# Users' Perceptions of Key Blockchain Features in Games
## 4 Results
### Retention, Engagement, and Gaming Experience
Specifically for the artifact, seven participants suggested improvements, including more customization, visual aids, and more refined progression and competition systems. _\"I like the idea of cross-platform or cross-game related things very much. [... ] If we imagine that you have a Mario game and they would release four different games where you could get this cross-stuff from each game so that you could shuffle them around with this blockchain-like idea, I would probably buy them all. [29]\"_ (P3)  
One participant (P2) stated that the game was not interesting, but the blockchain implementation seemed interesting from a technical point of view. Another participant (P3) also noted that the genre of the game is not relevant, but the uniqueness of the virtual assets provides an exciting setting. Another participant saw the game just as a technical demonstration but, at the same time, supported the core ideas of the blockchain functionality:  
_\"I would play a game like that, but of course not with cars because I think cars are the most boring thing. However, if we were to say that something like Diablo would work that way, that all items are blockchain objects, it would be a really good thing. Having items in a game be reflected in the outer world or other currency, I do not see that it would make any game worse. [29]\"_ (P8)  
Four participants stated that they might want to play again (P2, P4, P6, P10). This was largely attributed to the interest in generating new cars. However, two participants (P2, P10) said that they would only play it a few times because the game lacked meaningful gameplay content. When asked about the perceived engagement of the artifact, the answers varied. One noted that the current game is not engaging, but the fundamental idea of a car race could be (P9). Two participants noted that the competitive spirit of a car race was an engaging factor (P4, P6). Two participants were keen on generating tokens (P5, P8). For one participant, the engagement was enabled by the possibility of progressing to better vehicles (P7). Re-playability (retention) and engagement by participants are shown in Table 5.  
To ensure that the participants could assess the effects of the blockchain regarding assets, it was necessary to establish how the participants perceived the value of their assets in general. All the interviewees gave an example of a valuable item in a video game, and some could distinguish between an item with monetary value and a non-monetary value. One participant gave an example of both types of valuable items:  
_\"In Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, I had things that could be converted by selling to Steam currency, and that could be used to buy any games sold on Steam. Additionally, in games like the World of Warcraft, if you have spent a couple of years trying to find a certain item that you have a chance to get only once a week with a drop rate lower than one percent, so even if it is not in any way significant or it does not have monetary value, it still feels good to achieve it.\"_ (P5)  
When asked if the instrumental value of the game item could be made exchangeable with the value of money, some respondents feared that (at its worst) one would be able to \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline  & **Play Again** & **Engaged** \\ \hline Yes & 4 & 2 \\ No & 3 & 2 \\ No answer & 3 & 1 \\ Party & - & 5 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Summary of the answers regarding re-playability and engagement. buy a competitive advantage. The topic was complicated since there are positive ideas of combining real money with games, like being able to sell your items after quitting the game (financial incentive), but also negative aspects like bots and possibly an unfair playing field. The most supportive comment was the following:  
_\"It would not bother me even if we could trade genuinely valuable things. That would be fun. I can hear how my money goes down the drain.