# Users' Perceptions of Key Blockchain Features in Games
## 4 Results
### Transparency, Trust, and User-Generated Content  
Transparency of video game data was one of our interview foci. This chapter presents findings regarding blockchain transparency, trust, and user-generated content. Transparency is related to the themes of traceability, accountability, and privacy concerns. One participant (P1) underlined the distinction between transparency and public data:  
_\"I think transparency is important for everything. I have been contemplating public and private data for some time. While I believe that even if it is private, it should be transparent, not all private data can be public. Transparent means that you can see a log of the actions, and [so can] the public, [... ] everybody can also see the data.\"_ (P1)  
According to one interviewee (P9), transparency can improve traceability and reduce application abuse. Five participants (P2-5, P6 & P10) pondered privacy issues. _\"Surely it (transparent data in a system) is not better than private. If I happen to sell something, I do not want everybody to check that 'Oh, they sold that.' [... ] If it does not enable everyone to see something that a regular guy would like to keep hidden, then it is not necessarily a bad thing.\"_ (P10)  
The interviewee's comments on trust in the blockchain were mixed. None of the participants could give a direct \"yes\" or \"no\" answer to the question, \"From what you have experienced, would you say that you trust the blockchain?\" Only three participants indicated at least some trust in the blockchain, but other comments were conditional, for example: \"  
If it is made in the right hands\" or \"depends on the implementation.\" Answers show suspicious attitudes towards novel technology participants are not yet familiar with. One participant clearly states reluctance to adopt blockchain in the first wave:  
_\"I would say that with my understanding still, I would not (trust blockchain). [... ] I have played games that are based on servers, and they have worked for me and everyone else, so I trust those. Maybe for me to trust the blockchain, it would require that it becomes a mainstream thing and is proven safe. [... ] I am not the first guy who goes to try a new invention.\"_ (P10)  
Closely related to immutability and transparency, one of the common features in blockchain applications is user-generated content. Since the game designed for this study did not incorporate user-generated content directly into the mechanics of the game, the interviews evaluated more external forms of user-generated content. Specifically, modifications and developing the game further after the original developers quit (i.e., preserving the game). All except one participant (P8) had positive reactions to these ideas. _\"The law of supply and demand comes straight away and an old saying that you should not shoot a milk-producing cow. What I mean by that is that when the developers stop developing the game, it is because no one wants to fund it anymore, no one wants to buy it, and it does not have any players.\"_ (P8)  
However, another interviewee (P6) had quite a different opinion on the matter:  
_\"That (open third-party involvement) would have saved so many good game projects so far. For example, Age of Empires Online, some eight years ago, was a concrete example that there was a game that was playable but ran out of developers. There were players, sure, but no one wanted to update and continue developing the game.\"_ (P6)  
According to one respondent (P4), the benefit of third-party modding is that mods often fix bugs that the developers have not been bothered to fix. Another participant (P6) states that mods enable playing older games with newer technology. From a business point of view, the relationship between the developer and the community can profit from modding (P5). One participant saw external modification as a failure of the developers:  
_\"I am just a game who does not want to use my own thinking time to ponder these modding issues, and I just play what is fun.