Gamers have often been some of the earliest adopters of new technology in the online space. The prevalence of in-game economies through to the in-game "ownership" of items, the concept of digital collection of both coins and costumes for our gaming avatars has long been a staple of our online gaming lives. Thus, it makes sense for some of the new blockchain projects to target the gamer demographic, both to enable the adoption of truly unique ownership of digital gaming items through to the adoption of cryptocurrency backed payment systems.

The space of blockchain and cryptocurrency enabled gaming is one that is currently in it's infancy, with very few games attaining the true gaming qualities that true hardcore gamers are seeking in their preferred entertainment form. However, there has been a proliferation of games that have launched that appeal to the wider casual gamer, the gamer who just wants to pass the time whilst travelling and isn't seeking an epic narrative or heavily sophisticated gaming mechanics.

Fish Jump (on the CelerX sidechain of Ethereum) is one of these casual games. Simple mechanics and addictive gameplay that appeals to the gamer who is seeking a time filler, combined with the chance to stake and potential win (or lose) cryptocurrency in skill-based matches against other players around the world. It is a game that I first came into contact with roughly a month ago when Binance was offering a bounty in return for play and stress testing the CelerX gaming platform.

Fish Jump is currently listed on the gaming page at State of the dApps sitting at number 488 in a ranking various dApps across a number of prominent blockchains.

CelerX

It is impossible to talk about Fish Jump without covering briefly the gaming platform upon which it a component of, namely CelerX. CelerX is a side-chain solution to the problem of gas fees on the Ethereum network being too expensive for multiple and continuous microtransactions that would be required for a gaming network. Each game session would require a fresh transaction to be written to the Ethereum network and would attract a transaction gas fee that would be on the order of the actual amount being staked on the game! This is to say nothing of the lengthy transaction confirmation time that would be also be a complete disaster for player matching.

Needless to say, that would be disasterous for casual gaming platforms. Thus, CelerX has a sidechain solution that means that transactions are only written on the Ethereum mainnet only when entering and exiting tokens from the CelerX wallet. All the gaming transaction data is stored and written to a side-chain which does not touch the Ethereum mainnet. This results in gas fees only being required for the wallet interactions rather than the gaming interactions.

Currently, the CelerX wallet only accepts the Ethereum (ETH) and CelerX (CELR) tokens (CELR is a Binance launchpad project and the token can be bought there) in addition to the DAI stablecoin. These can be transferred to the CelerX wallet from your Ethereum wallet via an on chain (Ethereum) transaction after which they are removed from your Ethereum wallet and placed in your EtherX wallet.

This wallet interaction is a really critical area where they can really improve their communication. First, the games support only discrete amounts of staking of tokens for games (0.005/0.02 ETH, 0.1/0.5 DAI and 100/200 CELR), so it doesn't make any sense to have anything other than multiples of these amounts. Secondly, you have to pay the gas fees from your own Ethereum wallet in both deposit and withdrawals (which is obvious for the seasoned crypto nut, but not for the general public), and there is a minimum and maximum deposit amount for each of the crypto tokens (which is not documented front and centre BEFORE the transaction). All of these things are small annoyances but lead to a bad first impression before you even start gaming on the platform!

The last token (GT) is a token that exists ONLY on the CelerX side-chain. It is sort of like a practice token for the games, you can stake it to participate in the GT staked games (mostly against bots I think?) and it regenerates by claiming daily rewards. However, it NOT tradable and thus has no monetary value.

At the time of writing, Fish Jump is one of four skill-based games that are available on the CelerX platform. There used to be another one, but I have the suspicion it was taken down as it was a clone of an existing mobile game, which is also not a good look!

Fish Jump the Game

So, to start a game of Fish Jump, you will need to have tokens in your CelerX wallet (GT are also possible) which you can stake against an opponent (who stakes exactly the same stake) in an asychronous match. The person with the highest score in the game will take the complete pot, so essentially you will double your stake. Each token has a low setting and high setting for the stake.

After staking your entry fee, you will jump to a matching screen. Like most blockchain gaming platforms (with the exception of [Steem-Monsters(https://steemmonsters.com/?ref=bengy)])existing playerbase is a big problem. During the bounty period, there were always matches when staking ETH/DAI/CELR... however, outside of the bounty period you will be lucky to get a game pairing when dealing in those currencies. However, if you are staking only the practice token (GT) you are guaranteed a match (which leads me to think that they use bots to flesh out the practice experience).

The game itself is inanely simple... you tap the screen to jump on top of the cats who come in at different speeds from the left and the right of the screen. If you land on the cat you get 1 point, if you manage to stack the cat directly on the cat below you get 2 points. Occasionally, a bird will come in from the side at a vastly different speed (that really disrupts your tapping tempo), but if you manage to clear the bird you get 3 points.

If a cat or bird runs into you, then it is game over and you are dumped to the results screen to see if you have won or lost your pairing.

It is a cute game... but the music and sound effects are insanely annoying! Make sure that you turn it off immediately... when the game starts, you are stuck and it will DRIVE YOU NUTS!

As you can see, during the bounty period, I was able to get a small profit in ETH and CELR (I didn't use DAI). However, the amounts were quite small and I was losing as well. The exchange rates between the tokens aren't fluid either... so sometimes staking one particular token would be much more expensive than staking a different token, which doesn't matter in the end as both players would have identical stakes anyway.

Pros and Cons

PROS:

• It is designed to be a simple casual game and it really does fit that design mandate. It is the perfect game to kill time, but it is never going to be anything more than that.
• CelerX has come up with a solution to the gas fee and transaction time problems for gaming on the Ethereum platform.

CONS:

• The on screen documentation (wallet transfers) needs to be better communicated.
• The Music and Sound Effects... ARRRRRRGH!
• Matching is a real problem for the "real" matches with real crypto at stake. This is not a problem that is confined to Fish Jump, low user numbers is a cross blockchain problem.

My Thoughts

Having skill based games is a great antidote to the multitudes of gambling or Pay-to-Win games that are so pervasive on the crypto ecosystem. However, in the end I don't think that this sort of model will really take off. The games depend on a zero sum model for the stakes... one person loses everything and the other takes everything. Now, if you are good at the game then you will start taking in a profit. However, the losers are likely to leave the ecosystem after losing everything in multiple games over time. These will need to be replaced by new losers... or some of the less skilled winners will become the new losers. Over time, this is NOT a sustainable model.... in fact, it comes across like you a fleecing the noobs!

Anyway, for the moment... if you can find a game that you are decent at... you can take in some winnings. Fish Jump for me, is not one of these games... I win more than I lose.. but only just! So, in time I will be a loser... in that case, there are better things that I can do with my crypto!

I would suggest that you pass on this game (and this platform) until games and reward models come out that better address this issue. Otherwise, it is a time trap with the potential for losing more than you are winning.

Useful Links

State of the dApps Profile Page
CelerX website

iOS App Store link
Android Play Store link

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