CryptoCarz: A blockchain-integrated VR esports car racing game
VR technology is quickly becoming more sophisticated and more widely available. Unsurprisingly, one of its main applications has been in gaming, where many consider it to the industry's new frontier. So far, the implementation of VR games has had mixed results, but the enthusiasm among a large part of the gaming community remains undiminished.
A young area of activity such as VR gaming should be particularly open to innovation of a sort that would enhance it. Blockchain Studios, a joint venture of Active Genes, Shadow Factory and Diginex aimed at introducing blockchain-based innovations, hopes to make use of the fact to bring VR, esports and blockchain technologies and knowhow together to provide a unique new experience and showcase the vast possibilities created by collaboration between those three spheres. Their project is called CryptoCarz.
How will you play?
This project is still very early in its development, and will be rolled out over several stages. Its central feature is going to be the CryptoCar itself: A digital asset represented as an ERC721 NFT (non-fungible token, also known as a collectible) and stored on the players' MetaMask wallets. A limited number of cars in twenty models with different specs and designs that reference leading cryptocurrencies are going to be released at first; additional cars in newer models will be released in batches later on. It is already possible to view 3D models of the cars on the CryptoCarz website, but later on the team plans to create a VR garage for more immersive visualisation. The garage will be integrated with a marketplace that will allow players to buy, sell or rent cars (with the help of smart contracts) and also purchase components (such as engines, exhausts or rims) with which to customise their virtual vehicles. This would not only affect their appearance, but, together with their initial specs, will also influence their performance.
Unlike other collectibles, those cars won't just be there to look pretty. It will be possible to drive them in races in singleplayer (to beat a time) or online multiplayer (against other cars) modes. The races will be VR-based, fully animated and take place on a variety of tracks. SDKs will be made available to third-party developers to create further tracks for races. Using tokens will make it possible to issue transactions based on specific events in the race with the help of smart contracts. Competing players will be able to communicate with each other. Their scores will be recorded and added to a leaderboard that would showcase both the most successful drivers and the best-performing cars. It will eventually be possible to play the game on any platform (whether PC or mobile), and Blockchain Studios also intends to showcase it in VR theme parks.
What is the appeal of CryptoCarz?
Its main appeal is very simple: it combines three exciting and currently very popular ideas, blockchains, esports and VR, to create a brand new interactive experience (one that also taps into the widespread love for collectibles that is currently supporting other NFTs). It is cool, and that can be enough to attract supporters in itself.
But CryptoCarz is also an innovative, original project, pushing forward the boundaries of VR with the help of cutting edge blockchain advances. It helps that this is the work of three established companies that, between them, have a lot of experience with both technologies. Both successes and failures in the course of this project would help their future endeavours as well. Finally, investors would no doubt be interested in the opportunities presented by this new game in the lucrative, booming esports market.
Token sale information
The ICO has not yet been announced.
Not just fun and games
Of course, there is nothing wrong with something being developed solely for the sake of entertainment. That, too, is an important human need, and with the popularity of racing games and interest in development of VR games, interest in CryptoCarz among a large section of the gaming community is virtually assured (though whether it will be a lasting interest depends on how successful the implementation will be). Additionally, its features should make it a very good fit for the esports and igaming industries, as smart contracts are uniquely well-suited for implementing bets on specific events. That could make it very profitable as well as fun and interesting.
But there is also another aspect to this. VR is a classic “futuristic” technology that appears to be finally taking off. It has many applications besides gaming, such as in medicine, education and research. The combination of fun and profit motives above is what makes gaming a surprisingly good vehicle for driving progress in such a field. If it succeeds, this project stands to have many indirect beneficial results, as it would attract more interest and funding to VR and provide an opportunity to test many such technologies. Given the positive buzz the project has already attracted, it seems fair to say that its success now depends largely on whether Blockchain Studios will be able to sustain the current level of excitement with new information, and whether they will be able to deliver on their promise.
Links:
Website: https://www.cryptocarz.io/
WhitePaper: https://www.cryptocarz.io/assets/docs/CryptoCarz_WP.pdf
Telegram: https://t.me/cryptocarz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cryptocarz
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptocarz
Medium: https://medium.com/@CryptoCarz
ANN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3405109.0
Author: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2201409
Disclaimer
This review by Bonanza Kreep is all opinion and analysis, not investment advice.