DAOball: A simulated spectator sport experience

[Gekctek]

Hello IC Community,

We’re thrilled to introduce DAOball, an open source IC project that aims to be a fun and low stakes community experience. DAOball is a game, but not in the normal sense. There is no game engine or direct control. Rather the experience is a mixture of on-chain simulation, teams making decisions via DAOs, and social media where users can engage with all the fun. The aim is to have a somewhat narrative experience like a communal tabletop game where the simulation mechanics are handled in a smart contract, but the community fills in the gaps with fluff.

Links

Blog: https://mora.app/planet/a46fs-ryaaa-aaaan-qdcyq-cai
Taggr: https://taggr.network/#/realm/DAOBALL
Twitter: https://twitter.com/daoballxyz
Github: https://github.com/edjCase/daoball
Email: DAOball@EdjCase.com

Overview of DAOball

DAOball stands as a unique fusion of a community-driven experience and a simulated spectator sport, reminiscent of real-world sports dynamics but with a twist: the narrative and outcomes are shaped collectively by its community, akin to a tabletop role-playing game. Unlike traditional games where direct control determines outcomes, DAOball hinges on strategic pre and post-match decisions made by team DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). These decisions, alongside player stats and an element of randomness, fuel the simulation engine that plays out the matches. This setup invites anyone to be a spectator, enjoying the thrill of prediction and observation, while offering dedicated players the opportunity to dive deeper, joining team DAOs to influence team governance and match strategies.

Inspired by the whimsical nature of Blaseball and Jelle’s Marble Runs spectator sports, and the communal gameplay of Twitch Plays Pokémon, DAOball aims to merge the excitement of spectator sports with the collaborative spirit of community-led gaming. The choice of the Internet Computer as a platform underpins the vision of a game not just hosted on the web but governed by its players through the innovative use of DAOs and smart contracts.

Concept and Vision

The heart of DAOball is to craft a fun and engaging experience that explores the capabilities of DAOs in a setting that’s both low-stakes and collaborative. It’s an endeavor to enrich the ICP ecosystem, experimenting with Web3 concepts in a context that’s detached from financial speculation, focusing instead on communal enjoyment and innovation.

Community is not just a part of DAOball; it is its lifeblood. The game is envisioned as a nucleus for communal interaction, where the essence of the experience lies in collective decision-making and the bonds formed around the game’s characters and narratives. This approach aims to foster a deep connection between the community and the game, encouraging a collaborative spirit to nurture and evolve the DAOball universe.

Narrative takes center stage in DAOball, with the sport simulation serving as a backdrop for the rich stories and character arcs woven by the community. Drawing parallels to the storytelling in tabletop games, where the excitement lies in the narrative crafted around the dice rolls, DAOball combines competitive elements with a strong narrative focus, aiming to make the unfolding story as compelling as the game itself.

The cornerstone of DAOball is its emphasis on DAO and community-based decision-making. Leveraging Web3 technologies not for their own sake but for the possibilities they unlock, DAOball places the reins of the game firmly in the hands of its players, fostering a sense of ownership and connection that’s rare in centrally controlled experiences.

Looking forward, the vision for DAOball is one of continuous growth and decentralization. The aim is to expand the universe of DAOball, introducing more sophisticated mechanisms for community control and steering the game towards true decentralization. In this future, the original team envisions themselves as contributors rather than proprietors, collaborating with an active, engaged community to shape the trajectory of DAOball.

Guiding Principles

DAOball is built on the principles of Web3 technology, aiming for a model that’s different from typical online ventures that often focus on profit. We avoid engaging in speculative investments like NFTs or tokens and steer clear of traditional venture capital pressures.

The goal of DAOball is to establish a platform that is sustained by its community, valuing contributions and creativity. By aligning the interests of all participants, we aim to create an enjoyable experience that evolves with the community’s input, emphasizing cooperation and genuine interaction.

DAOball is an attempt to explore new ways of online interaction, with a strong emphasis on community input and shared enthusiasm for the game. Our approach is to build not just a game but a community space that prioritizes practical innovation and genuine experiences over commercial success.

State and timeline

The current state of DAOball is in development with a beta planned for mid 2024. Now with a grant from Dfinity, we are optimistic that we can deliver this IC experience. Though the goal is to create a decentralized community centric experience, it will take a while to get there because decentralization is hard. We are adopted a Benevolent Dictator for Now model where it will start out as a service fully controlled by the creators, then as stability is reached, the pieces will be decentralized and we will become a core contributor vs an owner

Want more details?

Be sure to follow our socials (linked at the top) and this thread for any big announcements. I am going to be doing technical or detailed posts on the blog, for those who are interested. I want to make this project transparent so other creators can use our experience to help them
Also as time goes on the WIKI will be continually updated with the latest information. Also if you have any questions ask them here or send us an email (linked at top)

[Gekctek]

DAOball → DAOventure (working title)

It’s been a while since we first announced DAOball, and a lot has happened since then. We want to give you all an update on where we’re at and where we’re headed.

The short version? We’re pivoting. DAOball is evolving into something new: DAOventure.

In this post, we’ll break down:

• What we originally set out to do with DAOball
• The challenges we ran into (there were quite a few)
• What we learned from the experience
• How all of this is informing our new project, DAOventure

We’re aiming for full transparency here. Game development, especially when you’re trying something new, is a messy process. We hope that by sharing our experience, we can contribute something useful to the community.

The DAOball Vision

• Low-stakes DAO experiment: DAOball was conceived as an innovative project aimed at creating a low-stakes DAO open to community participation. We wanted to provide a platform where anyone could engage with decentralized governance in a fun, accessible way.

• Integration of consensus into gameplay: The core idea was to create a game/simulation/experience that revolved around DAOs. Since a DAO is a mechanism to control and make choices through consensus, we designed DAOball to integrate consensus into all choices, specifically Team and League decisions.

Challenges Faced

Pacing and Complexity

• Slow decision-making process: DAOs, especially chaotic and unstructured ones, are inherently messy and slow. This posed significant design restrictions for creating an engaging game, often resulting in a slow, unorganized, and potentially unfun experience.

• Streamlining attempts: We implemented some streamlining designs to make choices less about ‘adopting a proposal’ and more like casual voting through multi-choice polling. While this addressed some issues, it still didn’t fully solve the problem of making many or complex choices quickly.

Competition Design

• Balancing competition and simplicity: We faced challenges in designing a competitive aspect that wasn’t skill-based or overly complex. Our solution was to have teams compete in ‘scenarios’ based on game theory concepts like the tragedy of the commons or prisoner’s dilemma.

• Complexity and content creation burden: This approach led to a system that was hard to understand and required a ‘game master’ rather than being procedurally generated. It diverted us from the initial concept of an autonomous simulation and instead required constant content creation.

Genre Ambiguity and User Expectations

• Misaligned expectations: Many individuals who were introduced to the game expected a more classic sports management or fantasy experience, rather than our casual and DAO-ified approach.

• Difficult to categorize: The game didn’t fit into normal genres and was hard to compare to existing games. This led to confusion and required lengthy explanations of what it is and how to play, which was not ideal for user onboarding.

Community Engagement

• Limited but insightful feedback: While overall engagement was limited, feedback sessions revealed that the concepts were often confusing to potential players. The baseball theme seemed forced, with suggestions pointing towards a more flexible theme like D&D.

Learnings and Positive Outcomes

• Avoid reinventing the wheel: One key lesson was to avoid reinventing the wheel unless prepared for many delays and rewrites. Utilizing existing frameworks and concepts can significantly speed up development and improve user understanding.

• Foundation for future projects: Despite the challenges, we built a solid foundation that can be used for our next project and potentially other projects in the space. This includes:

  • A DAO proposal Motoko library: dao-proposal-engine
  • A randomization Motoko library: random

• Valuable insights: The experience provided us with crucial insights that are informing the development of our next iteration, DAOventure.

Reflections on DAO-Based Gaming

• Lack of direct inspiration: It was challenging to find inspiration or ideas from other projects where DAOs were a part of the gameplay rather than just managing the game. The closest parallels we found were complex world politics MEGA games.

• Potential for DAO integration: While DAOball faced significant hurdles, we still believe there’s potential in DAO-integrated gaming. However, success likely requires a more complex core gameplay than what we initially offered.

Looking Forward: DAOventure

As we pivot to DAOventure, we’re making several key changes based on our learnings:

• Theme shift: Moving from baseball to a more flexible fantasy theme, allowing for greater creative freedom and easier onboarding for players.

• Core gameplay: Transitioning to a fantasy text/image-based roguelite with simple procedural generation, leveraging classic tropes for a more intuitive experience.

• Flexible DAO integration: Making DAO/group play optional, allowing for faster-paced individual experiences while still maintaining the option for collective decision-making.

• DAO focus: Shifting the DAO’s primary role from playing the game to building and evolving it, allowing for community-driven content creation and game balance adjustments.

For a more detailed look at DAOventure and how it addresses the challenges we faced with DAOball, look out for our announcement post coming soon.