accounts, but the value of the account will greatly depreciate. For game developers, this one-size-fits-all approach also reduces the possibility of inflation.

For BigTime, BigTime is more focused on the development of the skin system. The overall transaction circulation model is similar to csgo. Taking csgo as an example, players can obtain weapon cases and keys by paying fiat currency, and then use the weapon cases to draw different levels of game skins. Game skins can be traded on off-platform platforms for cash. Therefore, a market dedicated to csgo trading has also emerged, such as Netease buff.

BigTime mainly produces NFT skins through in-game arsenal/time guardian, etc. The produced skins are limited in quantity and will never increase. At the same time, NFT skins can be freely traded on-chain in the game. Different NFT skins will also allow players to access exclusive dungeon content, but it does not affect the balance.

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NFT:

BigTime can be divided into two types of NFT, namely skin NFT and functional NFT, skin NFT is decoration, without any bonuses and ensures balance. Its role is to increase user stickiness, ensure the gaming experience of big spenders and skin merchants, and showcase player status. Functional NFT is a production tool mainly used to maintain the operation of BigTime and generate $BigTime tokens.

Skin NFTs can be divided into two categories: craftable skins and non-craftable skins.

• Manufacturable skins: mainly generated through the arsenal and furnace, with a total of ten levels of rarity, the higher the rarity, the more exquisite the skin.
• Non-craftable Skins: can only be obtained by defeating monsters and dropping NFTs in dungeons, such as space decorations, weapons, armor, titles, sound effects, etc. They also have different levels of rarity. Non-craftable skins can be obtained by dropping in dungeons or purchasing from the Secondary Market.

Space:

Space is BigTime’s private virtual land, which can be understood as a home in the game. Space allows players to expand their personal Metaverse and install skins. For gold farming players, it has two main functions:

1. Space can obtain a broken hourglass of time

2. Install functional NFTs such as Furnace, Armory, Time Guardian, etc.

You can understand that, in order to formally experience BigTime games and make money, space is a necessity, because only with space can $BIGTIME tokens be generated and profits earned. Space is mainly divided into three sizes: small, medium, and large, each size has 5 levels and different supply quantities. Larger spaces can hold more functional NFTs, as well as more decorations and equipment. The probability of dropping a broken hourglass varies depending on the level of space. The rarer the space, the higher the probability of dropping a broken hourglass. At the same time, higher rarity functional NFTs can only be connected to higher rarity spaces.

The space can be traded on the secondary market and obtained through copies and random drops such as sand enemies, but the probability is very low.

Functional NFT:

Functional NFTs mainly include the Forge, Arsenal, and Time Guardian. These three types of functional NFTs are important components of BigTime and essential equipment for gold-making players. The Time Guardian is mainly used to produce $BIGTIME tokens, while the Forge and Arsenal consume $BIGTIME tokens to create skin-type NFTs.

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Functional NFT1: Forge

The Furnace, as a functional NFT, is mainly used to refine NFT weapon skin fragments and create or upgrade weapon skins. The Furnace has a total of ten levels, ranging from ordinary to unparalleled, with different types offering different special rewards and colors. There are ten types of Furnaces, labeled from type A to type J in order. Different types of Furnaces can provide special bonuses to different weapon skins. For example, the red type A Furnace can provide special bonuses to dual-handed axe weapon skins, while the rainbow type can provide special bonuses to all weapon skins.

The Forge can only create or upgrade weapon skins that are within one level of its rarity, which can be understood as a normal Forge that can craft and upgrade weapon skins of the rare level, but cannot make weapon skins of the rare level. Furnaces are also divided into red, blue, green, rainbow, different colors have different bonuses, such as red for speed bonus, blue for efficiency bonus, green for luck bonus, rainbow for all bonuses, while installing different furnaces in one shorter, there will be additional bonuses.

In summary, the composition of the furnace is very complex, and we can simplify it again to obtain:

There are ten levels of furnaces, from ordinary to unparalleled, with different degrees of rarity

There are ten types of furnaces, sorted from A to J, each with special bonuses for different weapon skins.

The furnace has four colors, namely red, blue, green, and rainbow. Different colors can be combined to form a set and receive additional bonuses.

In addition, the furnace can manufacture and upgrade weapons by consuming $BIGTIME tokens. At the same time, the furnace can be upgraded to obtain better manufacturing capabilities.

Functional NFT 2: Armory

The Arsenal is mainly used for refining skin fragments, making and upgrading armor skins. The Forge focuses on weapon skins, while the Arsenal focuses on armor skins. The attributes and properties of the Forge are almost identical to those of the Arsenal.

Compared to the furnace, the arsenal has the same settings, mainly for:

The armory has ten levels, from normal to unparalleled, with different rarity

The armory has ten types, sorted from A to J, each with special bonuses for different armor skins.

The armory has four colors: red, blue, green, and rainbow. Different colors can be combined to form a set and receive additional bonuses.

The armory can also manufacture and upgrade armor by consuming $BIGTIME tokens. Upgrade the armory to obtain better manufacturing capabilities.

Functional NFT 3: Time Warden

Time Keeper is mainly used to create and replenish Time Hourglass, which is further divided into Regular Hourglass and Broken Hourglass. Unlike Furnace and Arsenal, Time Keeper can only create and synthesize NFT props of the same or lower level.

The Time Guardian has ten levels, from ordinary to unparalleled, with different rarity

The Time Guardian has four types, sorted from A to D, each with special bonuses for different hourglass charging and time manufacturing

The Time Guardian comes in four colors: red-blue, blue-green, green-red, and rainbow. Different colors can be combined to form sets and gain additional bonuses.

Time Guardian can be created using Time Crystals. By consuming $BIGTIME tokens and three Hourglasses, you can obtain a higher-level Hourglass. Upgrading cannot be done across levels, and Hourglasses of different rarities require different amounts of Time Crystals and time. The higher the rarity, the greater the consumption. Time Guardian can also be upgraded through experience, which can improve efficiency and unlock lucky bonuses.

Hourglass

The Hourglass can be generated by the Time Guardian or purchased on the Secondary Market. Its main function is to obtain $BIGTIME tokens. Players can equip up to five Hourglasses in five card slots to maximize the output of $BIGTIME tokens. Players need to use Time Crystals to open card slots and increase the number of Hourglasses. The more card slots, the higher the cost.

Hourglass of Time has ten levels, from ordinary to unparalleled, with different rarity. The higher the rarity, the more $BIGTIME tokens it produces. After equipping the hourglass, the sand inside will gradually run out over time. Once depleted, it will no longer produce $BIGTIME tokens and needs to be replenished with time crystals by the Time Guardian.

Cracked Hourglass

Broken hourglass belongs to consumables, not NFT, which can be equipped to obtain $BIGTIME tokens, but once the sand is depleted, it will be automatically destroyed and cannot be traded. The size of the spatial connection determines the number of drops of the broken hourglass, and the rarity of the space also determines the rarity of the broken time hourglass.

Summary:

Hourglass can be purchased through the Secondary Market or created by Time Guardians.

Broken hourglass cannot be purchased in the secondary market (non-NFT), it randomly drops in space.

The higher the hourglass rarity, the more long $BIGTIME Token you get

Game Resources:

Time Crystals

Time Crystal is a non-fungible digital currency that belongs to the advanced currency of BigTime. It can be purchased with fiat currency on the secondary market or obtained through in-game drops (low probability).

Time Crystal is mainly used for charging the Hourglass.

$BIGTIME Token

$BIGTIME token is the main cryptocurrency for the economic development of BigTime era, with a maximum circulation of 5 billion. Players can obtain it by equipping time hourglasses and completing dungeons. It can also be imported into the game through a wallet. The main purpose of $BIGTIME token is to refine, create, and upgrade NFTs, as well as accelerate the production of functional NFTs and access advanced dungeons.

How to acquire $BIGTIME tokens:

To purchase Space on the Secondary Market, you need to then buy Time Guardians. Time Guardians can produce Time Hourglasses, which require Time Crystals for charging. After the Time Crystals are fully charged, they need to be inserted into the slots in order to produce $BIGTIME tokens.

Skin Fragments:

Skin fragments can be used as basic materials to create higher-level resources in the game. They can be obtained through gameplay or purchased on the Secondary Market. There are mainly three types of skin fragments.

**Furnace Skin Shards: Can be refined in the Furnace. **

Arsenal Skin Shards: Can be refined in the arsenal.

**Wild Skin Shards: Refined in a Forge or Armory. **

Fragment follows the season changes, which means that there will be new skin fragments introduced every season.

Refined Skin Fragments:

Through refined fragments, they are mainly used for manufacturing and upgrading skins. The refined skin fragments are also classified by function and season, with three levels: T1, T2, and T3. The higher the level, the more advanced the manufacturing and upgrading of the furnace and arsenal can be. They can be obtained through the secondary market and random drops in the game.

Lucky Bonus Chip:

Lucky chips are used to increase players’ luck and enhance the output of specific activities in the game, mainly divided into two types:

Workshop Chip: Used to enhance functional NFTs.

Advanced Portal Chip: Used to enhance the output of advanced instances.

Lucky Boost Chips cannot be traded and can only be obtained through specific means, such as using Time Crystals or Skin Scraps to purchase them, or as rare drops in the game.

Skin Waste:

From the resources obtained by dismantling the skin, they cannot be traded and are mainly used to purchase lucky bonus chips. The effect of dismantling and the amount of waste produced are determined by the rarity of the skin.

Analysis and Outlook

Current drawbacks of blockchain games:

Back to the original expectation for blockchain games, why is Play to Earn a false proposition? Ultimately, it’s because the current Web3 games are not fun. Compared to Web2 games, the barriers are higher, and the games are more difficult to play. If you want to have fun, why bother playing them? In the current blockchain gaming market, we believe that development is still in its early stages. The initial success of Axie has shown people the potential of blockchain games, but it seems that everyone is only focused on the idea of Play to Earn. Perhaps only by breaking free from the loop of earning can we truly improve the development of games.

GameFi tokens need to have certain use cases, but many tokens are useless in other aspects besides their own games. In contrast to Web2 games, where most of the investment is in development, some top games are even willing to spend billions or tens of billions to create games that are more fun and realistic, because for Web2 games, only by doing a good job with the game can users increase and the game can survive. On the other hand, in Web3 games, most of the investment is in marketing, because for many projects, simply releasing tokens and airdropping them can make a profit. So why spend money on game development?

Therefore, we can’t help but think that the gaming community can be divided into two groups: the project side and the users. The project side wants to make money from the game, while the users also want to make money from playing the game. So, who are they making money from together?

Looking to the Future:

We believe that games must provide players with non-financial/money-related experiences, that is, not to focus too much on the earning aspect of the game, but to return to the essence of the game itself. The combination of social and fun gaming experiences may be the key to the success of a game, whether it is a Web3 game or a Web2 game. Taking StepN as an example, its success lies in opening up a brand new way of blockchain gaming, making people realize that Play to Earn can be played in this way, turning play into running and exercising, and adding additional benefits such as health to the pure financial gains, making the game break through in terms of fun and playability.

What is Cool Point? **

Pleasure point is the experience of pleasure, satisfaction, and fun in playing games. For example, the feeling of catching a rare fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or the moment of unboxing a golden skin in CS:GO, or the moment of finally defeating a boss after days of training in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, all of these are pleasure points. It is precisely because of the continuous triggering and existence of these pleasure points in the game that players increasingly love and become obsessed with the game, thus voluntarily spending money to consume the game.

The Importance of Socializing in Games:

From the perspective of the land of opportunity, looking at the current Web3 games, the majority of blockchain games actually overlook the importance of player interaction in social settings. Take the land of opportunity as an example, its most important aspect is the social system.

“Shuai Tu Zhi Bin” is a SLG game, and the key to its success lies in its social attributes. In the game, if you want to move or attack others’ territories, the most important thing is to join an alliance and gradually grow through alliance and alliance battles. In the game, the “pro” players with a lot of money and less time are mainly responsible for concentrating resources and using their strength to confront head-on, while ordinary players with less money and more time can help pave the way for the alliance, so that everyone has their own tasks. It is also the existence of the alliance that gives everyone a sense of belonging. In the alliance battles, the alliance leader needs to command everyone in the battle, which requires communication from everyone and greatly enhances the frequency of interaction in the game. It is this feeling of “when the alliance is here, I am here; when the alliance is not here, I am not here” that fascinates many people with this game, and the bond and brotherhood within the alliance are important. Similar games with this mode include “Fantasy Westward Journey,” “Peace Elite,” “Egg Party,” etc. These games bind players through social attributes and make players willing to recharge for the game.

Finally, in just a few short years, it is not enough for Chain Games to find a solution quickly and accomplish what Web2 games have done in decades. From Japan’s Red and White Machine to the current PS5, from GTA1 to GTA5, from Pac-Man to Red Dead Redemption 2, the entire market has gone through countless rounds of iteration and development. And now, Web3 games are still in the very early stages. Although the road is bumpy, the future is still bright.

Four, Basic Information of BigTime

BigTime officially started online testing in April 2022. It is an MMORPG game with gameplay similar to World of Warcraft + Diablo. Compared to Web3 games, it has finer graphics and better gameplay experience.

Team:

The development team comes from game production companies such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, League of Legends, etc., with rich experience in game production.

Financing:

In May 2021, the game completed a $21 million financing round led by FBG Capital. In March 2022, BigTime completed two NFT sales, and in December, it completed the third sale, with total earnings reaching $70 million. Excluding operating costs, the team currently has nearly $90 million for game development.

Token:

In October 2023, the complete economic model of the game will be launched and $BIGTIME will be issued. It once increased fivefold within a week, with a highest price close to $1.

Market Cap: $161 million

Price: $0.1786

Threshold:

From the perspective of the game threshold, the game does not require high computer configuration, but it requires an invitation code to enter, and the difficulty of obtaining it is relatively low.

From the perspective of the deposit threshold, the game supports payment with bank cards and virtual money, and can also be traded in the centralized official website mall, with a low threshold.

From the perspective of login threshold, the game only requires email login, without the need to connect a wallet, which is a good experience for Web2 players.

Reference:

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