Bitcoin Forum

How does bitcoin become more well known, in a cool/credible way, and still find its target user base?
I propose that bitcoin will gain its most user growth, that will bring the mass adoption, through the video game industry.
Mass adoption will not come through which venders begin accepting BTC as a payment.

Video games reach our target users way more than overstock or zappos does.
I believe our target users are between the ages of 20 to 40, which is the prime gaming ages.

I believe we are now at a cross roads where we need more users, to get new/bigger/more venders on board.

Whether its through advertising, placing BTC symbols in games, character dialog mentioning bitcoin, games bought with bitcoin, in game transaction being paid in bitcoin (like itunes/ipad/iphone games), currency in video games being called bitcoin (such as a scifi game), or whatever.
We should push in trying to get these types of companies on board, for example:

- Machinima
- RoosterTeeth

- Activision
- Bioware
- Bungie
- Valve

- Gamestop
- Steam

Updates - Ideas for Progress:
(1) 2/25/15 - Bitcoin ATM's (or BTMs) should be located in Videogame Stores and Electronic Stores.
                     Safe, easy, helps spread the currency, and in a prime target user location.
                     (AgentofCoin - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10581652#msg10581652 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10581652#msg10581652))
(2) 2/25/15 - Famous YouTubers who play games (ex. PEWDIEPIE) should make videos or video statements regarding Bitcoin/bitcoin.
                     Determine if any are currently users and get their support, if not, send them information so that they are now aware of it.
                     (Hamuki - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10576268#msg10576268 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10576268#msg10576268))
(3) 2/26/15 - Free to Play Browser Flash Games/Animations about Bitcoin/bitcoin could be helpful creating buzz in Free to Play/Post Websites.
                     These games/animations would be posted on Flash Websites, such as Newgrounds.com, whose users base is our target user.
                     (AgentofCoin - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10594296#msg10594296 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966858.msg10594296#msg10594296))


I believe mass adoption will come, when we find a way to enter the mainstream of video gaming.

Discuss.
If you disagree, what do you think will bring the (the big one) "mass adoption"?

Valve and machinima. That's our main priority. Once they join it's going to be easy from there.

Agreed that sometimes the gamer contingent have to be the ones that push things forward.  Whether it's a gamer on mobile playing Candy Crush or Plants vs Zombies, a gamer on PC playing Far Cry or the Witcher, or XBox or PS4 gamers, sometimes this key demographic can make things happen.  Definitely occurred with the whole Xbox One DRM debacle, so it's within the realm of possibility.

Hey, at least Greenmangaming accepts BTC!   :D

http://blog.playfire.com/2014/12/bitcoin-at-gmg-faq.html

https://i.imgur.com/xDpUcfP.jpg

I agree never thought of posting such a great idea. A few months ago I created and account in Star Trek Online and named my star ship USS Bitcon  :D

I'm already buying games with bitcoin using humblebundle ;)

Agree, gaming industry is the right direction.

I'd love to see some MMORPG not only accepting BTC but making it in-game currency. When implemented correctly, it would make payments much more smooth. Although there could be some legal implication (KYC/AML requirements) as such game could be used as an fiat/BTC exchange.


And I'd be very surprised if there will be no Bitcoin reference in GTA VI. Since most of people, who ever heard of Bitcoin, think it's a currency only for drug dealers and other criminals, therefore RockStar have to include it somehow/somewhere. Otherwise they'll look like they're out-of-date with the newest trends in criminal underworld  ;)

Did Pewdiepie talk about bitcoin?
We should send him some tips via cointip on youtube. I'm pretty sure he'll talk about bitcoin. He has 35 mil subscribers on youtube!

Sure gaming would give great push for bitcoin addoption. In my opinion, gamers would actualy buy and use coins not to mention they are able to master bitcoin use with ease. I am gamer so i know what i am talking about.

Excellent concept... would certainly draw more gamers to the party... however why would the gaming companies not do a quick dump?

I think it would make sense for a game to create its own crypto or IOU.  Instead of these worthless XP points, they actually make a coin of value to buy anything related to that game.

It would be something to see if Microsoft implemented a real limited coin like BTC instead of xbox points.

If i can buy my games using bitcoin directly
Nothing could compare to that
Seriously

Remember when the diablo trading platform was still active and imagine at the same time if bitcoin was also accepted as one of the payment option.... that would be great. There are so many possibilities not just trading. In fact game developers can also allow sale of in-game items paid in bitcoins.

A quick dump is not a problem. For mass adoption, we have to play the long game.
In order for them to dump, the gamers have to go buy/use the btc first.
We just need gamers seeing, using, learning about Bitcoin/bitcoin once, and after that they will be supporters.

The real problem is advertising to the right audience.
Currently, bitcoin is advertising or trying to get the financial interests (at least that is my take), while fighting off the governmental interests.
Maybe we need to focus on the Gamer interests (target users), and then the financial interests will follow.

I'm guessing that 95% of all gamers, between the ages of 20 to 45, have never heard of bitcoin.
I personally, only found out about bitcoin from financial articles online late in 2013.
Before that, I had never seen or heard of Bitcoin/bitcoin (even though its been around since 2008).
I would very likely not be here or know anything about bitcoin today, without that original exposure.

Gamers, I believe, would understand it and appreciate it, and should be the next group to join us.

This is just my opinion. I have no knowledge if this has already been discussed (or planned/think tanked) and determined that financials interests are priority.

The main apply of bitcoin is game at this moment.

We are discussing it here ----> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=958379.0 {More specific Dota2 & Starcraft}

There are also members who already incorporated it into games like Minecraft {Ask member -- Vortex20000}

In my opinion the best platform to use this would be in the MMORPG scene.... Almost ALL of them have a "inhouse" currency built into the game.. they just have to simply switch to Bitcoin, and people would then be using real money.. { The question will then be, would children go to school and/or parents go to work? }

If you have seen the documentary about the people addicted to games like World of Warcraft, you would agree with me that it would lead to further problems. {Unregulated money laundering / selling of drugs / Loan sharks / underage children being exploited in games etc. etc... All the "bad" things.. that comes with money.} 

if steam starts accepting bitcoin anytime soon it is going to be huge. i myself will buy the whole Dota2 store on steam market :D

I basically agree with everything you are saying, including the potential downsides of btc with gaming.
My original post really corresponded with the Gamer Community, in general.
I just wish that all Gamers (no matter what game system, etc) would know what Bitcoin/bitcoin is.
They are the ones that are gonna get us millions of user world wide, IMO.

I dont really see this being a big addition.

Why would game companies go out of their way to implement a BTC system when they have a CC and Paypal system in place.

Seems like alot of work for a currency that you have to jump through hoops to buy.

I think the next big step for BTC is making it more ease of use to get BTC and manage your BTC.

IT would be cool to see BTC integrated into more outlets but I dont see Activision spending the money to implement it when they have a fiat system in place.

If they accept BTC now they have to cash it out ect, when they could just accept cash in the first place.

A lot of people who are in bitcoin, actually came through gambling, so I am sure, its one thin that attracts most of the new people into it.

I agree that gaming can help bitcoin.
We have everything this ''gaming'' people wants: fast and easy money transfer, security and anonymity.
This can be very good niche for BTC. 

Implementing BTC is not hard or costly, they could just use BitPay/Coinbase.
Therefore there's nothing to lose by accepting bitcoins along with CC/paypal.

Several crypto gaming sites now accept more bets (by value) in Darkcoin than in BTC due to the very fast confirmation time.  Directbet for one.

You can take off Valve and steam from that list , because Gabe Newell has been interviewed before and here is his answer : https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/gabe-newell-accepting-bitcoin-steam-purchases/

~ Madness

Well, something that would be good would be having big youtubers (GAMERS) talking about bitcoin.

See some of them get some small free miners for fun and then they can tell the world about it, and give the miners away to people.
That would create intrest.

SOMEONE BRIBE PEWDIEPIE.

Lately I've seen a thread here by a big YouTube who owns a Programming channel , and he made an Ad Network  , not sure if you know him "Thenewboston" , he made this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cPPijbJlMY and he made this ad network as I said above https://www.thenewboston.com/ads/ (he have an account on Bitcointalk as newbie , but not very active) ;D and he didn't take a bribe  ::)

~ Madness

If that's true, that's more likely to fact that there are plenty of bitcoin gambling sites and only few that accept darkcoin, not because of confirmation time.

It was good for their gold after runescape started accepting bitcoins is stream started accepting it too it sure would hit somewhere in charts

buying games with bitcoins is fun and i am already doing it buying steam games with bitcoins throw thired party and there are some more websites where one can buy directly

Now with Yanis Varoufakis gone from Valve, and Microsoft allowing bitcoins on its digital storefront, it should be a bit easier to convince Gabe to accept bitcoins.

Aiming for 150 000 subscribers as a realistic estimate currently.
Been promoting crypto forever.

Gaming and bitcoin is a nice idea , if people are crazy for games , so are they for bitcoins and they would make a good couple :)

King should accept it, hate seeing that game, but if it benefits Bitcoin, sure why not:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02849/candycrush_2849883b.jpg

The fact that so many people buy virtual items in free to play games baffles me, but that's just me.  Those microtransactions would be boost for sure.

I was just thinking, wouldn't it be a good idea for bitcoin ATMs to be placed inside Videogame stores (GameStops, etc) and electronic stores (BestBuys, etc)?
They'd be in safe places for people to perform btc purchases and is placed in a store where our target user (Gamers) would be.
The average user would now be able to buy some btc as easily as buying a new video game.

I think we need to move away from boutiques and coffee shops, if we want mass adoption.

Gaming has the ability to fix the problems of the world. Add bitcoin and over time you will see real world problem become treated like problem solving games, the more difficult the problem the greater the reward.

although bitcoin is for everything, bitcoin is not specifically for gamers as they have access to disposable fiat with small inflation rates.  they don't benefit much by using it.  if companies offered discounts for purchases with btc that would be another story.

if they were logical games, would certainly be very interesting .... but are not !! for me are all gambling.

it won't be mass adoption because the average user is not a gamer,a gamer is usually an advanced user in computers and it is usually a teenager

But there are many many teenagers that play video games and like you said they are usually more tech savvy. Start with the people that can most easily understand/use bitcoin and it will spread from there.

I'm pretty sure average age for a gamer is not a teenager, but 30 to 32 years old (in the US).
http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp (http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp)

The current average bitcoin user is interested in finance (diversification, hedging, stocks, etc) or politics (libertarian, anarchists, etc).
IMO, I think that the gamer group will bring the next increase in ranks. They won't hold the beliefs of the previous groups, but will understand the use and potential.

Freaking hate this game , though wish people accept bitcoin for it

A game (FPS would be best) should be created and run as a free to play game with the ability to buy in game premium currency or add the currency (Bitcoin) and then hope it will be popular like War Thunder or World of Tanks.

By having a way of paying with CC, PP or bank to get the in game currency (BTC) then you would create a natural buy pressure that should be able to pull some extra money into the bitcoin world, and the users will start looking for ways to get into BTC.

I totally agree. Especially digital downloads and DLC would work perfectly with btc.

Does anyone remember or still go to Newgrounds.com (http://Newgrounds.com)?
It is a flash game/entertainment site where it was free for users to upload their creative flash games/movies for all to enjoy.

Many online free to play flash gaming companies upload their work to Newgrounds everyday.
It is even possible you have played some of their games (to pass the time for some) and not even know it, on other sites.
I think these companies and websites like Newgrounds.com, could be helpful toward bringing Bitcoin/bitcoin mass adoption through Gaming.

We should be using these free sites to upload great bitcoin related content in flash, to reach their user base. (if you are a Flash Artist/Animator)
These proposed Animated movies/games would be valuable advertisement toward Bitcoin/bitcoin and is currently untapped.
Here is an example animation from Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/646835 (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/646835)

We should contact and associate with those companies to see if they will put in their games, bitcoin donation and or information buttons.
Free to play online games, usually in browsers, are likely a large user base.

Wow Newgrounds....I haven't been to that site since the 90s!  Reminds me of all those sites I used to go to back in the day like Romp.com and Heavy.com.

When flash was still in it's infancy...brings back memories!

But yes, NG should take Bitcoin!  I'd donate.   8)

Well seeing that gamers nowadays really spend big on games, integrating bitcoin as a payment option may be of a great help to the network and to the company that integrates it. Surely, majority of bitcoiners are focused on politics, financial talks and the likes. Why not mix up some games that may divert their attention from seriousness and help the economy by using bitcoin to pay for their games or in-game items? Thaw would be fun. :D

Flash games were the first computer games that has been introduced to me. Newgrounds.com has many cool games that I really used to spend hours on. They can upload great games with bitcoin-related content, yes, and I'll be glad to donate something for it. :D

Checking out newgrounds.com now. Thanks for letting me remember that site. Great site, great flash games. ;)

Yeah that site is good..but I like miniclip as well.! :)

I think DOTA 2 could be a great way to break bitcoin out.

Some rich bitcoiners should sponsor the International or the Asian Championships. Maybe Steam should have some bitcoin and pay it out to players with a really high MMR. Or say if you win 10+ games in a row, you get micro-payments on every successive game afterwards, that helps you keep that streak alive.

To be honest though, beyond video-games, I think online P2P gambling is going to make bitcoin hit the mainstream. It's legal in a lot of EU countries, and Las Vegas is trying to fight its legalization in USA as we post.

Would be great to see it adopted into gaming, but no to Bioware (Not Bioware themselves, but EA, F**K EA).

Apple is approving games that tip in BTC already:

http://www.coindesk.com/apple-approves-ios-game-tips-players-bitcoin/

It's happening.

My question is though, once companies such as Valve or EA (Or whoever you're personally rooting for), what incentive is provided for people to purchase the games with Bitcoin? Because, based on my experience, most "gamers" just use Paypal, which is fairly quick and fairly easy for most users. "We accept Bitcoin" is only a small part of the pie. There might be a small influx of Bitcoin consumers for that site, but there is no way that everyone would swap over to a different system of payment just because a company accepts it.

If an incentive exists, then people will use it. Example: Discounts (Such as what Dell(?) did when they started to accept Bitcoin).

Calling it a "digital currency" won't mean much, especially to people who are exposed to wide varieties of "digital currencies" in the games they play every day.

gaming and adult are two great niches for bitcoin to thrive in ..

This is good stuff. Rewarding bitcoin for doing well in a game. I wonder how much you get though. The bitcoin pot is funded by ads and donations, should not expect more than "faucet-size" tips.  :D

This is exactly the answer I concluded with. Just look at games like clash of clans, candy crush, etc. They're not even good games yet millions of people use them, and they earn millions per day in revenue, per game. If that all became bitcoin transactions, we could see adoption spreading into other places as well.


However, simply adding a pay with bitcoin option doesn't do anything. Why should people use bitcoin instead of normal fiat? The fact is, the steps required to actually get a bitcoin is very inconvenient and annoying. I'm not talking about 0.00001 bitcoins from faucets, if you actually want a decent amount that can pay for things, you'll need to exchange it somehow, and there really isn't a really convenient way to do that yet.

What we need, is a huge incentive for people to use bitcoin instead of fiat. And the best incentive I can think of is accepting bitcoin exclusively.

This would work really well, I think, with MMORPGs that replace their virtual currencies with bitcoins. We already have the Entropia Universe, which is a real world currency based game. It has been around for quite a while now, showing that this method is somewhat sustainable, to say the least.

Personally, as technology becomes more advanced and VR and gaming become more and more realistc, I believe real world economy based games are the future. Adding bitcoins to this could potentially speed up adoption for both bitcoins and real economy gaming.

Just create your own bitcoin game... little Satoshi's robbing banks using their Tesla getaway cars.... of course it would have to include trips to the moon  :P

This is an awesome idea actually.
Gaming and bitcoin , i think most of the guys play Games or have at some point , imagine if we could put bitcoin advertisment in games and like buy virtual currency of game through Bitcoin or may be better just earn some Bitcoin playing games.
I would love to see a GameStore online where i could pay with bitcoin and get a Genuine copy of that game  , though that's already happening i see many people selling games for btc.
Keep it up ! Bitcoin needs every little help

The only way to get these games to swap their virtual currencies for Bitcoin is to ask on them on the forums. {The more people asking, the better chance of getting it accepted in the game}

Here is a list of the more popular games out there ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_games

I also agree with you, that it is quite difficult for everyone to get their hands on Bitcoin, but if it was "in-game" you would have another way of earning it, whilst you playing.

When I started playing Batmud, I had little money, and I had to mine for Mithril or salvage it from equipment I received from battles. I could then acquire new skills or better equipment.

When people start playing for real money, it change the dimension of the game. {People with lots of Bitcoin, not earned through the game, can dominate quickly without lots of effort... which is in a way cheating}

A newbie could enter the game and buy the best equipment availlable and defeat level 100 players... So there are negative things to consider... but it can be over come with clever coding. {Only people with enough dexterity or strenght can carry advanced weapons ... and these has to be gained by gathering experience in the game} things like that...

But it can work, and it can be rewarding.... imagine buying your next game, like the 2cnd or 3rd Starcraft add-on with the earnings you received from playing the original game.  

yeah, it's definitely possible to balance a game.

Check out Entropia Universe for an example of how it might work. I think Entropia is a bit before its time, but I think it's a really good idea. It's also kind of decentralized, in that you can buy "land deeds" allowing you to own land in the game and charge a tax on people who play on that part of the land, like decentralized ownership of the game. There are also different planets, which are almost different "games" in the universe, but you can travel between them. There also are people (or at least were, when it was somewhat popular) who earned enough money for a living (though not a very luxurious one) by playing the game. Quite fascinating, in my opinion, and I really think that this format is the future of VR gaming.

Convincing current MMOs to change to bitcoin is rather difficult, because their games are not designed based on a real currency in the game. Rather, I'm hoping that new game developers who have an interest in bitcoin can develop new hit MMOs, or the big bitcoin investors will invest in these games, to make their own bitcoin stash more valuable. I really think that this is much more effective in promoting bitcoin than the nth exchange, or the xth bitcoindice, or even convincing giants like amazon to accept bitcoin.