The players who are going to stand the test of time in the NFT space for a long time are those that have been playing the long game from the very start. That is what Big Time Studios has been doing in the NFT gaming space. In this episode, CMO Michael Migliero explains how they craft their games in ways that are revolutionary even in the already disruptive crypto gaming universe. He also explains how they handled the process of building their game and engaging their community during the critical transition from a relatively bullish market to today’s bear market. For our hot topics segment, we are joined by Adi Sideman of Revel.xyz, who explains how they are reimagining social networks as a place where stakeholders can co-create and collaborate to a greater extent than what was previously possible. Plus, learn more about the developments at Shopify where merchants can now sell Avalanche NFTs. Tune in for all these and a lot more!
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Listen to the podcast here
Michael Migliero Of Big Time Studios, The Multiplayer Adventure With Infinite Replayability, Plus: Adi Sideman Of Revel.xyz, Shopify Merchants Sell Avalanche NFTs, And More...
This is Michael Migliero, the Chief Marketing Officer from Big Time Studios, a new game company dedicated to crafting online adventures through space and time. I am here on the Edge of NFT, the show bringing you what will stand at the test of time and throughout all of space.
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Stay tuned for this episode to learn how Big Time is creating an ownership economy for a game that is fun to play.
Why might caring be the secret to getting everything else done right in life?
How Revel.xyz is changing the face of social media through NFT Trading and gameplay.
Don't forget. We put together a gathering called NFT LA that brought out thousands of the world's most innovative doers in the Web3 space. Head over to NFTLA.live to get tickets to our bigger boulder and better, but also says an intimate and impactful event happening in Los Angeles from March 20th to the 23rd, 2023. We will see you there.
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This episode features Michael Migliero, the Chief Marketing Officer for Big Time Studios, crypto's first AAA quality multiplayer ARPG. Before this role, Michael was the Founder and CEO of Fractional Media, a mobile marketing platform that uses machine learning models to optimize decisions. Michael joined Machine Zone as the Director of DSP for mobile games, working on titles such as Game of War, Mobile Strike and Final Fantasy XV. Michael joined Big Time in 2021. Big Time is a free-to-play multiplayer action RPG game that combines fast action, comment and adventure through time and space.
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Michael, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, guys.
It’s a pleasure.
It is good to have you, Michael. This is a show that we have been looking forward to because we heard about this project a little bit after it started. Some of these juggernauts and traditional gaming are getting together to do something new and original and that sounded exciting to us. It does feel like you guys are on a mission to change the directory of crypto gaming. Can you tell us a little bit about what that entails and how it came to be? How did you land in the spot you are in along the way?
I have been mostly on the marketing side. I have been doing user acquisition since about 2008. Over the years, I have worked with many gaming companies. At one point, I had a marketing technology company combined with an agency. I worked with a whole lot of games. I have a decent understanding of game economies and I was early into crypto. Ari is someone I have known for a long time.
What was interesting was when Ari talked a lot about the idea of all these players spending all this money on video games. They don't own anything. When you think about video games over the last several years, you can think about video games in these five-year increments where video games used to cost $50. You could see them getting better. Think of Nintendo to Super Nintendo and Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64.
The thing is, over the last several years, that momentum has slowed down. All the while, these video game companies are asking for more money. They are making more money. In 2020, video game companies made something like $190 billion. It is more money than most other forms of entertainment. The general idea or the core behind Big Time is that the players may have an important position within the game, whereby the players are able to sell what they own in the game, which is a new idea.
I was having a conversation with a fellow podcaster about the rise of social media and the journey that we have all been on. We’re wondering how to make our place in that. There is an analog thereof giving value to a system, and that system thanks you. We are not thanking you, but you don't get much back. General question for all of our readers out there. How does Big Time go beyond the 2D experience of a play-to-earn title?
A better way of structuring that question would be how does big time compare to the first generation or play-to-earn games? Is that a better way of phrasing the question?
How are we doing more offscreen and onscreen and taking things through different dimensions?
I don't know if we call ourselves a play-to-earn game. We certainly incorporate NFTs. The thing that you see with the first generation of play-to-earn games is you see games that were crypto's first game segment. These games were made fairly quickly. They didn't have customers. When you think about it, what is a company like customers? A company like customers is more of a service. That is much of what existed before.
All these companies are trying to solve this problem of how we have a game where the players are perpetually selling in the game, and they are able to make money. What separates Big Time in this regard is that Big Time is focusing on making a game that is fun where we are going to let the players own a part of the economy and can do what you can't do in a game like Fortnite where you can sell what you make in the game.
That is a drastic move in terms of going beyond the pay-to-win or pay-to-play model. It can get gamers that are more traditional in nature excited. Can you walk us through a little bit more of the nuts and bolts of the economy and some of its features of it out of the gate and down the road?
Gameplay-wise, this is an action MMO RPG. It is a Diablo or War of Warcraft hybrid. That should be a good description of what the gameplay is like. It is PBE 6 Man Dungeons. You have about 39 instances that we call public events. It is a rich gameplay experience. The key things to understand at first are that when the game hits open data, which should happen in 2023, the game will be free for anyone around the world. They will be able to go to the game, click download, install the game in a matter of minutes, and they will be playing. You don't need to know how Ethereum and blockchain work. You don't need to own Bitcoin. You will be able to play the game. It is free to play.
The game is not a pay-to-win game. If you choose never to put a dollar into the game, you will be able to play the game as well as anyone else. That is super duper important. In the game, we sell. There are two types of things that are sold. There are space land and utility NFTs. If you own that stuff, you can participate in the crafting within the game. If you don't own that stuff, there will still be some things that you can do. We haven't quite specified all of that yet, but in general, you own space, land and the utility NFTs, and you are going to be able to participate in the crafting.
The other thing you can buy in the game is cosmetics. Cosmetics make you look cool. One key important thing to understand about becomes the season concept. In Big Time, there are seasons. Every season, we are going to list, as the game company, all the things you can craft. All the people that own space will be able to go into the game and craft those things.
When a game has a patch, and they have a new season, the game company typically lists to the store, and they will say, “Here is all the stuff you can buy.” In Big Time, it is different. The players see all the stuff that they can craft. They rush, and it is a race to be able to craft all the stuff to sell to the other players. In each set of armor and weapons, there is one unique and everything crafts up. The lower-level things turn into higher-level things by combining multiple lower-level things. Each season is exciting.
I like the term cosmetics as opposed to skins. It is a little bit more accurate in the depiction of what we are talking about and maybe that terminology will be a little bit more gender inclusive too. This idea of putting on new skins is a little bit creepy at the end of the day. You could call my hat a cosmetic. I wear it on the regular. You can take it on and off. There is something cool about that word. I want to point that out.
Josh, I would like to wear your skin if you don't mind. Does that sound offensive?
No, that is creepy. You can have my cosmetic self.
What do you say, Michael?
We are optimizing the language all the time, especially during the downturn. We are trying to stay away from NFT, but collectible cosmetics is a good word.
We haven't dove deep into it. I would like to let our readers get a little bit of exposure to the concepts around the game of time and space. What do we mean when we are playing the game through time and space, specifically? What is the storyline behind all that?
We haven't used a whole lot of the storyline yet. What I can tell you is that in the game, we have this concept called space. Space is our take on virtual land. There are only 600,000 of them. We sell them on www.OpenLoop.com. The game has to do with time travel. The cryptocurrency in the game is called Time. The land is space. The cryptocurrency within the game is time.
I wish there were something we could do with this episode where we could do some weird time travel thing. We are talking about the past or future version of Michael. We should have planned that out. I know there is some inspiration from Einstein, relativity and fun stuff like that. What are the details behind the Big Time invite-only beta models? What is that looking like right now?
When we look at our time, we are looking at our roadmap. It is on the website. We are in EAL. We have been in EAL since April 14th or 17th, 2022.
Can you define that term for me and readers?
EAL means Early Access Launch. It means a lot of different things to a lot of different game companies. Typically in the game industry, EAL means you are dealing with the early version of the game. In our early access, especially early on, you made it clear to the users that there were going to be a lot of bugs and resets. There wouldn't be a whole lot of content at first. All of that has improved over time. The biggest thing that we defined was the economy. We defined it not too long ago. The big thing that is coming out with invite-only beta is when the economy will occur in the game. What we do is drop pre-crafted weapons and armor. You can see them. They are in our store at www.OpenLoop.com.
When we get to invite-only beta, that is when you will be able to act the craft and collect the cryptocurrency. That is a huge milestone because, for the most part, one of the reasons a lot of people are interested in games like Big Time is while the gameplay is great and all, this idea of crafting the stuff in the game is new. It is what people want. It is a huge milestone for us. We are aiming for Q2. We have been good about getting things on the front side and the backside when we look at quarters. We hope we can do the same again.
Are there any other utilities around the NFT itself that you haven't touched on yet?
The first thing to understand is there are two types. There are cosmetics and utility. It is always worth reinforcing that neither is going to make you great in the game. You go to be good and level up yourself that the utility NFTs have. Utility in the sense that they can participate in the economy. They can craft and collect. I'm sure that the scope of what can be done will increase. The game team is creative and always looking for ways of making the game more exciting. The general focus is we don't want to become a pay-to-win gaming company. We want to focus on making the game fun and letting the players craft the stuff and sell it to other players.
When you think about professional sports, you can't use that stuff that causes you to have better performance than everyone else, but you can get into different leagues, play different competitions and have different types of perks if you invest in the sport. I appreciate the analogy there. To call out the pink elephant in the room, we are in a quirky bear market. Folks like Ethan, myself, Jeff, and the rest of our team like to ride the bear. It is pretty fun. I'm curious what has it been like building this game and starting in a relatively bullish market and that transition to a bear market? How that shaped the process of building this game and engaging in the community?
They have a decent comparison. This reminds me much of the early App Store. What is the first mobile app game that you can remember?
I played Madden.
I didn't play much, but I know people were playing those jewel games. That was the thing that everybody played.
That is later. I will tell you, it’s Angry Birds.
I played some Angry Birds too.
Angry Birds was in 2009. Everyone was excited about Angry Birds. I remember when Angry Birds came out, and Angry Birds said, “We are going to sell apps.” It was interesting. The only problem was no one had a business model. You could make some money on the brand spend because there were some brave brands out there who said, “We are going to burn some money on mobile,” but in general, there were Angry Birds.
What is interesting about the mobile app industry is you saw this huge fundraising that goes on for two years. Everyone is building all these games that no one can remember. Something happened in 2013. Does anyone remember what happened in 2013? Candy Crush. From Angry Birds to Candy Crush, you had this period where everyone was trying to figure out the model. Some people tried to make all their money through ads, but there was no business model that could scale into that. There was no one that could buy that endlessly. It was all burned.
You had games that attempted to lock their game. They would say, “If you want to pay for a level or you got to pay one time, you get all levels.” These two models did not work. The problem with the second model was that you couldn't make enough money off of any individual user. This is a game of whale. What made Candy Crush work was that Candy Crush had deep monetization rabbit holes. All of a sudden, they were looking at RPU, Revenue Per User. That was the industry standard. That is why in 2013 if you guys had a mobile phone, all you ever saw on your phone was Candy Crush, and I was there for all of this.
It is common in the mobile advertising industry for a company to have 70% to 80% of their revenue from King.com. When I look at the industry now, it reminds me of this period when everyone was excited about it, but no one knew it. We know it doesn't work now. The biggest thing everyone realizes right now, the games need to be fun. The games need to operate more like game companies. You need to have customers and people who want to buy what you are selling because the game itself is fun. It has to be the first and foremost. These shortcuts of focusing on play-to-earn first before anything else work during a bowl, but it certainly doesn't work during your pair.
I appreciate your perspective. These cycles always happen. They are happening on a micro and a macro level globally all the time. We talk about them a little bit differently in crypto because we get excited about the innovation and disruptive potential of the industry. Fundamentally, when you build a business, you build it around a problem, a solution, and a customer segment that is not temporary. It is not there for a year, and it is going to go away. Everything that you are saying tells me that you guys are building for the long term, and that is what we need in this industry.
That is a certain community, and we get to tap into it, which is great with NFT LA, the show and the builder community. It is like when you are talking about the early access users of a platform. That is a certain type of user that's similar to people who are willing to build in a bear. It is the user that is willing to use that thing because they are excited about it and it is being developed.
There could be bugs or things that need to be dealt with. They even enjoy being a part of that process. They are helping to build the game and get through things. That is where we are now, the way you framed it. There is a lot of buzz around Big Time, and we are curious to see what is going to happen here in 2023. Is there anything that you can share with us about the roadmap here?
We are an EAL. The next big thing on our roadmap is getting to invite-only beta. That is going to be huge. That is when crafting happens and where the coin enters the game. That is where everyone is focused now. You got to remember that in our community, we have to thank them so much. We didn't define the economy until Q4 of 2022. If you think about it, from April 2022 until Q4 of 2022, we had to find the economy. We didn't give them all the specifics of how things were going to work. They had to trust us.
The Discord was getting difficult at times. They had a lot of questions. We couldn't answer them. We came out strong in Q4 of 2022. We told them, “Here is how the economy is going to work.” We published it on the Wiki, and we created a lot of videos. We surprised them at the end of 2022 when we allowed people to enter their space for the first time. It wasn't the biggest thing in the world, but the next big thing to do is to get to crafting and integrate this economy into the game. That is the next big thing. There are a lot of things in the year. We stay focused on getting to the next thing, and that is the next thing.
There have been a lot of incredible projects over the last few years. Most projects are announced and selling out, like Memeland and the Captains project. I'm curious about what projects you have been following in this space or if you have any Alpha for our community, projects that you appreciate, their ethos, what they are building, and something about them that you are interested in.
We come to work laser focused. We stay focused every single day. We stick to our KPIs. I feel guilty because the projects I would mention are friends of mine. I look at those, and those are people I converse with.
We can give them a shout-out if you want.
In the next episode, we will talk about them, but there are a lot of great projects out there. I could tell you what to look for. It is all about gameplay. Can you play the game? How far along is the game, and will the game get customers? The chief metric most people are looking at is new paying customers. You are paying yours and we are looking at RPE or Revenue Per User.
When you look at revenue, you want to think of it in two ways. When we look at our game, we look at people who are traders. These are people who are customers. You want to look at who is buying this sword in the game because it makes the character look cool. They want to hold onto it for a long time play the game for a long time.
We have to start thinking that way. When you look at it and evaluate games, don't look at the hype because that comes and goes. If you are looking at the hype, you are buying it at an increased price point. Instead, look at it like, “I can see myself playing this and spending an obscene amount of money on this.” Whatever is giving you those feelings, that is what you should be buying. Think of it this way. At this point, if you cannot play it yet, why buy it? We drank the pool down.
I keep thinking about Roblox. Roblox is a little bit out of its peak now. We heard about it over again on the program. Kids liked to play that game. They were obsessed with it. That is an important thing to remember. You got to make it fun and engaging. It is easy to forget that with a lot of hype or prediction about what is going to happen.
That could conclude our natural part of the interview. The next segment would be Edge Quick Hitters. This is a fun, quick way to get to know you a little bit better. There are ten questions. We are looking for a short single or a few-word response, but we can feel free to expand if we get the urge. Are you ready, Michael?
Not at all, but sure, let's go for it.
I will take the first two. What is the first thing you remember ever purchasing in your life?
The first thing I ever remember purchasing is Mega Man 2. I'm not even the biggest gamer, but I remember obsessing over that. I do remember buying that or being given it.
I played Mega Man in my days. That was a fun game.
Fun fact, back then, when Japan was at the top of the world, they would put class good pianist or musicians in it. Still, to this day, the end song of Mega Man 2 is a popular piano song that you could revisit on YouTube. They still play it. It is Mega Man 2, Dr. Willy Piano.
Number one, I'm a piano player so it is interesting you brought a piano into it. I was talking to my sister. She and her husband are into gaming. They help out with some gaming conferences. She was like, “You wouldn't believe it. There are these bands that play video game music on musical instruments.” I said, “I know the guitar player from my college band is into what they call chiptune music, which is you make music with a game boy, and you only are limited to the sounds that a Game Boy can make and all within these communities.” It is exciting, and Mega Man is popular for its musicality. People love that music. Onto the next question. What is the first thing you remember ever selling in your life?
Pogs.
That sounds about right.
I was born in 1985. We are right in there. Pogs is the thing when I was 6 or 7.
How do these kids’ toys introduce kids to economics? I never thought about how that happened. It is an interesting introduction to economics.
Let's fast forward. What is the most recent thing you purchased?
I got a new iPhone.
Do you get the 14?
I got the 14. It is bugging up. That is why we are on the iPad.
I'm thinking about snagging one of those. You will have to let me know what you think. What is the most recent thing you sold?
I own a lot of parking space. I sold a parking space. My Austin parking is sought after. They are almost like housing prices at this point in other cities.
I'm diving in deeper because I have always noticed this when you look at real estate. On some of these sites, you will see some of the real estates are parking spaces. I'm in Chicago. It might not be as bad as Austin. It is equivalent. There are parking spaces which cost the same as a studio apartment someplace else. How did you get into that? How long have you been investing in parking spaces?
The thing is, there are different boards online where people sell their parking spaces. It is incredible. During COVID, a lot of people were selling their parking spaces. A lot of people are moving to Austin, and they don't drive, so they sell their parking spaces. If you hold on to them, what happens in some of these luxury buildings is this happens more often than you think. There will be somebody who buys some penthouse in the building, and they have 8 or 9 cars, but in most units, you are going to get 2 or 3. I snag them when I can, and I hold onto them. Parking is tight in a state like Austin. It is not a big thing. When there are deals, I pile them. It is something a lot of people don't think about. It is an easy thing.
The next question is, what is your most prized possession? Tell me it is a parking space.
If I said by crypto, that would be a boring answer. I inherited my father's coin collection. This is something that came to me. He has some ancient coins, meaning he's got coins from Rome and Greece. Most of what he got was pre-World War, early American money, but all kinds of crazy coins. I had to pick him up. This is something he built over a lifetime. I'm new to the collection. I haven't been able to discern which coin would be the one I like the most. I'm still determining that now, but that is the coolest thing because it took my dad a lifetime to build.
You have everything from ancient Greek coins to Bitcoins.
If you could buy anything in the world, a digital or physical service experience that is for sale, what would it be?
How could you not want to own a professional sports franchise at this point? I don't know who your football team is.
I'm a Patriots fan, and we lost out on this playoff run.
I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and they rushed my life. The Patriots be a great team to own. What do you think that costs like $6 billion to $8 billion? I have no idea. The Redskins are selling now. I will do anything for a team.
Patriots are one of the most expensive sports teams in the world, but I will go in on that with you. If you could pass on one of your personality traits to the next generation, what would it be?
I care a lot. I hold a lot of passion for most things I do. I take everything seriously, and that is important. Whatever you do, you want to always try, no matter what and nothing stupid. Wake up excited every morning. That is the thing that matters the most. There is a whole saying which is showing up. If you care, you will show up. Care about all the things you do.
If you could eliminate one of your personality traits from the next generation, what would it be?
I'm from Boston. Are you from Boston?
I’m about 30 minutes North of Boston.
Whereabouts?
Peabody.
I spent some time in Danvers.
I also spent some time in Danvers too.
Were you at a private school?
No, I went to the public school route.
I would say relax a little more. I don't think most people need to relax a little more, but if you can see me from Massachusetts, we work a lot. We wish to relax a little more.
I hope you took some time off for the holidays.
We did not.
There is the secret.
We did take Christmas Eve and New Year’s off, but we worked regular hours.
You guys are building and getting ready for the big launch. Some R and R in the mix at some point along the way is not a bad thing.
Working on holidays is commendable in some ways. It means you're a hard worker, but don't get caught watching the Christmas story because you get in that Ebenezer Scrooge category. It was like,
“I thought I was like a hard worker. Now, I'm a scrooge. I don't think so.”
Everyone reading, I want to be clear. Everyone in Big Time has time off. It happened that we had a big beat of holiday sale. We have to prepare for it. Everyone on the team is motivated. This is the marketing team. Other groups took time off.
I give Scrooge a little bit of credit for his work ethic.
I'm thinking of the children of the marketing teams saying, “Yeah, right.”
This is the second to the last. Number nine, what did you do before joining us on the show?
We had our marketing ambassador meeting. We went over our ambassador world. That is a big thing for us. We started this ambassador, which is great. It is another form of monetization for our players who are fantastic at networking and want to generate some commission.
We should have an Edge of NFT ambassador program. If you are a reader and you want to be an ambassador, let's talk. Let's see what it looks like.
Shoot us a note. Contact us at EdgeOfNFT.com and we'll figure it out together. We will co-create the program.
The last question here is, what are you going to do next after the show?
I’m going to go for a quick run, and we typically have one-on-ones. You got to get out and get some real vitamin D before the sun goes down.
That was Quick Hitters. Thank you so much, Michael. You did a great job with that. We will be moving on to our Hot Topic segment. For that, we will be bringing on another special guest. His name is Adi Sideman, CEO of Revel.xyz. Every time I see him, I want to say rebel because my musician's hat is screwing with me.
He is a pioneer in participatory media, creating multiple apps and companies in the UGC and blockchain space. Adi runs Revel.xyz, a social collectibles platform. Prior to Revel.xyz, Adi ran Open Props, a loyalty token company, and YouNow, the live streaming service with over 120 million monthly sessions. Adi, it is great to have you here on the show. Welcome.
Thanks for having me, Eathan and Josh. Good job, Mike.
I had a chance to hang out with Adi on a panel at LA Blockchain Summit. I was fascinated by your background and what you are building from this idea of pioneering many different elements of this industry in Web2, bringing them together in this social collectibles platform. I would love you to clarify for us Revel.xyz. Is it a social network? Is it a social gaming experience? Is it a marketplace? What is it? I'm on there and having fun, but I don't know what economy am I in.
I'm trading with you. Revel has elements of all three. It is inevitable. Media published on social media by people will all be ownable and collectible. This reality triggers a new breed of services. Services that are part social networks, part marketplaces, and part social games. That is what Revel is. It is a cross between Instagram and Robinhood wrapped in social game economics.
At its core, it is a marketplace where on the one side, it allows anyone to easily create their own digital collectibles, think baseball cards but not limited to baseball players where anyone can easily create them for their followers, friends, and communities. On the other side, the marketplace is the follower's friendly communities who can now own an addition, a piece of media they like about the people they are following. It creates, in many ways, a marketplace for people. Think about it. Paris Hilton bids a picture of her dog. I'm in a picture of my dog. Hers is worth $9,000. Mine is worth nothing. It is not about the dog. It is the same dog, but about other things like popularity, scarcity, and affinity.
Are you saying you stole Paris Hilton's dog?
No, my dog and her dog are both pictures of dogs.
It is interesting when you reflect on it. It is sometimes even hard to grasp. That is also part of what is integrated into all the interest in tokenomics and currencies that are outside of Fiat. There are all sorts of economies that are built outside of Fiat currency. Around social communities, gifting, and entertainment value. Building credibility even is a huge form of currency. They call it political capital. It is what you are getting at.
The long tail becomes longer every year in terms of creators. There are tens of thousands of new creators coming online every year. Paris Hilton is here, and I'm here. There are millions of people between Paris Hilton and me. There is Betty from the homeroom, who is gaining 50 new followers a week. Her stuff is worth only $1.50. I'm a genius for offering $2 for it. Why? I see the data.
In many ways, this is what we have built. At the core of it, we have mentioned social networks and the marketplace, but let's talk about the game elements. Mike knows all about this. We have game concepts that allow us to manage multiple economies of multiple people. You or Paris have 5 million followers and I have only 500 followers. We have different equilibriums and needs for supply, etc. What is the optimal supply that will bring the most revenue and engagement for me? It is different than for her. She probably needs a lot more.
We have this concept called proof of demand minting, where everyone can mint their initial collection, but only people who get collected can mint more. That allows us to manage an infinite amount of economies, with each economy getting its own healthy level of supply, inflation and optimal engagement levels.
It is a simple but effective filtering mechanism. What do you see the impact of this digital media ownership having on social networks in general?
Everyone in this space is focused on art ownership and tokenizing. The reality is that people's personal media, for the first time in history, is ownership enabled. That is a big deal. We know that Facebook, Instagram and other big guys are spending fortunes to explore that area for a reason. It opens a whole new design space where the social media experience is changing in a profound way, from a relationship between people and their followers to their stakeholders and the people who have a stake in the media and the personal brand of other people and each other.
Ownership opens this never-before-available value proposition for people. We know all about the value for creators. We have seen a lot of innovation for creators over the years. Revenue sharing subscription creator tools. With blockchain ownership, royalties and control over their IP, we know all about that. For the first time since the beginning of social media, the followers have a new value proposition. The followers have always been the numbers, the likers, the viewers, and the consumers. There was zero innovation for it. With the ability to effectively co-own the media they consume, followers, for the first time, have a stake in the community they participate in. That is a powerful new experience.
There are always patterns and trends with our guests. There is something going on at the same time with both of you guys, Michael and Adi, regarding community ownership. One thing that Adi is bringing into the equation here is the social network side of it a little bit more heavily. Michael, how do social networks integrate with what you guys are doing? Is that something that is heavy? You talk about this ambassador program in a sense that does reach into the networks that people have socially. Do you think about these social networks a lot?
Anyone in a marketing role certainly does. The way we touch social networks is going to be different than the way Adi does. If you are not thinking about how you are working with social networks, you are going to struggle to find users. Adi's product is doing these things with social networks. We are using them.
Michael, there is a social network component inherent in Big Time within the gameplay experience and how gamers interact with the other gamers that are playing the game.
There is going to be a form of a social network learning game. We will organize that into different groupings. At every opportunity, we have the opportunity to use existing things. We do have an in-game chat. We use Discord to organize them. We are not going to build our own streaming system. We will use Twitch. We are using what is there.
That is good news for you, Adi, because what you are building is quite comprehensive and robust. It will probably help a lot of people enter Web3. This is a question that you get a lot. We are all watching enthusiastically as open GPT, and other AI types of products evolve. My girlfriend did a rap battle with ChatGPT. She got outbattled. It was a compelling rap that this chat tool did about dogs. What do you think is the impact of generative AI on social media and NFT space? I feel like it is changing by the second.
We see a new phenomenon in the tech landscape that we have never seen before. We are experiencing not one but two once-in-a-generation disrupting technology converging at the same moment. That is blockchain and the ability to own digital assets and generative AI, where anyone can easily create high-production value media.
The outcome for social networks is they are going to look different soon. They are going to become a place where people are collaborating, creating, co-owning and doing it in an immediate and accessible way. You will be able to create 30 frames per second, and it is going to be created within that second. What does it mean? People collaborate on YouTube. They were like, “Can I make a video with you?” They have to fly together. They have to do this, and they have to organize. I have half 500,000. You have 2 million followers. It is good for me. It is good for you. They negotiate all of that stuff out the window.
Collaboration is instantaneous by anyone with anyone. That is a big deal on how it supercharges that. When you add that to the blockchain where the ownership and IP are built-in, if I want to collaborate with you, I may not even need to ask you. I may use your models because you have put them and made them available. I will tag you. You can see the final thing and say, “Yes, I will do this thing without your help. I will do it with somebody else.” That is exciting. We are all over that. We are working in this design space between blockchain, generative AI and social. It is a wide-open field. We are able to cater to our users. We are bringing thousands of new users to Revel.xyz every day. We are psyched to be in this space now.
We have two enthusiastic guests. It is always a good sign, especially in our bear market. Let's talk about a giveaway. You guys have a little bit of a giveaway queue up for us, Adi. I want to make sure that we highlight that before you roll off. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
One of the gameplay elements as we mentioned gameplay is a Joker token. It allows you to more easily collect other people's stuff and get benefits out of that. We are giving away a bunch of Joker tokens. I'm going to pass it to you to tell them all about it, Eathan.
I will take a stab at this. The goal is to give away up to 50 of these. We will release a fun contest on social and throughout a newsletter. There will be some basic things that you have to do to have a chance to compete. If you win, you will download the app and get onboarded as part of the experience. You get a chance to try out this cool product that I have been using since Adi and I hang out. I know you won't be disappointed. I appreciate your generosity, Adi.
We love for everyone who is reading to come in. We can't wait to give you this advantage in the community of owning a Joker token. It allows you to move much faster. You will get a feel for it. You don't need to spend money. It is a free-to-play game. You create your own assets and start trading like Monopoly. I will give you 2 of these for 3 of yours. Screw that. That is not enough. Add a little bit more. It is a trading game in many ways. The Joker will give you a big leg up.
Thank you so much for sharing that. Before we roll off featuring you, we want to make sure we find out where people can find out about you on socials and the web. Can you give some shout-outs there to those locations?
We are in the Apple App Store and Android store. You can find us on Revel.xyz. Download the app, install and you will get a bonus. On Twitter and Discord at @Revel.xyz. We can't wait to see you and trade together.
Thank you so much, Adi, for joining us. It has been a pleasure. I can't wait to chat more in the future. It is great to have you here.
Thank you so much for having me.
We have one more Hot Topic that we are going to cover with Michael and give a chat about because it is interesting. Shopify merchants can now sell Avalanche NFTs through their online stores. If any of Shopify's millions of merchants want to sell NFTs, they don't need to point customers to a dedicated marketplace like OpenSea or Magic Eden. Instead, they could mint and list NFTs through their existing storefront to one of Shopify's blockchain apps. Thanks to Venly, those NFTs can now be minted on Avalanche.
It is interesting. It’s a big deal for Avalanche and other chains that this could be happening on. What’s happening on Avalanche is impressive. Kudos for the growth of Shopify and what they are bringing to the table in addition to being able to be a storefront application. Having the ability to bring in crypto is pretty cool.
This is a big deal from a lot of different perspectives. NFTs are fundamentally another form of eCommerce. Shopify is the leader in eCommerce at this point. It is fair to say they have earned it. This is laying the pipes for decades to come. Kudos to Avalanche for pulling this partnership off. Michael, any thoughts on this one?
I have a number of friends who have built fortunes on Shopify, like a $1 billion company. I got friends who have built their own platforms. A good friend of mine is going back to Shopify after spending who knows how much holding his own thing. When I hear that they are going back to Shopify, that is smart. Let's face it. Not everyone is into crypto and NFTs. Effectively, when I think of Shopify, I think of all of these smart sellers. When they get on that platform, they are equipping more of these people to be able to come up with new and interesting ideas around that piece.
Shopify is one of these examples, and similarly, Stripe, of these. It reminds me of Web2 or the web in general of analogs to Web3. You see the technology and say, “This should be possible. I should be able to sell some things on a website.” As you said, Michael, a bunch of people is working on it and trying to make it work, but it is not always happening. It takes an incredible amount of diligence to be the one that says, “We are going to make that app that makes it so anybody can have a store and build a $1 billion company.” It is a big deal to accomplish that and create that resource. Knowing that it is possible is the only first step.
This integrates with all sorts of other programs and perks these online companies have. With Venly, they can easily design and mint NFTs like regular products, but they can also combine these with digital products and offer membership perks. This opens up a whole new set of tools for online storefronts and experiences for online consumers. I’m excited about this one and some nice news in 2023.
Kudos to Shopify for the flexibility to have this type of thing emerge. It is cool. That is all for our basic episode content. We want to make sure before we sign off, Michael, we get to know where readers can go to learn more about you and the projects you are working on. If you could share any social links or websites that are relevant, that would be great.
Our webpage is www.BigTime.gg. We are a Discord-first company. Be sure to join our Discord. Stop into the general chat and say hello. We have the best community in the world here. We are nothing without our community. Tell them that you read this blog. Ask them questions, and they will surely help you and play with you.
We are doing a giveaway with you guys. I’m excited about that. Readers, you can tune into our Twitter and socials to learn more about that, but we have some Ruby Pass that allows us spots. That should be fun to grant. We will have some following and Discord joining in making that all happen. Anything else before we roll out, Michael?
No, thank you so much. We booked this a long time ago. I'm excited to finally be able to talk to you guys.
Time is relative, as we know through the game.
Keep us posted, Michael, on everything you guys are up to.
Let’s play sometime.
Let's do it. I'm down.
Anytime. You guys let me know. We will play.
I'm going to take you up on that one evening to chillax. For you, it is work. For me, it is not work.
We have reached the outer limit at the Edge of NFT. Thanks to everyone for exploring with us. We got space and time for more adventures on this starship to invite your friends and recruit some cool strangers who will make this journey so much better. How can you do this? Go to Spotify and iTunes. Rate us and say something awesome. Go to EdgeOfNFT.com to dive further down the rabbit hole, and look us up on all major social platforms by typing @EdgeOfNFT and start a fun conversation with us online. Lastly, be sure to tune in next time for more great Web3 content. Thanks again for sharing this time with us.
Important Links
- Big Time Studios
- Revel.xyz
- NFTLA.live
- Fractional Media
- Machine Zone
- www.OpenLoop.com
- King.com
- Open Props
- YouNow
- Twitch
- @Revel.xyz - Twitter
- Discord – Revel.xyz
- Shopify
- Avalanche
- Venly
- Stripe
- @EdgeOfNFT - Twitter
- Spotify - Edge of NFT
- iTunes - Edge of NFT
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