15 Tips for Building New «Play and Earn» Mechanics in NFT Games
The concept called «Play to Earn» quickly gained popularity among fans of the NFT and cryptocurrencies. You can learn more about this concept in article: «Play to Earn». The concept attracts novice adepts who want to understand and experiment with the game. The problems of the concept manifested themselves half a year after the peak indicators of interest. In the long term, the level of remuneration began to decline. Since more and more players began to sell in-game resources and coins, thereby increasing the supply on the market, and lowering the prices of underlying assets. These problems affected the most popular games, for example: Axie Infinity, STEPN, Gods Unchained, Alien Worlds, Splinterlands.
Players of these projects began to notice a drop in potential earnings, even before the start of a strong downtrend in the NFT industry. Are there the right ways to keep NFT games alive after a long time? And with the continuation of the game to please their fans for a long time. In this article, we talk about new modern concepts of NFT games using the «Play to Earn» mechanics. These are the mechanics of application, which will allow the formation of a developed community around the project for a long time.
NFT games and Financial pyramids: how to get out of the vicious circle?
If we model the «Play to Earn» mathematical model in detail, then by examining the dependence of the average median return per player on the growth in the number of new participants, we can find that there is a high probability that the system will completely destabilize and the price of the underlying assets of the platforms will fall to zero. Profitability will be staggeringly dependent on the influx of new players and their initial investment in the game. This model is able to exist and generate income only with a high and steady growth in the number of new followers of the game. This requires constant expansion into new markets and the search for new advertising channels. Which will ensure the flow of new buyers of the underlying asset on the platform. Which in turn requires large marketing costs. As a result, the moment will come when the imbalance of the system will either lead to a «spiral of death» or a slow extinction of the project. A good project, even with the loss of most of the audience, will retain loyal users. Even despite the fact that the price of the underlying asset can fall dozens of times, or maybe hundreds. If you remember how in 2018 ICO projects had all the capitalization and liquidity in a week, this option looks quite realistic.
What is the value of the NFT Games and their underlying assets?
Correctly noted from the previous conclusion, the concept of a person’s participation in the game (by estimating his time spent playing the game) implies significantly more emotional attachment and a higher appreciation of the value of the underlying asset, versus investments in the style: «buy and wait for growth». A particularly valuable asset can be rare collectibles that are difficult to buy on the marketplace or are rarely sold and have a steady shortage on the in-game market.
Advanced Next Generation NFT Games Mechanics
In order for NFT games of the next generation to have a cumulative long-term effect, and in-game items to grow in price, they need to shape their tokenomics around the principles:
- Deepen the reward system
NFT project teams should be very fond of mathematics and create artificial models of the project’s future tokenomics. Carry out full testing of risk factors, studying in detail the influence of all parameters on the imbalance of the system. Do not be afraid to spend investors’ money on a detailed study of the system you are creating, as a well-prepared game will pay off many times over in the long run.
Get away from ancient practices. Look towards the advanced reward systems in today’s games. Use different types and different rank reward items. An example of different types of rewards are: experience, coins, energy. Prescribe in the logic of the game a gradual decrease in the number of rewards in order to prevent a surplus. When sellers begin to lower prices one by one in a short period of time.
Remember when developing a project, you should represent the top games of our time, and not use outdated mechanics. Imagine if Blizzard implemented NFT in World of Warcraft, that’s the kind of project you should start building!
2. Implement non-permanent rewards in NFT
The introduction of a non-permanent reward system in NFT games will help generate additional interest from players. Make super-rare NFTs in your project, with clear mechanics for obtaining them (reward for patience).
Use the model of a smooth transition of the account from a constant reward to a floating one, or completely abandon the permanent rewards. This method is very sensitive to a good selection of game parameters, for example: the chance of dropping an in-game item. The player must love the game, the player must spend time in the game and enjoy it, and the reward must act as a motivating factor to increase the time spent in the game or to interact within the community.
3. Restriction on the sale of in-game items
The game may contain mechanics for game attributes that cannot be sold and are assigned to a certain wallet, for example: NFT tattoos, curses.
4. Craft Temporary NFT Items
It can be: spells, both with good and negative effects. Lowering or increasing the parameters of the player or his account, and disappearing over time.
5. Increase interaction between players
or example, you can use the following mechanics: a player can forbid another player to move in the game for a certain time, perform one or another game functionality. Including the function of selling resources and items.
6. Create the possibility of breaking the NFT during the PLAY
The game mechanics «Play to Earn», as we said above, leads to a surplus of in-game assets. The surplus of in-game capital created by players can overwhelm the market and lead to a big sell-off. After which there will be an outflow of players from the system, because. the game will not be able to provide the hopes placed on it for earnings. Therefore, use the NFT breakdown mechanics during the game. This mechanic can be seen in the STEPN project. NFT Sneakers can break at any moment, which in turn removes part of the assets from the market.
7. Incorporate the concept of taxes into your NFT game
This is probably the most advanced mechanic! Refuse to finance the project by selling NFT tokens owned by the project team. Yes, yes, many projects do this, leaving behind the opportunity to manipulate the market. Fund only from the money that you accumulate within the gameplay.
Enter various paid locations or paid mechanics. For example: competitions and tournaments for which the player must pay tax.
Use different ranks or ranks of accounts, depending on the tax paid.
The collected tax can go both to the creators of the project, justifying the need for the development of the platform to users. So completely be completely destroyed inside the game, so as not to influence the market and not create a surplus.
8. NFT Steal Game Mechanic: Let them steal
This is a very dangerous tactic that requires proper study and calculations. Let players interact deeply with each other. Make a mechanic where one player can steal another player’s NFT token if left unopposed. Remember the confrontation should be easy so that the player who is trying to steal something can easily resist it, and the opportunity to steal is associated with risk. For example, a player trying to steal something should incur asset losses with a much greater chance of resisting. Using this mechanic, you will force users to log into the game more often so as not to lose in-game values. Of course, you need to provide for both safe places and the full opportunity to avoid theft, in case the player plans to not play for some time.
9. Use of tournaments
Let players compete with each other and win valuable items. Participation in tournaments may be paid, and the resulting assets will be destroyed in order to reduce the supply on the market. Participation in the tournament can be paid for by the main underlying asset of the project, and the reward at the tournament has a different type of reward, this will allow you to completely remove a certain asset or attribute from the market. Players can receive rewards from each other using betting systems. The tournament betting system can also be taxed, stabilizing the game.
10. Reduced initial investment in the game
The rather high entry threshold prevents players from trying the game before buying. Mass adoption, according to our in-house analytics, is possible with an initial investment threshold in the $50-$150 range. This segment has a large market.
Consider creating starter free modules. When the player either bears no costs or pays only for gas.
11. Development of scenarios and game features
Work on game features. Using one, two, three game mechanics can get boring quickly. Work out game scenarios and features in detail. Use task systems to motivate and prompt the player. In fact, the task system in the game can be a direct recommendation for the purchase of a game item. Marketers should now smile, realizing how strong this channel is for selling in-game assets. And if it is economically calculated and interestingly integrated into the gameplay, then this is the strongest marketing channel. Through which you can promote the value of in-game items or certain attribute properties, to form an understanding of the value in the player.
Use in-game missions to increase asset sales.
12. Deep development and progress
Remember how many additions the Second WOW had? If you want to achieve a long-term effect, prepare to develop and improve your project over time. Consider a flexible, modular system when developing your game that will allow you to release add-ons and fix bugs without unbalancing the system and churning users.
Place the latest news in the project development map. Let us know about the mechanics that will appear in the game in the near future. Talk to your community about mechanics and additions that are in your development. Ask your community about game issues and unfair game mechanics. Get to know your community and their interests in detail and implement new technologies.
13. Don’t turn down rewards for contributing to the community
Consider rewarding users for activity outside of the game. Reward players for posting content about your project on the Internet. Hold offline conferences and reward the player with commemorative collectibles all the time if funding the underlying asset is costly to the economy of the project.
14. Consider accepting credit cards
Create a business with a clear structure and beneficiaries so that you can connect credit card acceptance to the game. You must allow your customers to pay in the way they want. This can be done by connecting a crypto merchant, or partnership agreements with cryptocurrency exchanges.
At your core, you will create a gateway for classical finance to enter the cryptocurrency space. This will help increase overall acceptance in society and contribute to the development of infrastructure in general.
15. Make the game cool!
Take the big idea and put in the best efforts of the team! Create a truly valuable product that creates a desire to return again and again to your favorite game.
Conclusion
The introduction of these mechanics into modern NFT Projects will significantly expand the involvement of players. Reduce the number of early abandonment of the game. And to attract a wider layer of players who value quality games. Remember the key to a quality game in «Play to Earn» is a well-calculated tokenomics and the number of gaming opportunities. NFT games have firmly entered the gaming and cryptocurrency, as well as the financial industry of our lives. Investors have begun to consider investments in NFT games as a certain financial instrument even now. A little more time will pass and the collection value of NFT tokens will not be in doubt. And the high price is justified by the history of the existence of the project or advanced game mechanics.
