Bring your friends to the Blok Party! Blockchain and PlayTable

We’ve seen this at some point in our childhood, from cartoons like Yu-Gi-Oh, Star Wars and recently with Pokémon Go! The idea of having a card, chess piece or other object be immediately useable within a virtual space. Whilst the likes of Star Wars and these Yu-Gi-Oh! games were the work of pure fantasy and science fiction, (and great examples at that), Pokémon Go would finally be the game that broke the mould.

But far from being on its own in the realm of augmented reality, the bright bulbs of Blok.Party have decided to flip that idea on its head. Instead of having the virtual appear in the real world, what if it were the other way round? Well, while many games are pulling the virtual into reality, Blok.Party is putting reality into virtual!

Cards and Pieces come alive with PlayTable

“The Toy industry’s been lacking…They tried to create smart toys. but they were more expensive and less accessible.” It’s true that there have been admirable attempts by Nintendo and Disney to do what Blok.Party is doing now. They’ve ended up being the worst of both worlds for both toys and video games. Although, I think we can all admit some of the older games have a special place in our hearts. You can still use ROMS, like this Super Metroid ROM Download for SNES, to download the games online if you are interested. However, when it comes to interactive toys and cards, Blok.Party is in a league of its own.

PlayTable, on the other hand, has an ace up its sleeve with its console, blockchain is making it stand above the rest. So what does this mean? Blockchain provides a safe way to store large quantities of information, allowing for real pieces/cards to become characters and items. MMR Boosting (Match Making Rating, also known as lol boost is an act where a player (The Booster) logs into another player’s account (The Boostee) to play a ranked game. While it is generally accepted that the intent of this is to improve the Boostee’s MMR, any ranked game played by someone that is not the original creator of the account may be considered Boosting and as a result may be eligible for punishment.

Ok, So Here’s how that works

Each piece, model or card has a unique RFID code on the bottom which is readable by the PlayTable. While the console stores its information, the item becomes interactive with the game. It also allows for items to have a direct impact on the game visually, including allowing players to trade items/characters. As a result of this increased storage aspect you might have to replace the hard drive more often, in the same way you’d have to look for the best hard drive for ps4 if you began to use more advanced games, but it’s well worth the investment.

In a blog post, Joshua Starr demonstrated the depth in which these characters can be used and exchanged. “Your toys and action figures now can have stats and abilities. They can level up as you adventure with them. You can customise their spells, race, or even transfer that identity to a new, upgraded figure.”

Using the blockchain, the information is stored safely while capable of being modified as character stats change. Years ago, the closest we got to our identity in video games were our memory cards. For those not old enough to know, these were the equivalent of a gaming passport.

What PlayTable gives users is their unique video gaming ‘Fingerprint’ both for your information. Including items in the real world!