RE: Steem Monsters Cartography Challenge! Create the World Map! 120 Booster Deck Contest!
Do you plan to publish the probabilities involved with getting an epic or legendary? Are there any limitations you're thinking about in terms of how many booster packs will be created via market forces (payment) or by you? As this post demonstrates, you're creating a separate economy of value and being able to create 50 booster packs as a reward with a couple key strokes introduces some interesting concerns about the scarcity (or perceived scarcity) of the cards themselves.
I'm really excited about the potential here, but without the game dynamics being known or the scarcity of the cards involved, it's hard to know how it will turn out in the long run. Part of me wonders if it will be another example of whoever pays the most money (or has access to the special key strokes), might dominate the game play. I'd love to see a card explorer of some kind because this stuff is on the blockchain so there could be transparency like never before, up to and including the transparent probabilities and scarcity of various card types. Promotional giveaways like this are great, but (IMO) they should be highlighted as anomalies and demonstrated on the blockchain so that all cards are accounted for via payments or via direct creation by the steemmonsters in a way the community supports (such as contests like this which add value to everyone).
Either way, keep it up and keep innovating. I'm really stoked about this project.
@lukestokes you bring up some really good points, and I think we're getting a little overly excited with the response to this game and may need to tone it down a bit. I will discuss this with @aggroed.
You're absolutely right about the increased transparency from using the blockchain. In fact, an intrepid developer should already be able to discern the drop rates of the cards by looking at the custom json transactions being posted on the @steemmonsters account.
For the moment my focus needs to be on developing out the game but I would be happy to help anyone who wants to develop something along the lines of a card explorer based on the blockchain data!
Also regarding promotional packs - all of that is still recorded on the blockchain as well. Promotional packs are those "purchased" by the @steemmonsters account. So still fully transparent, but please continue to keep us honest!
Matt, you have done a wonderful job on the backend tech here. I am blown away with the ability to transfer the cards and the gifting of packs. I think you have done a great job and if you are fully transparent as @lukestokes mentioned, the sky will be the limit on the success of this game! Keep it up!
Awesome! This is what I love hearing. :)
Yeah, I figured someone could build an explorer right now, if they wanted to dig in a bit more. And I agree, you focused on the actual system, game-play mechanics, etc is the highest priority.
You are doing some great things here, and I'm sure a lot of people are watching. I'm really excited for your success. :)
Edit: Oh, one more thing I forgot to ask, when I combine cards, is that on the blockchain? I didn't see the transaction for that, but maybe I missed them? I was curious how that works or if it's just a visual representation based on settings in a private database for how the cards are represented?
Ok you caught me - I released the combine cards feature before the posting to the blockchain part was ready because i was still thinking through how it should work.
But it's ready now and just released so here's what I ended up deciding on (will probably make a post about this stuff too at some point). I welcome your feedback.
The site now requires the posting key to log in, and when you combine cards or gift packs it will post a custom_json transaction to your steem account which is proof that you initiated the transaction. The transaction is signed/broadcast on the client-side and the keys are never sent anywhere.
Another custom json will then be posted from the steemmonsters account with the details of the combine or gift or whatever and include a reference to the transaction posted on the player's account in step 1 above.
This has two benefits (in my opinion):
Users "own" their cards and they must publish a transaction to their account on the blockchain to move or change those cards. If we were to move cards or change them in our private DB then people could see that there was no associated transaction posted to that player's account and call us out on it (we won't do that of course!).
You can still get the current "state" of the game by just going through the steemmonsters account history and not the entire blockchain.
Here are screenshots of both transactions so you can see what I'm talking about (note that the second references the trx_id of the first):
Nice! I'm a little hesitant about logging in with a posting key, but I can see the need for it. As long as the key never leaves the browser, cool, but it is a concern the more we create interfaces that teach people to give out their posting keys, the more hacking incidents we're going to have.
I prefer using Vessel. Could it be done that way instead? That way each action could be done via Vessel securely. Either that or steemconnect which is an official product of Steemit, inc and trusted (for the most part).
I really do love where you're going with this and putting everything on chain though. That's what I was hoping to see. :)
Yes I agree with you that we shouldn't teach people to put keys in the browser at all. From that perspective it's not different than SteemConnect though. I also don't really like SC because I don't like having to give another account posting authority to use it.
The Utopian hack really made me think twice about using SC. I know we wouldn't be storing access tokens like what they were doing, but SC could get hacked and then the hackers would have posting access to all the steem monsters' players' accounts.
I think Vessel is the best option - and it is supported currently for purchases as I'm sure you've seen using my SC2-pay library (which is mis-named now that it supports other options than SC). Practically speaking though very few people use Vessel, especially the ones who don't know how to protect their keys.
The best option of all (in my opinion) would be to have a metamask-style browser extension for managing steem keys and signing transactions. That would be the best mix of security and user-experience (again in my opinion). I have talked to @jesta about this a couple of times but he doesn't seem too interested in it.
I would absolutely love for someone to build that though, and would definitely help fund and support that project.
Anyway - this was probably a much longer response than you were expecting, but the point is that I put a lot of thought into the authentication and I thought that using the private posting key on the client-side only was the option I preferred to use based on all of the above.
I've used Vessel every time when buying monsters, and I greatly appreciate the Vessel support.
I understand the concerns with SteemConnect but the way I look at it, the Utopian hack actually demonstrated the value of SteemConnect. Instead of all those posting keys needing to be reset, the SteemConnect OAuth tokens were revoked and no one had to change any keys. If SteemConnect itself ever got hacked, then Steemit could also be hacked. I figure we have to put trust somewhere and right now that's with the core Steemit, inc developers.
Right now, unfortunately, there's no easy way to ensure "This only happens in your browser and doesn't get sent to our servers". That's why I like Vessel. It makes that separation clear. A browser extension, to me, still feels a bit shady. I've never really trusted MetaMask. I wonder sometimes if those extensions are spying on pages or capturing key strokes... I don't like them running all the time in the background. I do agree they are more user friendly by far though.
No worries about the long reply. It's a really important discussion, IMO.
Keep up the great work.
I think we're mostly in agreement here. No method that involves entering private keys into a browser window is an ideal solution. I also agree that Vessel is a better solution from a security perspective than a browser extension, but it's definitely not better from a usability perspective when it comes to integration with websites (which is what the Steem blockchain is mostly all about). So in my opinion an open source browser extension would be the best of both worlds in that it would provide ease of use with Steem-based websites while also allowing the code to be reviewed and audited to ensure there's no shady business going on.
I would like to use vessel but when I click xdg-open from chrome, vessel never gets populated with the transaction. I wonder if this is because I installed vessel using its linux snap?
Check with @jesta on Discord or Steemchat or open an issue ticket on Github. I've never had a problem using it.
I'll put out a terms of service at some point that will indicate our promise to not inflate the shit out of the game. At the very start of this it's important to get the game built. We just hit 10k in sales. i think a lot of that will be eaten by dev work to tget the game up and running. We've sold 4300 booster packs. I think I've given away 200 or so. So, we're at 5% in promotional stuff. Promotional stuff won't scale with the game. Bceause I can't see managing 1000 deck giveaways.
So, I'll likely keep it at 10% or less in the first 6 months and then scale back. What I would really like to have happen is code in a number of packs as promotional as they are sold. So, it's a set limit and I don't have to think about it.
That said, the map is going to define the starting point for all the lore adn it's important to get going on a great footing. Hopefully a few hundred dollars worth of game material is worth it to get a good starting point for immersion.
I love the response so far. Transparency is key, and it sounds like you're thinking along those same lines.
I hope the game dynamics are really good. :)