no fun games. no listeners. no money. the perfect time to launch a new show here's the story of Gamified when I started the show, there was only 1 other gaming show worth listening to and it was @jonahblake's 1:1 interviews everything else was complete garbage (sorry if you were hosting shows about gaming in the 2022-23 bear but they sucked) Jonah's shows being purely interview based meant that there was a blue ocean for panel based content if the ocean was like, you and 18 people that hung out at the same funky small town card shop as you. anyway. why not make a show about web3 gaming but... a game show? well, the audio-only format makes it a bit difficult - you can't show point totals - you can't show timers, rules, or facial reactions - the "raise a hand" and mute disrupts flow @waleswoosh created a show around Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but ran into an obvious-in-hindsight problem people don't find web3 trivia interesting "what was the floor price of azuki's a week after launch A - 3 eth B - 6.5 eth C - 10 eth D - no one cares i have a ton of respect for Wale, it was a good attempt Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right, and other models would fail in web3, especially audio-only, for the same reason (among others) luckily I was home schooled and watched nothing 1. cooking shows 2. sports shows 3. reruns of Seinfeld the big 2 that impacted our format are - Pardon the Interruption - Around the Horn weirdly both sports shows i also need to give a huge thanks to my friend Brian, he owns a bug larvae farm and is one of the smartest people I know. he helped me break down the show segments by working backwards from the reaction we wanted people to have F***, Marry, Kill, | Over/Under | Chad or Chump we've got game modes. now wtf do we name it? hmm... it's a game show with gaming experts talking about gaming probably something like "gaming guild show" (holy shit that's bad) orrrr uhhhh... "web3 game show" no that sucks why can't I think of a good name... the guests are gaming experts, the topics are gamified to be more fun, the show is gamif-- Gamified. @GamifiedShow "but people will call it gam-a-fied" yea, they do. shoutout to Sinjin who still calls it that lmao Brian INSISTED I should spell it "Game-if-ied" so people didn't mispronounce it... god I'm glad I didn't do that. what about distribution? we have this idea but that doesn't make it valuable @Lemz_42 from the top rope obviously he's a beast who's been to almost every show, he helps me plan every week, but not many know that him reaching out to me was the catalyst that kicked everything off he wanted to help the Ethlizards evolve and knew i had a content background we started with memes, funny edits, shitposting... and eventually spaces. i had the idea for Gamified probably 6 months earlier but the timing wasn't right but i knew with the lizards PLUS the wolves, even in our small bear market niche there were enough people in our target demographic to validate it so who do we get on the panel? @WolvesDAO and @LizLabsio was where i found the first ~15 weeks of panelists i loved those panels. the guys were smart, thoughtful and genuine. @ThonyDoerga and @greengeo stick out to me as two I still think about. then @paytkaleiwahea changed my life "yeah lets get @paulbettner on there" "sure I could probably convince @gabrielleydon to come on" " @SashaMackinnon would probably try it out" i know Sasha sucks now but back then he was a bonafide celebrity just like the other two (and he was a pretty decent panelist). Payton risked his reputation on me, not just once but many, many times. he always says "yea but i knew you'd do a good job and they always liked me more after they came on the show and saw how good it was" typical Payton. you can keep deflecting compliments but I love you buddy, thank you. now that Paul and Gabe and Sinjin and Kohji and Jerry are on every week... how do we really monetize it? at the time basically everything was, again, an AMA or interview. projects would pay to come on and be interviewed by the host who had a large audience we're a gameshow though. i can't sacrifice the format Jonah had Stardust sponsor it as a series but i want the "Official Game of Gamified", that sounds f'n sick a couple months later it hit me chains don't compete with games, they recruit games. infrastructure products don't compete with chains or games, they build on top of and support them the lack of competition allows for multiple mutually beneficial sponsorships simultaneously - reduces the cost burden on all 3 - increases potential audience/distribution for all 3 - might be able to recruit/retain other sponsors the new sponsorship model is formed the holy trinity the Official game, chain, and infra of Gamified are born. this is a good opportunity for me to thank the current ones @GamingOnAvax, @G7_DAO and @staratlas, love you guys, thank you for making my dream job possible. Gamified is more than just a job though it's the culmination of multiple obsessive behaviors and a bunch of childhood desires i get to produce what i've always consumed. - game shows - game content - game events while talking with people i've always admired - @ParallelTCGpod is making THE #1 NFT TCG in the world and he comes on my show every week, it's insane - @SinjinDavidJung legalized poker in Macau, and advised Team Liquid, and still comes on my show to call people gutless wanks, incredible - @itsGnoc makes me literally design entirely new segments and shows because he's so fkn smart and good at arguing that he allows for new concepts (i still need another person for Devil's Advocate if any good debaters are out there) lowkey I was afraid to talk to Gnoc before we became friends - @paulbettner didn't only create 2 games I obsessed over in my life (AOE and Words w/ Friends) but he's the most enthusiastic and charming person i've ever had on any show - @jerrysinger was a big deal at Metal Core and had a bigger aura. He immediately took to the concept along with Sinjin the two of them were absolutely electric, single handedly making a lot of earlier episodes fun. - @Tvalc was not only my first external sponsor, a lot of weeks he was my best panelist. He also encouraged me a ton, shared his room with me at Twitchcon, and gave me the original idea for the WolvesDEN (and sponsored that too, what a guy) - @uhhdub talk about a dude who just has that dawg in him, the redubtion arc still continues, he always makes time for Gamified and tells people about his favorite parts there's also incredible guests like @mike_mrkite, @HeyJeremyHorn, @kevinlambert, @yoitsOG, @KatyjustCANnot, @at_mwagner, @Fitchinverse, @MariaFuzzyland, @WillsSpangler, @coopernicus01, @Parkk___, @stevenchen009 and more they all have 1 thing in common everyone treats it as a place to be honest about the web3 gaming space it's not a place for blind optimism, blatant shilling, and unfounded bullishness it's the place where @kosgoood answered questions about the future of Axie Infinity when it was uncertain and people were upset it's where I literally had an episode dedicated to telling me why "web3 gaming ISN'T inevitable" it's the weekly townhall where we challenge each others beliefs and we have fun doing it because the only thing worse than sitting through losing money every day while everyone shits on your life's work is doing all of that without laughing with your friends when you can. to my friends who educate and laugh with me every week, THANK YOU thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you i owe you all a debt of gratitude and the last person I must thank is YOU the person reading this if you've ever tuned into Gamified, you are in a however-many-way-tie for my favorite person in the world there's too many to name but @KossarMikhai, the first-champion of gamified must come first, as is tradition, you friggin beauty, thank you for your consistency and fandom @Philsh, this guy started listening to Gamified because he found it through Payton's youtube channel. well, he won a ticket to 3xp, flew to LA, met all of us, had a great time... blah blah, now you see him on my 24h stream, at wolvesden, and he works with me. showing up and following through, that's big Phil. if Phils grew on trees the world would be a better place. @AeMac02 has been such a big supporter, creating things for the show, waking up at ungodly hours to be there live. Incredible, thank you. and of course the #1 fan of Gamified... @iceyyy_gaming we could all be so lucky as to have a friend like this dude. thanks for substituting for Gamified and for being the most diehard and vocal supporter i could ever ask for and to the many, many other amazing people I'm leaving out here, I've said it before, i'll say it again i can talk on the internet and if no one listens, i'm just a crazy person but with you guys, it's a career. thanks for giving me a chance, thanks for caring about web3 gaming, thanks for supporting my friends, thanks for supporting my sponsors, thanks for changing my life. we're creating the future we've always dreamed of if i can make it 1% better by highlighting the best games, the best people, the best discussions... and laugh along the way with you gutless wanks i'll be a pretty happy dude SEE YOU FOR EPISODE 100 IN 4 HOURS! and for like, every Wednesday after that at 4pm EST we've got 10 @GLHFers WLs to give away, thanks @0xDith. I'll give 2 away to people who RT + comment on this post there's also a limited edition drop happening during the show stay ready (also sorry I called you gutless wanks)