We at Play to Earn Online Magazine have been beyond thrilled to watch what was a niche corner of crypto transform into a major cornerstone of blockchain technology. Gaming (and NFTs) have added yet another real-world utility to cryptocurrency. According to the Blockchain Game Alliance report, 1.4 million unique wallets are interacting with games daily, which accounts for an astounding 49% of blockchain usage.

The real-world utility of crypto has been the main criticism of all cryptocurrencies since Bitcoin was initially launched. Even after Bitcoin earned the “store of value” reputation, the broader world of cryptocurrency has constantly been critiqued for being a purely speculative market (how many more times do we need to hear about tulips?).

The truth is that Bitcoin and the cryptocurrencies that followed have always had value and utility, but that has really become clear to the world in 2021. NFTs stole the show for most of the year, with metaverses becoming increasingly prominent in their wake. 

It’s time to dive into how the world of play-to-earn gaming changed forever in 2021. Let’s get specific and talk about statistics, projects, and blockchains that showcase the massive growth in blockchain gaming that won’t likely be slowing down anytime soon.

“Blockchain gaming has firmly established itself as the industry’s darling. With the consumer growth participating in blockchain games, dapp and gaming trends will come together into something even bigger and potentially all- encompassing: the Metaverse. We’re headed towards a complete shift in how we form communities, create, play, trade and socialize. Blockchain gaming is catalyzing the establishment of the virtual hubs that will host this new digital life.”

Dragos Dunica — Co-founder, DappRadar

A Year Ruled by NFTs, Metaverses, and Game Tokens

Most of the mainstream exposure to NFTs has been art collections with high values that have invigorated artists and appreciators around the world. Game NFTs and game tokens have also caught some headlines and attention, but art NFTs were the main topic of conversations. As a combined force of non-fungible power, Cointelegraph Research estimates there will be a total of US$18 billion by the end of the year (and that article was published December 28th, 2021).

Metaverses have obviously exploded in recent months and added an entirely new level to NFTs and tokens. People are starting to realize that all of this is leading to further web3 development and adoption and are not various disconnected trends.

Game NFTs Are a Hot Commodity

Game NFTs and related tokens are likely to receive even more focus in 2022. We’ve seen much more attention shifting to play-to-earn projects in recent months and that likely won’t stop anytime soon. While the big studios are just now testing the ability to incorporate NFTs into their games, hundreds of other developers are building games with NFTs as part of their core plan. NFTs that offer passive income, and/or special privileges have seen the most buzz. Some even selling for thousands of dollars! Allowing players to actually own pieces of the games they play is huge. The market for gaming NFTs is just getting started!

Metaverses Strive to Imagine a New Digital Life

Building a metaverse has become such a hot topic that Facebook even changed their name to try and get in on the action! Early projects like Decentraland and Sandbox are still going strong, stronger than ever, in fact. But the space is quickly filling with new contenders! Uplift World, NFT Worlds, Star Atlas, … just to name a few.

Some offer customizable worlds and lands, others connect across blockchains.Some are even built from the ground up by the players. Interoperability between blockchains and connecting to external dapps are two features that will see increased adoption in the coming year.

The word metaverse is thrown around pretty frequently in the blockchain space. There are many projects that use the word metaverse in their marketing, but have nothing to really show for it in their whitepaper or app. A true metaverse would offer some sort of interconnectivity. A world space that has NFTs and tokens but otherwise is self-contained, does not count as a metaverse. 

Questions of censorship and self-governance will arise as these metaverses mature and add content. Will the worlds be free for all parties, gated communities, or something in-between? As more metaverses come online, especially ones with VR capabilities, expect to see renewed interest in NFTs as art. Decorating your own in-game personal space will become even more of a status symbol and means of self-expression. Embedded dapps will allow users to make direct purchases and external interactions while never leaving their virtual world. And this is all just the beginning! The next few years will see metaverses expand in ways we may not have even imagined yet!

Game Tokens Explode in Popularity

Games have long had their own currencies. But for the most part, those were centralized, in-game, and only usable on the in-game markets. Blockchain is changing that dynamic. Now, not only are in-game items being produced as tradeable NFTs, but game currencies are now often created as blockchain tokens. This enhances play to earn opportunities by providing an easy method for players to cash out, and also opens up interactions with external services such as decentralized finance. 

2021 was definitely the year of the gaming token. Older game tokens such as Sandbox (+15613.2%), Axie Infinity (+16874.3%), and Mana (+4006.3%), have skyrocketed in value over the past year. Gods Unchained launched its GODS token along with new play to earn mechanics. New games in development are hosting ICOs, IDOs, aidrops, incentive programs, and more. Finding ways to get their tokens into the hands of players and investors while providing utility for it and creating value.

Game tokens that include governance provisions (ie, token holders get to decide some or all aspects of the dapp development) have become the next big thing. In fact, it’s hard to find a new game in development with its own token that doesn’t include some plans for governance! Illivium is one of the next examples. Launched in March of 2021, the token value has increased over 3000% over the past 6 months! And there isn’t even a game to play yet! There are, however, options for staking, and governance already in place.

Play-to-Earn Projects that Dominated the Conversation

NFTs, gaming, and play to earn were the buzzwords for the blockchain space of 2021. And while there are a host of projects to choose from these days, a few notable projects stood out above the rest.

In regards to number of active users, Alien Worlds, Axie Infinity, and Splinterlands dominate the top of the charts. While Alien Worlds has no real gameplay to speak of, the ability to mine for free, and earn tokens that can be sold, has attracted players from around the world. Their recent addition of staking missions on the Binance Smart Chain has proven to be a huge boost for the Alien Worlds ecosystem and a big step in cross-chain connectivity.

Splinterlands launched it’s governance token, SPS, airdropping millions of coins to those who hold Splinterlands NFTs and tokens. Development of the land ownership portion of their game could see the userbase propelled to new heights!

Axie Infinity introduced us to scholarship programs, spawning play to earn guilds like Yield Guild Games, who have even created their own token! Axie land sales continue to hit new all-time highs and the game shows no signs of slowing down.

Sandbox stays constantly relevant, announcing partnerships regularly with everyone from Atari to Snoop Dogg! Sandbox just finished its first Alpha phase, offering huge rewards for lucky participants. Expect even more excitement as it moves into Beta and some of the games in development began to come online.

Newer Blockchains Are Powering Diverse Projects

Probably the biggest takeaway from blockchain gaming in 2021, is the expansion and adoption of new blockchains. WAX jumped to the forefront of game development. Solana saw many new projects. Sandbox announced its move to Polygon. Axie developed its own sidechain, Ronin, and Gods Unchained built a zk-rollup powered marketplace, Immutable X, that now hosts NFTs for dozens of different projects! Binance Smart Chain has also moved into the game space. Mostly with gaming/defi hybrid projects but a number of more dedicated games are hitting the space as well.

This app and gaming diaspora is a direct result of the high gas fees on the Ethereum network, but in the long run, is great for blockchain as a whole. Out of the experimentations, and mutations, and sometimes Frankenstein assembly  of different codebases, comes new and amazing developments, some of which will shape the blockchain space for years to come.

What to Expect from 2022 and Beyond

Our editors Jazelle and Phil share their thoughts on what is to come in the future.

Jazelle — “We Need Cheaper Game Assets”

It seems pretty clear that NFTs and metaverses aren’t going anywhere. However, for play-to-earn gaming to break into normal gaming, developers need to think smaller and cheaper about game assets. I’m hoping to see projects on WAX and SOL make use of the cheap transactions to create projects that are more game, less fi. 

Metaverses have their place and will be huge in 2022, but I’m hoping devs remember average people don’t have thousands of dollars for a single game asset. Most non-blockchain gamers I know view play-to-earn gaming as “rich people stuff.” I live and breathe this stuff and I can’t convince myself to buy a lot of these assets.

Projects like Skyweaver have focused on the long-term development of a quality cross-platform game that barely seems like crypto is involved, and that’s a great way to reach mainstream gamers. Most of Skyweaver’s NFTs are around the price of a microtransaction on a standard mobile game, too. The “Conquest” game mode creates a somewhat firm price floor of US$1.50 for silver NFTs, and right now the most expensive cards are just over US$5. People might not get rich off of Skyweaver alone, but that’s fine – this isn’t supposed to immediately become your full-time job. 

I signed up for the alpha of Skyweaver around the same time that I bought God’s Unchained Genesis packs and Skyweaver just barely moved on-chain this year. That’s the same slow development ideology embraced by Cardano and it’s one I appreciate.

Phil — “2022 Will See Even More Metaverse Hype”

Everyone will jump on the buzzword, even if their app has nothing metaversey about it. True metaverses will continue to grow and expand, connecting across blockchains, embedding external dapps, and other cool stuff like that.

Many of the gaming projects that rose during this year of NFT hype will falter and dwindle to nothing or simply disappear.Same with the generative NFTs. There’s not enough room for all of them.

2022 will bring more utility to NFTs. They will have multiple uses, across multiple projects. Play to earn will continue to expand beyond the browser-based staking games. Higher quality games will hit the blockchain.

The gaming token market might become overly diluted. Not every single dapp needs to have its own blockchain token. Blockchain enabled NFTs as game items starts to become the norm, but having it as a default for new games is still several years away. The markets and blockchains will continue to see ups and downs, but the ecosystem will continue to grow and become part of everyday life for more and more people.

Stay Informed and Get Involved

With the meteoric rise of blockchain gaming and play to earn opportunities, trying to keep up with them all can be an impossible task. This is where Play to Earn can help you. Subscribe to our newsletter, join the Discord server and follow us on Twitter to get all the new articles in regards to blockchain gaming and play to earn experiences.

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Solana-based Star Atlas launched its first taste of gameplay on December 16h, 2021. According to the Medium post, SCORE signals the beginning of interoperability on Solana. This update lays the groundwork for upcoming game mechanics with further complexity that are discussed in the project’s roadmap. 

The new update is the first example of how players will be able to earn within the Star Atlas ecosystem. It makes use of the expanded Galactic Market and adds something to do every so often.

Some players were disappointed with the level of actual gameplay included in the update. While a valid complaint, it’s important to remember that this is a small step and not the end of the journey. Players can now actually earn ATLAS rather than having NFTs sitting idly in their wallets. 

How do you earn with your ship NFTs? What is SCORE all about? Let’s get into it. 

How to Earn with SCORE

Short for Ship Commissions on Remote Expeditions, SCORE allows players to create a fleet out of their ships, supply it with resources, and earn ATLAS. Here’s what it looks like in action:

Resources are consumed as the ship explores the galaxy and generates ATLAS. You will see the amount of ATLAS that your fleet will earn each day, provided that it is fully stocked with the required resources. 

My modest ship generated 0.939 ATLAS while it was fully powered. That might not be impressive based on current ATLAS prices, but it’s more than it was generating before this update. It also earned more than was spent on resources, but considering it’s a player-run economy that may not always be true, so be aware.

Head to the official Star Atlas app and visit the new “Faction Fleet” tab to get started. Anyone who had a starship NFT during the December 22nd snapshot was airdropped some resources to help them get started (my airdropped resources didn’t show up until I bought something else). 

What Resources Do You Need?

Some NFT staking features in other games are “set it and forget it.” That’s not what’s happening with this new update – you’ll need to keep your ships well-stocked in order to keep earning. 

You’ll need to head to the Marketplace and visit the Resouces tab to buy everything you need:

NOTE: You will have to pay 0.02 SOL for the first transaction of each resource. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s a one-time fee and then you’re set forever. 

You will need:

• Fuel
• Food
• Ammo
• Toolkits (for ship health)

Each of these resources is consumed at different rates. You must have a functional level of each resource. The burn rate of each resource is available in the Fleet Data Tab:

That’s all there is to it right now: set up your fleet and load it up with resources. You’ll need to check back and refill regularly to ensure that you keep earning. 

What is Star Atlas?

Star Atlas is an upcoming massively multiplayer online game set in space, which will use Solana for its blockchain mechanics. All game logic, transactions, and ownership will be stored on-chain. Star Atlas will be a grand strategy hybrid space game with serverless MMO gameplay. All gameplay will be real-time, and it will use the blockchain to give players ownership over in-game items, add economic-based gameplay mechanics and implement an economic system inspired by decentralized finance.

All ships, space stations, and land installations have weapons and shields for attack and defense. Gamers can upgrade space stations and installations through community efforts, while space ship commanders can assign crewmembers to improve the ship’s performance. The choice for your crew can influence your career, ranging from data runner to bounty hunter.

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Author’s Note: People lost money and deserve answers, but they need to be the right answers. There are endless rumors floating around including accusations of a rug pull. At this time, there is no concrete evidence that indicates the team acted maliciously. If new information comes to light this article will be updated. I personally lost value on this project, but I’m not going to accuse the team of malice because of the volatility and opportunity for outside manipulation that is inherent to all blockchain projects, especially the growing and experimental space of blockchain gaming. 

CryptoMines was a promising game that focused on mining planets for ETERNAL every 24 hours, with better fleets generating more of the game’s token. However, FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) spread throughout the community and completely destroyed the token’s value. The core message was uncertainty about the number of tokens held by the developers, but plenty of other rumors has entered the narrative at this point. 

At the time of this writing, the price of ETERNAL is US$4.90, a 99.4% drop from the $801.59 all-time high that was only 13 days ago (all data per CoinMarketCap). 

Multiple announcements were made in the project’s Discord, Twitter, and Medium to attempt to quell the fears and stabilize the price. As summarized in a story from BSC News, the official responses to the FUD from the developers focused on three points:

• The developers are indeed the biggest ETERNAL holders, but they promise not to sell in a way that would negatively impact the community
• Prices can be impacted by larger traders working together to drop the price in order to buy more when it’s lower
• The smart contract for the game has received multiple audits and there is no evidence of exploitation

The above article (and the explanations it discusses) is from December 3rd before the project announced it would shut down. 

The Development Team Proposes a Reworked and Independent Game

It was not encouraging to see the subheading “What happened to CyptoMines?” when I came across the team’s Medium post on Twitter.

The post reiterated many of the points that we already talked about and the community had heard for the week prior. However, this post was the first time that I saw the admission of a game design flaw that perpetuated the issue. The direct quote is:

“In this way, we could observe how it was a devastating fall as big as the massive growth of CryptoMines, where people’s confidence was totally eroded when the price of the token took a hit of that level, however, the main problem is that NFTs have no additional cost or wear and tear causing an over-population of these assets and thus reaching a point where some investors do not have the need to continue re-investing.”

The development team is holding a vote on whether or not to launch a new game. Whether the vote is approved or denied, the current incarnation of CryptoMines will remain functional until the reward pool reaches zero and can no longer continue payments. It seems as though the main purpose of the vote is to gauge the support for a reworked game. 

Plenty of information was published about the proposed new game. Please visit the announcement for all of the details, but some of the notable features are:

• Different minting costs and limiting minting timeframe
• Minting will be replaced with a breeding system after the initial mint
• NFTs will have additional attributes beyond mine power
• A new token, Dark Matter (DM), will be pegged to USDT and used for all in-game transactions
• NFTs will need to be burned to repair and maintain fleets
• Taxes on token purchases and in-game sales will help fund the project
• Developer tokens for the new project will be locked for five years
• No pre-sale or private sale of tokens
• Additional tokenomics information available in the announcement 

CryptoMines will be shutting down once the reward pool can no longer make payouts. The remaining unlocked ETERNAL will be added to the reward pool along with any additional ETERNAL that become unlocked. 

If the proposed reworked game is approved, players of the legacy game will be able to claim discount tickets related to their fleets and other player metrics. 

What Can The Play-to-Earn Space Learn from CryptoMines?

It remains to be seen if we’ll see a reworked CryptoMines. Community confidence has never been lower and they may not vote for a new game. We may not see CryptoMines again, but the lessons learned from the project will remain:

• Developers of play-to-earn projects need to fully grasp that malicious actors will do whatever they can to exploit and manipulate the game and related assets for profit. The broader worlds of both crypto and gaming are filled with attempts to exploit platforms and systems for the personal gain – blockchain gaming is no different. 
• New economic models and game mechanics must be thoroughly tested in a simulated environment to ensure there are no blind spots that can impact the entire project. Endlessly inflating NFTs is a stated reason why this project went under – this could’ve been entirely avoided with further testing. 
• Players must thoroughly investigate every project they get involved with. In this situation, it’s hard to blame anyone who lost value with this project, but it’s worth repeating that you are ultimately responsible for what you invest. 

CryptoMines now serves as a warning to developers, gamers, and investors. This is an exciting space and people are reporting impressive earnings constantly. However, blockchain gaming still embodies the one thing that crypto has been known for since the beginning: volatility. Never invest what you can’t lose and always be prepared for projects to disappear. 

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WorldWideWeb3 (WEBB) is an in-development 2D metaverse based on Ethereum with its sights set on full interoperability with NFTs from many popular blockchains. A recent Tweet from the WorldWideWeb3 team announced the Aaavegtochi integration with a short teaser showing a Gotchi floating in the WorldWideWeb3 metaverse. 

The team also announced integrations with The Littles NFT and Wizards & Dragons Game that will also be live on the 11th. These integrations are the same in nature as the Aaavegotchi integration.

Currently, WorldWideWeb3 allows players to walk around a town as their chosen NFT avatar from any integrated projects or a standard white man. The project is currently holding a whitelisting event for an upcoming asset sale that requires players to navigate a simple yet fun stealth mission, and then take part in a Snake-inspired PvP contest, with the top 1,000 ranked players earning a whitelist spot. 

You can go check out what’s available on the project’s website, just click Play and enjoy. I did not mind them taking a shot at Facebook (Meta) in the intro, or the Tron and Ready Player One references scattered throughout. It’s free to check it out and you don’t need any specific NFTs to explore the world.

The limited gameplay that’s currently available gives us a feel for what’s coming, and it seems quite promising. This new Aaavegotchi integration marks the beginning of the NFT interoperability that is central to the project. It’s the first in the series of additional blockchain and NFT collection support, but how will it impact gameplay?

What Does NFT Integration Actually Mean?

You don’t have to look very deep into WorldWideWeb3 to see they are heavily inspired by the Ready Player One universe. Rather than go the labor and graphics-heavy route of immersive VR gameplay, they opted for a 2D pixel metaverse. This stylistic choice sets the tone for perfect integrations with other projects that use pixel art NFTs, such as Aaavegotchi. 

At present, NFT integrations allow players to see their precious NFTs walking around in a pixel world. It’s worth noting that the project that created the chosen NFT must specifically design a full-body version of your NFT to appear as an actual character. Otherwise, you’ll see the NFT as a profile picture with the generic body as standard players. The Aaavegotchi integration will feature a full-body character.

That’s only the beginning, however. WorldWideWeb3 aims to become an MMORPG that uses NFTs from a variety of popular projects to represent avatars, lands, items, pets, and even quests. The focus is to allow communities to exist and thrive within the 2D metaverse however they see fit. It’s easy to imagine a thriving Aaavegotchi community within WorldWideWeb3 where Gotchis socialize, shop, live, and adventure together (in addition to what’s happening with the Aaavegotchi project itself). 

These integrations allow players to directly represent their NFT and their community within the game. It’s unclear if the chosen avatar will have any quantifiable impact on gameplay, but it’s easy to imagine potential mechanics related to which NFT you are currently using. Of course, the project is largely social in nature, so the way that you present yourself is itself a part of the gameplay. 

What is WorldWideWeb3?

WorldWideWeb3 (WEBB) describes itself as an MMORPG metaverse game that uses NFTs for in-game avatars, lets, lands, items, and quests. Their virtual world will become a template for future projects, with core values to keep the space open for all and interoperable with as many other projects as possible.

In this world, you can play as you Punk or Bored Ape, and then use your Mooncat or CrypToad as a battle pet. The developers want to integrate as many third-party projects as possible. If you don’t have any of the supported NFTs, you can always play with a CryptoWeeb. Those are the native characters.

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CryptoMines recently disclosed their 2022 roadmap that contains new information on the specific updates and features that will be deployed next year. The roadmap announcement does not disclose any specific dates or even quarters, but it does grant insights into the direction the project is moving. 

The BSC-based space exploration metaverse CryptoMines aims to expand its current offering with new features, changes to existing features, and behind-the-scenes updates that will impact the way players are able to earn ETERNAL. 

CryptoMines’ updated 2022 roadmap announcement is available on Medium and contains more in-depth information about each of the features we’ll be going over below. Additionally, make sure to watch the official CryptoMines Twitter account to see any specific dates as they’re announced.

What Can We Expect in 2022?

CryptoMines is going to be hard at work throughout 2022. The new milestones discussed in their roadmap are:

New Planets

Three new planets will be “discovered” that are located in a different galaxy, creating an entirely new ruleset from planets 1-30 that are currently available. These planets will introduce licensing, which is related to upcoming land rewards. Additionally, the success percentage will vary, faction alignment will grant benefits, and fuel costs will be variable. 

Monetization Changes

Multiple changes will be made to how the game is monetized from a business perspective. The game needs to make money somehow that doesn’t depend on endless NFT sales or locked tokens. As such, CryptoMines will introduce a $0.40 USD fee (charged in BNB) for every in-game transaction. Planets 1-5 will add a $0.40 USD reward to help offset this new fee. Planet 21 and beyond will have a scaling fee that begins at $1.00 USD (also in BNB).

Mass Mints and Improved Liquidity

Both spacecraft and workers will soon have a “mass mint” option to allow players to quickly mint new NFTs. Additionally, the price for all minting will change from $15 in ETERNAL to $5 in BNB. 

Every mint will add $10 to the BNB-ETERNAL pool, helping create ongoing liquidity for the project.

Space Stations (Land)

What kind of metaverse would CryptoMines be without a land system? Since the game takes place in space, players will have the opportunity to own space stations to help benefit from the volume of players in the game. There are a few notable things to know about space stations:

• Space stations will come in three rarities: Common, Rare, and Legendary. The higher the rarity, the greater the earning potential. Players will need to be whitelisted to purchase a space station. The only known requirement at this point is that players will need at least one fleet within the game, along with additional requirements that will be published in the future.
• Money from licenses will be distributed to space station owners: Licensing is required for players to access planets, with a new tier-based license system making more advanced licenses required at later planets. Money collected from the licensing system will be distributed to all space station owners, with higher rarity space stations getting a higher percentage of the pot.
• Rewards for advanced explorations: Any exploration from planet 11 onwards will pay space station owners 5% of all successful expeditions. 

No further information is available about when space stations will be sold or additional whitelisting requirements. We do know that a new marketplace will be created to facilitate space station sales in an auction format.

Raid Box Updates

Raids are regularly occurring events that presently take place every weekend and give players an opportunity to earn additional rewards. Loot from these raid boxes comes in the form of utilities that can also be sold on the in-game marketplace. Some possible rewards are:

• Name change
• Faction change
• Remove a worker or ship from the fleet
• 1-3 days of fuel
• An additional worker position in the fleet 

ETERNAL Boxes

New boxes will be made available that contain similar upgrades as Raid boxes but can be directly purchased at a set BNB cost per box. It’s unknown if these boxes will always be available or only available at specific timeframes. All funds raised from sales of ETERNAL boxes will be used to add liquidity.

Other Additional Features

The team also plans to launch a few less-notable but still important features throughout the year. These features include:

• An internal P2P exchange to reduce scams 
• The ability to change the price of a marketplace listing
• Mass mining for those with a large amount of fleets, but the feature will take 10% of your rewards to use
• A DEX within the CryptoMines ecosystem to allow players to more easily move assets in and out of the metaverse, along with creating new opportunities for liquidity pools that the project has more control over
• PvP will be delayed until Q2 2022 to allow the team more time to implement their specific vision, rather than working under current restrictions

What is CryptoMines?

CryptoMines is a BSC-based space exploration game focused on mining ETERNAL, the game’s token, from a tier of increasingly profitable planets. Players use ship and worker NFTs to create fleets that go on exploration missions to mine these planets. More advanced planets can be reached by creating fleets with higher Mining Power (MP).

Currently, the gameplay is focused on building fleets, increasing mining power, and extracting ETERNAL from planets. Weekly raids also present an additional way for players to earn ETERNAL and additional rewards. Players are able to mine once every 24 hours, which is dependent on the last time they mined (previous versions reset everyone’s clock at 0:00 UTC). 

The project is playable in its current state with plenty of new updates coming. You can learn more about the project by reading the CryptoMines whitepaper.

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Colonize Mars is a Wax-based economic strategy game that uses NFTs to represent equipment and people on a Mars colony. The game is currently in development, although the first taste of gameplay officially launched last month. At present, players may stake their NFTs to generate MARTIA tokens. 

The upcoming Mission Three pack sale will be split between two days. The first sale will take place on December 20th and will be found through the upcoming in-game marketplace. Players are required to spend MARTIA to buy packs. For added pressure, the sale will only last for one hour. The official Medium announcement and the project’s official Twitter account do not mention an exact time, which is presumably intentional and will be announced prior to the sale.

The second day of the Mission Three pack sale will take place on AtomicHub on December 21st, the primary NFT marketplace for Wax, just like previous missions. Wax will be used for this phase of the sale.

Mission Three will introduce 11 new item types and 34 Ownership NFTs, each adding new depth to the game. An additional eight astronauts will also be introduced, each with their own skills and talents.

Additionally, there is an exclusive crafting event discussed in the Medium post that only applies to people who have Dark Matter cards for every card type from Mission One. Most people won’t be eligible for this, but if you are, go check out the post for more details. 

How Will the In-Game Sale Work?

The in-game sale will follow a “Dutch auction” format, according to the team. This means that the price will drop by 6% every 10 minutes until a price floor is reached. The price floor will be active for 10 minutes before the auction closes entirely. Players will have a 60-second cooldown on transactions. 

Check out the below chart to see the MARTIA prices for upcoming packs:

The price for the packs sold on AtomicHub will be announced after the in-game sale closes. Players with MARTIA clearly have an early advantage, signaling that Colonize Mars will likely continue to reward early adopters.

What is Colonize Mars?

Colonize Mars is a strategic colony simulation game currently in development on the Wax blockchain. Players use their NFTs to aid in colony development and eventually create land expansions and build player-owned hubs. Players stake cards and maintain them at regular intervals to receive Martia tokens as rewards in the first Phase. Later phases will include expansion, expeditions, and discovery.

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The economic strategy game Prospectors recently launched a new map known as the Grand Land that creates new game mechanics based on NFT ownership. Previous zones did not use NFTs at all, with selling game tokens being the only play-to-earn mechanism in the game. The inclusion of NFTs brings an entirely new way to view the game. 

Land NFTs were already sold in an event that preceded the Grand Land launch. In a recent Medium post from the team, the team prepared landowners for how to use their new NFTs in the game. If you’re a landowner who is looking to add your Land NFT into the game, that’s the post you need to read.

The inclusion of Land NFTs changes the fundamental way property is owned and used throughout the game. Since every plot is now owned by someone, those without Land NFTs will have to rent a plot from the owner to start a business. This isn’t all that new, but the difference is that renting a property will undoubtedly become more expensive. This difference means players will have to work much harder to create a business or buy hordes of games tokens

It’s worth noting that Land NFTs must be withdrawn from within the game before they can be transferred to another player and there must be no open orders. 

What is Prospectors?

Prospectors is a WAX and EOS-based economic strategy game that takes place in the Wild West. Players start with three workers with no equipment and must make smart business decisions to grow their wealth. Players can start out by doing transportation jobs and then buy equipment to take on better-paying jobs. The primary play-to-earn mechanism is acquiring gold in-game and then using the in-game exchange to convert it to PGL, the game’s token. 

Old zones did not contain any NFTs, but the Grand Land update has added NFTs that represent land, animals, and vehicles. It’s likely that other NFTs will be introduced in future updates, although nothing has formally been announced. Only the Grand Land zone will have NFT-based gameplay, with the other two zones being based strictly on earning gold.

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Midgard Clash is focused on automated dungeon exploration that rewards players based on the NFTs they send into battle. Gameplay currently consists of sending one character and three weapons into a dungeon for 6, 12, or 24 hours. Players return to claim their Yggdrassil (YGD), the project’s token, and being the cycle again. You are unable to withdraw your earnings until you’ve reached 3,000 YGD.

The game launched recently after conducting several successful pack sales. All of the NFTs are based on Norse mythology and the lore surrounds Midgard’s Second Quest. The latest update from the team introduces new elements that allow players to upgrade their NFTs and generate additional rewards. 

Get Ready for Training Your NFTs

Weapon and character training work in the same way. Players will pick the desired NFT and combine it with a rune and set the amount of YGD to receive an NFT with upgraded rarity. 

For weapons training:

• A bronze NFT will require a bronze rune and 400 YGD to receive a silver NFT
• A silver NFT will require a silver rune and 800 YGD to receive a gold NFT
• A gold NFT will require a gold rune and 2000 YGD to receive a platinum NFT

For character training:

• Four bronze NFTs will combine and require a bronze rune and 400 YGD to receive a silver NFT
• Three silver NFTs will combine and require a silver rune and 800 YGD to receive a gold NFT
• Two gold NFTs will combine and require a gold rune and 2000 YGD to receive a platinum NFT

Runes Are Earned Through Raids

Runes are earned through a staking mechanism that generates rune pieces. Five pieces are combined to create a rune that is usable in the processes discussed above. Character NFTs will generate rune pieces of the same rarity. 

Raiding is how runes are earned and it’s essentially staking (it’s unclear if the NFTs actually leave your wallet, but presumably they do not). Players will stake 1-4 characters along with 10,000 YGD to earn rune pieces. Staking for one week will earn 12 pieces, while a month will earn 60. Players can send multiple groups of up to four characters but will pay the 10,000 YGD fee each time. 

There is no official release date for these new mechanics, but the team says it will only be a few weeks. These mechanics help provide additional ways to maximize earnings along with building the foundation for future developments. 

What is Midgard Clash?

Midgard Clash is an NFT-focused game that allows players to send their NFTs off to explore dungeons. After an automated dungeon crawl, the character NFT returns in a bag of Yggdrassil, the game’s token. Players claim their prize and send the character on another adventure. Higher rarity NFTs result in more earnings from the dungeons. 

Players may also upgrade their NFTs by spending runes and Yggdrassil. These new mechanisms allow players to continually improve their collection through dedicated gameplay, generative value throughout the experience. Follow the official Midgard Clash Twitter account for the latest updates. 

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Wax-based Colonize Mars is an economic strategy game in which players will work together to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars. Every building, person, vehicle, or machine is an NFT and players need those to start playing. 

The current state of the game allows users to log in and allocate their base NFTs to ownership NFTs in order to generate Martia (check out this post for the difference between the NFT categories). Once allocated, players will passively generate Martia based on the rarity and type of their cards. 

All you can do right now is logging in to see how many Martia tokens you’ve generated. Players can claim them at any time and there is no penalty for doing so, nor is there a benefit to leaving them in a claimable status. 

As evident by the activity on Alcor before the latest announcement, plenty of people were just dumping their coins. The price dropped consistently after launch, which is entirely sensible considering there was no in-game utility for them and sparse information about near-term usage. 

That all changed with the team’s latest announcement that contained important details about future uses for Martia and the direction of the game in general. Let’s go through both near-term and long-term uses for Martia that we now know a bit more about.

Ways to use Martia in Colonize Mars

A new in-game store will launch in December 2021, and this store will exclusively use Martia to facilitate transactions. Selling Mission Three Supply Packs is the only purpose for the in-game store at launch. However, it’s easy to imagine they may integrate common features such as NFT markets and other types of asset sales. Keep in mind, this is a glass ball prediction, and speculation at best. 

Early 2022 will see the introduction of hazards and resources. These updates will build upon the foundation by adding a Martia burn mechanism and introducing strategy when building your collection.

Hazards will burn your Martia 

Hazards will randomly occur throughout the colony, such as dust storms, asteroids, and volcanic activity. These hazards will affect both Ownership NFTs and Base NFTs by reducing their payouts. Base cards even have the potential to deactivate when taking too much damage. 

Players must repair both types of cards. Players will pay Martia to repair their NFTs. More importantly, Martia spent on repairs will be burnt. Burn mechanisms are important to reduce a supply and create scarcity. It’s great to see one introduced so early. 

Of course, the secondary purpose is to encourage players to check on the colony regularly to ensure they don’t need to repair anything. Ownership holders will risk losing stakers, while base cards could stop earning entirely. 

Resources add new depth to collection building

The introduction of resources is the second update to expect early next year. The update will define the specific roles of the NFTs that we’ve all been collecting. 

NFTs will have specialty uses throughout the colony that will generate resources. The specific example they give is an Ice Mining Rig consuming power and producing water. You can imagine the various resources that might come into play when a specific NFT generates them. Each of those resources will play a role in future developments. 

Where’s the depth? You’ll need to intentionally build your collection to provide boosts to Martia generation, experience gain, and other unknown bonuses. There’s no further information about this, but clearly, the mechanism is intended to create an element of strategy to which cards you buy. 

The goal of the current phase of Colonize Mars is to become a self-sustaining colony. At that point, additional elements will be introduced including land ownership, construction, and exploration. Resources will undoubtedly be heavily involved in upcoming updates. 

What is Colonize Mars?

Colonize Mars is a strategic colony simulation game currently in development on the Wax blockchain. Players use their NFTs to aid in colony development and eventually create land expansions and build player-owned hubs. Players stake cards and maintain them at regular intervals to receive Martia tokens as rewards in the first Phase. Later phases will include expansion, expeditions, and discovery.

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Upland recently secured $18 million in an investment round that was intended to speed up its roadmap. Part of that roadmap includes launching highly-anticipated player-owned businesses. In a recent Medium post, the team introduced the official term for player-owned businesses within Upland along with introducing the revamped ownership system. 

Metaventures are coming are you’re not going to need an NFT to have one. Originally, Business License NFTs would allow players to create businesses within a specific city. It’s sensible, but the team realized it created a high barrier of entry, discouraged competition, and had potential distribution challenges. They ultimately concluded that NFTs weren’t the way to bring metaventures to life. 

The new way to start and operate a business is called the Venture Dues model. How will this new model impact your ability to create a business in Upland?

What is the Venture Dues Model?

The goals of the Venture Dues model are to encourage competition, allow anyone to participate, and create a healthy marketplace. 

Metaventure owners will pay a monthly fee in order to retain their businesses. How much are you going to be paying to operate your business?

Every player who transacts with a business will pay a UPX fee to the Upland Community Pool as part of their transaction. The fee to operate your metaventure is based on the median UPX fee for your business type and location. Your fee will be a specific percentage of the median UPX contribution for your business type and location. 

Let’s assume your locale is at 100% capacity. You’ll be paying a 10% fee every month. A median contribution to the community pool of 600k UPX will require every business to pay 60k UPX. 

All of this is subject to change. Head to the official Upland Medium post about this Venture Dues to see the updated information, on top of other official channels for the project. 

What is Upland?

Upland is a Monopoly-inspired EOS blockchain game in which players buy and own digital versions of real-world properties. Players buy virtual property using in-game tokens (UPX), which they can also earn in the game itself.

The game world of Upland uses real-world maps. Players start in San Francisco or Fresno and can travel to other cities, including New York, Oakland, and Chicago. They earn income from owning and trading virtual properties, completing signature collections, and participating in treasure hunts and other live events. Upland properties are based on real-world boundaries.

Upland allows players to create virtual businesses. In addition, players can work together to build and upgrade their properties. Upland runs in a browser and is accessible on most devices.

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