I just gave a keynote speech that introduced our online virtual goods platform, called the NanoVerse™. This is something really new. Our virtual items, called NanoStars, are actually virtual online characters with a lot of human foibles and personality. And they are purchased in online “packs” in a fashion that mimics how trading cards have always been sold (but they are online, not actual paper). And best of all, they work in more than one game and can transform into completely new and different items in different apps. This is such a unique approach that we have patents for it.
I was always fascinated with trading card games like Magic: The Gathering but I thought the card games were too complicated. And like many ordinary virtual items, often the cards are somewhat lifeless objects or functional descriptions. So other than what we have seen with Pokemon characters, it is hard to get too excited or emotionally attached. As a result not as many people discovered and adopted the charms of trading card games (TCGs) even though they’re really cool in many other ways.
Our goal with NanoStars is to bring the benefits of TCGs to a much larger audience that wants to play simpler online and mobile social games. One key goal is to do something akin to, “Pokemon for Grownups” by having our virtual items be amusing characters rather than just objects, things, or functions. We also are trying to properly adapt TCG principles to computer networks, which I don’t think the TCGs themselves have been able to do. The TCGs all felt obligated to literally map their card games to the online world, which in my view makes for tediously slow play in which you are constantly waiting and not sure if your opponent is even there.
Another goal is to make the world’s simplest TCG so that we can all play it with our friends and family. We want to make a TCG “for the rest of us”. But of course since it is living in a computer network it can be much more than just a collection of paper trading cards playing a paper card game.
The biggest idea with NanoStars is that they transform into different things in different apps. This is crucial for a gamer who is looking at an object or item like a sword and wondering how long he is going to play the one game where it can be used, and why should he care very much about it or even have to pay for it? With NanoStars, you not only get a virtual character that feels like it is alive, you get the value of it in customized forms across a platform of games that we hope will be continuously expanding.
A player will discover NanoStars when he is playing a free game and is allowed to borrow some for that game. But he’ll be playing against other people that have bought unlocked NanoStars that can do more. Hopefully they’ll like the game enough to buy some NanoStars to enhance that game. Later on they’ll try a different free game and will find out to their pleasant surprise that all the NanoStars they got for the other game do new and special things in this game, too! I think that will be a great moment of delight for a lot of gamers. And they should find it to be a better investment, knowing that there will always be many games in the expanding NanoVerse that they can enjoy with their growing collection of NanoStars.
I’ll borrow a well-known character to better illustrate this notion. Suppose you bought a Batman virtual character in this kind of system. Hypothetically your ownership of this “virtual genetic code” could unlock a limited edition ringtone or screensaver. And a hooded black cape with pointy ears that your avatar could wear in a chat room. And you could furnish a virtual home with your characters, where your Batman might turn into a stunning Batmobile that sits out in front of your house. Then you could take Batman into various games. Perhaps in a Batman adventure game he plays himself. He turns into gorgeous virtual trading card that allows you to make a cool move in an online trading card game. In a soccer game he could be a really quick goalie who plays better in night games, and has a black mask. In a role-playing game he could be a magician that can turn into a bat. And all the while you are using him you are developing a relational and gameplay history that is meaningful, earning the equivalent of frequent flyer miles, and on occasion earning an “unlock” of some cool new feature that makes the character even more valuable on our stock market where you can trade and buy NanoStars.
NANOVERSE CASTLES
We’re going to launch the NanoVerse with our own NanoStar characters, but you can see over time how this could become a platform for both third-party characters and third-party apps. We hope we can earn such an opportunity, but first we have to make at least one successful game that uses NanoStars. We expect that game to be NanoVerse Castles, an online virtual trading card game.
In NanoVerse Castles you and one opponent each have a castle and are trying to build up your royal family. The game has an online deck of 52 conventional playing cards built in and each player draws 4 of these cards to start the game. Then each turn you can draw and replace one card, with the hope of getting four kings or other face cards like the queen. As you can see, anyone can learn to play this in less than a minute.
But then the NanoStars come in to make it much, much more interesting. You get to bring a handful of your favorite NanoStars into the game and draw them from their own deck. Each of them is like a video game power-up or what the TCGs would call a “modifier” because it is going to be played in order to modify the fundamental underlying game. NanoStars could turn all your cards into kings or kill your opponent’s face cards or create a shield that protects you. Initially we will have more than 100 NanoStars and the collection will grow over time – and yet every single NanoStar will do something completely unique in NanoVerse Castles.
For a beginner with a handful of simple NanoStars it will still be a very simple game. But when two experienced players with powerful NanoStars collide, it will be something else entirely. But even in the free version a beginner will see the power of NanoStars because we’ll lend players a NanoStar like Robin Hood. In NanoVerse Castles, our version of Robin Hood will do something that we call, “Foreign Trade”, that fits his personality. He’ll steal a great card from your opponent (the “rich”) and give it to you (the “poor”) in exchange for one of your lousy cards.
In other games he could be an archer, guerilla unit, or enhancement to the accuracy of another weapon. As avatar clothing, perhaps Robin Hood becomes a sharp green hat with a feather.
