 Welcome to the wide world of eSports, a show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine Norr. Today our topic is game for good, gaming with a purpose. My guest is Dexter. Welcome, Dexter. Hi, how are you? It's great to have you here and we're here for a very specific purpose to talk about game for good. So, Dexter, since I saw you last a number of months ago, what have you been doing with this? So, last time we spoke, we were kind of introducing about this connoverto reality world, kind of used for as a auxiliary and a complementary to real life events. And during that time afterwards, we were refocusing on building the G Haven brand. What is it that we stand for? And the biggest thing that comes from that is we stand for being more what we call socially conscious gamers or as you said earlier, game with a purpose. Now, we just want to bring people together, but we want to like do something with that. We believe that video gaming is more just a place of entertainment, but video gaming and eSports is a tool to establish and create great value. And beyond just the ecosystem of eSports, but in all aspects and all industries as well. And so, that's kind of how we came up with game for good. Game for good is the first step into demonstrating how video gaming can be used as not only it can be used in different industries, but as well as a vehicle to do great things. Perfect. And so, who is your target market for this? So, our target market, we got a little clever with this. We define them as the generation of gamers. These are individuals who were born into a world of video gaming and exhibit these two attributes. One, as I said before, they grew up with gaming. The gaming video game is a part of their lives as well as their household. And then two, they have an affinity or they have the act of doing charitable acts. So, they have social activism that they want to do and they want to make a difference. And these two things combined, we really see those in the more younger generation as well as we have an alignment of those who choose to express that and try to use this vehicle for gaming to address those causes, like with charity streams and the such. You know, so it's like a Gen G, right? The generation of gamers, right? So, maybe you should create that, like tell everyone that this is for Gen G and they'll go, what's Gen G? And you can explain and do you think that they would buy into that? That would be, that's actually a really good idea. I never thought about it before. Like Gen G is like, yeah, that is perfect. So, I'm saying generation of gamers, Gen G, that is just beautiful. Thank you. I'm taking that. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm an idea person. So, if you ever need any ideas, come to me and I'll tell you them. Just for some reason, I'm kind of super creative and like to come up with that stuff. So, anyway, so, tell us about, like, are the gamers gaming on the platform or how does that work? Yeah. So, I guess the best way to explain and explain what Game for Good is. So, Game for Good is a fundraising and data analytics tool. And what it does is it's another service that allows individuals to give the charity through gaming and how it works would be they sign up and I'm going to sign up, they use their gaming accounts and they tether it to our platform. And that's how we're able to pull the information in terms of how long they play and what games they play because we're using the whole gamathon idea where as the amount of hours you play, that's then translated into charitable dollars or acts for a charity. And that's what we use to translate that. And from there, the hours they play, that is key data because it helps better understand what does the gamers care about? What do they like? How do they gain? And in this time where gaming is becoming more and more prevalent, more and more important, people are seeing that how it can be a big difference in marketing, there is opportunity to better understand this group. And then with this information we're able to get, we can then better cater to the gamers. And that's kind of the whole crux of this. It's not only to create a way that valuatizes and empowers the already gaming habits of gamers or of our Gen G individuals, but then also to be able to find a way to not only empower them, how do we now use this information that we're gaining and not knowing how they gain to better impact them and empower them to make changes? So what type of charities or what type of programs would benefit from this? So first and foremost, using the platform in general, organizations that already conduct themselves in fundraising or trade activities. So universities, schools, or even bigger not-for-profits that already have their own foundations, but they have that network of givers that choose to give and they have that hold of events that are able to reach out and interact with the youth group. One example being the KOL Cancer Fund, the base in North Carolina, and they work with the NCAA Women's Collegiate Team. A lot of their charities and foundations go towards breast cancer research. And so that right there is an example of a group of individuals that work with a young enough crowd that we could see that there is a correlation between that AIS group and most likely find gamers in that group. So are the gamers actually gaming on the platform? No, they're not there. So they are gaming by themselves. So there is regularly gaming on the regular consoles or gaming devices and when they sign up, since they're tethering their gaming accounts to our platform, whenever they're playing, whenever they pick up a controller, we're collecting that data, they're gaming. So they don't have to interact too much with the platform. It's more so to relate to the gaming habits, making things as easy, as simple as possible. So all they have to do when after they sign up and they pick what gaming account they play on Steam or PC, if they play on Xbox or PlayStation, whenever they play, they put that on and they're connected to an internet feed that could upload the information to the server because we use open APIs. That is how they gain just like it regularly do. So and what are the marketing strategies you're using to gain users on this? So the biggest driver of this platform is gamers. And so, but it's also gamers that as well have that mindset for causes, for social change. And so one of the ways that you started doing this would be we speak to different organizations that already conduct themselves in fundraising. And we talked to them about, hey, because I mean, we look, make sure that they have a user group already who gives to them of that age range. And from there, then we're able to have a conversation with them about, hey, would you like to reach out to the gamers of your group or another way to give a more fun or even more fun way that is growing in popularity right now, especially with the current condition that we have, making things as virtual as possible so that if we end up in a quarantine, again, they can still conduct business. That's one way. Another way would be we go to different gaming lounges and different organizations, one being map technologies that's here in Baltimore, and they already have a place of gamers. But now I've said, I'm giving the opportunity to, hey, let's get back to your city. We can have causes that are focused on building up your city, building up Baltimore. Let's now gain for them. And then that's opportunity to now not only gain users, but give them the opportunity to actually put their gaming, and not just as a means for entertainment, but say, hey, the hours I'm putting in is just for me, but it's for the place that I call home. Okay. And so you're in Baltimore, is that right? Yes. Okay. Well, did you escape all of that weather or is it heading your way? So it did hit so far. I don't hear anything else right now. I think it's good. I think that will, luckily for me, the part of it that hit past already, so far I see some sunlight. Hopefully we're good. Okay. Fantastic. So as I mentioned, I'm like an idea person, so I really want to know where did the idea of gain for good come from? So my alma mater is Penn State, and they have an event called Don. Don is the largest student led philanthropic organization, and it was money for a pediatric cancer. They raised millions on millions of dollars every single year, and they raised money throughout the year. From beginning of roughly now, the fall to February, middle of February, when they gave, when they finished closing all of the fun or easy, excuse me, and they donated, and they raised an average between nine to 12 million dollars a year. This is amazing. And that already, and that kind of gave me the heart of no charity, being just a natural part, not part of our school spirit, but that's part of my just being as well. And so when I'm thinking about it, that combined with the idea that video gaming has always been just a place of comfort for me, is giving me more entertainment. It's still many values. The first thing I thought of was like, hey, why don't we find a way to combine the two, but in a way that no one else is doing it? Because there are the other different charities out there, but they're just functioned as like the middleman. They make sure that all the money is collected and then sent to where it needs to go. But it's like, okay, is that all you're doing? There's opportunities here. And how do I do that without disrupting or trying to change the behavior of gamers? And that's kind of where it came to be. What's interesting is with COVID, a lot of the charity activities have been impacted, have been impacted because when you think about it, a lot of charities use in-person events to raise money. And so do you feel like this is money to be raised in a virtual manner that's effective rather than in that usual way that they do so that they can kind of go back to raising money as they did in person? Well, I don't think this is a replacement or I think this is a better way of doing it. All in all, the point of having the charity in person in general is more like bringing people together with the, so bringing money, sorry, Mrs. came in here. What was that? Oh, okay, from a viewer. Oh, okay, from a viewer. Okay, that's what I got confused. That was from you. Okay, so I guess I'll do the viewer first if I may. Okay, so let me read the questions for you and then you can answer them. Okay, so there are questions from viewers and for the audience, they do come on our chat and Dexter's right on it, he noticed. So the first one is, is game for good still raising money? Still raising money in regards to like for charities or raising money for, because that could mean, what do you mean by that, raising money? I think it means for charity. Okay, so currently we are transitioning to this model. So we have kind of put a halt in it right now because we're working on coding this program. We feel as if this would be a regular focus on making this up and running. We have a lot of good traction and interest behind it. So at the moment, and we did, we've had multiple charity events. Last one we did was earlier this year for mental health work with the other NAMI foundation. But for right now, we are focusing on building this platform to then resume fundraising for charities. So the next question is, how can I use game for good to raise money for my favorite cause? Of course, so how it would work would be when you, so when the platform is up, and there's one of the times where I wish I'd be able to show the demo of it, maybe do that for next time. But how we would do that would be, we would be able to have your charity on our platform and how the dashboard will look. It will have lists of causes. You picked your cause that you want to give, you want to game towards. And when you do, you would activate the cause. And so it will tether to your specific gaming account. And then the hours you put in would then go toward that, will go toward that particular cause in which we would also have, we also have pledges and sponsors who would then give according to amount of hours that you play. Okay. And then who do you think would be the pledges or sponsors? So when people come on our platform, they're already two individuals. One individual will be people who come on our platform. The assumption that we're making is that they're already conducting themselves in charitable activities anyway. So people that want to raise charities, different organizations and groups, when they come on, they will tell their other financial causes, the one raised through our platform, they will already have established advertisers, borrowable pledges to the platform already. And now another group who will also be able to do this would be the individuals who want to learn more about the gaming space, gaming ecosystem, because Game For Good also creates a mechanism to allow for individuals to learn different gaming trends. What's game is popular? What do people more gravitate toward? Those individuals will be more likely to also pledge as well, because when they pledge, when the more they interact with the group, the more people come on the platform in my hours that play, the more data that is being derived, the more valuable information they get. And so it just feeds through in a positive feedback loop. So that data that you're getting cannot benefit the charity or advertisers or brands in a way that could provide sort of something in return for the money that they're paying for the charity? Yes, because right now people are trying to better understand the gamers. Since the quarantine hit, Twitch has blown up in terms of more users, people who are either watching or becoming streamers themselves. And that's just one avenue because that's a gamer streaming centric place. And then people are gaming more because like what do you go do when you're home? Nothing more to do with it is to play video games. People sometimes play video games while they're working. I've been guilty of doing that a couple of times. But the whole point is that when you're home, the quarantine won't stop you from playing video games. And so people want to understand this new emerging market, but more newly noticed market more. And so now that we're taken away from the whole basement-dweller type of mindset, to more than know, these are actual individuals. And some of the people who we already market to may be also gamers. So now it's a new dynamic how to think about them. How do I reach them better? How do I understand these individuals as well? And so that's kind of how we see different organizations being able to be different brands, different not-for-profits, even people, even non-andemic organizations. This is how they better understand because now it creates a new dynamic for some of these causes and how to think about their market groups, whether they're focused specifically on eSports and video gaming, maybe they're outside of it. So it seems like a non-andemic brand could really benefit from this because they could and they can find out the data that they need in order to utilize this kind of advertising or branding in the best way, but they could also associate with a charity through doing this. Is that right? Yes, yes. It connects everybody together. It connects the gamers together. It connects the gamers to these organizations, even some big business organizations, and connects them also to different charities because all everything cycles through these charities. It's another way for them to interact, another way for them to help raise up, raise awareness and money for their cause or other organizations, give them opportunities to learn more about what gamers are doing and gamers care more about these causes, then that's more opportunity for them to say, hey, we're seeing that these causes are being more focused on right now. Paying people are caring about this sort of cause, this sort of problem. How will we now tend our market to interact with this cause because we see people going there? They get another way, another opportunity to market. The cause gets more money, more attention, and gamers now have to feel as if their gaming is making a difference, which it is because it's causing attention to go where it needs to. Sure. And that when you can create value for Gen G, then I think that that's fantastic. So how do you see, how do you best see this platform creating an impact? I see this creating an impact for right now, for the first overall phase when it's released outside of the beta. It is, I see it more impacting for community building. Right now, we're right-laving this so the other organizations could use it, but like, they could be in different areas. So for example, one area in North Carolina could use it, and they could use it to better impact their network, their community that they have that almost reach at. This is more so as a way to empower, another way of empowering different users, the types of users, just in this case gamers, as a way for them to help build their community, help bring attention to the community, different causes, different issues, even raise funds to help build up what they want to help. Great. And so have you seen interest from investors or others in games? Yes, a lot, a lot of interest that people see the value in this, whether it be from the charitable side, hey, no, let's leverage the gaming that's already being, we know what's happening for a force of good. Hey, and this is data information that we want, that we're trying to understand this group of individuals. This is the best way to use this. Hey, here's a way for us to increase our funding for these causes that we care about, that are causing causes that our organization is raising money for, but now we have a means to extend our reach and interact with the youth in a fun manner. And how is game for good different from other charity services like thought giving? Well, organizations, as I was saying before, a lot of them are, they're just the middleman, they mediate and manage the flow of money. Make sure that all the money that's collected is safe and then goes to where it needs to go. Sometimes some of them have had this conversation multiple times. No, the question asks, well, how much do you take from what is raised? Some of them, that's how they make their profit. They, it's free to hold a charity, or the money that is raised, they may take between 2 to 5% of whatever that is, and that's how they make their revenue. On top of that would be different advertising as well. And so that's cool and all, but first and foremost, all that is just money donations. What game for good does is it takes the game of thought model of no, we're translating your hours that you already put into gaming, converting that into dollars, which is then sent. And how we make money is money subscription. So when people who want to white label a product, we get money from them. People who value the data that we collect, we get money from them. And then from the gamers right now, it seems just a dollar, dollar a month, $10 for a whole year. And that $1, because once you just donate that $1, but that $1 combined with the hours that you generate, it could be transformed to a hundred a thousand depending on, you know, what is being pledged by some of these big time sponsors. And we get our revenue upfront already. So all the money that is donated, all the money that is built from this mechanism, 100% that goes to the causes. We get our money upfront once you pay us and you interact with the platform, every all the money that is donated and that is generated goes straight to different causes. So gamers are playing anyway. So they might as well be raising money and brands are, they need data and they might as well be raising money. So when is game for good release? Well, right now we're in the coding phase. We're actually in the process of fundraising to finish the coding. We have a refunder. So refunder.com slash game for good with the number four. So you could go there to be able to help raise money for us being able to finish the coding of it. And when it's coded, we will have a MVP will to have some beta testing period to get some gamers start coming on. And for them, the gamers that come on, it's free for them to come on. And that's just to help us to make sure everything goes appropriately. And then we're aiming for core first quarter 2022, first to have our grand launch. Fantastic. And, you know, before we finish today, we do have, you know, I'd like to just, you know, talk about G Haven and our, our last show, and it is available on YouTube. So you can see that video with Aaron Rice. We had some great photo, we had some great video of us in a virtual reality. And so I have some photos of that today. I just wanted to, you know, that's that's the three of us. We wandered around this virtual reality situation. We had a lot of good fun. And there's, there's Dexter. I interviewed him during that during that show. And so if you watch that show, you can see us that and that's imposing in front of the G Haven logo. And, and then we have another picture of Dexter and I looking at the lighthouse from that area. So anyway, so any last words about G Haven and what you're up to? Yeah. So we stream weekly, Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Twitch. Come follow us on there. Also follow us on our Twitter for normal updates on when we stream and just things that we have going on. And we're looking forward to come with you to join us when we when Game For Good comes out. We could come together and game with the purpose. Fantastic. And so how can people contact you if they're interested? So if you're interested in learning more, even wanting like a demo of what the experience will look like, they can always email me at dcarcerrjr at ghavenesports.com. Terrific. It was great having you as a guest, Dexter. Always nice to see you and catch up. Of course. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you viewers for joining us today. Next week, my guest will be Danielle Johnson in our Back to School show about galactic eSports. See you then.