Monthly Archives: August 2021

The rise of the decentralized games network is creating a new type of gaming community and a new type of gamer. In the past, our Emoji Games company has gained a lot of experience releasing traditional stand-alone mobile games. As a centralized body distributing the games, we were quite often the target of rude outbursts from our users. Despite our best efforts to keep our customers happy, it was nevertheless inevitable that we would receive one or two calls from irate impatient customers demanding an immediate refund. This created the need for a huge 24/7 customer support team that could provide help to our customers whenever they needed it which was of course, an expensive undertaking.

However, as we have migrated to blockchain gaming we have noticed this paradigm completely shift. Since blockchain gaming rose in popularity with games like Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games, it has brought with it an entirely new way for gamers to interact with developers as there is now no longer a clear distinction between customer and seller.

For example, Pocket Arena provides and develops the games and the platforms. However, every person involved in our platform is an important part of a self-sustaining gaming economy. There are different ways for users to contribute to and profit from this PlaytoEarn economy. Users can profit from their gaming effort by selling the digital assets of NFT Castle that they earn in our Castle Defense games. They can also be a key part of the ecosystem by mining tokens. This is an ecosystem that everyone involved can benefit from.

The shared economy that surrounds our gaming platform was not developed to only benefit Emoji Games or our investors. The integral part of Pocket Arena’s economy, and hopefully the main benefactors are our gamers. You create the value of Pocket Arena and the platform is designed to incentivize you to continue contributing. Our vision is to give glory back to the gamers and empower them with the possibility to profit from their own gaming ability.

This is an especially attractive prospect for those of you who have been criticized for spending much of your day in front of a video game. No longer do you have to listen to people tell you what a waste of time it is. Blockchain gaming gives you the opportunity to take your finely honed skills and apply them to a task that can yield you financial reward. Now you can be an integral part of a mutually beneficial economy.

This type of economy gives players the sense that they themselves are closely linked to the games they’re playing, and the developers who developed them. One thing we found about this type of close-knit community is that it does not breed the type of angry customer that we have encountered in the past. Our players are our investors and they are committed to making Pocket Arena better instead of asking for a refund and looking to get out. This is a much better type of community to be a part of and another key reason why blockchain is the future of gaming.

NFT Castle: How To Build An Online Community

Our most prominent blockchain game, NFT Castles, is a great example of the type of mutually beneficial ecosystem that crypto gaming can produce. The NFT Castle economy is tied to the value of the in-game NFT castles that can be used to claim land and enhance your ability to earn more digital assets. eSports digital assets are the weapons and items that can help you win the game and gain more assets from other players by attacking other players. NFT Castles are no exception. The more you use your castle the stronger it becomes. The stronger your castle becomes the more likely you are to win the battle and grow your assets.

This dynamic has led to a huge demand. The castles are sold out less than a minute after they are listed in the Castle Market. All of these castles are unique that can benefit you during the in-game battles in a unique way. Currently, thanks to a 50% discount until August 31st, newly minted castles are being sold for €49. However, several P2P transactions have occurred that have seen castles change hands for more than €500. This 10-fold increase is a perfect example of the benefits to holding digital assets that have in game use cases.

Castles are a highly liquid digital asset in the digital metaverse. Committing time to this game will see a player compensated as they increase the power of their in-game items and increase their in-game land. Different types of land will see a player earn different levels of XP by capturing it. There are six different levels of land, King, City, Fantasy, Snow, Desert and Forest.

Players can choose to fight independently against other castle owners to acquire land or they can become part of a guild. A guild is a group of professional players that are trained to fight together against other guilds and can be hired by other landowners. They are another example of how we are building a tight-knit community that will work for their own mutual benefit. Players will be able to receive training and additional XP earnings as part of a guild. Each guild will have a manager, an assistant manager, members, and trainees with each position yielding a different level of XP. It allows players to grind more efficiently and increase the value of their assets.

A key part of our economy is allowing investors to rent castles to professional players and having them both share in the benefits yielded from that Castle. The guilds create an entirely new way for investors to benefit from the NFT Castle economy. Investors can choose to rent their castles to a guild instead of to an individual. Players involved in a guild can then use these castles in the name of their guild. The bonuses associated with fighting for a guild then trickle down to benefit the investor.

By integrating these guild structures into a castle defense game, Pocket Arena’s NFT Castles is an experience that combines the best of both Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games. The details of our guild system and other features related to NFT Castles are getting finalized. If the type of community that we are building here is something you want to get involved in, keep an eye out for our master plan which will be published on August 31st.

Enjoy these addictive block games and test your IQ with the Pocket Arena DApp game – Block n IQ. Train and test your brain and increase your IQ score with 100 fascinating stages. Play against other players or your friends to win digital assets as XP! 

How to play:

• Tap on this link at: https://games.pocketarena.com/blockniq/ and log in with your PA account. If you don’t have an account yet, please follow this article

• Drag and drop a block then put the next block into the same line or fulfil the lines and squares to get them removed.
• Use E-point for items in-game and make gameplay easier.

How to earn XPs through playing game:

• Way 1: After playing Single (Stage) mode, you can get XP based on obtained score

Tap on this Stage icon to play game and earn XP

Tap on the Stages icon to check XP that received per stage after playing Single mode:

• Way 2: You can get XP through playing eSport challenge

Play 1vs1 challenge by tapping the eSport icon.

If you win, you can get 20XP or 100XP, there are 2 rooms for XP: Novice Challenge room and Amateur Challenge room. The reward is based on each room.

• Way 3: You can get 200 XP each 7 days playing as a daily reward.

IMPORTANT :  Don’t forget to get a Daily Reward of XP. You can get the free XPs only when you have logged in to this game with your account on every 7th day of your visit.

Happy gaming!

Castle Defense, one of the most popular Pocket Arena games, utilizes NFT technology to bring in-game ownership to its users. This allows players to genuinely own the items that they use to conquer the in-game world. It is a key feature of Castle Defense and one that we look forward to exploring in many new games in the future. 

Recently we received some feedback enquiring if Castle Defence really was an NFT blockchain game. The slight confusion was because Castle Defense seems to work differently from other blockchain games. It looks and plays much more like a normal game. This is an example of how smoothly Castle Defense runs as many blockchain games are associated with lots of technical settings. 

Permissioned Blockchain (Private Blockchain)

This smoothness is because Pocket Prena games utilize a different type of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) than other games. DLT is the technology that all blockchain protocols are built on. A distributed ledger is a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronised digital data spread across multiple sites or nodes. Blockchain can be divided into two broad types: permissioned and permissionless. The majority of cryptocurrencies are built with permissionless blockchain which allows any user across the world to become a node in the network. 

It is important as blockchain develops, that different sectors adopt the right type of blockchain to most benefit their market needs. Permissionless blockchains are revolutionary because of the way they address fundamental governance issues. They remove the need for a central authority which is what allows blockchain to create a financial sector that can completely challenge legacy industries. 

However for gaming projects like Pocket Arena, common player behaviours and preferences must be considered when it comes to choosing a blockchain type. This is why we use permissioned blockchain integrated with tokenomics. This means that only approved people can run a node to validate transactions. In effect, this creates a hybrid model between decentralization and centralization. 

Permissioned blockchain is much more common for enterprises to use such as banking and financial services. For example, in Switzerland more and more financial institutions are adopting permissioned DLT to the point that a new DLT law has been enacted this year. Permissioned blockchain provides many of the benefits of permissionless blockchain including security device management, cost savings, reduced connectivity bottlenecks, contract audit trails, and increased data reliability.

The Future Of Blockchain Gaming 

There are many requirements for developing a game that make it necessary to have some form of centralized body. For example, gamers looking to login can often forget their ID or passwords. A governing body is needed to verify and support players like this so that they can retain access to their account. In a blockchain cryptocurrency it is vital that nobody gains access to an account that doesn’t have the password. However, security measures for gaming services can afford to be less strict which introduces the benefits of a central body. 

Another issue for centralized games is the unavoidable reality that games are often released with bugs and glitches. This is especially true for beta versions but can even sometimes apply to commercial versions of games. A governing body is necessary to take care of technical issues and guide the game through its full development. Games that utilize a Play2Earn model need particular care as any player issues must also receive financial compensation. 

Blockchain games have a totally different set of requirements for DeFi projects. They need to provide more fun and gaming elements than financial elements which is why fast transaction times are essential. Permissionless blockchains (public blockchain) can be quite slow. The Ethereum chain for example, has been known to take up to four hours to process a transaction. This is a lot longer than the one second that most gamers are prepared to wait for a transaction. 

Gamers will simply not have the patience to wait for ERC-20 based DApps to process transactions on the Ethereum Network. Gamers need instant speed when dealing with microtransactions as they occur as part of a fast-paced game world. Gas fees and long transactions will simply be unacceptable.

A New Market

The mobile gaming industry is currently worth $60 billion and the vast majority of gamers still have a preference for non blockchain based games. The quality of games outside of the blockchain sphere is significantly higher because big name developers develop games on traditional platforms. These games are much easier to start playing as gamers don’t have to familiarize themselves with blockchain concepts and tech settings. For example, most gamers will have no idea what metamask is or how to buy ETH or Polygon in order to play games 

However, as crypto is adopted across different sectors the general public will become far more familiar with these concepts. This will allow traditional game developers to adopt blockchain and NFTs because the benefits of these technologies no longer come with complications for the average gamer.

The semi-decentralized model made possible by permissioned blockchain seems likely to be the model adopted by these big developers. They will want to implement a model that makes mass market scale up easy while simultaneously retaining enough power to properly develop their own games. 

A Network of Protocols 

Another key advantage of permissioned blockchains is that they provide the best connectivity to allow games DApps to be connected to different protocols. Blockchain and crypto are developing rapidly and different currencies and projects are becoming integral in the sphere. This will make it necessary for new projects to be able to integrate with many different projects in order to ensure maximum usership. 

We utilize permissioned blockchain while building with Hyperledger Fabric (a project of open-source blockchains and related tools) on top of a central database. Both Hyperledger Fabric and the database can be accessed to cross check data to ensure accuracy. Google Cloud Servers, KMS (Key Management Systems), and HSM (Hardware Security Modules) are also integral parts of our project. We have also adopted ERC-20 to make wallet connectivity and listing on exchanges easier. Utilising all these different systems shows how interconnected the Pocket Arena ecosystem is and how many different players can log on and play. 

Pocket Arena’s Next Step

The Pocket Arena Wallet (PA Wallet) on Hyperledger will go live at the end of August or at the beginning of September. Once it’s live, current XP can then be converted into wPOC tokens (wrapped POC) in the PA Wallet. The combination of games like Castle Defence going live with the PA Wallet will very much boost the popularity of Pocket Arena, all while working on a cloud based browser in a user-friendly way. Meanwhile, the process will still be secure and fast thanks to the efficiency of permissioned blockchain. Gas fees will only be incurred when a user wants to withdraw their wPOC or NFT Castles to an external wallet for trading. 

As blockchain develops, different industries will utilize different types of DLT. We strongly believe that the flexibility provided by permissioned blockchain will be the foundation of blockchain gaming which is why it has been an integral part of our gaming platform.

By Pocket Arena Team

The coronavirus has had a profound effect on online gaming. As you might expect, being kept indoors for so long did lead to a huge increase in the number of people playing video games. In addition to this though, the number of people tuning into online competitive video gaming also grew with viewership on online streaming platform Twitch rising by 31% within a few weeks of the lockdown beginning. 

This is understandable considering the fact that very few live sporting events were being televised during the first lockdown. Viewers looking to satisfy a desire to watch a high skill contest where players compete against each other naturally gravitated towards the world of eSports. 

However, the lockdown has also seen a complete shift in how eSports have been delivered. Before the pandemic, the biggest, most well funded competitions were held in-person, offline in massive arenas. Events like Activision-Blizzard’s Overwatch League where teams of professional eSports players faced off against each other, were played in Madison Square Garden, regularly in front of sellout crowds. Of course, during the lockdown these events were cancelled. Unlike football or hockey however, eSports faced very little barriers to moving completely online which saw many competitions such as these played online and streamed directly to viewers. 

A New Gaming Paradigm 

The shift to bring eSports online has resulted in many different changes in the ecosystem of competitive gaming. Firstly, streaming eSports through services like Twitch fosters a much more interactive experience compared to an in-person event. Viewers can interact with the hosts of the competition via shout-outs or texts. Of course, they can also interact with each other via Twitch’s chat function and through other message boards. This allows an entire community to grow around a professional eSports match with viewers taking a much more active role in how they watch.

In addition to this, viewers streaming at home have instant access to all of the games that they are viewing. At any time as you watch an event a viewer can turn off their stream, download the game they were watching and become an active member of the playing community. Thus, the pandemic has led to viewers of eSports spending more time playing the games they observe and of course, wanting to watch games that they can easily participate in. 

Secondly, the pandemic has accelerated a shift towards delivering games via mobile or cloud-based platforms. Even blockbuster titles are becoming available on mobile devices. Cloud gaming allows consumers to play games via streaming them to devices, without the need for expensive hardware. 

One significant feature of delivering games like this is that games are inherently less intensive in their demands for processing power. Generally speaking, this means that these games are simpler and a much less intensive gaming experience. This has seen a huge rise in games like Counter Strike, Fall Guys and Among Us being viewed on Twitch. 

Essentially, this has meant that viewers are now watching and playing much more casual games. Viewers will tune in to Twitch personalities playing Among Us and enjoy the social aspect of a group of friends playing and interacting with each other. This is starkly opposed to the incredibly high skill level required for a game like League of Legends, one of the largest games at in-person events, where the technique and strategy of the players is the most significant part of the viewing experience. 

The shift in the gaming industry to this more casual gaming style is clearly seen in the rise of online mobile multiplayer platform Skillz. Skillz has integrated mobile games into the eSport ecosystem by hosting approximately 2 million tournaments per day for games like Solitaire, Bubble Shooter, and Dominoes. 

Another key shift in the industry is towards a social eSports tournaments model where skilled based games give players the ability to win prizes. Part of Skillz’s mission to make “eSports for Everyone” involves making it possible for players to win money when they play . Skillz pays out approximately $10,000 per day for its tournaments. The retention rate that the Play2Earn model achieves has seen Skillz achieve a market cap of more than 5 billion. The success of Skillz is evidence not only of the new type of game being played but also how many more casual gamers are participating in eSports. 

Bringing This New Ecosystem To The Blockchain

All of these features are the key components that The Pocket Arena platform is built on. Essentially, Pocket Arena takes the Skillz model and integrates it with blockchain based technology and Play2Earn tokenomics. Pocket Arena specializes in different genre games not only hardcore strategy games like NFT Castle Defense, but also in casual games with that focus on cultivating a strong social community that see players compete with one another to win prizes of crypto assets. 

Pocket Arena has a retention rate for the games of more than 20%. This is more than double non-blockchain casual browser games, which have a retention rate of between 7 and 10%. The most significant factor in ensuring casual games have this high retention rate is being able to deliver them as social eSports based on the Play-2-Earn model. Pocket Arena is already showing the viability of this model with its casual games such as Bricks n Targets, Ice Pop and, 3D Basketball. 

Now that the 5G era is just around the corner, browser based, social eSports will be more welcomed by a general audience. This shift will occur not only in developing countries but also in developed countries due to the simplicity that players can engage with games that still see them able to earn real digital assets.

The changes in the online gaming ecosystem have been coming for a while. The pandemic has merely expedited an already apparent trend and Pocket Arena is excited to be part of it. In addition to that, we utilize blockchain technology to provide gamers with true ownership, giving them another way to earn as they play. Pocket Arena has combined the shift in the online gaming community with a brand new technology to create an all income encompassing platform for the future of gaming.

New Pocket Arena giveaway event for this week.

What is your favorite Pocket Arena Casual game?  Try each game and give us your verdict! 

1. Bricks n Targets : https://games.pocketarena.com/bricks/
2. Ice Pop : https://games.pocketarena.com/icepop/
3. 3D Basketball : https://games.pocketarena.com/basketball/

5 random winners will get an NFT Castle worth EUR 98 per each.

To enter :

• Follow us @pocketarena
• Give your answer  with the hashtag of pocketarena 
• RT & Tag 3 friends

This event ends at 9.00(CET) on 16. August 2021.

Happy gaming!

Share  your stage with us!

Do you enjoy playing Castledefense? 

We want to know which stage you are at! 

Take a screenshot of  your stage, and drop it with Castledefense

The top 3 players will get a big chunk of XPs as a gift! 

To enter this event :

1. Follow @pocketarena
2. Take a screenshot of your stage, and drop it in the comment  & tag @ 3 of your friends
3. Retweet

Prize (the exchange rate XP / POC 20:1)

1. Best Defender : 5000 XP 
2. Second Defender : 4000 XP
3. Third Defender : 3000 XP

This event ends at 9.00(CET) on 10. August 2021

Happy defending!

In-game items have been a part of gaming for about as long as gaming has existed. The ability for a player to acquire more powerful items as he progresses through a game is a crucial part of the player character’s development. This has made in-game items a crucial part of almost all video games. These in-game assets are especially valuable in MMORPGs. Because the items exist as part of an ecosystem that is shared with other players, they have real world value to other players. Assets can be bought or traded between players as the introduction of in-app purchase has given items a quantifiable value. 

The presence of in-game assets in MMORPGs has, however, presented many issues. Items can now be hacked and stolen, duplicated or even just disappear from a players inventory because of a single line of faulty code. Players can lose items that they worked for many in game hours to acquire through no fault of their own. Even worse, lost items could include assets that the player paid real-world money for. 

Bethesda’s MMORPG, Fallout 76 from 2018, is a perfect example of how an in-game economy can collapse if weaknesses in the code are exploited. Fallout 76 players were encouraged to purchase items from the in-game Atomic Shop. Players could regularly pay up to $20 for items such as armour, new color schemes, new costumes and weapons from the shop. However, Fallout 76 had many bugs within its code that were ready to crash the in-game economy.

Every game has a developer room. This is a room within the game world that contains all the items developers have imported into the world. Of course, in order for the game to function this room has to be by entirely inaccessible two players. Inevitably because of the number of bugs within the Fallout 76 code, players were able to get inside the developer’s room. 

Using hacks and exploits players could duplicate every single item that appeared in the game. This caused the in-game economy to crash, leaving many players who paid money for items in the Atomic Shop with a worthless inventory. This was one of the most high profile examples of an in game market crashing but it is certainly not the only one. 

The NFT Solution 

In order to create a system that’s resistant against these kinds of problems, individual items must be traceable as they are traded throughout the game. This is a perfect application for blockchain and thus why the new technology of NFTs is such an obvious solution for the gaming industry. NFTs provide players true ownership of an item that cannot be duplicated and will retain its value. The history and ownership of the item can be back-traced along the blockchain. This makes NFTs a technology that many game developers will be forced to integrate in any MMORPG that features an in-game economy. 

Currently, Google and Apple hold somewhat of a duopoly on app and game distribution. The Google Play store and Apple App store absolutely dominate their nearest rivals in terms of revenue and the number of applications available on each. The power that Apple and Google hold over the market is demonstrated by the lawsuit that Epic Games have brought against Apple, accusing them of misusing their market power. In doing this, Apple has allegedly been able to substantially lessen competition in the app distribution and payments market.

This poses something of a problem for the development of NFTs in the gaming sphere. To have a game listed in either of these stores a developer must abide by a strict set of rules. Currently, neither Google or Apple are allowing any crypto payments or any other crypto related link within their app stores. For a game to be widely distributed across the world it is vital that it appears on one of these platforms. For this reason, this represents a severe stumbling block to NFT economies developing across the gaming industry. 

This is why the games industry has to shift to an entirely new paradigm. The power currently held by both Apple and Google is holding back the development of exciting new gaming technology. The benefits offered by NFTs are undeniable and can benefit many different games across the industry but they are being held back by the state of the market. 

NFT Castle Defense

Pocket Arena is excited to be part of this new era for gaming with the development of NFT Castle Defense. This game allows sponsors to buy NFT castles that can be used by players as part of a tower defense type game. Whenever a player plays the game they will contribute XP to the castle they use and it will get stronger. This will increase the value of the item and when the sponsor sells or trades the upgraded castle on the in-game market, he will make a profit which will then be shared amongst the sponsor and the player. 

This ecosystem will allow castle owners to hire ESports players to occupy a piece of land and use their NFT castles to defend it and grow their territory. The player can work their way up to King and earn additional tax income from other castle owners. The more upgraded castles you own, the easier it is to win and thus more likely you are to become a king. NFT Castle Defense is a game designed to have a long lifespan and a self-sustaining staining economy that will serve the community. 

Another key feature of Castle Defense is that it is built using HTML 5. This means that the game does not have to be distributed through either Google Play or The App Store. Creating an alternative to these stores is a vital part of the growth of this game, allowing it to explore the many use cases of NFT technology. 

Continuous upgrades are planned to ensure that NFT Castle Defense remains cutting-edge in the exciting world of blockchain gaming. NFTs are going to be an ever increasing feature of video games for a long time to come. The ability to allow in-game items to become safe assets that can be created and owned and still retain their value is such a revolutionary step forward for gaming. They will strengthen any gaming economy that integrates them and make it healthier and more sustainable. Pocket Arena is delighted to be a part of this gaming future.

Play free and earn digital assets of XP from Pocket Arena DApp – 3D Basketball. Shoot free throws and prove your basketball skills from different angles and backgrounds.Try to master your jump shot in this fun 3D basketball game!  Enjoy single mode as well as eSports mode to earn more XP. 

How to play:

• Tap on this link at: https://games.pocketarena.com/basketball and log in with your PA account. If you don’t have an account yet, please follow this article

• Swipe up using a mouse or finger to shoot each ball.
• Use E-point to upgrade items and make gameplay easier.

How to earn XPs through playing game:

• Way 1: While playing Single mode, the game can spawn XP above the ring, you can collect by throwing the ball and hitting the XP.

• Way 2: You can get XP through playing eSport challenge

Play 1vs1 challenge by clicking the eSport icon.

If you win, you can get 20XP or 100XP, there are 2 rooms for XP: Novice Challenge room and Amateur Challenge room. The reward is based on each room.

• Way 3: You can get 200 XP each 7 days playing as a daily reward.

IMPORTANT :  Don’t forget to get a Daily Reward of XP. You can get the free XPs just by logging in to this game with your account on every 7th day of your visit. 

Happy Gaming!