I received a cool question from @cranium a little while ago,

Am I a gamer if I spend time daily for projects like splinterlands, exode and cryptobrewmaster or an investor?
@cranium

Before I answer here, I think it is good to quickly review what I think is the most important aspect of Hive participation, which is ownership. There are many forms of ownership here, but most of them tie into the economic attributes of holding the HIVE token as well as the capabilities surrounding the staking of the token into HIVE POWER. Ownership brings freedom in many directions and, it also gives brings the possibility to influence of the future direction of the platform in many ways. Unlike essentially every other internet experience, Hive users are owners.

Now, when it comes to the gamer or investor question, it is a position of, both.

Traditional profit and cost sharing

If we look at a traditional gaming company that has investors who are looking for some level of Return on Investment (ROI), the general concept is to attract players who buy the game and in-game purchases to generate profits, with the profits going back into the company. The players (customers) are simple consumers of the game and do not share in profits for their consumption. The investors can affect the success of the game in various ways through things like marketing techniques, but the playing of the game themselves is a cost. What I mean by this is that every sale of the game (let's say it is $100 to purchase) generates profits, but if an investor buys all the games themselves, a loss will be made - The cost of the game has profits built into the price, meaning buying it is going to generate profits, but as an investor, a personal loss, as the profit portion will be spread across all investors. Basically, to make profits and provide an ROI, total sales have to exceed total costs, and if investors consume it all themselves, it is added to the cost side of the books, not the sales side. So to generate profits, it has to be sold to non-investors.

If you purchase a game from a gaming company, for the $100, some portion of that will go to covering costs, some to generating ROI for investors. For the buyer however, that $100 generally comes with no significant return, other than the value of the consumption itself, i.e. playing the experience as a user.

A traditional gaming company is very top-heavy with hungry investors seeking significant ROI however, so it is impossible for them to deliver the game and give buyers profit sharing, as it detracts too much from the investors. The company and the game is nothing more than a middleman conduit to encourage the transfer of wealth from one point to another and this is nearly always, user to owner.

Owning and playing the game

This is a bit different on Hive however, as playing the game is becoming an owner by default - it is like buying the game from a company and then getting shares in the company and access to the distribution of profits after costs and development needs are covered. What this means is that there is a profit sharing feedback loop for all participants and both investors and users can affect their return in various ways, one of these is by investing early before demand increases, another is by playing the game and making additional gains through the experience.

The investors will of course benefit from the development and growing popularity of the game, but so do the players who's playing experience is likely to improve. One of the challenges in this is that costs need to be covered before profits are taking and some of these costs are in the future for development and marketing needs. In a traditional company, the investors put their money in with little power and it is locked up indefinitely as it is spent on costs to produce and distribute the game - they do this in the hope that the gaming company will create a successful experience and make them a good ROI.

External investors need apply

On Hive, we as owners are very shy when it comes to committing long term and we are likely to pull our investments away at the signs of costs - we want the experiences to be built, we want them to be quality, attractive and increase our value, but we don't necessarily want to pay for them. This is why it is likely that the future of blockchain gaming is going to require external traditional investment also, but that in itself can create demand on the tokens and increase their value if the investment is made partly in the token itself. This creates another dynamic.

For example, I do not play any games on Hive as the core Hive game is interesting enough for me, but I as a HIVE holder am invested into all games on Hive, as the value of my holdings will benefit from the popularity of the gaming experiences built on the blockchain. This is an indirect investment and potentially in the future with things like account tokens, Resource Credit delegation and HIVE POWER delegation, I could benefit from a more direct line of investment also. This level of indirect investment won't see the same level of returns as for example, owning @splinterlands cards, but I can benefit at some level by the game doing well commercially.

Gaming the risk

Now, because of the way profits work, that $100 dollar game might generate $20 in shareable profits, so that means that a player who spend $100 will only get a tiny fraction of that value back directly. However, because of the way many of the games will work, a player will also own parts of their gaming experience that can be sold and potentially, it might be worth far more than the $100 they initially invested into the game. So, they get to have fun while they are playing and building, plus profit share, plus potentially sell their gaming experience at a later date. Not only this, they will likely also have some HIVE or HIVE power that gives them a "safety net" position, as even if the game fails, they still have their HIVE.

Calculated and indexed

And, having HIVE is important in this respect because while a player takes a position in a handful of gaming experiences, holding HIVE takes a position on all experiences built on Hive - present and future. Holding HIVE is a hedge position that spreads itself into all positions, but it doesn't mean it is a flexible distribution across the experiences. What I mean by this is that in a tradition investment spread that $100 dollars might be put into 100 companies at $1 each and if one experience increases in value 100x - that $ is now worth 100. However, HIVE is like an index fund where it is the principle that is affected by the value, which means even if the other 99 collapse completely, the investment isn't lost in those, it is collected to absorb the value of the one survivor - and that same investment will also be available to use at a practical level on the chain as well as concurrently be a supportive function for future developments, many of which will fail, some might be the next big thing.

The economic future of wealth

This user/owner model will eventually mean that there is far less peaks in the personal ROI for investors as everyone is involved at some level in the profit-sharing model, but the trade-off in profits is a far greater distribution of wealth that not only empowers users, but also gives more the ability to invest, bringing increased stability. Also, it is access to an engaged and potentially supportive community. What this can mean is that the future of gaming and business becomes a far more healthy and sustainable experience, because rather than the 0.1% taking the lion's share, it is the 99.9% spreading it out in a host of revenue streams that provide a far more balanced economic model and therefore, a more consistent experience for us, the owners of it all.

So, that is a very long answer to @cranium's "simple" question, but I think it is valuable for people to see some of the aspects of owning HIVE that they might not think about often, if ever. The value of Hive is the ownership of experience and this pervades all levels of the ecosystem and the economy.

Pretty cool.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]