Ape Fun Gaming Overview
One part Game, one part Guild. Learn about what led us to choose the name Ape Fun in an upcoming blog post on our new website at ape.fun
Thanks for stopping in, I want to talk to you a little about what led to Ape Fun Gaming. Sure, we could kick this Whitepaper off with a trailer, maybe some flashy art or some in your face hype, but I enjoy getting to know the people that make up and help lead a community I belong to, and I know they enjoy getting to know me. So, let's talk a little bit, you and I, about why we're here. I'll start with me and why I'm here building this project for us both. If you're free afterwards, stop into our Discord and say hello! Our community is always airdropping tokens in the open chat! :)
Ape Fun was born out of a personal void in both my gaming and investment life. The two are synonymous, two parts of the same coin. I'd spend my mornings getting a feel for the market before open, my days swing trading or selling options calls to speculators, and then I'd spend my early evenings absorbing the global geopolitical scene and macro trends from finance and fiat use-case positioning to consumer spending.
At the end of my work day, I'd quickly jot down thoughts on how I thought people would react to things, that hadn't even happened, 6 months out. This would repeat daily from 7a.m. to 7p.m.
Despite what many think, trading isn't a crystal ball, and it isn't chart watching. What it really is deep down is half social psychology and half knowing how and why a combination of money, people and nations position and react the way they do, before they do. Lets call it an informed bet.
After my thought jots, I'd spend some time with the family, eat dinner and by then it's 8 or 9p.m. My kid's asleep...
...ya, it's game time.
In ancient times, or about a 100 years ago, we used books to detach at the end of the day. Now-a-days we have more options, interactive books with immersive stories. We call them video games. Video games aren't a thing but more of a place, a place where we're the lead character, advancing ahead through the story, a story with lots of continual reassurance that we're progressing. Playing games feels good. That's why we play. At least, that's why I play.
A good game for me, is a game where the feel-goods spill over into real life. A game that makes me feel that the winning doesn't have to stop when I turn off the screen. A game that eliminates my real life FUD.
Games are like movies before the days of streaming apps, there's a handful of blockbusters and break-out indies... and then there's everything else. And when you're done playing a big title blockbuster game there's a gap.
A void. Between what you just completed. And what's to come.
For me it's a void that couldn't be filled by a repetitive MMO that skimps on story. Sure I can prestige 900 times in say, Call of Duty multiplayer but the gameplay is dry. Where's the story, or the world building to cloak the dry mechanics of endless carrot chasing? Do I even get to keep the carrots I earn...?
And here comes blockchain to change all of that for me. It was April 2021, around the time that studio guys were beginning to say fuck the studio by launching their own titles, or fundraisers for their own titles. The promise: immersive MMO worlds and ownable assets.
Maybe these would fill my void.
I was hooked. I began a quest to uncover every available title. But they were hard to find and there weren't many. What did exist, looked pretty bad. Nevertheless, I tried a few. And they were bad.
My thinking was: "Hey these games can suck, like an old slot machine buried in the back of a casino but if it pays out better than the flashy machines than it can become my go-to".
Some of them were flash pan games with ponzi-like structures, some of them didn't pay at all, even after I put $30K in trying to fill that void, like I did with League of Kingdoms. I'm a patient investor but an impatient void filler. And the more interesting fuck the studio guys' releases were years off.
So, I decided to build my own - while continuing to support interesting future titles - to curb the impatience. After all, if I was going to throw money around at this void, it should be worthy of my time and money. I'm a builder after all. You see, before I became an investor I was a full stack dev and the owner of a commercial construction company (with a cutting edge app) that built and maintained spaces around the northeastern US for some of the most interesting tech startup companies, VC firms and and Ivy League schools that I never imagined I'd work with, until I worked with them. Before that I was a humanitarian activist that launched viral projects that made international headlines. I don't know how to sit on the sidelines waiting to affect the changes I want to see.
Taking voids - whether that void is an empty office floor, an empty database and file manager, or an empty place full of beaten down people - and building something epic, is just part of who I am. No sense in trying to change it. So in April of 2021 I jumped in with an ad-hoc team of a project that a developer had abandoned.
The community was trying to save what was left there. And to be honest there wasn't much there, but the ad-hoc team was fantastic. In fact, that's where I met Stevo, the Banana Kingdoms lead artist. I built some front-end tech and branding for them in a few days time, face lifting the project and in that, learned the space, relatively quick. I then immediately began to build a few versions of what I thought would fill this void I had.
Was it direction, did I need to build a review magazine to tell me what game was good? Nope.
Was it a social network I needed to build, for people like me, would they help me find the good games I so desperately needed to fill this void? Nope.
Was it an API I needed to build, that could take awesome games that already existed and add blockchain token tech to them, attached to a social network for people like me? Nope. I built all 3, then scrapped them.
I'm builder, a gamer, and an investor.
And the truth was, I needed to build a game, coupled with an investment vehicle that leads to a place where anyone feeling this void can fill it. I need an Arcade, one with my own title on the arcade floor. Not literally. Bit figuratively.
And a year later, here we are. Approaching the starting line of a journey that's now no longer just a personal journey to fill a void. But an entire community with a lot of promise.
So here's my promise to them, and to you:
To build something with an amazing story, something that moves you and keeps you immersed after a long day, something that nails the craving for a type of momentum and progress, that you can take with you even after you've gotten up and walked away from the screen. To build something that we all own, and can earn from. With the Banana Kingdom and the AFG Guild.
To build a place we can go, to discover and rent high quality assets in the hottest game titles that will make up the tidal wave of blockchain gaming to come. With the Ape Fun Arcade.
And lastly, to build something that's timeless, something that lasts, and gets better with age.
This Whitepaper is my blueprint for delivering on that promise, and I look forward to you joining me on the journey toward making it a reality.
Caesar,
Founder of Ape Fun Gaming
PS: Now that we've gotten to know each other, stop into our Discord if you get some free time. And don't hesitate to send me a DM with a question, or just to say hello :)
Last modified 6mo ago