The Future Proof Org gang, along with @thesteamrev @starterkitdao and @nexteragamer, were invited to host a panel for the 2023 Black College Gaming Con & E-Sports Tournament tour. We were brought on to speak on how the worlds of blockchain and gaming are intersecting. For those that may not be familiar with Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), here's a description from a US Department of Education page:
The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU as: “…any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.” HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents. These institutions train young people who go on to serve domestically and internationally in the professions as entrepreneurs and in the public and private sectors.
During the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established in the Southern United States, with a goal to provide African Americans with educational opportunities that had previously been denied to them due to institutional discrimination. Today, HBCUs are "black" based on that historical context and students of all backgrounds attend. But enough with the history lesson.
The 1st leg of the tour has 3 dates and kicked off on February 18th at North Carolina Central State University in Durham, North Carolina. The crowd was engaging and there were some good networking opportunities. There were some big streamers there and we also spoke with the GM of the official Dallas Mavericks e-sports team. This was cool because it speaks to the advancement of gaming and e-sports as a business/career. He gets paid salary from an NBA team for providing his services, and so does the players and coaches, just like a real NBA team.
The purpose of our segment throughout the tour is to "provide college students and alumni with up-to-date information & knowledge on the not so familiar territories of Gaming & Technology such as: NFTs, Crypto, and Blockchain". The crowd was engaging and had plenty of questions. The highlight of our panel was @nexteragamer streaming our segment directly into some digital real estate that he manages inside the Voxels (formerly Cryptovoxels) metaverse.
A few things we highlighted about blockchain gaming are:
- direct ownership of gaming assets (through NFTs) and what that means for video game marketplaces
- how blockchain enables you to incentivize your audience/community
- metaverse opportunities and how they intersect with game streaming
Its a privilege to speak to the youth at this stage because what better time to introduce them to these concepts than before they enter the workforce or go into business. I'm confident we sparked some minds that will enter the space with no fear.
Due to some logistical issues, the event at Jackson State was put on hold so our next tour date is this coming Saturday, March 11 at Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama.
We definitely want to include HIVE, @threespeak, the HIVE Gaming community, and projects like @splinterlands more into the conversation on this upcoming date. Our segment time is only 45 minutes and I want to spend at least 10-15 of those minutes highlighting HIVE as a tool for gamers and briefly touch on some blockchain gaming titles.
If you only had 10 min to pitch HIVE to a room full of students that are gamers/streamers what would you put emphasis on?
Its so many rabbit holes to potentially go down (profile/content ownership, web3 communities, games built on HIVE, etc.) in a short period of time so I haven't done much outside of glossing over HIVE as a Web3 social platform that gamers should create an account on, but we know how much of a process that can be for newbs. I recently seen a post by @acidyo about HIVE business cards so that may be something we implement with a QR code on the display monitor and walk them through sign up.
Feel free to leave some feedback. We'll drop an update after this weekend's event.
