I was recently reading about Superfluid’s super tokens and NFT Billboards documentation, and had an idea for a use case in gaming regarding advertising.

Nobody likes advertisements, right? They always get in the middle of an activity and distort people’s attention from the main event. But there is one exception that I can think about, and that is in motorsports.

Have you ever watched a car race? You probably noticed that the sponsors blend into complete car styles, and act as decoration accessories around the racing track. There are no “let’s cut to commercials” or “we’ll get back after these messages” moments. Advertising is sort of embedded into an experience that is not at odds with delivering brand value.

As an avid fan of motorsports, I have played racing games since I was a kid, and it has always been a way to achieve two things: Learn new skills, and make new connections. Back in the ‘90s, the skills involved learning how to design cars to use in-game, and how to make websites to attract better drivers for my teams.

I grew up and got into Product Design, but the friendships made along the way with online simracing remained. The sense of community and shared experiences was so strong that we organized real-world visits to some of the great Formula 1 races along the years.

When the pandemic hit and my coworkers were craving virtual hangouts, my first thought was to introduce them to LiveForSpeed (LFS), a simple game that does not require great hardware capacity and lets people jump into a track for free. It became a huge success as a way to connect and talk to others while racing.

The thing to know about LFS is that it is a simracing game, so it is meant to simulate the laws of physics. As a result, you will not be able to pick it up and be immediately competitive. It will take some time to master, as guessing where to start hitting the brakes into a corner is not as simple as with arcade racing games, known for having ultra-forgiving and highly-efficient super brakes.

With LFS you also have to take other factors into consideration, such as the strength and direction of the wind, the gear ratios for the track, the tire pressures, fuel levels and suspension settings that will match your driving style or the type of circuit you are presented with. It is the ultimate explorer treasure trove, a tinkerer's dream, if you will.

For more immersion in this coworker racing project I did last year, we made custom car designs and had our brands represented in-game. When people got up to speed and developed enough familiarity with the game, we saw ourselves craving more. So we invited other companies and set up a livestream with a team of expert commentators using multiple cameras to capture our overtakes and crashes, complete with post-race interviews.

It was a thrill, but some people got very competitive and we were stuck trying to find balance between the weekend hobby and the esports competition. I knew there was room and excitement for both, but we surely needed to stay simple since most of us did not have the time to put in big amounts of weekly practice.

This is what came to my mind when I saw the Superfluid NFT Billboard idea. A casual but well-organized simracing league could start by innovating around the methods by which you transact and provide assets for in-game customization. Then the tokenomics and talent-acquisition experiments can begin.

For example, if your team does not have the time for a next season, you can hire a driver from a community of full-time racers. A timed contract for the season could well be a stream of driver remuneration in a custom super token.

I bounced off some of these ideas on Superfluid’s Discord, and the response was very positive. This is why we decided to create the Ethereum Racing League, inviting all racers from the ecosystem to come together and play. Check it out!