5 Questions For BigTime

In case you missed it, a couple of weeks ago, we released the first part of a new series of mini-interviews entitled "5 Questions For." Every few weeks, we speak with members of different Web 3 projects and ask them five different questions regarding the space as a whole and their games' place within that ecosystem.

We kicked things off in style with the awesome Matt Thwaites from BigTime and had a great conversation, which we will now detail below for those of you who prefer to read your interviews. For those who prefer to watch them, the full "5 Questions For Bigtime" is linked at the bottom of this post.

Who are you? What is Bigtime?

So I’m Matt - proverbially known as Matt the guild guy - and I’m the guild manager with Bigtime.

Bigtime is a multiplayer RPG game, where essentially a player can roam a - a large world, interact with other players inside of a futuristic looking planet and then drop into procedurally generated dungeons that are scattered throughout that world.

For those dungeons, you can either solo them, or run through them with up to six people, and as you battle through mobs and bosses and complete side quests inside of Bigtime, NFTs can drop as cosmetic skins during that.

We’re currently in our alpha and as we transition into our beta and beyond, you’re actually going to be able to craft and make your own cosmetic skins as well, which is all built on our land, which is called Space- and inside that Space it’s a communal area, it’s customized to each player that has it, and then you can hang your NFTs on the inside of it as well as collect the - it sets the foundation for collecting the in-game token and setting up co-operative gameplay with other people.

What can NFTs Bring to RPG?

NFTs can bring an unprecedented level of identity and ownership to players and RPGs.

So, broadly speaking, players who enjoy RPG-type games have a deep appreciation and value for in-game items. They like to be able to own things, make things, use those items throughout a world, transact with them, collect them, and really show that they are partaking inside of that universe—not just in a transitory way, but they are getting comfortable there, they are getting a big stake inside of it, proverbially speaking.

NFTs allow verifiable scarcity of that. So take all of the items and ownership that you’ve seen in other traditional Web2 games and give more ownership back to the players there.

So before, when you had something, it was somewhat stuck inside the game, but with NFTs, you can own that, show that there is a finite number of it, see the previous owners of that item, and ultimately, move those items outside of the game onto marketplaces or onto a wallet or something like that of your choosing.

That technological capability is impossible right now unless it is on a blockchain and that is what NFTs can do, that’s the need that they can solve for players that enjoy these types of games.

What games did you enjoy the most growing up?

So - not to date myself too much - I would say that the games I enjoyed the most while I was growing up were Halo and Super smash bros. And I’ve had some time to kind of reflect on why I enjoyed those games so much and it was truly the co-operative gameplay or PVP component of it that I liked the most. You know I wasn’t great at the video games but I still enjoyed playing along with other people and when I think about some of my fondest memories growing up it harkens back to some of those late night - those late night parties with friends where you’re staying up late, eating all sorts of junk food until your stomach hurts, but just having a great time battling against each other and it didn’t almost really matter the result but you could play it along with other people and in enjoyable experience.

That’s the same feeling I get when I see people play Bigtime and when I play Bigtime with other people. It’s the same sort of cooperation. It's enjoyable, memorable experiences. And then I'm doing it inside of a cool and unique universe as well.

Is blockchain gaming the future of eSports?

I think it is. In part because the component of collecting loot inside of eSports is so important for a variety of different games and any time that there’s loot or collectible items or things that you can find inside of the game that's crucial to gameplay - like clothing or armour or weapons - then in my opinion a lot of that stuff should have a blockchain component on it, where you can prove that there is scarcity to it. So really for any item that is scarce inside of the game, or even a character, I think that needs to be a part of blockchain ultimately in the future.

And I don’t view it as a completely mutually exclusive jump compared to where we’re at right now. I think that blockchain can be progressively included in many of the games that are currently out there and then ultimately into all of eSports.

What lies in the future of Gamefi?

Broadly speaking, gamefi gameplay is going to look a lot better now than it did even compared to a year ago. And within the next 12 to 24 months I think the gameplay is going to continue to get a lot better and I think there’s going to be a lot more games involved in gamefi.

Over the past couple of years some of the games that came to define the gamefi realm were good entries and starting points for what web3 games can look like but, as with any type of technology or development, things are just going to get better over time.

And I think the main area where they are going to improve is through the quality of the gameplay. I think there is going to be a big transition from AAA studios or aspiring AAA studios to bring all of that intensive gameplay and storytelling experience into web3 and then combining that with all the benefits of blockchain and some of these economies that we have seen over the last couple of years that were the foundation of some of these earlier web3 games

Broadly, I think that game improvements are the biggest area that Gamefi will change in here over the next 12 to 24 months.

Once again we would like to thank Matt for taking part in this interview, it was an enjoyable and informative experience and we look forward to having him return for a deeper look into the game at a future point.

What do you think? Do you agree with Matts' answers? Let us know on Twitter with the hashtag #fivequestionsfor and stay tuned for the next instalment where we will be speaking with Louis from Xborg.

Or to view the full interview with Matt again, just watch below!