The World's Most Undiscovered Play to Earn Game | Wealth of Nations
A complete overview of my single favorite P2E bet, Wealth of Nations.
What is Play to Earn?
I’ve written before about how play to earn games, backed by cryptocurrency are going to completely disrupt the legacy gaming market.
The simple reason is due to incentives. The value in a game ecosystem are the players, and they benefit from having sovereignty over what they own. From the land, characters, weapons and in game currency (the game’s native token), in a free market, rational actors will always choose a game where they can partake in the upside of the ecosystem and be rewarded for their effort.
Here’s a tweet thread with more.
The Problem With Play To Earn Games
Right now, the play to earn market is in its infancy. Like ICOs, DeFi Summer and NFTs before it, I believe the next crypto craze will be in gaming.
I know this because the market right now is speculating on just about any game or even a promise of a game with a built in crypto feature.
Projects like Axie Infinity, the world’s most popular play to earn game, have billions of dollars in market cap despite having a very mediocre gaming experience.
This gives credence to just how popular this industry is, when the mere addition of an ‘earn’ feature accrues value to your ecosystem, simply because it’s novel, new and trending.
I believe this is unsustainable for most games, because the game itself is not fun to play. Remember, the value of a game is not that one can earn money, but rather that the game itself is compelling.
Currently, the biggest problem I’ve come across in the play to earn gaming industry is that most games are boring. They suck. People wouldn’t play them if it weren’t for the crypto component or simply the speculative nature of the token or NFT.
This cannot last.
Eventually, a great AAA game will be built that not only has a crypto component where players can earn in game currency and own their own assets, but that the people will want to play because they love the game.
A truly great game, one that is sustainable, must have great game play mechanics and an awesome feedback loop. That’s what ultimately grows the ecosystem and keeps people coming back for more.
Think World of WarCraft, CounterStrike and Halo. If only such a game existed…
The World’s Best Play to Earn Game: Wealth of Nations
Put simply, the best play to earn crypto game is the one that is the most fun to play. This means that the game has to extremely challenging, dynamic and fun, such that players won’t get bored.
Naturally, tic tac toe and rock paper scissors are less viable games than chess and poker, precisely because the former have less depth and free market actors won’t hang around for long.
First and foremost, to build a great game requires an interactive feedback loop such that the user can always be learning something new.
Wealth of Nations is a hyper realistic economic game set in the Middle Ages. Quite frankly, it’s the most realistic economic game ever built. Players have maximum freedom to literally do anything.
Want to send a plague to your neighboring tribe? Trade them an infected cow for some corn.
Want to declare war? Choose from 100 weapons.
Not thrilled with your progress? Go ahead, commit suicide.
They even have a built in supply/demand mechanism which alters the price of economic goods and services within the game. Alexei, one of the founders, has studied economics for a decade in Ukraine, and put his expertise into the game play mechanics.
To quote the Whitepaper:
Realistic corruption schemes, unique simulation of population consumption, synthesis of tactical and strategic warfare, the largest ethnic and cultural diversity of peoples, interactive and highly flexible diplomacy are just some of the features that you will not find elsewhere.
Unlike other projects in this genre, we used a scientific approach - a real economic theory - when describing the interaction of game elements. For example in our game; the population does not invest their savings randomly; corruption depends on the scale of bureaucracy, and the fall of market prices affects the fall in wages and other such things.
The incredible, hyper realistic game is the true value of Wealth of Nations. The fact that players can earn cryptocurrency based on merit is merely icing on the cake.
Wealth of Nations uses a replica of Earth. After experimenting with their MVP over the past few months, it feels like a combination of my favorite childhood game Risk mixed with World of Warcraft, and resembles games in the ‘Paradox’ series, which has millions of fans.
Wealth of Nations Gameplay
There are several key features of Wealth of Nations, the first of which is trade.
Any resource can be traded amongst neighboring tribes, where prices are subject to the laws of supply and demand. Costs depend not only on distance, but, just like one would expect when bartering in the Middle Ages, the activity of robbers in the areas of various trade routes.
The second feature mirrors risk and is the global map. Players choose where the want to develop their tribe. Since resources are unevenly distributed on the map, the choice of a place on the map largely determines the player's specialization in the game world.
The third feature of course are in game assets, featuring a combination of mined and processed resources, all of which can be exchanged for tokens. The in game currency is called Thalers and are exchangeable for the Wealth of Nations token, called Ducats.
1,000 Thalers = 1 Ducat.
Just like real life, the in game economy can experience inflation if a lot of tokens enter the game, as well as deflation if there is active withdraws. Precious metals and subsequently Thalers can be mined and minted.
Players will be rewarded based on their in game performance, with the winner of each session receiving $1,000,000 DUCATS. Naturally, there are countless other opportunities for all in game players to earn DUCATS, which they can then cash out at any time for whatever cryptocurrency they please, allowing some people to create a supplemental revenue stream.
Naturally, players have other opportunities to earn in the game as well, in addition to the 1M bonus. The team estimates that great players can potentially earn up to 10M-100M DUCATS in a single game session! At the current launch price of $0.0002, that’s anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000!
If the game has any sort of adoption, one can hope the $DUCAT token price will increase, which then increases the value of playing the game (as players can earn more money), which drives even more adoption, thereby creating a positive feedback loop.
Wealth of Nations is a free browser game (no download required) and anyone can play to earn DUCAT tokens. 1,000 players compete per server and one game session lasts a whopping 6 months, time enough for entire empires to be built and destroyed, wars to be won and entire economies, religions and tribes to form.
Wealth of Nations Alpha version launches June 8th, 2022.
Wealth of Nations NFTs
I eagerly awaited the Wealth of Nations NFT launch back in mid 2021. 5,000 NFT posters were sold for 0.5 $SOL (Wealth of Nations is built on the Solana Blockchain to allow for faster transactions and cheaper fees) and became one of the biggest collectors.
I even own the most valuable NFT, the 1/5,000 ‘Neptune’.
Each NFT has a set number of $DUCATS attached to it. NFTs are also redeemable for a surprise item in the game depending on the posters rarity. The NFT poster's image will then morph into a particular NFT item with certain stats but will remain interoperable within the game itself!
You can purchase Wealth of Nations on the secondary market on MagicEden.io.
I have roughly 200, and haven’t sold a single one!
Wealth of Nations Tokenomics
Tokenomics are key to the longevity and success of any crypto project. Given their background, it’s no surprise that the WoN team thought this through and has built something that’s meant to last.
There are 15 billion DUCATS in total. Here’s a breakdown of how they are being used.
Pros
I like that a large percentage of the tokens are being reserved for in game play, thereby creating a sustainable ecosystem. Even when the mining tokens eventually run out (years down the line), the commission that taken for withdrawing ducats from the game will replenish the reserve for minings. Thus, Wealth of Nations will have a self-regulating system.
Second, I like their innovative idea of ‘activating’ tokens through the NFT sales. This both allows the team to raise extra money and also rewards early holders of the project. Awesome!
Third, I love that a whopping 5B tokens (33%) are being used to develop the project and, most importantly, for marketing. I’ve been around in the crypto space to understand how the game works. The projects which are able to build hype inevitably gain the most traction. Of course, the chickens come home to roost eventually, and all the ponzis eventually collapse, but not after an epic pump.
What if there were a project that had real intrinsic value (an awesome game) and great marketing? The reason I believe Wealth of Nations has largely flown under the radar is they focused on building first and haven’t started their marketing campaign yet.
I admire that approach. Most projects are ‘sell first, build later’. It’s refreshing to have a team that’s only beginning to do their marketing as the MVP for the game launches.
I believe this is the key missing element to the widespread success of Wealth of Nations. If, and it’s a big if, they can nail the marketing, I believe this project has the potential to reach a nine figure market cap, and become one of the most popular play to earn games on the market.
Cons
The downside of the tokenomics is that a large percentage are reserved for the team. In some ways this is also a pro, as it keeps them incentivized to build!
I spoke with the team and encouraged them to lock and vest their tokens. Their dedication is shown with their actions as they have agreed to a 24 month linear vest of their tokens. This means a mere 4.16% of the tokens will be available upon launch. At the current market cap of $3,000,000 that’s a mere $125,000 for the entire team after years of work.
Wealth of Nations Token Sale
The team is currently reserving 2 billion tokens for a private sale. As an advisor to the project, I have direct access to the team for anyone who is interested.
The reason I’m betting big on Wealth of Nations is the insanely low market cap of the project. Currently the entire project is valued at a mere $3,000,000.
Contrast this to other play to earn games with far inferior game play such as Riot Racers (43M), MonkeyBall (169M), or Axie Infinity (12B), and you can see the asymmetric upside potential. Even Domi Online has a market cap of 82M and the game isn’t even launching until Q4 of 2022!
If Wealth of Nations even has moderate success relative to these other games in the Play to Earn Gaming space, and reaches 100M market cap, that’s a 33x from here.
As an asymmetric investor, this is exactly the type of project I’m looking to bet on, and I’ve personally thousands into the project, and am one of the biggest holders.
Another cool aspect of the project is that the entire team is based in Ukraine. They are donated 10% of the entire token sale to support their country.
Wealth of Nations Investment Overview
Risk Level: 92
Reward Level: 92
Value: 94
First, a series of disclaimers. Please read them so you know where I stand and how I’m approaching Wealth of Nations.
Disclaimer : Investing in cryptocurrencies is highly risky. Most projects fail and go to zero. You are responsible for all the bets you make. Do your own research. Bet on what you believe. Most importantly, only risk what you can afford to ride to zero.
Disclaimer #2: I invested my own money into the project on the free market for nearly a year because I believed in it and it was my single favorite play to earn game. Because of my belief in the game, large position and determination to see it succeed, I recently became an an advisor to the project and am now compensated by Wealth of Nations.
Disclaimer #3: I absolutely love this project and plan to be along term holder. That said, I am ruthlessly efficient with my capital. If I believe the project is over valued and in a speculative bubble, I will sell my tokens, planning on rebuying them at a lower price. I believe that everyone should do the same with their own capital, monitoring the position closely, and plan clear exit targets.
If you are interested in staying in touch or betting on Wealth of Nations, feel free to reach out to me at cryptorelli@gmail.com with the subject line “Wealth of Nations”, through my Telegram community, (or DM on Telegram @AlecTorelli) or by joining my Discord.
Be aware of fake accounts impersonating me. I’ll never ask you for money, your seed phrase or any private information. You can always call me with video to ensure it’s me. You are responsible for verifying you are actually interacting with me. If you get scammed, it’s your fault, so be careful!
Best of luck, my fellow ape.
Alec