Will Robinson: AllianceDAO. dfdao. How Web3 Game - Dark Forest - Works. Forming a Gaming Guild That Ships | #56

Will Robinson runs the Alliance web3 accelerator program and is the founder of dfda0, one of the top gaming guilds playing the Web3 game, Dark Forest. Prior to this, Will was a Forensic Crypto Auditor and obtained a PHD in Game Studies and Game Design.

In this episode, we discuss the Dark Forest game, dark forest DAO, web3 games, incentives, the Alliance incubator program and what it offers, and the future of web3.

Will Robinson, dfda0, Alliance links:

Will Robinson’s Twitter: @DangerWillRobinWill's writing on Web3 games: https://mirror.xyz/wbarobinson.ethAlliance’s DAO’s twitter: @AllianceDAOAlliance DAO’s accelerator: https://alliance.xyzDefi Alliance jobs: https://jobs.lever.co/defialliancedfda0’s Twitter: @d_fdaodfda0’s Medium: https://medium.com/dfdaodfda0’s Github: http://github.com/dfdaodfda0’s Discord: http://discord.gg/aaHada53mQ

Episode notes and links:

How Will ended up getting a PhD in game studiesHow will decided to parlay where he spent the most time into a jobHow games are different from cinemaPlaybour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlaybourHow Will found a job at Catallaxy: https://catallaxy.rcgt.com/One of Will’s favorite games: The Passage by Jason Rora - https://passage.en.softonic.com/macbitcoin.comThe difference between Guilds that Shill vs. Guilds that Show vs. Guilds that ShipGuilds that Shill: Create value via a large communityGuilds that Show: Creating a spectacle on top of a game. For example YouTube personalities and pros create value when they play games.Miko Matsumura - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikomatsumuraDota 2 - https://www.dota2.com/homeGuilds that ship: Guilds which add to game shelf life by contributing code and new worlds. Ex. People creating new worlds with the WarCraft III editor: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/warcraft3/23395649/revisiting-the-warcraft-iii-editorHow tokenized games can re-distribute value to players when they build.How Will found the Dark Forest gameDark Forest game: https://zkga.meDark Forest twitter: https://twitter.com/darkforest_ethAn intro to how to play Dark Forest: https://medium.com/coinmonks/how-to-play-dark-forest-the-zksnark-powered-mmo-game-part-1-7222e2c3ab4How Will recruited an entire guild, dfda0, to compete at it.Omar Bohsali - @omarishManan19 - @manan19Zha Yitong - @zhayitongTony - @cha0sg0d_Lindsay - @llpresswellHow the Dark Forest game works - https://zkga.me/Spoiler Alert: The story behind The Dark Forest which is book 2 of The Three-Body Problem trilogy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)Dan Robinson (Head of research at Paradigm)Twitter: @danrobinsonParadigm investment firm: https://www.paradigm.xyzEthereum is a Dark Forest - https://www.paradigm.xyz/2020/08/ethereum-is-a-dark-forestGaming trends that Will is seeing: “Web3 are not going to be not like normal games and likely much worse.”The one real utility with blockchain is censorship resistanceMakes perfect sense for financePutting games on chain, doesn’t always benefit from this utilityWeb3’s value to gamesMakes it provably fair that you can only be rewarded by playing and winning the game.Composability and open standards (assuming builders are on the same protocol and utilizing the same engines).Key(s) to interoperability: aligned incentivesHow the 800 person dfda0 organizes itselfWhat the Alliance accelerator isPremise: Bring in lecturers from the DAO and support the top founders. When founder succeed, they come back and teach, to create a virtuous cycle.Purpose: DAO of builder illuminatiEveryone is holding each other’s bags and incentivized to build up the DAOMost common investment type(s):Capital investment representing for 1% of the company’s current valuationAlliance incubator’s schedule:First 7 weeks:Lecture every dayThursday meeting with other foundersAlways able to schedule an unlimited amount of time with the Alliance mentors and foundersLast weeks:Multiple reps to come away with strong product demosThe differences Will sees between web3 and web2TokensToken incentivesSecrets are gone, it’s about relationships, brand, being first, and getting enough liquidity to be stickyMust raise large rounds to hire web3 engineersMust be comfortable with regulatory uncertaintyDo’s and Dont’s when applying and participating in the Alliance incubatorApply to Alliance.xyz first - do a great job on the founder’s section - “Good vibes”Come with a referral pleaseNote: “You can’t pivot who you are, you can pivot what you do.”What companies are the future of web3?In the beginning, most projects were low level protocol and primitives. Today, companies are much fluffier: DAO’s, games, much more common retail purposes, much higher founder qualityWhy Will see with Web3: ScalabilityFuture problems Will is hoping founders will focus on solving:Entertaining “objects” into new industriesDefi protocolsDAO’s and DAO tooling on the legal sideBuilding a token warrant (standardizing deals in Silicon valleyDAOs - Decentralized alignment and incentives

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