Note: As the Gala Games ecosystem advances, some of the ideas which had initially been planned have been found to be not in alignment with the long-term goals of the ecosystem as a whole.

From the time that the first hunter-gatherers played the first games with rocks and sticks, game ownership has been important. Even in the earliest days of digital gaming, the game you played was YOURS. All OLD-school gamers remember the sound of blowing the dust out of a Nintendo cartridge to get ready to play their favorite game or the pride you took in lining up your PlayStation games on a shelf in your bedroom.

Game companies used to produce things that you could buy, keep and could use whenever and however YOU wanted. There was a sense of pride of ownership in what you could hold in your hands. Fewer and fewer of the 2.65 billion gamers worldwide knows what it means to OWN your game, fully and completely. However, after those golden years of owning physical copies of your games, innovation and growth, gaming took a turn. As consumers got used to digital platforms, suddenly they found that they were playing more and owning less.

This is why we have taken the lead in creating the decentralized Gala Games Ecosystem — to give the power in gaming to the people who should be in charge — the gamers. We know that the future of gaming isn’t in the hands of big game developers who keep tight reins on the worlds they create, but in YOUR hands. Gala Games is leading a revolution in the games industry. It is our goal to create a distributed network of players who own the gaming world.

The Primary Principles of the Gala Games Platform are that you have the right to:

Own Your Content — The tight control of assets and game accounts has stifled a lot of creative thinking. The decentralized Gala Games ecosystem aspires to blow the doors wide open and give players back the control they deserve. If you win a magical sword in a game on the Gala Game Platform, it is yours. It is a verifiable asset on the blockchain you can trade to another person or play with in-game. We do not have the power to take the sword away from you. We can’t stop another company from making a game where the sword is also in use. We want to encourage the possibilities in this space.

Own the Roadmap — The decentralized Gala Games ecosystem wants players to not only own their in-games items, but also for Gala Games players to have a voice in how the Gala Games roadmap develops. Players and node owners will be enlisted, via distributed voting mechanisms, to help determine what games should be added to the platform or what should be funded by the decentralized Gala Games ecosystem.

Much of this is accomplished through the Gala Game Node ecosystem. Operators of a qualifying node you may earn GALA and unique items for providing support to the Gala Network. Currently, these nodes operated on a Proof-of-Availability basis. However, in the very near future the nodes will begin to diversify and expand into other mechanism to further strengthen the network and provide greater functionality to the Gala Games ecosystem as a whole, with the “Proof-of-Availability” being deprecated and replaced by another mechanism. What is found below is a basic outline of our plans and timeline for further decentralization of the network and the future of the Gala Game Node Ecosystem.

Note: Everything above this point represents our CORE philosophy — this means that it should not change, regardless of what else happens. The decentralized Gala Games ecosystem is leading a revolution in this space. Everything that comes AFTER the core philosophy is very much open to change, depending on the technical requirements, legal requirements, and needs of the various situations encountered in the development pipeline. Technology is ever-changing, and development requires flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. As such, everything you read below this point is what is being worked towards but should be expected to change as the situation evolves.

The Gala Games Node Ecosystem Map:

The key components of the Gala Games Node Ecosystem are:

• Gala Games: Gala Games, as an entity, provides curatorial and maintenance services to the decentralized network. This includes helping to integrate game studios into the Gala Games Network, updating the node software, maintaining best practices in development, and helping the community grow the network through their marketing efforts.
• The Game Development Studios: Studios that publish content on the Gala Games Network are able to release NFTs using the Gala Games protocols and tool kits currently under development. It is our goal to make it easy for any company to quickly and easily add their game to the Gala Games Ecosystem with toolkits to produce standardized crypto packages, NFT libraries, and wallets to be integrated into their games. These studios are approved by a majority vote of the Gala Games Full Node holders (both “Founder’s Nodes” and “Paid” nodes…more on these later). These Game Studios will be granted “Game License” NFTs by the Gala Games Ecosystem that will give them access to the Gala Games Ecosystem.
• The Governance-Based Random Distribution Algo: This part of the Ecosystem is responsible for distributing NFT rewards to the node network. This part of the ecosystem is very much under development and still being discussed internally. While it will initially be a random distribution, the Gala Games team is aware that the Community of Node Owners has a range of thoughts about how this system could be implemented. More information will be released on this in the near future once thoughts and technological research reaches a more rigorous level.
• Public Database (DB) with Easy-to-Access Endpoints: The Gala Games Node Ecosystem will depend on the work of a whole community of developers who are willing to put their time into growing a decentralized ecosystem. The Gala Games Community has seen this already with GALABASE.io, which was developed outside of the Gala Games team, but the easier it is for developers to run analytics and audits on the Gala Games Ecosystem, the better. Central to this effort will be the creation of a publicly accessible database with easy-to-access endpoints.
• The Treasure Chest: This is currently available inside of your app.gala.games account, and it is where GALA and NFT rewards collect. This is a critical piece of decentralization. The treasure chest makes it easier for people to control their own GALA and NFTs, and ensures that the system will remain robust and decentralized in the future.
• The Gala Games Triple-Proof Node System: This deserves a whole section of its own, so keep reading below to understand exactly how the Gala Games Triple-Proof Node System can fundamentally redefine how gamers, game development companies, and the Gala Game Ecosystem interact by radically increasing decentralization.

The decentralized Gala Games ecosystem has a long way to go to achieve this vision, but people are working at it every day. Join The Gala Games Community in our Discord at http://galagames.chat or explore our website at https://gala.games to learn more!