TownStar Discussion

Currently, Town is in a position where there is no utility for the token and a massive lacking of demand.

People are afraid that the game we all have been waiting and hoping for is never going to be delivered, especially if the halting of P2E can kill the game. A large portion of dedicated players within the community are upset that their ROI is basically negligible and are concerned with the future of the game itself. There seems to be a split within the community, those concerned with earnings and the value of their NFTs and those that are concerned with the longevity of the game and Gala as a whole. The discussion was brought about to talk about three potential ideas for fixing the TownStar economy: Kill all new Town minting until the economy is healthier and sinking measures are in place, reduce the soft cap so emissions stop within 30-60 days, reduce soft cap so it stops within a bit longer but reduces as sinks come into play. Right off the bat, I am at least excited they are taking serious efforts to fix the economy. Although the timing seems odd and chaotic with everything else at play, they have said within the discussion that they need to

“stop the bleeding”.

Everyday that passes, the situation only continues to decline and becomes harder to fix overall.

Concerns:

One of the biggest concerns within the TownStar community is the viability of the game. The fact of the matter is that there are only 15,000 or so active weekly players, which is not enough to sustain the game long term. @Benefactor was the one initially calling this out, stating that they need player counts in the millions to truly build demand for the game and create a stable economy. People are afraid however, that by stopping all P2E functionality of the game, even for a short period of time, the game will effectively die. Only those incredibly vested in the Galaverse will remain and make it even more difficult for new players to enter and have success. That being said, both @BitBender and @Benefactor have said that this could allow TS to ween out those who are either in it for the wrong reason or not truly vested in the team behind this project. They call out the “ROIBOYS” as those who are seeking only short term monetary gain without hopes to better the community or see the game have long term success. Another concern lies within the earnings of NFTs within TS. There is a separation between those who

own utility based TownStar NFTs like wheat stands, and those using VOX to capitalize on higher distribution. Those without the VOX NFTs feel they are completely overpowered in their earnings potential, thus hindering the in-game economy. Obviously those holding VOX feel the opposite, wanting to maintain their ability to earn through all Gala NFTs. This seems to be where the “whales” are coming up against the “common person” and is creating quite a stir within the discussion channel. Both sides are making valid arguments, but the root of the issue is there is no way to spend the Town you earn

within the game. There are some people that are incredibly frustrated with the Gala team and have seemingly given up hope on TS. Some people are calling it a Ponzi Scheme, saying they spent thousands of dollars to acquire all of these NFTs, that now potentially will have no ability to earn in game. The Gala team has come out and directly said that their concern is not the ROI of individual NFTs, but the stabilization of the game as a whole and empowering the community behind it. This is a glimmering of hope for me, showing they are dedicated to fixing the right issues and understand the magnitude of the current issue.

Another major issue within TownStar is the gameplay itself. At this point, most people spend the initial time to get their town set up and then go AFK to let it run independently. The game itself is not very fun or engaging outside of that initial set up period and mad dash to get on a leaderboard. There has to be another layer of multiplayer functionality within the game to keep people active. Like we see in games such as Farmville, the customization and ability to visit other peoples properties allows for players to make the game uniquely their own and find greater value in playing it. The more multiplayer functionality that TS can create, the longer people will play the game and spread the game within their own community. The last main concern I am seeing within the discussion, is the lack of trust in Gala and the team representing them. There have been numerous comments calling out Benefactor and BitBender for being “unprofessional” and not acting for the betterment of the Galaverse. People are saying the lack of transparency and constant changing of information is discouraging and unsettling. To a degree I understand where they are coming from, given that even within SpiderTanks there have been constant delays on rolling out P2E and providing value to the people who have invested their time and money. I think the challenges that lie within the blockchain gaming space are still so new and convoluted, it is difficult for Gala to predict the fallbacks and issues they are going to be facing. I actually think the fact that they are opening this to a community discussion, proves that they are trying to be fully transparent and make decisions to better the community.

Positives:

Something they have done to help solve this problem is bringing in @Paladin. Mark Skaggs was one of the lead developers for Zynga and Farmville, giving him the knowledge and understanding of building and branding a multiplayer online game of this capacity. Given that he has dealt with millions of players within his games, the framework he has for fixing this game is incredibly unique. He has been active within the discussion, helping to answer any and all questions he is able too and provide reasoning for actions performed by Gala.

One thing almost everyone within the discussion agrees on is the necessity of sink functions within the game. By not limiting the potential of TS circulation, inflation has completely taken over and devalued the coin. There must be mechanics put into place to help curb these issues, one of those being the Gem system. We have been hearing about this process for a while, but still are yet to see it implemented within the game. On the bright side however, this function could drastically improve the function of the game and allow for TS to become further engaging. There is basically no one within the discussion that disagrees with these takes, showing at least some sense of cohesion and a drive for change.

What needs to be done

Right now the main issues plaguing TownStar is the fact that there is zero utility for the token itself. The infinite growth model it currently is operating under is completely inflating the economy. Implementing burn mechanisms and Gems within the game will allow demand for the token to naturally grow. Where peoples concerns come into play is the halting of all town earnings and what that could hold for the games future. If they stop all distributions, there is a chance that the value of all Town NFTs will plummet as there is no guarantee of potential earnings. However, this seems like the strategy they are trying to take as Benefactor has called out the “ROIBOYS” multiple times and spoken about not wanting them within the community. Having a massive sell off of NFTs could allow for people facing the financial barrier to entry to actually enter this NFT space and weed out those not invested in the long-term success of the Galaverse.

So far, they have spoken about multiple different burn mechanics they hope to implement. One of the biggest ideas floating around is the payment of Town to vote on the matters being discussed. People holding the token would be able to sell off a certain amount to receive one vote, hopefully beginning to take Town out of circulation. Another burn mechanism would be the Gem system itself. This has been proposed for a while and although we still have not seen its implementation, I have hope this will help to bring demand to the economy. Not only would this act to burn Town, but also give players further mechanics within the game to interact with and utilize to make their experience better overall.

Some other ideas that have been loosely discussed within the Discord page is the use of Town for permanent or highly sought after land, some sort of skill tree to aid in specific builds, or even using Town for in game upgrades almost like Gems within Clash of Clans. Being able to rush a building or have a logger target a specific tree are small functions that would not only make the game more inviting and fun for the user, but help to strengthen the TS community.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I believe Gala absolutely needs to make a change as soon as they possibly can. For months the economy within the game has been less than ideal, and mechanisms to limit the inflation of Town are vital for the game to have any sort of long term success. Right now, only those with real skin in the game or people who genuinely get enjoyment out of the game are vested in TownStar. I believe by completely shutting down all earnings, they will discourage the players who have been vested in this project and find it difficult to rope them back in. I think one of the second two options would mitigate this risk, while still working to slow down the inflation within the game and legitimize Town as a currency with utility. That being said, if they are to halt distributions, there absolutely must be a defined date of when earnings will be granted again. If this is an open ended or indefinite timeline for people to generate income it will be a massive undertaking to convince people to purchase Town or NFTs. They are needing a solid and coherent roadmap of what they are tangibly going to do to fix the issue with strict timelines. Although this is a big ask and major challenge considering the potential fallbacks they can face, they absolutely need to rebuild community trust and show they can tackle major problems in some sort of timely fashion.