TEAM WAR FIELD: BENJAMIN TERSHANA
Meet Benjamin Tershana — WAR FIELD’s marketing & business development advisor. Benjamin brings more than 22 years of sales, marketing, and development experience to the team. He’s spent 16 years focusing on the games business and has been a major revenue contributor at Electronic Arts, IGN, GameSpy, and many other mobile and social media startups. Currently, he is head of gaming at InMobi — a global mobile marketing platform that helps mobile game developers drive revenue and grow their app user community.
WAR FIELD is proud of its distinguished board of advisors, which includes such industry veterans as Adalberto Bruno (Electronic Arts), James Dillon (EA Mobile, Sony PlayStation, Square Enix-Mobile, Orange France Telecom), Tom Frisina (Bally Technologies, Electronic Arts, Imagination Park Entertainment, thatgamecompany), Dylan Sharkey (LinkedIn), Scott Shirley (professional gamer: HALO and Call of Duty). They are providing valuable advice on how to develop WAR FIELD and take it big.
To introduce you to them, we present this interview with Ben — the second in our series.
What got you most interested in WAR FIELD? What aspect appeals to you the most?
I’m a gamer at heart. I was a “change boy” on the New Jersey boardwalk arcades the 80’s and have been playing something ever since. I’ve been an active FPS player since the counterstrike days and stumbled into the crypto world in 2010 as I was a PC builder and overclocker. Bitcoin hit the gaming community first as it was the guys who watercooled their rigs and ran 3 GPUs that had the power to really take advantage of things.
What’s appealing for me is that I’m a big into FPS gaming … so for me it was an easy game to pick up and play. As a poker player, I also enjoy wagering aspect of the platform. It puts a little more skin into the game and desire to play smart and win. Once your GLDR is won or lost, it’s yours or it’s gone.
How do you think your know-how and experience adds value to WAR FIELD and the development of the GOLDER economy and platform?
I’m a seasoned sales revenue and monetization person so I bring the knowledge and understanding how to make the most of things. Additional, as a gamer and a novice crypto fan, I understand the user that WAR FIELD is looking to reach.
I pride myself on keeping up with new technology and trends and I also bring connection within the gaming industry and silicon valley.
What do you think is the future of cryptocurrency in gaming?
I think there is a big future for blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
The blockchain protocol can be a way to share and sell in-game assets (guns, skins, etc) … There are exchanges like rarebits, out there doing this on Ethereum blockchain right now.
Blockchain can allow games to provide cross platform asset trading and the ability to bring in assets from game to game. This holds true on the cryptocurreny part of the technology as well. Crypto is based on fiat belief that the coins are worth something. If you create a product or “game” where there is utility, use, and a reason to own them…then I see great value in the coin as well.
There are so many ICOs and so many will fail. There are already game coin ICOs that are created without products in the hope that developers will adopt them. WAR FIELD was smart enough to build both.
I think blockchain is here to stay and will be integrated into most business, be it as a proof of stake or for ledger-based needs
Shooter games have been the most popular. Do you see this changing, and, if so, what is the next hot thing?
Well shooters are definitely popular, but so are MMOS and PVP games that could use the technology as well. Basically anything in e-sports could have a coin-based system.
As for the next big thing, I’m still bullish on AR/VR games. I think games that are more social or have a AR/VR component coming out can take advantages of blockchain technology in many ways.
Personally, I’d like to see someone build a gaming community based on a blockchain ledger that helps thwart cheating in games and toxic game play. Sort of a social shaming layer. To play you need to be part of this blockchain and your social activity or cheating activity is bound to it. If you, break the chain, you are marked a cheater and aren’t aloud back in. Not sure on the technical reality, but I don’t cheat and frown on toxic gaming. I’d advise for this company any day!
If you had to describe WAR FIELD’s value proposition, how would you put it?
Taking gaming to next level. FPS has gone from a small community of Counter-Strike players years ago to a thriving global business. E-Sports and social influencers have made it a legit way of making a living. Much like poker professionals, I see this sort of platform expanding that notion as mentioned before sort of like a semi-pro poker player.
What are your predictions for WAR FIELD?
I’d like to see WAR FIELD grow into a global community of GLDR-centric gamers. I’d like to see more titles, perhaps a different genre, and a potentially known IP.
WAR FIELD could also be a looked at as a platform acquisition for a larger gaming publisher with existing IP but no crypto/blockchain infrastructure. In my opinion, if they aren’t building it now, they are already behind!
