The future of onchain entertainment starts with a paradigm shift in gaming

The Dope World ecosystem is building a community-driven “digital theme park” of games on Starknet, using its DAO to fund and develop experiences created by its members.

The gaming industry stands at a crossroads. Recent layoffs have left many developers seeking new opportunities, while frequent game server shutdowns have left players yearning for more than short-lived entertainment.

Both groups are looking for games they can truly love, ecosystems they can be a part of and experiences they can actively shape. The situation has led to growing interest in provable onchain games, which offer a different model for how users create, play and interact with digital worlds.

A key feature of this model is a more collaborative approach to game development. Through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), players are transforming from consumers into collaborators. DAO members can propose ideas, vote on key decisions and actively contribute to the growth of gaming ecosystems.

Underpinning this model, Web3 games utilize blockchain technology for asset ownership and transactions, granting players direct control over their in-game items. Provable games take this concept further by placing game state and logic onchain, ensuring transparency, immutability and modularity.

Ultimately, this creates the opportunity for “forever games” — durable and interconnected experiences designed for long-term, community-driven evolution that are permanently stored on a blockchain.

A DAO-funded gaming ecosystem

One project building within this new framework is the Dope World ecosystem. Launched in August 2021 on the Ethereum mainnet through the release of DOPE non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Dope World quickly attracted an active community of developers and creators.

The ecosystem comprises several components, including the DOPE NFT, which grants governance rights, the PAPER token that serves as the ecosystem’s currency and in-game DOPE Assets. From this foundation, Dope DAO manifested.

Source: Dope WorldDope World uses a distinct model for game development and funding, centered on its DAO. Dope DAO governs the ecosystem and also serves as a funding mechanism for new games and ideas.

Community members have the opportunity to actively work within the game ecosystem, propose new concepts and receive funding directly from the community treasury. This model ensures that game development is aligned with both creator and player interests, fostering direct community participation in the funding and development process.

Dope World is part of a wider community building and deploying open-source provable games and autonomous worlds on Starknet. Users can view the community-built, open-source Dojo toolchain for building fully onchain applications using the Entity Component System (ECS) architecture at Dojoengine.org.

Dojo lets users skip the hassle of managing intricate contract patterns, writing complex indexers or setting up detailed query systems, letting them focus on bringing their ideas to life quickly and efficiently.

The flagship attraction of the ecosystem is Dope Wars, a provable game on Starknet created by Cartridge. It combines strategic decision-making with economic gameplay, inspired by the classic TI-83 title “Drug Wars.” Developed using the Dojo gaming engine, it challenges players to become street-smart hustlers mastering the art of arbitrage in a dynamic market.

Source: Dope WorldAs an onchain game, Dope Wars benefits from an open-source nature that encourages developers and creators to build upon the existing framework, introducing fresh mods, features and expansions that keep this digital world dynamic and evolving.

Building an interconnected digital theme park

As part of its ecosystem evolution, the project is undertaking an asset migration that involves mirroring L1 Ethereum Assets and minting them onto L2 Starknet. This process will enable the “unbundling” of layer-1 “Dope Loot” Assets, allowing for the integration of Hustlers and Gear as primitives into the new ecosystem. A grant from the Starknet Foundation funds the process.

This migration is a crucial step in enhancing the ecosystem’s performance and capabilities, according to the Dope World team. Currently underway, the migration will utilize STARK proofs to enhance ecosystem performance and security.

Customizable DOPE NFT Hustlers. Source: Dope WorldThe goal of the migration is to create an interconnected “digital theme park” of onchain experiences, allowing for seamless integration between various games and interactive elements within the ecosystem.

By combining a DAO-governed funding model with the technical possibilities of provable onchain games and the ever-increasing capability of AI, Dope World is exploring a new model for community-driven entertainment. As Dope World completes the asset migration, it adds to the growing body of Starknet onchain gaming experiences, turning what has been only an idea in 2021 into an alive, onchain and open-source reality.

Learn more about Dope World

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