Everyone is looking for a crypto gaming project that is fun to play before it makes every loyal user blind-stinkin’ rich for grinding.

Me too.

And because “everyone” is a counter-intuitive term for investors, I honed my research strategy towards something more specific that I know very well — my edge.

I’m a writer. I have an MFA in story structure, and I’ve put up hundreds of stage plays, edited dozens of screenplays, etc.

I’ve also been a full time TA trader for 3 years.

Now, I’m looking at longer term investments through the lens of storytelling chops.

Story Structure, aka: Hero’s Journey

Stories start with stakes. I don’t care if it’s a stageplay, screenplay, romance novel, Super Mario, or 10 minutes of gossip between two potty-mouths.

Hero’s Journey is how human beings have learned to filter the world around them for thousands of years. It’s in our DNA to do so.

We know when it’s good, we know when it’s bad.

My friends, I can tell you that 98% of these gamefi founders have no fucking clue how to tell a story. And why should they when they’ve never actively studied it?

Instead of stakes, or a central character, they start with tokenomics. Then, as their project “grows” into a “metaverse”, they add an inflationary in-game token, and a staking platform, and a marketplace, with a “build your own adventure” component with “real world assets”……AND THEN they try to reverse-engineer the story to fit the ponzi. It never works.

Ponzi’s are cloudy and complicated. Stories need to be simple and clear.

Like a plumber who’s only goal is to save a princess.

The Gamefi movement drove the bull run into an early grave (with insane profits along the way).

Well, my guess is you haven’t yet heard of Nor. Check out their discord here.

They’re not out here slingin’ handjobs for invites, which is why they’ve stayed under the radar, but trust me when I say they’ve attracted some big appetites and they have big, big plans.

Check it out on the Nor youtube channel.

If it’s a bit too philosophical for you, fine. But, Brooks Brown set a new standard for thoughtful, hands-on leadership in my gaming research checklist.

Building Block Mechanics

I’ve been down the Nor rabbit hole for a few days and there is an intellectual barrier to entry, but Brown’s perspective always lands at: effort begets rewards

Nor is NOT about Gamefi (profits) right now. Nor is a foundational ecosystem, and they are confronting the larger gamefi crux at it’s first principle: How to make gaming fun.

It’s called Playfi.

Playfi is different than gamefi in that they’re developing gameplay mechanics on the platform where skill players will always prevail based on their skills alone.

On this platform, any gaming team can build, but they’ll have to use these mechanics so that the integrity of skill is preserved across all projects on Nor.

The team is currently building new controller mechanics Brooks defined as hyper-systemic movement. In short, they’re hyper-focused on creating player action/reaction flow that best empowers a player of talent and experience.

Therefore, once a player is skilled within the movement rails in one game, they can pick up and move to the next game on the platform without an action flow learning curve, aka: It flows the same.

The Nor team will be continually developing gameplay rails and templates, like building blocks that will unify the skill flavor and style of projects on the platform.

What I appreciate most about this project, is that all of this effort is has one goal: Reviving The Skill In Gaming

Players will earn, but only if they’re good.

This is why games have always been fun. Competitive integrity.

What does this have to do with Story?

Everything. But I had to take the time to connect the dots.

In short, to preserve the integrity of skill, they’re making Death matter, aka: giving death stakes.

We haven’t really seen this in blockchain gaming because projects need as many users as possible playing to keep the ponzi alive. Not to mention, traditional gamers have seen their fair share of Buy to Win components slowly neutering the importance of skill.

So, when skill and death are meaningful to the journey of a game, it enables actual storytelling with logical stakes (and rewards) because so many games are about survival at the core. This simplifies everything.

So theoretically, the story of a game will not be retroactively chopped and fudged as teams chase and expand upon the trendiest tokenomic structures demanded by VC’s and discord psychos.

That said, there is plenty of complex lore happening within this ecosystem and I’m still working through it.

What I can say is that the hierarchy of respect in the server and on the leadership interviews definitely includes their storytelling team instead of just the devs.

This is an absolute first. I can tell they’ve got story chops.

I could write another article about the lore of Nor but I’ll save it for another time.

For now, kudos thus far to the Nor Team.

I’m not currently invested in Nor.

Nor is this investment advice in any way.

Original Content, Copywright© ProofofBeans 2022. Similar Version first published on Medium

Cover Image: Nor Website

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