The Impact of Big Time on GameFi Game Changer or Flash in the Pan

The GameFi Revolution Exploring the Potential of Big Time, Game Changer or Passing Fad?

Big Time is a controversial GameFi project. Despite accumulating two years of momentum at launch, it’s surprising that the get-rich-quick myth promoted by Big Time collapsed in just five days. Many investors found themselves trapped at the peak, facing problems such as plummeting token price, lowered yield rates, and withdrawal KYC authentication issues. For ordinary players, they are also facing increased entry costs and longer breakeven periods. Therefore, players jokingly refer to Big Time as the “leek dish.”

However, we cannot deny the innovativeness of Big Time as a Web2.5 chain game. Compared to traditional Web3 chain games, Big Time focuses more on the gaming experience itself. It offers AAA-level game graphics, which are on par with some of the well-established Web2 games. In addition, Big Time has also explored new economic models. However, shortly after the game was launched, Big Time frequently encountered problems, causing the public to question its quality. Therefore, let’s delve deeper into whether Big Time is a breaker or just a flash in the pan.

Suspicions of Leek-cutting in Big Time?

Big Time’s token, BIGTIME, plummeted by 15% within just 10 minutes on the morning of October 18. This situation caused widespread complaints within the community because Big Time users were facing a series of issues, including difficulties in passing KYC verification, inability to withdraw, token price drops, and longer breakeven periods. Some users began to trace the actions of the Big Time project team during this period, finding suspicions of leek-cutting in Big Time.

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Firstly, according to CoinMarketCap data, the circulating supply of Big Time’s token, BIGTIME, is currently 147 million tokens. However, market makers Amber Group and FBG Capital hold 60 million tokens of Big Time each. In other words, the holdings of these two market makers account for over 80% of the total circulating supply. This highly concentrated holding structure is extremely rare in normal projects. By controlling over two-thirds of the total circulating tokens, market makers can manipulate price movements and profit from them at critical moments. Moreover, this advantage becomes more apparent after Big Time is listed on mainstream exchanges like Coinbase. This can also explain why BIGTIME skyrocketed 267% shortly after its launch but quickly fell again.

Secondly, the design of the Big Time project focuses on expanding the interests of early participants and market makers. The project adopts an invitation mechanism, where new users must obtain an invitation code from existing users to enter the game. Currently, there are people selling Big Time’s invitation codes on various communities and secondary trading platforms. As the price of BIGTIME soars, the price of invitation codes keeps rising, with the current price of one invitation code being approximately 150 yuan. Through this invitation code distribution mechanism, new users can only participate by purchasing invitation codes at high prices, resembling illegal private transactions. In addition, the cost of entry into the game is gradually increasing. Currently, the cost of one account is 1,200U (which is spent on purchasing in-game equipment). This easily attracts and traps new users, making it difficult for latecomers to catch up with the early users.

In addition, the project’s incentive measures seem to shift the risk to the users. This game requires a large amount of time and money investment, but the return diminishes over time. This black box design extracts continuous payments by exploiting user behavioral biases. According to some old users’ feedback, the game requires high computer specifications and basically needs a gaming laptop to run properly. Furthermore, as the Big Time project reduces the rate of coin explosions, players need to spend more time in the game and constantly purchase time crystals. If players play the game individually, they will basically lose money.

Lastly, the Big Time project clearly targets Chinese users and fully utilizes the advantage of Chinese policies. On the one hand, it fully leverages the advantage of China’s large user base and quickly attracts a large number of users. On the other hand, it also takes advantage of the encryption policies in mainland China by requiring mainland users to undergo KYC authentication, delaying the withdrawal process and prolonging the project’s popularity. It is worth mentioning that the market-making institutions chosen by Big Time, Amber Group and FBG Capital, both originate from Chinese teams.

Is Big Time a game changer?

While it is indeed difficult to prove the innocence of the aforementioned issues with Big Time, luckily for users, most blockchain games are already accustomed to being a race to see who can run the fastest. If we set aside some of the shady operations mentioned by Big Time, the project still gives the impression of being a very idealistic and ambitious one.

Background of the Big Time Project

Big Time is a multiplayer action role-playing game for PC, established in April 2021. The game blends elements from classic games like World of Warcraft and Diablo, including fast-paced action combat, NFT collections and decorations, and adventures across time and space. As one of the early blockchain games based on the concept of 3A, Big Time uses Ethereum as the underlying technology and adopts a dual-layer architecture of “on-chain assets, off-chain games” to provide a smooth gaming experience.

The Big Time team is led by Ari Meilich, the former founder and CEO of Decentraland, and members with experience from top game companies such as Epic Games, Blizzard, EA, and Riot. Big Time conducted two rounds of financing in May 2021, raising a total of $21 million, with the participation of well-known investment institutions such as FBG Capital. Additionally, Big Time sold test phase game passes NFT and other virtual assets through the Binance NFT market and official market, generating sales of over $70 million, which also provided important support for the development of Big Time.

Big Time Game Modes

Big Time is an immersive multiplayer action role-playing game across time and space. In this game, players play as hero characters, embarking on adventures in the flow of history. They will face the walls of time, engage in fierce battles with monsters and powerful bosses, and explore dungeons to collect legendary-level equipment.

In Big Time, players can choose from four different professions: Time Warrior, Space Wizard, Shadow Blade, and Quantum Healer. Each profession represents a different character type, such as a warrior, mage, assassin, and support. The game also provides a job change mechanism, allowing players to change professions at any time by using special items.

The game has two types of virtual items: decorative NFTs and functional NFTs. Decorative NFTs are mainly used to beautify character appearance, similar to skins in the game, and do not provide additional combat power. Functional NFTs include the Furnace, Arsenal, and Time Guardian. Players can build these facilities in their own metaverse (SLianGuaiCE) and receive various benefits from them, such as token production or the creation of powerful weapons and skins.

The charm of Big Time lies in its clever combination of fast-action combat, NFT collection, and elements that span across history, providing players with a challenging and creative gaming experience. In terms of playability, Big Time is indeed one of the leading blockchain games at the moment.

Big Time introduces a unique and innovative economic model that sets it apart from the traditional dual-token model commonly seen in blockchain games. Big Time has only one token called $BIGTIME, with a total supply of 5 billion tokens. These tokens are generated entirely through gameplay, as the team did not reserve or allocate any tokens for fundraising. According to the official website, 60% of the available BIGTIME tokens will be distributed as rewards to players, 20% will be allocated to community referrals, and the remaining 20% will be used for ecosystem and financial needs.

The BIGTIME token has multiple uses in the game, including refining, crafting, and upgrading in the Furnace and Arsenal. Players can also use BIGTIME tokens to speed up the production timers of the Forge or Arsenal. Additionally, they can use BIGTIME tokens to pay for access to reputable gateway websites.

In the game, players can acquire BIGTIME tokens through three main ways. Firstly, they can randomly obtain damaged hourglasses that drop in their personal virtual universe called “Space.” These hourglasses are disposable items that generate BIGTIME tokens when equipped. Secondly, players can spend Time Crystals to craft hourglasses and recharge them to produce BIGTIME tokens. Finally, players can purchase already generated BIGTIME tokens from the market or receive them through team airdrops.

In addition to the BIGTIME token, the game also features other assets that can be traded on the Open Loot platform, such as skin fragments, SLianGuaiCE NFTs, decorative NFTs, and functional NFTs. Therefore, participating in the game’s economic cycle involves various activities, including defeating monsters, completing dungeons to obtain skin fragments for trading on the market, and acquiring non-craftable skin NFTs for subsequent transactions.

For free players, they can participate in the game’s economy cycle through the aforementioned methods. However, due to the low drop rate of rare resources, free players may need to invest a lot of time and effort. Trading skin fragments may become their main means of participating in the complete game economy. For paying players, participating in the game’s economic cycle becomes more strategically significant. They need to find a balance between time crystals, BIGTIME tokens, and skin fragments. Paying players can use their SLianGuaiCE and functional NFTs to produce more skin NFTs and BIGTIME tokens, which can then be traded on the market.

Big Time’s economic model has more innovation compared to traditional Web3 games, incorporating elements from Web2 games. By introducing exciting features such as token sink mechanisms, cycling systems, and phased rhythms, Big Time allows players to go beyond the prototype of “gold farmers” and choose from various roles, such as free experience seekers, material harvest enthusiasts, time collectors, etc. Assassin gold farmers, or cosmetics enthusiasts. Essentially, both free and paying players can find roles that suit their preferences and actively participate in the economic cycle created by Big Time.

BigTime: Challenging the dual-token economic model and exploring new directions for GameFi

As the earliest first-generation blockchain game, AXIE has made blockchain games more accessible by introducing the Play2Earn model. However, as the number of players increased, Play2Earn became divided, and most players could not truly make money, with only a few able to earn while playing. To solve this problem, blockchain games introduced the dual-token economic model. However, the dual-token model did not achieve a circular game economy; it essentially created a parallel economic structure by creating a new bubble to absorb the previous one. But how can this new bubble be absorbed? Should another new token be issued, creating a triple-token economic model? How will the third bubble be absorbed?

The current consensus in the market is to focus on consumer attributes, improve game playability, attract more players, and let them be the ultimate beneficiaries. In this regard, Big Time is indeed ahead of most blockchain games, even though the Big Time project may be suspected of exploiting its users. However, it is undeniable that Big Time has introduced a creator economy, allowing players to freely produce game props and circulate them in the market. This undoubtedly provides valuable reference for the future development of blockchain games.

Web3 game practitioners need to recognize a reality, which is that the game industry doesn’t necessarily need Web3. Adding one more game asset on the blockchain won’t bring them significant profits, but rather a lot of trouble. Web2 games already have a mature money-making model, and they can easily build their own trading platforms for internal player transactions. Moreover, for players, the game experience is the real priority; they don’t really care whether your item is truly on the blockchain or in a database.

In contrast, Web3 is more eager to use the gaming industry as a landing scenario. After many years of development, Web3 has not yet produced large-scale mature applications like Web2. The gaming industry, as one of the easiest scenes to attract users, naturally becomes the focus of Web3’s attention. However, in the past, Web3 has been fixated on asset tokenization and game asset tokenization, but it falls far behind Web2 in terms of game experience and innovative gameplay. This has prevented Web3 blockchain games from truly entering the mainstream.

Future blockchain games need to ensure the playability and entertainment value of the games, so that players can gain a sense of accomplishment within the game, thereby providing momentum for the entire in-game economy. At the same time, it is necessary to build an on-chain economy and introduce more financial gameplay to ensure the resilience and scalability of the game economy. In this regard, more blockchain games like Big Time need to continue to explore and experiment. Although Big Time is currently caught up in public controversy, it has already surpassed many of the old-generation blockchain games that are still resting on their laurels in terms of exploring new models for future blockchain games.

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