译文/Translated：
我们对话了Prospectors的CEO和联合创始人Nazar Chervinskiy，Prospectors是第一个建立在EOSIO之上的MMORTES（大型多人在线实时经济策略）游戏。
能和我介绍一下Prospectors吗？
一方面，Prospectors的主要目标是给玩家带来乐趣；另一方面，它也是另一种现实，游戏中有活跃的经济规则和关系，每个玩家都可以成为他们想变成的那个人。
“就像在现实世界一样，在Prospectors的世界，成功的途径不止一种。
有时候我们会收到玩家的评价，如“我也不是完全理解Prospectors，但我还是在玩，而且也很喜欢它！”它反映了现实世界——人们不见得也完全理解现实世界，但是人们还是热爱它，这本身就很酷。
游戏的背景是19世纪美国旧西部，游戏地图会标明地名和地面上的资源，如林地和石材。地底也会藏有一些资源，玩家必须找到这些资源，如煤、粘土和黄金。这些资源在玩家建造新建筑和保护所有物上会发挥各自不同的作用。
每个玩家会获得三个工人完成各种任务。玩家可以自己使用这些工人，或者让工人替其他人工作获得工资。游戏中的每个动作都需要工人付出劳动来完成。不管你自己多活跃，你总是需要游戏其他玩家提供的帮助。
Prospectors和其它传统的同类游戏有什么差异呢？
我们创造了一种新的游戏类型，我们称之为MMORTES——大型多玩家在线实时经济策略（Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Economic Strategy）。就是说，玩家可以互动交易资源、建造建筑工程、开采金矿。得益于区块链技术，Prospectors更加透明，也让我们能够赢得玩家的信任。
游戏还有教育意义——它让玩家学到关于交易和金融关系的知识。玩家可能从他们喜欢的事情中获得一些外快。
对玩家来说，Prospectors是否能够带来利益呢？这取决于他们选择的策略。和在现实世界一样，成功的道路不止一条，因此很难明确地找到一个稳赢的公式。
“在Prospectors中，玩家为自己的命运负责。”
他们可以让自己成为普通工人，从其他玩家手上赚取工资，也可以选择成为建筑师、矿工或快递员。他们甚至可以自己创业，为他人提供就业机会。
您怎么想到要创建Prospectors的呢？
我从小就喜欢玩游戏，我一直在想象，如果我是一个游戏开发者，我会做什么。
我刚开始工作的时候，有阵子我只要夏天工作，所以整个冬天我都在打游戏。那时候我接触了Travian。这款实时大型多玩家游戏非常活跃，24小时都有玩家在线，这让玩家沉迷其中。
2014年，我开始涉足区块链技术和加密货币。这时我又想到了Travian以及其它许多这样的玩家社区，他们都在一个巨大的游戏地图上不断进行互动。我梦想着有一天我能基于区块链技术创造一个游戏，挑战和提升这样的游戏体验。
后来的两年，我和我堂兄和联合创始人Andriy Maslijevych讨论了Prospectors的可能性。我们希望我们的游戏能够脱颖而出，并认为，我们要让玩家因为自己在游戏中花了时间而获得一定的回报，我们也确实实现了。他们的努力给游戏世界增加了价值，他们也相应积累了各种数字资产，这些资产是他们真正拥有、也是可以随时出售的。
我们还不确定我们这样可以盈利的模式是否能被玩家支持，但是大概这个时候Steemit上线了，它证明了玩家因为给生态增添价值而获得回报这样的模式是可以行的。
最新的这款Prospectors游戏地图设定在育空区域，它和WAX EOSIO区块链对接，其灵感来源是杰克·伦敦的小说。他的小说设定在19世纪90年代育空地区的克朗代克淘金热时期，这些关于恶劣环境的硬汉小说引人思考，我觉得我们应该用我们自己特殊的方式对这些为了寻求财富敢于深入新大陆的勇士表示敬意。
你怎么决定要用区块链技术，尤其是用EOSIO的呢？
我们对区块链技术感到很兴奋，我们也一直在寻找新的方法在现实生活中应用该技术。最后，我们实现了一个完全在EOSIO上建立的游戏——所有的操作都是键入智能合约中实现的。
我们最早是用以太坊智能合约，但是后来我们觉得那个平台太慢也太贵了，无法满足我们的需求。
我们使用区块链技术的主要理由来自游戏内的虚拟货币，Prospectors Gold(PGL)。我们也努力想呈现一个具有完整经济关系的另一种现实。
为了实现这样的体验，玩家需要相信我们不能自己产生无限的PGL，当我们说我们确实不知道地图哪里埋了PGL的时候，也需要你们能相信我们。EOSIO区块链技术让这两件事情都是透明的，因为PGL是由智能合约定义和交易的。
“在竞争高度激烈的电子游戏的行业中，获得玩家的信任会变得越来越重要。EOSIO区块链技术是实现这一目标的重要工具。”
我们决定要用EOSIO的时候，我们已经非常了解竞争激烈的各种区块链平台的能力。我们很熟悉Dan Larimer的各种成就，我们本来打算用比特股，这时候我们就听到了发布EOSIO的消息。这个平台完全符合我们的预期。
Prospectors现在处于哪个阶段？
从发展的角度说，我们现在在，也计划在至少未来六个月的时间内实现公开测试阶段。
玩家现在可以在浏览器通过兼容的钱包注册开始玩游戏。我们认为Prospectors现在还在公测阶段，毕竟我们还在积极地扩展游戏功能，这还是会影响游戏的经济模型。但我们希望在推出官方稳定版本之后能够避免再干扰游戏的经济模型。
关于游戏本身，我认为当前的版本还处于资本原始积累期。黄金的分配是根据“工作的真实证明”进行的，游戏中工作越多，获得的黄金越多。
我们现在已经建立了核心游戏，但这只是我们计划的大概10%的功能罢了。
您克服了哪些困难？是怎么做到的呢？
一开始，只有我堂兄Andriy和我！
“我们对电子游戏行业没有任何经验，所以我们只能边做边学，对我们来说这就是巨大的挑战！”
完成Prospectors这么复杂的游戏需要大量的时间和精力。平衡经济模型特别困难，我们咨询的经济学家甚至不觉得我们能行。但是现在它运转很顺利，不用说，我们很高兴能证明这些经济学家错了！
我们对营销也不在行，哪怕是很小的市场活动我们也没有资金，所以我们要找到自己独特的方法宣传我们自己。
如果不是我们优秀的团队，我们不能解决这些挑战。值得注意的是，一开始就加入我们的很多人辞去了原本的高薪工作。在Prospectors的工作让我们都获得了一些无价的经验，在一起，我们变得更强大（至少情感上！）
您打算怎么扩展呢？
现在我们主要有两个地图：旧西部和育空地区，它们分别建立在EOS和WAX区块链上，我们打算至少再上线两款。每个新世界会包含一些特殊的资源，玩家可以利用铁路在这些地图穿梭。
玩家会熟悉铁路游戏机制，因为我们还计划要推出临时新地图，其中会有一些收集的资源。他们必须合作，只有他们成功地建造了新铁路，他们才能把资源带回去。
他们要平衡收集资源和建造铁路，否则，没有人能带任何东西回家。
“我们希望这样有新意的游戏设计能给玩家带来新的挑战，吸引更多玩家进入Prospectors。”
你参与了哪些EOSIO社区活动，EOSIO社区怎么看待Prospectors的？
我们一直在关注EOSIO社区新闻，我们也是第一个为玩家提供CPU的项目。
在我们可以的时候，我们就会为EOSIO的发展做贡献。我们开始做Prospectors的时候，我们发现了一个可能彻底摧毁Jungle测试网的漏洞。这个严重的漏洞甚至可能在EOS公网上复制。我们把这个问题报告给BP，他们就修复了这个问题。
我们很高兴能有这样一个惊人的玩家社区，有些人从EOSIO社区来到Prospectors，有的人则从我们的游戏走向社区。他们给的积极评价让我们在面对挑战的时候始终热情高昂。
有的玩家非常喜欢我们的游戏，最终他们就成为游戏的贡献者，他们主动承担起一些任务，如翻译，甚至游戏开发。因为有些这些人的努力，Prospectors越来越好。
能和我们介绍一下您的团队吗？团队有怎样特殊之处呢？
我们的团队一共有16个人，我们有相似的世界观，对我们的项目也有相同的想法。有些是孩提时代就开始的老友，有些是半路加进来的。我们团队的其中几位核心成员这样的：
我们的CTO Yaroslav Kikhtan有20多年的软件开发经验。他学而不厌，饱览群书，从进化论到哲学什么都看。除非一个东西能被几个公开发表的科研成功证实，否则他是不会相信的。他支持更直观的游戏体验——在他的管理之下，我们大多数疯狂的想法都痛苦地死去了。但是，他是我们开发过程中一个重要的平衡人物，他也给我们提供了非常稳健、运行良好的代码。
Andriy Masliyevych是我们的联合创始人之一，他是一个优秀的数学家。他的大脑似乎有无数信息，当我们有需要的时候，他马上就能提供信息。他能找到有创意的方式解决程序问题，他也很熟悉区块链技术。
Max Karkach是另一个联合创始人，也是我们首席图像设计师。他管理我们的艺术家，把他们的成果联合起来，生成了玩家能看到的Prospectors的可见世界。
作为CEO，我主要负责Prospectors的游戏设计和整个公司的策略规划。
我们团队非常卓越，我们也会在艰难时期、漫漫长夜、加班的周末相互支持。我们一起庆祝胜利，我认为我的团队成员是真正的志同道合的同志。
Where do you see Prospectors in the future? 您怎么构想Prospectors的未来呢？
丹·西蒙斯曾经写过：“没有一本书、一首诗是完成的，它们只是被抛弃了而已。”
作为团队，我们有很多想象，我们还经常有很多想法，却没有足够的时间实现这些想法。
尽管我们对未来有很多雄心勃勃的规划，我现在只能透露一小部分。很快，游戏会允许组建去中心化自治结构（DAOs），让玩家能够组队完成任务、收集收入。这些DAOs能获得各种工作，每个都有不同的责任和奖励。EOSIO权限系统非常适合提供这个功能。
接下来，我们打算推出竞选公职（警长和DAO法庭），让玩家有机会塑造游戏体验。我们面临的一个挑战是如何解决多账户（用户创建多个账户获得超额资源），因为我们的游戏规则是禁止这样的行为的。我们希望社区能够通过DAO法庭帮我们打击作弊——对于积极的玩家，这可能会是游戏一个特别有趣的新维度。
“慢慢地，我们希望能把100%的管理和策略决策交给Prospectors的玩家——DAOs只是实现这一目标的第一步而已。”
我们希望能尝试几种不同的管理体制，一开始是通过选举权代表实现直接民主。
您能用一句话让读者记住Prospectors吗？
“Prospectors的设定是虚拟的淘金热世界，你能淘到的金子是通过智能合约定义和转移的，这样我们就能增加透明度和安全性。”
. . .
点击Prospectors.io开始游戏
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原文/Original：
We spoke to Nazar Chervinskiy, CEO and co-founder of Prospectors, the world’s first MMORTES (Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Economic Strategy) game that was built on EOSIO.
Could you introduce Prospectors for us?
On the one hand, Prospectors is a game whose primary goal is to bring joy to its users; on the other, it is an alternate reality with robust economic rules and relations where anyone can become whoever they want.
“Just like in the real world, in Prospectors there is more than one path to success.”
We sometimes get comments from our users like “I don’t totally understand Prospectors, but I play it anyway and I love it!”. It mirrors the real world – people don’t completely understand that either, but they can still enjoy it, which is cool.
The game is set in the 19th century Wild West, with a map showing land tiles and above-ground resources like wood and stone. There are also resources hidden underground which must be sought out, like coal, clay and gold. Each of these resources has a different role to play in the construction of new buildings and the production of items.
Every player has three assigned workers who can fulfill various tasks. Players can use their workers themselves, or have them work for other players in return for a salary. Any action in the game requires labour from a worker to complete it. No matter how active you are, you’ll still need some help from others in the game.
What makes Prospectors different from other, traditional games like it?
We’ve created a new type of game and called it MMORTES – Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Economic Strategy. This means players can interact to trade resources, build things, or mine for gold. This is underpinned by our leveraging of blockchain technology, which makes Prospectors more transparent and helps us to earn players’ trust.
The game is also educational – it can help players learn about transactions and financial relationships. It offers the possibility of a side income derived from something they enjoy.
Is Prospectors profitable for a player? It depends on the strategy they choose. Just like in the real world, there is more than one path to success, which makes pinpointing a winning formula difficult.
“Players are responsible for their own destiny in Prospectors.”
They can try to realize themselves as ordinary workers, receiving salaries from other players or opt to be a builder, miner or courier. They can even start their own businesses, creating job opportunities for others.
What inspired you to create Prospectors?
I’ve been a fan of video games since childhood and always imagined what I would do if I had been in the game developers’ shoes.
There was a period early in my career when I only had to work in the summer, which meant that I could spend all winter playing video games. That’s when I became acquainted with “Travian”. This real-time massively multiplayer game was active and bustling with other players 24 hours a day, which made it very engaging.
In 2014, I first dove into the world of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. I thought back to Travian and the numerous communities of players constantly interacting on a vast game map. I dreamt of creating a game based on blockchain that would challenge and elevate this experience.
For two years I discussed the possibilities of Prospectors with my cousin and co-founder Andriy Maslijevych. We wanted our game to stand out and decided that by offering players something in exchange for their time spent playing, we could achieve that. Their efforts add value to the game’s world and in return accumulate various digital assets they truly own and can sell anytime.
We weren’t sure how our monetization model would be received by gamers. However, Steemit launched around this time, which proved the viability of users being rewarded for contributing value to their ecosystem.
The newer Prospectors game map, set in the Yukon and interfacing with the WAX EOSIO blockchain, was inspired by the works of Jack London. His gritty tales of harsh conditions during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon were extremely evocative. It seemed only appropriate to pay homage to the brave souls venturing to new lands in search of their fortune in our own unique way.
Why did you decide to use blockchain technology, and specifically EOSIO?
We had been excited by blockchain technology, and were searching for new ways to apply it in the real world. We ended up making a totally blockchain powered game on EOSIO – all actions are in-line smart contract actions.
We originally spent time using Ethereum smart contracts, but found the platform too slow and expensive for our needs.
The primary argument for our use of blockchain technology stems from the operation of the virtual in-game currency, Prospectors Gold (PGL). We are striving to represent an alternate reality with full-fledged economic relations between its citizens.
To provide this experience, players need to be able to trust that we cannot generate unlimited PGL for ourselves and believe us when we say we don’t know the locations where PGL is buried underneath the map. EOSIO blockchain technology allows us to be transparent about both of these things because PGL is defined and transacted by a smart contract.
“Earning players’ trust is going to become increasingly more important in the highly competitive world of video gaming. EOSIO blockchain technology is a good tool to achieve this.”
We were well aware of the capabilities of competing blockchain platforms when we made the decision to use EOSIO. We were already familiar with the works of Dan Larimer and planned to use Bitshares then pivoted, when we heard the announcement of EOSIO. It has totally lived up to our expectations.
What stage is Prospectors at?
In terms of development, we are at, and plan to be at the open beta-version stage for at least another six months.
Players can sign up and play the game in their browser right now, using a compatible wallet. We consider Prospectors to still be in open beta because we are actively extending the functionality of the game, and this will influence the economics. We would like to avoid interfering with the economic model of the game after the official stable release, though.
As for the game itself, I would suggest that the current version is in a period of initial capital accumulation. The distribution of gold is happening according to “true proof of work” where more work in the game world earns more gold.
We have so far built the core game, which is only around 10% of our planned functionality.
What are the challenges you had to overcome, and how did you do it?
In the beginning there was just my cousin Andriy and I!
“We had no experience of the video games industry so we had to learn everything along the way, which was a significant challenge for us!”
Creating a game as complex as Prospectors required a lot of time and effort. Balancing the economic model was particularly difficult, and economists we consulted didn’t even believe it would work. It is now running smoothly though, and needless to say we are happy to prove them wrong!
We had no clue about marketing and lacked the funds for even a small PR campaign, so had to find our own ways to get our messages out there.
We couldn’t have overcome these challenges without our magnificent team. Notably, many who joined us in the beginning left higher paying jobs. Through working on Prospectors, we all gained some totally priceless experience, and have become stronger together (emotionally at least!).
What are your plans for scaling?
We currently have two main game worlds: Wild West and Yukon, which use the EOS and WAX blockchains respectively, and we plan to launch at least two more. Each new world will contain unique resources, and players will be able to travel between them using railways.
Players will become familiar with the railway game mechanic, because we are also planning to host temporary new maps which will contain resources to collect. They will have to work together, and can only take resources back with them if they successfully build a new railway.
They will need to balance collecting resources with construction, otherwise no-one will take home anything.
“We are hoping this innovative game design will give players a novel challenge, and attract new gamers to Prospectors.”
What EOSIO community initiatives have you engaged in, and how has the EOSIO Community responded to Prospectors?
We continually keep up with EOSIO community news, and we were the first project to start providing CPU for players.
We contribute when we can to the development of EOSIO. When we were starting out on Prospectors, we discovered a bug which could totally break the Jungle testnet. This critical vulnerability could have been replicated on the EOS public network. We reported the problem to Block Producers, and they took steps to fix it.
We are grateful to have an incredible community of players, some of whom came from the EOSIO community to Prospectors, and some the other way around. Positive comments from them have always kept our spirits high in the face of challenges.
Some players loved the game so much they became contributors over time, volunteering to perform tasks like translation and even game development. Thanks to the efforts of these people, Prospectors is even better for everyone who plays.
Can you introduce your team and tell us what makes them/it special?
Our team is comprised of 16 people with a similar world view and a shared belief in our project. Some have been friends with each other since childhood, and some have joined us along the way. Here are some of the core members of our team:
Our CTO, Yaroslav Kikhtan, has 20+ years experience of software development. He never tires of learning, and reads everything from the theory of evolution to philology. He will not believe something unless it is backed up by grounded research in several different scientific publications. He is an advocate for more straightforward gameplay – after his censorship, the majority of our crazy ideas die in agony. He is an important counterweight in the development process though and produces robust, well structured code.
Andriy Masliyevych is one of our co-founders and a brilliant mathematician. His head contains seemingly unlimited amounts of information and he quickly fishes facts out as needed. He finds creative ways to solve programming problems, and is adept with blockchain technology.
Max Karkach is another co-founder and our lead graphic designer. He manages our artists and combines their output to produce the visible world of Prospectors as gamers experience it.
As CEO, I mainly work on the game design of Prospectors, and also strategic planning for the whole company.
Our team is fantastic and ready to support each other through hard times, long nights, and weekends. We celebrate our victories together, and I count my teammates as genuine comrades-in-arms.
Where do you see Prospectors in the future?
As Dan Simmons wrote: “No book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.”
We have a lot of imagination as a team, and usually have more ideas than time to implement them!
While we have very ambitious plans for the future, I can only reveal a few things at present. Very soon, the game will allow the formation of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which will allow players to group together to perform work and collect income. These DAOs will have various jobs available, each with different responsibilities and rewards. The EOSIO permissions system is perfect for offering this feature!
Following on from this, we plan to offer players a chance to shape the experience of the game by introducing elective positions: a Sheriff and a DAO court. One of the challenges we face is dealing with multi-accounts (where one player uses multiple accounts to generate more resources than they should be able to), which are forbidden by the game rules. It is our hope that the community will help us in the fight against these cheaters through the DAO court – it may even prove to be a compelling new dimension to the game for enthusiastic players.
“In time, we hope to pass 100% of the management and strategic decisions to Prospectors players – DAOs are the first step in achieving this.”
We would like to experiment with a number of different governance systems, starting with direct democracy via the delegation of voting rights.
In a sentence, how would you want readers to remember Prospectors?
“Prospectors is set in a world of virtual Gold Rushes, where the gold you mine is defined and transferred by a smart contract to increase transparency and security.”
. . .
Play the game now at Prospectors.io
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Our #BuiltOnEOSIO series showcases some of the amazing projects leveraging EOSIO technology to build a more secure and connected world. If you would like to suggest a project for us to feature please send an email to spotlight@block.one for our Developer Relations team to review.
- Block.one Developer Relations team
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