Jun 30, 2021
Gravity Collision, Gamers, and Developers. How to Escape the Pot.
I’m sure you’ve heard the old fable.
If a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
Although its far from true in real life, it serves as a great metaphor. It’s time to address the dead frogs.
You may think I’m talking about Gamers and Microtransactions. While I’ll talk about that in a future article, I’ll be focusing on a few other problems in the Industry: the Games themselves and Performance Metrics.
The Games
Games have gone through minor and major transformations since they were created. The jump from 2D to 3D, the innovations of Multiplayer and Online play, to even the newest Genres that have popped up.
Each innovation brought us closer together. They also brought with them, sacrifice. With these massive jumps, complexity also took a giant leap forward. This complexity is as high as ever, which makes Developers the most valuable part of your Team. So why then are they treated so poorly?
We are hitting a critical mass. As a AAA Gaming Company, you want to continuously deliver content to your Community, in hopes they’ll, in turn, spend money again and again. In order to deliver this constant stream of Content, you need to make sacrifices. Where do Games come into this? Almost every AAA Company has either dropped Singleplayer entirely, or segmented their Games into separate Multiplayer and Singleplayer Titles. Why is this an increasingly popular choice for these Studios?
Enter Performance Metrics.
Performance Metrics
As a AAA Game Development Company, developing and releasing Games is what you do. Releasing a Game is the pinnacle of Years and Years of Development, in coordination with Marketing to deliver a unique experience to your Community. When you’re successful, the Industry takes notice.
They see that you’ve created something great. Your Sales are through the roof! Millions of people are playing your Game. You relax for a few Months (if you’re lucky), and then aim to repeat this result. Everything is tracked using Performance Metrics. From Total Game Sales to per Quarter. From the Modes that are played the most, to even what the most popular Skin in the Store is. These Metrics were created by C-Level Executives to measure the Performance of their Games.
Almost every aspect of what you do In Game, is tracked and reported. These Metrics are even built into the free Game Engines, as a way to easily track everything, at the Engine Level. Companies have opted to make their Games Free, so they can make money a different way, using a new Product, You.
These Metrics are the Core of what drive C-Levels and their absurd approach to Game Development decisions. They see what’s popular, and they capitalize on those Metrics during the next Development cycle. You’re favorite Mode gets Cut, because it wasn’t popular enough.
The solution to all of this is simple:
Performance Metrics should never be the sole data point used, to make Development Decisions.
Once you go down that road, you end up where we are Today. For the bigger AAA Companies, it may already be too late. Quality Developers are leaving en masse to start their own Studios.
Gravity Collision
So what is with the Title? What is Gravity Collision? Who is writing this Article? Well I’m David Blythe, Visionary and CEO @ Gravity Collision. Gravity Collision is not just another Game Development Company. We are aiming to change the landscape of Game Development. It is definitely not going to be easy. They’ll say we won’t be able to stay true to our Values. They’ll say what we are trying to do is unrealistic.
I say, they are scared sh**tless. They should be. Our Values will never change. Our Vision has been thoroughly planned.
Our Values
As a Game Development Studio, our Values are represented below and will never change, ever.
- Our Games are 100% Free to Play
- Platform Agnostic
- A Well-Compensated Development Team (50% above National Average)
- Anti-Burnout, Anti-Crunch Development Cycles
- Absolutely no Loot Boxes, Gambling, or Predatory Practices
- Community-Driven & Directed
- Complete, Bug Free Releases (as bug free as possible)
- Extremely Polished Singleplayer & Coop Story Experiences
- Content-Driven Multiplayer Experiences
- Consistent Post-Release Content
- Complete, Supported, & Community-Driven Modding Platforms
- Game Source Code Releases after 10 Years
- Releasing our IPs to Public Domain after 25 Years
We really believe in ensuring our Teams are taken care of. Many of our Incentives revolve around ensuring Developers are happy where they are.
If you have ANY questions on these items, Tweet @GravCollision, or Submit a Question to one of our AMAs. They are held every Sunday. Stay tuned for a specific time.
Our Vision
Ultimately, we want to create amazing experiences that bring people together. We want to stay true and open to our Coin Holders. We want you to know that we are Developing our Games, every day.
We will design our entire Company around communicating these things. From our development structure to our website, you will know the status of any project, at any given time.
The only thing that will ever remain undefined, is content not yet revealed. But, even that will be communicated, signified by “Unrevealed Content”.
Our Coin
This big question you must have by now, is “How”? How can you promise all of those things? How will your Company make money? And the answer is simple. We are launching our own Cryptocurrency. And on July 26th, we will open up our 1st Public Crowdsale (very similar to an ICO).
The cryptocurrency community and gamers will unite to help fund one of the most ambitious Projects in 2021. We are offering High Quality Games to Gamers. We are offering more use cases for cryptocurrency and NFTs, and are seeking to unite Layer 2 Solutions, and their NFTs.
Visit our Website for more information: https://grav-c.io
We are a Utility Token. Tokens acquired during these sales can be used in our Games and our Ecosystem, when those release. We have an extremely detailed Timeline. I expect you to hold us to it.
Our Game Design Document is near-complete, and we are ready to make the transition from Planning to Pre-Production.
An Invitation
We’ve allocated 10% of our total tokens, to a Venture Capitalist that reads this, researches us, reads our Whitepaper, and believes in our Message. We are extremely passionate and ready to hit the ground running. If no one is interested, no big deal. We will adjust our 3rd and 4th Public Crowdsales to absorb the 10%.
What Games Can and Should be
Games are meant to bring people together. They’re meant to be used to explore cool new worlds. They’re meant to tell new Stories and explore new ideas, in ways we can’t even think of yet. When Metrics are used to make the majority of your decisions, you end up with cut features, and the same game being delivered to you Year after Year. Because that is what C-Levels do. That’s their Job. They look at these Metrics, and then create Policies that drive the next Development cycle.
Each Year, it gets progressively worse until you’re left with a Multiplayer Game with One Mode, stuffed to the BRIM with Microtransactions. What is there left to do, but engage in those Microtransactions. There isn’t Singleplayer anymore. There isn’t even a variety of Game Modes any more.
When their “Games” performs well, these C-Level Executives are issued Bonuses on a ridiculous scale. How Big? About the entire size of Destiny 2’s Game Development Budget ($155 Million Bonus vs $140 Million for Destiny 2).
So next time you ask yourself where the Singleplayer went? You’ll know the answer:
Right in the CEO’s grimy pocket.
You’ll need that here: https://grav-c.io/airdrop9
