The grand Change

[Nothing Nowhere]

Memories cannot be erased, money that you have optionally chose to invest in a game is not a 'sunk cost', you are well aware of the implications that come with it. No game will run for the span of ones life, it just doesn't happen. Putting money into the game now helps to support the team and the servers, implementing new things such as being able to sell items for $ just isn't realistic, many people will overprice, buy purely to sell for a undesirable amount later, scam, hoard. That goes beyond it just being a game.

[Johny Caddy]

676efff5ab67a41edd4d405d I hear you, and I respect the depth of your sentiment because you are speaking from the heart of a true fan who values the experience above the material. In a spiritual sense, you are right that memories are priceless, but when you say that no game will run for the span of a life, that is exactly the defeatist mindset I am challenging. In 2010 that statement was true, but in 2026 it is false because we now have the technology to build digital worlds that literally cannot be shut down as long as the community supports them. You fear that money brings scammers, but the reality is that the black market already exists in the shadows on Discord where scams are rampant and the developers get zero support, whereas my proposal simply brings that economy into the light where smart contracts make scams mathematically impossible. While I agree that investing now supports the team, we must admit that donations are charity which dries up when times get tough, while royalties are a business model that ensures the developers have the funds to keep the lights on for fifty years instead of five. You are content with building a sandcastle that is beautiful but destined to be washed away by the tide of time, while I am proposing we build a Cathedral stone by stone that stands firm long after we are gone. Let’s not be afraid of the tools that can finally make this world immortal.

[Poki Wolf]

i agree w johny's suggestion

[Valerie Prichett]

I agree with Johny.

[Ligeia Tepes]

I agree with Cricket, this sounds like some money scam . That's not what this game is about. People will leave if this change is made and all that will be left is people who are here to get a buck not who love this game. sorry not sorry. I been here since 08, not that it really matters. But I'm here for the art, mission making, sculpting, friends , any game you play you are investing money into knowing the game could close. When you go to a movie you invest in the experience of watching it not knowing if you will like it. This is the point of entertainment , your paying to be entertained, and we are entertained. Hopefully it will be around for a long time but if not just having fit or the time we have was a blessing we didn't expect we would have again. The developers have stated that things are fine. Maybe if it ever is in danger then maybe this proposition/idea can be presented but I feel like that would ruin the game and the whole reason we are here.

[Johny Caddy]

Ligeia, I remember you vividly from the old SmallWorlds days and I have always deeply admired your dedication to the craft because you are a true pillar of this community, but I must speak plainly about the danger of the "movie theater" analogy you used because when you go to a cinema you are a passive tourist for two hours, whereas here in Smallverse you are an architect building a digital life for thousands of hours, so ask yourself if you spent ten years renovating a house with your own hands only for the landlord to evict you and demolish it overnight without compensation, would you really just shrug and say "well I enjoyed the entertainment" or would you be devastated that your labor was erased? You suggest we should wait until the game is in danger to propose solutions, but as a dermatologist in my daily life I can tell you that waiting until the patient is in a coma to administer the cure is malpractice because by then it is simply too late, and we all know that the original game looked "fine" right up until the moment the plug was pulled. Regarding your fear of scams, we must be honest about the uncomfortable reality that a dangerous black market already exists right now in the shadows of Discord where people create armies of fake accounts to farm collectibles and scam honest players with absolutely no recourse, so why wouldn't we want to replace that lawless chaos with a transparent blockchain ledger that acts as an unshakeable insurance policy against fraud and duplication? I am not a faceless crypto promoter but a real person, a medical professional known as Johny Caddy who shares his Instagram openly because I have nothing to hide and I am willing to invest my own significant capital and resources to partner with the team and secure this future, not to turn our sanctuary into a casino but because I refuse to let the history we are building today suffer the same tragic fate as the memories we lost in 2018, especially when Web3 technology offers us the miracle of an Autonomous World where the server lights never have to go out and the game will persist for eternity even if only one single player remains to log in. 683588266a17025b6251fbae

[Stefan Richie]

I agree with legalising SV properly but it cant be done while the original owner of SW still in control of SW's IP.

I like the idea of every individual item having its own ID but i'm not sure how i feel about getting SmallVerse involved in Crypto etc. I'm not sure how crypto currencies work and like another citizen mentioned, its not about the money on here. (at least for majority of players) the games player base has generally consisted of people between 10 and 30. (yes the game is 13+) so i'm not really sure its a concern for many.

I'm sure while SV makes a decent amount of funding per month and enough to run the servers and pay designers & developers, its not enough to advance the game further at a great enough speed.

They are working on building the tutorials for new players etc atm and i believe in the plan they are building. I also believe if they keep putting Ads onto IG and more specifically TikTok, the money will come.

What i think SV needs to do is reply more frequently to the Citizens Suggestions, Argue why they think its a good or not good idea so that it can spark a conversation.
I also think that Wyatt & Dilon being the games (owners/overseers) should be more active in these suggestions as at the end of the day, its their decision on what enters their version of SW
I think everyone wants SV to florish and i think the best way for this to happen is to promote SV yourselves on social media. That is honestly be best thing you can do.

all these ideas are great and i think this thread is a good idea to spark ideas. Also this is just my opinion.

Kind Regards

[Johny Caddy]

Stefan you have hit the nail on the head regarding the IP risks and the current funding limitations because that is exactly why we need this revolution. You are right that legalizing Smallverse is impossible while we are just mirroring old assets but that is precisely where the Web3 capital injection saves us. Imagine a scenario where the developers launch a token and raise the funds necessary to hire a team of twenty professional artists to completely remaster and reinterpret every single item and environment in the game. By replacing the old copyrighted assets with high-quality original NFT art and moving the game logic onto a sovereign blockchain we transform Smallverse from a fragile private server into a fully legal and untouchable Original IP owned by its community. This is the only path to safety because right now we are living on borrowed time.
Regarding the technology and "why crypto" let me share a frustrating experience I had just today. I tried to invite a close friend to play on his Mac and the game simply wouldn't run and then later I tried to log in via mobile and the experience was barely usable which is unacceptable in 2026 when we have supercomputers in our pockets. Moving to Web3 is not just about coins it is about upgrading to a Ferrari engine. By utilizing decentralized cloud computing and modern blockchain layers we could eliminate lag entirely and create a seamless cross-platform experience where you can jump from PC to mobile to VR without a glitch because the network itself supports the load. We are losing thousands of potential players every day simply because our tech is stuck in the past.
Let's talk about the money and the "1 Billion Token" concept you mentioned because it is simpler than it sounds. Just look at the colossal multi-million dollar industries behind FIFA Ultimate Team or CS:GO where major companies like EA and Valve have proven that digital assets hold immense value yet players are currently forced to trade on risky black markets. We are simply proposing to bring that massive existing value out of the shadows and into a safe legal framework where the developers actually benefit instead of losing revenue to third parties. In a Web3 economy we make that safe and native. Imagine the developers mint 1 billion $VERSE tokens and release them gradually just like they sell Gold now but instead of that money disappearing into server costs it builds a real economy where the players own a piece of the pie. If the game grows the value of what you hold grows. Crucially this system remains Free-to-Play meaning a kid or a casual player can join and play exactly as they do now without ever touching a wallet but the moment they find a super rare item they suddenly have the option to sell it for real value to a collector. It creates a bridge where gamers, investors, and creators all benefit from the same ecosystem.
Finally regarding the creators and artists this is their golden age. In this new model every time a "Snow Fox" or a custom mission is sold on the open market the original creator and the game developers receive a guaranteed royalty fee instantly via smart contract. This turns the development team from admins struggling to pay bills into a thriving profitable studio that can afford to develop those tutorials and ads you mentioned.

[Johny Caddy]

Most importantly, holding $VERSE would give you a seat at the table, granting you actual voting rights to decide on future updates and the direction of the game. 676c81d0a69abc71d2cdabd3 685dac42694c977ad3cd21bc 66c0ef632a6ba31f8f019173 66c101032a9c931cb316f215

[Shua Seville]

Please, do not support this idea. Turning SV into and NFT based digital property will strip this game of the Nostalgia. We will see an influx of greedy online businessmen. They will take control of the value of in game items. Then real players who come to enjoy this game will suffer. Lets keep this game for the actual players. Turning it into a cash cow would ruin the reason people come to play this game and put their hard earned money into it. He also wants to incentivise it by saying everyone would have a say in the development, as if we dont already? I think theres a good reason this game isnt a democracy. If it was nothing would ever get done.

Im glad that SV staff doesnt pay too much mind to stuff like this and continues to move the business model they know will work. The ideas Johny has presented would ruin the spirit of SV. The game would no longer be for the players who loved SW, but now it would be for business mogels to come and make a quick profit off of peoples joy. Not something im interested in at all.

Not to mention the legal blocks Johny clearly doesnt understand. This game is private server, and a big reason we're allowed to keep releasing and developing is because we play under a private server. In order to covert this game into a blockchain format we would need full legal ownership of all intellectual property, which is not a reasonable expectation for this game.

I'm not sure why Johny isn'y happy with the state of the game, however I can vouch for most of the everyday players over the last year. We love this game the way it is, don't stray from the business model you had originally planned for SV. Staff has done a good job keeping the spirit alive, and i don't think they will let this silly, poorly thought out forum post change their mind.

[Johny Caddy]

I appreciate the protective stance over SV. It really shows you care.
However, simply shutting down a conversation based on fear of "greedy businessmen" or legal misunderstandings is a disservice to the potential evolution of any platform.
Let’s elevate the debate beyond the buzzwords that seem to trigger everyone.
Nostalgia is beautiful, but it shouldn't be a prison.
You argue that blockchain strips the game of its spirit. I argue the opposite.
Think about it.
Currently, on a private server, your "hard-earned money" and time are entirely at the mercy of the server admins.
If they decide to wipe the database tomorrow, your legacy is gone. Zero.
A decentralized ledger isn't about turning the game into a stock market. It’s about immutability. It’s about ensuring that the hours you spent grinding are recorded in a way that no single entity can erase. It preserves the history of the player, not just the items.
You assume implementation automatically equals aggressive monetization. That is a lack of imagination.
Technology is neutral. The intent defines the outcome.
We can have a system that verifies ownership and trade history without introducing real-money barriers or pay-to-win mechanics.
It’s about creating a "digital identity" for your character that is truly yours, verified by code... not just by a row in a SQL database controlled by a few people.
And regarding the legal argument.
You are conflating ownership of the Asset (the artwork owned by the original creators) with ownership of the Metadata (the unique instance generated by your effort).
We are not claiming we own the copyright. We are exploring ways to verify the time and luck it took to acquire it.
There is a massive difference between selling a copyrighted image and trading the "proof of effort" token associated with it. Private servers already exist in a grey area; innovation often happens on the fringes.
If we stop discussing ideas because we are afraid of "what might happen," we stagnate.
I’m not asking for a corporate takeover.
I’m asking for a system where the player has more power than the server owner.
That sounds like a democracy to me.

[Elena Vega]

Amazing suggestions would really ignite that smallworlds OG nostalgia - love this so much - love the royalty program

[Dyl Trades]

Hey Johny,

I’ve read The Grand Change and I genuinely agree with the direction you’re suggesting.

The truth is SmallVerse didn’t fail because people didn’t care.
It failed because passion alone couldn’t solve sustainability and funding. We’ve already lived through a shutdown once, and I think your proposal finally tackles that root problem instead of avoiding it.

What I strongly agree with


1. Sustainability has to come first
Servers, development, moderation and security all cost real money. Without a long-term model, history will repeat itself. Your idea offers a potential ongoing revenue engine rather than one-off donations.

2. Ownership and permanence
If items, creations or achievements can exist beyond a single server or database, players aren’t starting from zero every time something changes. That’s powerful, especially after a previous shutdown.

3. Transparency and trust
A public ledger for ownership reduces abuse, duplication and behind the scenes edits. It adds accountability without relying solely on admins.

4. Fair rewards for creators
Automatic royalties through smart contracts could finally reward artists and builders long-term, without manual systems or promises that break when funding dries up.

Potential pros of blockchain / crypto integration

• True digital ownership for players
• New funding avenues to keep development alive
• Reduced fraud and item duplication
• Long-term incentives for creators to keep building

All of these directly address the sustainability issues that previously ended the game.

Real concerns that shouldn’t be ignored


That said, there are valid risks and acknowledging them is important:

• Complexity: wallets, tokens and keys can scare off casual players if onboarding isn’t seamless
• Speculation risk: gameplay must never feel secondary to profit
• Technical overhead: security and maintenance must be taken seriously
• Community culture: many players are here for creativity and nostalgia, not finance

Because of this, I believe any crypto system should be optional, background-based, and never required to enjoy the core game.

Final thoughts


Your suggestion doesn’t feel like a cash grab.
It feels like a measured attempt to give SmallVerse a future that doesn’t collapse under its own weight again.

If implemented carefully, gameplay first, monetisation second. This could be the difference between another short-lived revival and a version of SmallVerse that finally lasts.

Respect for putting the idea out there and starting a real conversation.

[Kilowalawhiz Asahooza]

yeah i agree

[Tom Ford]

I agree with the post