The concerns of application developers (flexibility/simplicity) and blockchain developers (security/stability) need to be separated. That's what hives are for. Offering more flexible mechanisms which aren't (or less) consensus based like a blockchain.
Hives are tools for community building in Steem, they may be leveraged for some group/game/work specific features in smaller consensus groups.
Any game developer tried to leverage these features for a game and want to share their experience?
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/update-communities-hivemind