Today, I’m happy to host Pavel Bains, co-founder of Bluzelle L1 Blockchain and MixMob Racing Game.
Pavel Bains blends traditional gaming with crypto as his background, including Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Xbox, so stick with us for a fascinating interview.
Hello Pavel, please tell us about you and what you do at MixMob.
I’m Pavel Bains, co-founder of MixMob and the Executive Producer. Before entering crypto full-time in 2016, I worked for Disney Interactive, Xbox, Electronic Arts, Activision, and Nintendo, mainly doing everything non-development or game-related, like IP licensing, mergers, and acquisitions. Then, I transitioned into development and studio management roles, managing financial and studio management. That’s what I did up until 2016 in the game business. Then, I went full-time into crypto and co-founded a decentralized storage project. In 2021, when gaming started to grow, I founded MixMob with my co-founders, who are all gaming expertise professionals. My role as Executive Producer involves not day-to-day activities but overseeing financing, strategy, partnerships, and high-level marketing decisions.
We want to know more about the MixMob Franchise. What are your goals as a company, and how many employees are working there?
We aim for MixMob to be an impactful Web3 IP centered around the gaming culture. When we started, the team was highly skilled and came from games like Battlefield, Halo, and others, ranging from casual games to triple-A titles. We’ve been fortunate to gather this team. The concept of MixMob revolves around a storyline: what if the metaverse became self-aware and started erasing all culture? A group of crypto hackers see this coming and save all cultural elements like movies, books, architecture, and fashion by turning them into NFTs and distributing them on the dark web. MixMob’s game is about remixing the world with these cultural artifacts.
Is there any particular reason you guys are launching a strategy racing game as the first title of the MixMob Franchise?
The decision to launch a racing game (RACER 1) first came from Simon O’Connor, our game director, and the team. We have the skills to make an over-the-top triple-A action-adventure game, but we know it takes five years and a huge budget. When I was at Disney Interactive, we had games with $40 million budgets that flopped, so we realized that even big IPs and budgets don’t guarantee success. The first game should be more casual and minor so we can test the IP. The racing game is accessible, easy to develop, and ties into the story. The Pod-racing inspired us in Star Wars. It’s a way to introduce competitive gameplay quickly.
Please describe what the MixMob Racing game is. What are the mechanics and the goals you want to achieve, and how do you plan to keep the players returning?
MixMob Racing is like Mario Kart combined with real-money gaming. It’s a three-minute racing game similar to poker, where players can earn money each time they win. We also have a sports betting aspect. The gamer can be part of the betting pool in the racing arena environment, which we can turn into a liquidity pool. Our game aims to satisfy all the desires of the crypto medium audience: making money, owning assets, speculating, and, most importantly, the game has to be fun. If you don’t have all these elements, what’s the point? So, it’s about getting all the gaming elements right in this one racing game.
I can see the game is free to play. Does that mean players can win crypto and NFT by playing, or must they invest significant money like other crypto games to join the rewards?
The game is free to play. You can try the game out. The structure is like a poker game where you enter an arena, pay a few dollars to enter, and every time you win a race, you’re earning money back. If you keep winning, you can accumulate extra money. It’s like ‘be good or be broke.’ You’ve got to win to make money.
We would like to know how the economy is organized; please share some light with us regarding the tokenomics of $MXM and how it differs from any gaming token out there.
$MXM (Whitepaper / Litepaper) has a couple of purposes. One is an incentive to get people to play the game and earn. Second, it’s used for referral fees for any multilevel team, a viral loop. If you’re winning and making, you get more people to play under you, and you can earn more. Another cool thing is governance. Most people have governance tokens, which are usually for technology or protocol. In our game, because of the e-sport and the competitive nature, we’re seeing actual governance over the league. People can decide where championships should be held in real life, whether in Singapore, Tokyo, or London. They can vote on how the club should run.
The MixMob presale was sold out. Where do you credit the success? Also, can you share anything with us for the upcoming public sale?
Thank you for the congratulations on the pre-sale. We did it uniquely. It’s not just a token we’re doing; it’s an NFT drop with utility. For example, you’re racing in these cars and making these robots called living bots. We did a pre-sale where each spot gets an airdrop of the same token. We wanted to give actual utility, so the buyer gets a character to make the game playable and win money, and then they get to use this to refer others. The pre-sale was done strictly for our partners and people who have supported us for years. Now, we’re moving into the public sale.
I can see all over MixMob social channels the phrase “Web2 Flip.” What is the meaning of this?
The ‘Web2 Flip‘ is about introducing a new gaming category for Web3. It’s a middle finger saying we don’t need traditional gamers; they will need us. New generations will want to play games where they can make money, own their assets, and trade them. It’s not about attracting Web2 gamers; it’s about creating a new category that will naturally attract gamers.
From your perspective, what are the challenges of building a web3 game in comparison to traditional gaming?
The challenge is understanding what the crypto audience wants. They want to have fun, speculate, own assets, and make money. Many Web3 game companies fail because they don’t understand the crypto user or try to make a game for Minecraft audiences. We need to understand our market and cater to them.
After all these years, I’m convinced that 99% of the crypto gamers fall under the “retail investors” category rather than “gamers.” Do you agree with me? If yes, do you see that changing any time soon?
Crypto retail investors are gamers who grew up gaming. They’re now looking to take some of their earnings and invest them back into the games. We’re seeing generations of bankers, traders, and people playing games. Crypto retail investors are gamers and need a product that appeals to them.
The web3 gaming, after almost six years in existence, seems completely immature, despite our hopes for triple-A titles and stable economies. Bad actors have abused gamers’ trust and money, and honest gaming companies have failed to protect the value of player investments. Is that the nature of our business, or do some things need to be done differently?
In any new industry, you’ll need people to do it right. Look back 150 years at the Gold Rush or the stock market. There are scammers in every industry. I don’t think it’s a matter of the sector being inherently flawed; it’s part of the learning process. It attracts different people, and it’s part of growing an industry.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
One of our investors, the founder of BitMEX, believes that gaming will introduce crypto to the next generation far better than any current method. Through gaming, we can teach how central bank policies work, how economics work, and how money printing works. All these things can be taught through gaming much better. That’s why I believe strongly in this, and that’s why I’m betting on this industry.