#1001 Playing the long game
Wemade still believes
If they remember it for a second, the vast majority of people who have ever heard about blockchain gaming consider it an ignoble failure, at best. A surprisingly large proportion take an active pleasure in its demise.
But the game is not over. Eight years on, there may not be so many headlines or funding rounds. The energy is definitely different. But for those who still believe, the drive and determination to combine immutable computer money with a sustainable economy built for fun, entertainment, strategic decisions and competitive challenges lives on.
One low-key example this week was the launch of an NFT-only metagame event in Wemade’s MMORPG Night Crows. Timed to celebrate the game’s two-year anniversary, NFT Crusade is only open to players who have levelled up their in-game character to level 50 and paid around $100 to mint it as an NFT on the WEMIX blockchain.
These NFTs are a requirement for any player who wants to interact with this new metagame, which runs on a 4-week rolling cycle, rewarding the most committed with the new RAVN token that can be used to acquire very rare gear.
Wemade’s rationale seems to be two-fold. Firstly, it provides a concrete in-game reason to mint an NFT. That should encourage players — like me — who have +50 level characters but who haven’t paid to mint them.
And it should also drive trading on the game’s NFT marketplace, because players can create parties of up to five NFTs.
That’s going to be key to those players who have already invested a lot of time and money to be ranked at the elite level on their servers. In this manner, the fact they have to buy more NFTs is secondary to the end result of continuing to be a top players.
How well this works, we will have to wait and see. However, the fact that Wemade has been progressively adding such blockchain elements to its MMORPGs, starting with Mir4, through Night Crows, ROM: Golden Age and Legend of Ymir, suggests that it still has confidence in this game+blockchain approach.
News Roundup
EVE Frontier kicks off Cycle 5 with $20 pass, $80,000 Sui hackathon, and more deep space death.
The Sandbox keeps it cheerful with Smiley Factory game and avatars.
BPMG acquires Cooking Adventure IP to expand its blockchain gaming ambitions.
Square Enix becomes a Tezos baker.
Shrapnel goes into Early Access on Steam.
As discussed below.
🔗 Additional Links 🔗
Aavegotchi is supporting the launch of sidescroller Rektless Mobile with a 40,000 GHST prize pool ($3,100).
Guild of Guardians has added a new active real-time skill for use in the upgraded Challenge mode.
Power users extract and spend. Pure extractors don’t spend, says Pixels’ AI economist.
🤖 Additional AI | Agent Links 🤖
OpenClaw agents can now use MetaMask without accessing the wallet’s private keys.
BNB Chain has surpassed Ethereum as the blockchain hosting the largest number of AI agents operating under the ERC-8004 standard.
Give your LLM the power of free API-based email at AgentMail. It’s really good!