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In this episode of Edge of NFT, Will Griffiths, GM of Motorverse, discusses the innovative platform's approach to digital motorsports, emphasizing interoperability and exciting partnerships with leading studios. He also shares insights on the future of racing games, the role of the REV token, and unique fan engagement experiences through collaborations like the one with Grissini Racing.
This episode is brought to you by Motorverse: a groundbreaking platform revolutionizing digital motorsports by enabling interoperable cars that fans can use across multiple games, creating seamless and unique racing experiences.
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Key Topics Covered:
- Interoperability in Digital Motorsports: Motorverse aims to revolutionize digital racing by allowing users to purchase a car once and use it across multiple games, enhancing the gaming experience and fostering a sense of ownership.
- Innovative Partnerships and Fan Engagement: The collaboration with Grissini Racing introduces unique fan experiences, such as digital sponsorship certificates that provide fans with exclusive access and benefits, deepening their connection to the team.
- Integration of AI and Game Development: The incorporation of AI in games like Torque Drift 2 is set to enhance gameplay through dynamic mission systems and user-generated content, while also addressing interoperability challenges across different gaming platforms.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let us know in the comments on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@edgeofnft/
Episode Highlights:
- "So we are basically leaning into interoperability... Essentially what that means is you buy a car once and it works everywhere." - Will Griffiths (00:04:44)
- "So now, if I'm a studio and I make a game, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to get a large number of users via the Modiverse." - Will Griffiths (00:10:00)
- "I want to sort of see an inflection point where interoperable cars become the norm... you pick your car that you want to drive today, and then you choose where you want to take it to." - Will Griffiths (00:39:43)
For the full transcript, see further below.
People and Resources Mentioned:
- Will Griffiths LinkedIn
- Yat Siu Website
- Motorverse Website
- Revv token Website
- Torque Drift 2 Website
- Eden Games Website
- Grease Monkey Games Website
- Epic Games Website
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About Our Guest:
- Bio: Will Griffiths is the General Manager of Motiverse, a pioneering platform in the realm of digital motorsports, which is part of Animoca Brands. With over two decades of experience in branding and strategy, Will has held significant roles in various sectors, including startups, blue-chip companies, and government positions.
- Website: Motorverse
- Twitter: @TheMotorverse
- Instagram: @the_motoverse
- LinkedIn: Will Griffiths
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Full Episode Transcript:
Will Griffiths: Hi, this is Will Griffiths, GM of Motorverse. We're racing at the edge of interoperability and brand collaboration. You're tuned in to the edge of NFT, your gateway to Web3 information. Keep listening.
Richard Carthon: Hey, Web3 curious enthusiasts. Stay tuned for today's episode to learn how Motorverse is driving the future of digital motorsports with its innovative platform, taking interoperability to a whole new level.
Josh Kriger: And explore the thrilling new partnerships Motorverse is forging and their impact on the gaming landscape.
Richard Carthon: And finally, speaking of racing, find out today's guest's dream car of choice to race around his local town and on the digital racetracks globally.
Josh Kriger: All this and more on Edge of NFT. Cue the intro.
Richard Carthon: Welcome to the Edge of NFT, the podcast created by Jeff Kelley, Ethan Jenney, and Josh Krieger, featuring a variety of top-notch guests and other hosts like myself, Richard Carthon.
Josh Kriger: It's another production of the Edge of Company, a quickly growing media ecosystem empowering the pioneers of Web3 tech and culture in response to other groundbreaking endeavors like the Outer Edge LA in Riyadh Innovation Festival.
Richard Carthon: Today's episode is sponsored as part of a media partnership, which features Will Griffiths, a general manager at Motorverse and seasoned strategy expert at Animoca Brands. With two decades of experience branding startups, blue chips, and government roles, Will now drives the REVV, REVV, ecosystem, a hub of Web3 Motorsports games. His career highlights include his role as Senior Director at Strategy at Electronic Arts and boosting Codemaster services before its $1.2 billion acquisition by EA.
Josh Kriger: Motorverse, a project by Animoca Brands, is revolutionizing digital motorsports. This platform celebrates digital ownership and fosters collaborations with leading studios like Eden Games and Grease Monkey Games. Even Games is known for their adrenaline-pumping contributions to the Need for Speed franchise and F1 mobile racing in collaboration with EA, and brings unmatched racing. Meanwhile, Grease Monkey Games, through its Torque Motorsport series, collaborates with automotive titans like Nissan and Honda to deliver immersive, high-octane racing experiences. Motorverse isn't just about the need for speed, it's about innovation, offering a garage full of digital racing adventures. Will, we're so excited to have you on the show.
Will Griffiths: Hey guys, great to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Josh Kriger: So fun fact, I don't think we talked about this. You may not realize this, but rev racing was one of the first collaboration, uh, projects that we worked with in the history of edge of NFT back in 2021.
Will Griffiths: No way. I have to ask my colleagues about that. It sounds, yeah.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, so it was a really fun story. So Yat came on the show and we really hit it off and you guys put an Edge of NFT race car in, in one of your releases that year. So we had a thousand race cars driving around the metaverse and a lot of them went pretty viral. We had they were selling an OpenSea and you know, I think my girlfriend might've flipped a race car and, and I was upset because I was holding, but, but she, she was a flipper.
Will Griffiths: Yeah, good times. Yeah. There's quite a few different, uh, branded red racing cars knocking around. I think I've actually, now that you say it, I think I've seen it. Um, cause we were reviewing the list the other day, but that's super cool. It was the adopter.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I will say it didn't take the best turns. It, it, it, it, it, it could have used some upgrades here and there, but we, I guess we can work on that. So Not a big deal. And it had our old branding, but it looked great for a race car. So with that said it's great to have you all back to hear what you've been up to since 2021. It's been a minute. And just as a refresher for the new listeners and watchers who weren't around back then, what's really the vision behind Motorverse and this innovative approach that you're taking?
Will Griffiths: Okay. So we are basically leaning into interoperability. So we've, we've had a big, uh, I guess I joined like 18 months ago now. And I was given Rev Racing, Rev Motorsport and a bunch of other bits of IP and some different video game studios with a remit to make this bigger sort of umbrella brand, which is the motorverse. And we did a bunch of market research and we worked out that it's about a billion people who identify as racing games or motor sports enthusiasts. This is a really close knit community of people. They really freaking love cars. They like the way that we, the way that kind of web three represents itself. And we think that interoperable vehicles are basically the future. So essentially what that means is you buy a car once and it works everywhere. And that is as simple as that. So we're kind of taking this into the mass market. and starting to understand how different communities and users are thinking about it.
Richard Carthon: Yeah, Will, that makes a ton of sense. And I really think that all of your background with what you're doing with the Rev ecosystems and Web 3 is helping to form what you're doing over at Motorverse. So tell us a little bit about how that background is really helping to impact everything that you're building over at Motorverse.
Will Griffiths: Well, I've got a reasonably eclectic background. So I've worked in IT security and ethical hacking, but also in free-to-play games, but also in casinos. And then more recently, AAA racing games, Codemasters, and Electronic Arts. And I think it's a kind of blend of all of them. So I was there when everything started going free-to-play from the premium model. So this is a transition that I experienced before. And I see the Web3 transition in a similar way. So there is basically a new tool set and a new way of balancing games that we need to adopt Um, but I think also you need to it's about kind of understanding stakeholders, uh, in the ecosystem. So there's different brands. That's all the different vehicle brands, the most like we work with motor GP, we work with formula E, but we also work with various different vehicle brands and automotive brands. And we've got some very exciting ones that we're going to be announcing soon. And it's basically taking web three, which is this new tool set and then working out like. Why, as a vehicle brand, would I want to get involved in the motorverse? And to me, I think the answer to that question is that we want to guarantee utility. So if you're going to make a bunch of NFTs, a lot of people have made a lot of NFTs that have no utility or very limited utility or no roadmap utility. And this has been a real problem for a lot of automotive brands, not just automotive, but many different ones. So we're able to engage with those brands and tell them that we're building an ecosystem where their cars will work in more and more experiences. And we've achieved that by creating this standard that the cars can adhere to. So that solves the brands. And they like that because it means they guarantee they sell out. And the value of the assets may well go up because they work in more and more different places. And as more and more games join in, they bring new audiences, which then drives the secondary market. So brands are happy. Then the game studios, what the biggest problems that game studios make, apart from actually making a fun game, which is very difficult in itself, is once that's been done, then they need to get users into the game. So one of the biggest costs that you often don't see or hear about when you think about these games is, how do we actually bring new people into the game, especially if it's a free game? Another big problem that game studios have is getting licenses. So we're solving for the licenses centrally. So we, we, we, uh, approach the brands. They agreed to publish cars on the motorverse. Those cars can then be made available to these game studios that perhaps wouldn't have had access to these kinds of cars in a normal run of things, where it would have been a big cost for them. Plus they get access to all the holders. So if you imagine you have a hundred thousand people who bought a car. They obviously have spent a little bit more than they would normally spend on a car and a game. It's a digital collectible in NFT. They all receive a notification that their car now works somewhere new. So this is pretty cool. And we also know these guys are going to be pretty engaged users, big spenders. And so they're very likely to then go to the game. So now, if I'm a studio and I make a game, I'm pretty confident that I'm going to get a large number of users via the Motorverse. And I get access to these brands. So now I have enough incentive to build a game against this standard. So that means the games companies and the experience builders have a reason, have their incentives aligned with the brands. And then as a user, I mean, we sometimes talk about web 2 users and web 3 users. And I don't really like doing that for personal stuff, because I think they will end up blurring. But for the sake of this conversation, I'll use that. So for Web2 users, it's a very simple proposition. So people who are used to going to multiple different games and buying cars or earning cars or grinding points through to get cars, now they buy the car once, and it works everywhere. Plus, they can sell it. So this is a very easy to communicate thing. And I try this out by just When we go down the pub with the dads from school, I kind of try out little soundbites on them. And this is something that resonates with them. And then you've also got your Web 3 users. So I'm not expecting suddenly millions of Web 2 users to come up and buy these interoperable cars, because it will take time. I believe that long term, it will become normal, and in fact, what's expected from different communities. But right now, it's not.
Josh Kriger: And so we're leaning into the web three personas As a kind of growth engine at the start and that's where things like staking and rewards and point fight coming Well, let's let's let's dive in more here But I just want to say like there's something really novel about what you guys are doing but it's also something that someone that's like been around a Cars and fans probably should have thought of like 10 years ago right because fundamentally just like you love. Madden football, like there's nothing I want more than to be able to bring my, my slightly older, more refined quarterback, Tom Brady with me to the next season. I don't want to necessarily discard a quarterback just because a new game season has come out. Right. And similarly, like people fall in love with their cars and they fall in love with the mechanics, how it runs, the look, the feel. It may not be the newest model, but for them, it's the model they want, or maybe eventually they don't love their car anymore. They want to get another car. So it sounds like a lot of this sort of adjustment in philosophy is really more or less aligning with the true sort of nature of car and race car lovers universally.
Will Griffiths: Yeah, I think I think there's, there's definitely some truth in that. I mean, this is, this often ends up talking about this part, which is if you have to go, if you're in these walled gardens of different games, which is really a learned behavior, right? Like we've just, we just have learned that if you want to have a car in this game, you've got to go buy this car in this game when you're but actually, that's not really how our brains work, is it? You know, we think about things that we own and persist in different places. So if you own a real car, it goes everywhere with you, right? When you tell a story with it, you kind of have, uh, everyone has, everyone has like road trip stories or like remembering places. And part of that memory is what car are we in? Like, remember when we went camping, remember when we went here and then if you're, if you're into racing, then that is amplified, right? Cause you take your car to track days and things like that. So I think that all that data. that you know from all these different games is kept in these silos and we can bring that together and start to tell the story so then you have this sort of provenance um of vehicles you know you know who's owned it when what events has it been at what did it witness was it there during the great crash of blah blah blah all that kind of stuff is current is kind of lost currently um But with this central publishing of cards, which can then be used in multiple locations, then you start to approximate more to the real world and beyond. There's all kinds of things that you can attach to it. I think the other thing that is particularly interesting about cards is often the conversation about interoperability could be around, I don't know, a magic wand or a sword or something. And it's difficult to imagine the context for that if you take it out of one game and try and put it in another. But cars, we all spend, all these different developers spend a lot of time and money trying to make them behave exactly as you would expect them to behave in the real world. Because they're targeting the metadata of these particular models and cars. So there is a standard out there already. So everyone knows how fast this car is compared to this car. So it does, there's less room for confusion or getting a balance wrong between different games. And the other thing that's particularly interesting about cars is that more probably more so than most other games, I mean, it's starting to change a bit recently, but really, for the last 10 years, maybe more, cars have been photorealistic in games. So they look really like real world cars, or very, very close to. And so they start to become less of a gaming asset. You know, like, if I'm a really big fan of Lamborghinis, and then I see a perfectly rendered Lamborghini on a website, I don't have to be a gamer to appreciate it. If I just I might want to buy it just because I really love the brand and the way it looks. So I think it's it's another that's another place where cars are particularly use case that makes a very strong. Yeah, very strong case for starting here for interoperability.
Josh Kriger: So we'll really appreciate all that context on the game. And obviously, there is a blockchain component to all this, which is the REV token. How does that fit into the grander scheme here?
Will Griffiths: So the REB token is our first interoperable layer. So it's a fungible token. It's been around for a while. It's listed on a bunch of centralized exchanges. We use that token as our store of value and as a way of transferring value around the ecosystem. So like when we sell cars, we sell them in REB. When we're having interactions between different actors in our ecosystem, we use REB as a base transactional value. Grissini fan-powered sponsorship will accept Rev. All of the games can offer Rev as a reward, or we can use it for airdropping on users and things like that. But one of the things I really like about it is it allows us to do deals with other Web3 communities. So, for example, if we find another project that's related to motorsport, and there are many, we're able to do token swaps between our ecosystem and another group. And this aligns all of our incentives and the way we think about value between the two. So longer term, we will have many, many different Web3 tokens in our treasury from different motorsports projects. And we'll be using them to reward existing users inside the Motorverse in different ways, but also to draw attention from those other Web3 communities to the Motorverse. And they will have RevToken in their communities, which they can use to reward their users. And so we get this really awesome cross-pollination.
Josh Kriger: Really cool. Thank you for explaining that to us. It's like the ultimate sort of co-creation economy lubricant to use. a racing term. You need oil for that economy to sort of race on all these different tracks and all work together. So that's really great.
Will Griffiths: Yeah. And one other thing on it is it's a great way for basically implementing governance in the motorverse. And by that, I mean, if you hold rev, you'll be able to vote on things within the ecosystem. And at the same time, you're able right now to stake it as part of your motorverse hub experience and basically back the project. So if you believe one way of supporting us is to stake rev, uh, we'll reward you for that with various different things like in real life, t-shirts, access to things, maybe more. So it's a really powerful concept.
Richard Carthon: I agree. So on so many levels. One, I love video games. Two, I love racing video games. Three, I love cars. So you're touching on three points that are very near and dear to my heart. And Now we're talking about interoperability, something that's very challenging technically to accomplish by being able to bring consistency across games and to get the look and the feel and how the car drives, all these different elements. There's a lot that goes into that. So what have been some of the challenges that you've faced and have had to overcome with creating this standard for Vodaverse to make things more interoperable?
Will Griffiths: So we're fortunate. because we have three in-house racing studios, OK? And we also, when I arrived, we had these relationships with different motorsport. So for me, it's a bit like if you, let's say you were designing a user experience for any kind of website or game. You know that you've had a good go at it, but you need to get some feedback because there's going to be a bunch of different, like maybe you didn't think about it on a mobile or you like, you didn't consider what would happen if somebody lost connection or they're on a different kind of browser or something like this. So you go around and you test it with a few different people. And we've had internally, we've got all these people that we could test this standard with. So we came up with a very talented designer. Um, who's part of our team came up with the first pass of the standard? based on everything he knew about motorsports and cars and bikes and looked at lots of different things and he designed databases and things before. So he's thinking about what are the things you need to define a car, like the chassis and the paint color, but then also the wheels, the internal trim, the engine, like various different chips and things that you might need to add to it. And then, We started sharing it with, we were basically like testing it out. So we'd like to sort of launch it to a studio and have them give feedback on it. And you find it's kind of like the popcorn model. So to begin with, there's loads and loads and loads and loads of feedback from the first few that you share it with, because they're like, Oh, that wouldn't work, that would never work because of this we didn't, we hadn't considered that. And then we're getting to the point now where when we share it with a new stakeholder, they're like, yeah, that makes sense. Can't think of any improvements. So there's been this sort of optimization, and I'm sure there will be further versions of it and things like that. And to begin with, it's just a metadata standard. But now we're looking at how we are because what we want to avoid it's a world where we have a spreadsheet that defines a car and then every single studio has to then go and do the work to do all the 3d art and all that handling and all this stuff. And so we're looking at using our rev token as a means of value transfer for like the first people to do a car to be able to sell their model to other people. So this should be good because it will
Josh Kriger: um speed up the the rate of adoption and and how long it takes for people to to make games for the motive us saves time and resource yeah i'm just i'm just curious did did from an ip perspective um was there any pushback from different brands being sort of Co-located in in a set of games like, you know where they're like, well if they're if they're part of your game I don't want to be part of your game or was it sort of like is it just kind of understood because the nature of racing that? um there's gonna be a lot of different brands that are just in our in our world and ultimately We're creating a better experience for the user as a result um
Will Griffiths: So there's kind of two parts to the answer. So there are definitely a lot of requirements that different brands have around how their cars are represented. So for example, if you were to have some sort of feature art for a video game that contained two luxury sports brands, sports car brands. then usually there are conditions around not showing one in front of the other, because it might imply that it's faster than the competitor.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, we all want to know the world's Elon Musk situation.
Will Griffiths: Yeah. But essentially, pretty much all of the cars coexist in games already, right? So there are things like Forza and Gran Turismo that have got a lot of the different models in. So it can be made to work. So that's the industry that we're in. then the motiver specifically, where it's a new type of license that we're doing. So the way that I normally describe is, as I was saying before, is like, you're publishing cars, it's a bit like the real automobile model, right? So like, if I'm in a Porsche, or whoever, I decide I'm going to make a run of cars. That's the same thing that's happening here, because there's a finite supply. It's the NFT. So they'll be like, OK, we're also going to publish a bunch of cars over here. Just to be clear, Porsche is not working with us in this way. It's just using them as an example. And then those cars can be used anywhere. And then because we're adhering to the performance data around the car, it will perform relative to other cars based on that, if you see what I mean. Because that's what would happen in the real world.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, that makes sense. Really helpful to get your perspective on that. I spent a little time in IP before getting into Web 3, and I think it's just a fascinating sort of opportunity and challenge. How do we work with all these different IP companies, bring them along, make them comfortable, make them feel at home, and create a good user experience? So the sort of fun stuff that keeps you up at night But, oh, go ahead.
Will Griffiths: Yeah, just a little bit more on that. I mean, there are obviously some brands that are very open to it, whereas other brands, I think, are just quietly watching, see what happens. And the sort of mental model that I have is I'm picking a few kinds of marquee brands that I think, once they come on board, The others will likely follow. So that's how I'm thinking about it. So proving it out with forward thinking brands that are highly desirable. And then once they've proven the model, then it becomes a much easier conversation with people who are a little bit less keen to start with. Because it's a scary space, right? I know it's the NFT podcast, but we think this stuff is awesome. But I think some of the more traditional brands are pretty skeptical.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, look, we're, we're, we're enthusiasts, but we're not zealots. We try to have real authentic conversations about the puts and takes here. And so appreciate your perspective. But we, there's a lot of fun stuff happening, a lot of great utility here. But I think in some cases, this is still exploratory new terrain and the dirt is out and some things will work and some things won't. And that's part of the fun and the opportunity to innovate. On that note, speaking of innovation, you're also deploying some exciting new features in one of your games, Torque Drift 2. I'm curious about what they're all about, how they're going to change gameplay, and how they relate to this broader strategy that we've been talking about.
Will Griffiths: So Torque Drift 2 is made by a studio called Grease Monkey Games. They're based in Melbourne. And they're very, as the name of the game suggests, they're very skewed towards drift games. So they've made two mobile games in the drift space before they were acquired by Animoca. And then since they've joined, they've been working on AAA. So the first AAA racing Web3 game is also free to play, and it's on the Epic store. So they've had, they're in early access, right? So the game is still you know, it's been kind of having key features added still. I think they're planning to sort of finally launch in time for the end of the year. But you can play it now 400,000 people have played the game so far, which is awesome. And it's got three assets in it. So you can buy cars like you would in any normal game and just have a normal kind of gameplay experience where you drift, and I'll tell you a bit about the latest update in a sec. But you can also buy NFT versions of those cards, which are sort of special editions, which come with all the benefits of NFTs on top of the benefits that you would normally get in the game. So these are cards that are freely tradable, and can be potentially used in other games in the future. Now, The studio themselves, I mean, it's all made in Unreal Engine 5. So if you haven't had a look, go check it out. Talk Drift 2 on the Epic Store. You'll see fairly quickly the graphics are pretty amazing. I mean, it looks like Forza or Gran Turismo, basically. And they're recreating all these different famous locations for drifting. The 0.9 update came out about a month ago, I think. added a freestyle game mode, which is, it makes me think a little bit of like Tony Hawk or SSX or something where you're like, you have to drift around and hit all these different targets in a time kind of sort of timed event, but it's lots of fun. And they've also added in multiplayer leaderboards, which is something that obviously is fairly straight. This is what I mean about early access. Very obviously, we need to add it, but it's really nice now because we're getting quite a lot of banter going on between the players, both in the game and on social media, and a bunch more cars. So they already had, I can't remember exactly how many cars, but quite a lot. And they've just added another nine cars to the game and various different updates and all the normal bug fixes and stuff. But we're getting a lot of really good feedback. And I know they have another big update coming in the next few weeks with a bunch more stuff.
Richard Carthon: One of the features in there that I want to spend a little bit of time on that I think is really cool is that you guys are also incorporating things like AI into this game. And so, of course, you have dynamic mission systems, you have AI-generated tasks, and a lot of other things. How has the community, the 400,000 strong, been receptive to these types of features?
Will Griffiths: Oh, yeah. There's a lot of conversation about them. I think they're enjoying them. I think there's a... It's relatively new territory for us. In fact, there's quite a lot of conversations that we have about AI more broadly for the ecosystem, where we're thinking about how we leverage it to solve some of the interoperability challenges that we were talking about before. So if you think about taking a car, someone's drawn a car and made it work and feel exactly how it should over here in Unreal Engine 5, and there's another studio over here that's doing it in Unity, wants to do it in Unity, the process of taking that car, remodeling it in the right graphics, changing the lighting and all of the effects on it, and then getting the handling to feel correct in the other game is quite a painstaking process, but it is, to some extent, there are areas of it that could be automated or put through AI, because essentially it's a kind of goal-seek type thing. And there's another bit of AI that we talk about a lot, which we tend to get quite excited about and try not to have stupidly long meetings. But you can imagine a world where people can design their own cars. It doesn't tend to end well. I don't know if you've ever seen the Simpsons episode where Homer Simpson is invited to design a car, and it doesn't really go very well because he kind of adds all these crazy features to it. And So that is often the outcome. But by combining user input with AI, it's possible, we think, to do something a little bit more interesting, where you actually end up with a car that makes sense and works and performs in a way that you might think, but also has had some input from the user. Now, that's a little bit of a way off. You guys are into AI as well, but whenever people are talking about AI, people think things are further away than they are. Even a couple of years ago, the 3D stuff was pretty basic, and it's starting to look quite interesting now. So yeah, we think AI is really interesting. Always thinking about it.
Josh Kriger: Love to have you on the Edge of AI show to talk more about AI. There's so many fun implications for gaming in terms of customizing the user experience, accelerating game development. But for now, there's also some really cool collaborations you're working on. And we want to talk about them, including Grassini Racing. What are some of the unique experiences that players can expect from this partnership?
Will Griffiths: So we have a very strong relationship with MotoGP. So we have multiple different IPs that we work with. And one of the guys on my team, who looks after the MotoGP stuff, had this idea around tokenizing sponsorship. So this came about because we were sponsoring the Grissini team. And at the same time, we were talking to the head of the team about Carlo about um how we think about web3 and sort of introducing him to the concepts and stuff and then during a kind of brainstorming session graham uh for my team was like hang on a minute why don't we why don't we try um connecting the fans more to the to the team because at the moment obviously people have found some very various different um races and stuff so grissini is is one of the teams that races in motor gp So like the equivalent of like McLaren or Ferrari in Formula One, they have two riders. We were sponsoring them anyway, because we have this product called MotoGP Guru, which is a predictor kind of fantasy product. And we decided that we would experiment with this this year. So we've just launched this. Basically, that's the best way to describe it. Essentially, As a fan of Grissini, you can buy a digital certificate for this season that proves that you're a sponsor. Okay. And there are, and there are multiple different benefits that you get from, from doing that. So on the most basic tier, you're able to like meet the writers from the team on a video call, you get your name on the website, you get your certificate, you get a t-shirt, get various discounts on other bits and pieces. And then you'll be like in the official at the end of the season, there'll be like a sort of book that summarizes the season, then you'll be in there, you get an email from the principal, from the team welcoming you aboard and various other bits, but all the way through to the top end where you can have your name, actually on the bike. So your name and you'll be able to attend the race with three other people. and meet the riders, spend time with them, go to the box, experience the race from a completely different angle that you wouldn't otherwise be able to have access to be driven around the paddock on scooters and have corporate hospitality and meet the whole of the Grassini team. So it's quite an interesting proposition. It's been live for a couple of weeks. Once the season's finished, you'll have this certificate, which you can carry through and then you can like layer that season on season and sort of become a mega fan. But the early indications have been really, really well received. So we were hoping that we'd have it's kind of like a test, but it's been quite overwhelming, the response we've had. So it's going very well, just from an engagement point of view, but also many other teams, not just within MotoGP, are reaching out to us. So it's pretty exciting.
Josh Kriger: I mean, that type of fan engagement is what it's all about. People have these sorts of affiliations that run really deep in their veins. And if you can sort of add layers and layers of value and creativity to a gaming experience, that's what people love. You know, I'll mention the football analogy again, even though it's basketball season, but You know, anytime I can do anything special with the New England Patriots when it comes to NFL rivals and other sorts of sports games, I want to do that. And I think the same holds true for racing fans. They want to have that deep relationship with the brands they love. Richard, what are your thoughts?
Richard Carthon: Yeah, I think having this type of different fan engagement at the deeper level and then having it to a place where you can bring it on more and more games because of the crew, I'm definitely the gamer. And I know I play a lot of different games, some that you brought up like Gran Turismo and some of these others. the idea of being able to bring that car to other places. I played Grand Theft Auto. I played a bunch of other stuff. And consistently being able to bring these cars throughout all these games just sounds like a faraway fantasy to me. So being able to, as the future of Web3 gaming is making this possible, like Motorverse, I think that's awesome. And I actually want to keep going down that train of thought just for a second of just, where do you see and envision the future of digital motorsports evolving over the next few years?
Will Griffiths: So I get asked this question a lot. So I think in the short term, I want to get maybe five to 10 different brands over the next couple of years who are fully embedded in this ecosystem. And they're picking up the phone to us about when they're launching new cars. And then in the long term, For the Motorverse, which is this hub we're building. So this brings all of this together in a single place that already exists. It's a website, Motorverse.com. You go check it out. You can join and like to read all about the white paper and stake and points and rewards and stuff. But, that I, I want that to become certainly a forecourt of the internet. Right. And I think. the more I want to sort of see an inflection point where interoperable cars become the norm. So I think the more people that adopt this standard and start selling, or the more brands that adopt the standard and start selling these cars to work in multiple games, we're adding games all the time too. So we have 10 games at the moment, a mixture of Web 2 and Web 3 games. And we're speaking, obviously making our own games in-house, but we're speaking to 30 or 40 other projects in Web 3 and Web 2 space about potentially publishing on the site. So you end up with almost like a Netflix type experience where you pick your car that you want to drive today, and then you choose where you want to take it to. And that to me is where we're heading. And then eventually, I think I'll know that we're going on the right track when the users of some of these big franchises start to query why their cars in those franchises are not interoperable and start to demand that from the other publishers. So that's where we're heading.
Josh Kriger: I love it. That's a really cool grand vision. And you know, that's the type of stuff we love to talk about on the edge of NFT. So I really enjoyed this part of the conversation, but we also want to get to know you better, uh, will and, uh let our listeners and viewers get to know you better. So we're going to move on to the next segment.
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Josh Kriger: So Edgequick Hitters is a fun, quick way to get to know you a little better, Will. There's going to be 10 questions. We're looking for just a short single or a few word response, but feel free to expand if you get the urge. Are you ready? Yes, always. All right. Or I should say, start your engine. OK. What is the first thing you remember ever purchasing in your life?
Will Griffiths: Now 24. It's a music album.
Josh Kriger: Okay, should I check them out? Or was that like, past tense?
Will Griffiths: Like a compilation thing on a tape in the 90s. I'd saved up for it. I'd been strawberry picking, saving up money so I could buy this tape. So it was like this on the pedestal thing. And then I listened to it on a tape player. And I can remember all the tracks.
Josh Kriger: Nice. Um, So second question, what is the first thing you remember ever selling in your life?
Will Griffiths: It's music again, I sold a CD so that I could buy, go out and meet a girl and pay for dinner. I think it was, I think it was the Cranberries first album by the Irish band.
Josh Kriger: Nice, nice. So I just went back to my old woods and have so many CDs and cassettes and storage. And it's like a painful thing. Do I get rid of them? Do I keep them? I keep them? Should I transfer them? It's a whole sort of discussion. But those were the good old days when CDs were actually worth enough for a nice dinner.
Will Griffiths: Yeah, I've got a box like that.
Richard Carthon: It's awesome, man. Well, let's talk about more recently. What is one of the most recent things that you have purchased?
Will Griffiths: I have just bought a tennis racket.
Richard Carthon: OK, and if you can see this for all those listening on the podcast, you go check out on YouTube, you just showed a really awesome racket.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, it makes me not want to play well in tennis because I haven't picked up my racket in a while.
Will Griffiths: Well, I haven't actually played for a little while because we just moved to Australia. And so all of our stuff is coming over on a ship. But I decided to take this opportunity to upgrade my tennis racket and I'll be joining a club soon. So I haven't played too much recently. Maybe we should have a game.
Richard Carthon: Nice. I might just have a chance. So on the opposite side of that, what is one of the most recent things that you've sold?
Will Griffiths: Oh, because we just moved, we sold a lot of stuff. I sold my car. I had a Discovery Sport, and we sold it to our good friends and neighbors just down the road. It was a sad day.
Richard Carthon: Yeah, makes sense. But very necessary as you, I guess, go to different countries.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, I guess the key is you just have to invest in some digital cars and in your overall ecosystem, and then you don't have this issue moving forward. Upgrade them or whatnot. For now, what is your most prized possession?
Will Griffiths: I think probably my laptop. Um, I just, I don't know, like, I feel like I've got sort of it's just so much happening on it. And I kind of enjoy using it even on the weekends. I, yeah, it's the thing I use the most. Um, I'm not, I'm, I mean, that sounds a bit, I'm not particularly sort of materialistic, so I don't have nice watches or anything like that. You know, like I'm more just about the experience.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm in love with my new, uh, M3 chip. Apple laptop because I needed it, I couldn't figure out I had a tab problem. Um, everyone that works with edge knows I have 150 plus tabs open and rather than solve that problem, I needed a laptop that can handle that many tabs open. So I found one. So that was my workaround.
Will Griffiths: That's definitely the right, the right answer to that problem.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Uh, if you could buy anything in the world, digital, physical service experience that's currently for sale, what would it be?
Will Griffiths: Um, I think that, so I really like I really enjoy skiing and I think I would probably buy, I mean, this is a bit far fetched, but like, I would probably buy a sort of ski chalet, something like that. So I could go and ski whenever I wanted. I think this, that just knowing that I had something like that would be, I'd be like that. Um, but it's a little far-fetched. Maybe I need to upgrade my laptop to an M3. I've got an M1 at the moment.
Josh Kriger: It's pretty sweet.
Richard Carthon: Pretty sweet. Yeah, that's a first. I don't think I've heard anyone say that. But that's a really cool one, because skiing is incredible. And just knowing that you just go at a drop of a dime sounds pretty epic. So for the purpose of that question, that was a very fair answer. And so that was a great, great response. Now, the next question has to do with if you could pass on one of your personality traits to the next generation, what would it be? Oof.
Will Griffiths: Well, I've got kids, I've got two little girls. So I'm trying to do that all the time. I value, I try to be as open minded as I can about everything, because I always find that I try not to fight my mind closing off for as long as I can, as I drift into middle age like, I want to engage with the world and be excited and curious about things. So that's what I try to pass on to my kids.
Richard Carthon: Yeah, open-mindedness is a great one. And it doesn't put limits on yourself and allows you to see a lot more. So I think that's a great one. But on the opposite end of that spectrum, if you could eliminate one of your personality traits for the next generation, what would it be?
Will Griffiths: I think I would. Um, I can, I can be, I'm not vague. I'm not a big social media person. I know that in some ways it's important. And I think that I mean, that's not really a personality trait. There was a, I think I would, I think I would probably eliminate I think I spent time when I was younger, worrying about what other people think. And I would probably try and eradicate that as much as possible.
Josh Kriger: Totally. Yeah. That's a great one. So next question, Will, what did you do just before joining us on this podcast?
Will Griffiths: I made a coffee. It's morning here. I said goodbye to my kids as they went off to school. And then I adjusted. I've got a standing desk. And I went from the seated to standing position. Is that the sort of answer you want?
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Well, that's, that's perfect. We just want to get to know you. I've got a standing desk too. That's stuck on stuck. It won't move up. So I have to fix it. It's on my to do list. Um, what are you going to do next after the podcast?
Will Griffiths: I have met him. I'm meeting somebody who's a recent joiner from Animoca uh, immediately after this. So I'll be meeting him if, and then after that, I am taking a walk along the river in Perth to take some other calls.
Josh Kriger: Sounds good. You can give all the new team members a copy of this show as part of their orientation.
Will Griffiths: They'd love that. I'm sure.
Richard Carthon: Yeah. Well That's awesome. And we always like to wrap up with a fun bonus question. So we're talking about cars. So I gotta bring it there. What is your dream car that you would have in both IRL and that you could bring to the motorverse?
Will Griffiths: I love Audis. I really like Audis and their sports range. So like probably an R8. I think I mean, like, that's very self indulgent, though, because we've got like, it wouldn't work very well with the kids. But that's the car that I would like to drive for sure. And I think it's just got really nice lines. So I probably would. I mean, I think it'd be a very desirable NFT as well.
Richard Carthon: Yeah, it's an awesome car. It's a really sweet car. So I don't blame you for that. And yeah, hey, nothing wrong with having a toy car. You know, you can always have the family car, but you know, always something that you can go have fun in. Yeah, yeah, totally. And now for a quick word from our sponsor before we dive into the next segment. Are you ready to take your sports predictions to the next level? Look no further than MainCard.io, the fantasy management platform that's taking the blockchain world by storm. With MainCard, every card is a ticket to excitement. You can predict sport outcomes, trade cards in the marketplace, and challenge opponents in thrilling weekly duels. And don't wait, head to maincard.io now and start earning rewards with your NFTs, because it pays to be early. And now back to today's episode.
Josh Kriger: Well, before we move on to the next race, uh, is there anyone in your orbit that you want to shout out that you think has been, you know, a particularly valuable contributor to, to what you guys are building? Maybe it doesn't get enough spotlight attention.
Will Griffiths: Oh, there's a lot of people. So in the team we have, I mean, the whole team is amazing. So we have people in Lyon in France. We have been working on this, one of the upcoming games, which I can't share too much about, but that whole team has been absolutely smashing it. So I'm really looking forward to what they're making. And I don't think many people know that they're all squirreling away on that. So definitely a big shout out to the Eden Games team. And I also, I think my marketing director, Ilya, he's doing so much stuff, including organizing for me to come on the show. And he's one of those marketing guys who sort of, he does a lot, but he's not sort of in the public eye. So yeah, a big shout out to him too.
Josh Kriger: Nice. Shout out. Yeah. Thanks for bringing Will on wherever you are. A really cool conversation. And we covered it before, but for our listeners at home, if you are a little bit more curious now about what's going on with the world of Motorverse, you can go to Motorverse.com and that will lead you down the rabbit hole to their website. to their Twitter handle, which is at the motor verse. And then you can get on discord and kind of go from there. Definitely encourage you if you're a fan of racing and games to see what these guys have cooking. And with that, we have reached the outer limit at the edge of NFT for today. So thanks for exploring with us. We've got space for more adventures on the Starship. So invite your friends and recruit some cool strangers. They'll make this journey much better. How, if you're listening, go to Spotify or iTunes right now, rate us, and say something awesome. Or if you're watching this on YouTube, join over 133,000 other followers by hitting the subscribe button, passing this episode on to a friend or two. Lastly, you can now also catch us on Mico.co, where you can watch and earn for participating in our podcast ecosystem. So lastly, be sure to tune in next time for more great Web3 content. Thanks again for sharing this time with us today.
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