How MOBOX's new game Dragonverse Neo challenges the blockchain game death spiral
Source: Dongle
Last Saturday, Binance's oil refining leader MOBOX launched the first season of Dragonverse Neo. Dragonverse Neo is MOBOX's flagship game this year, featuring exquisite graphics similar to Genshin Impact + open world gameplay similar to the fantasy beast Palu. However, the mystery is not only in the quality of the game, but also in the new path of asset design. It is very different from the traditional blockchain games in the previous cycle and even MOBOX's previous games:
TL;DR
In this round of "no mutual takeover", users generally lack patience, and blockchain games are transforming from the traditional "NFT + mining, withdrawal and selling" three-piece set to the "de-NFT + direct token empowerment" model.
The gameplay takes a different approach: encouraging users to focus on deep engagement with a single account and ensuring the rational allocation of game resources.
The token issuance mechanism is completely opposite to that of traditional blockchain games: using extremely low FDV for LBP emission allows the token to be close to the consensus price from the beginning, alleviating the subsequent unlocking pressure. Therefore, even under the recent market fluctuations, its game token $MDBL only rises and does not fall.
It is no longer limited to the "action", "cultivation", "gaming" and "3A games" of traditional large companies, but adopts a more scalable UGC narrative and uses a matrix of multiple different types of games to enhance flexibility.
Anti-fragile design is made at each node: dynamic game, ecological asset deflation, tokens as mining machines, so that a large number of coin-holding users can reach a high degree of consistency in interests with the ecology and get out of the refining death spiral of mining, withdrawal and purchase.
Why is there a “chain game death spiral”?
Why do blockchain games fall into a "death spiral"? In the past, the economic model of blockchain games, whether it is single currency or dual currency, whether it is priced in gold standard or currency standard, the core logic is to buy NFT and produce tokens. This model has the following main problems:
User Level
NFTs are expensive, making it difficult for gamers to compete with gold farming studios. Ultimately, the main players in the game have become savvy "mining and selling" experts, not gamers.
Mechanism level
The balance point of token consumption in the game can be easily calculated. Once this balance point is reached, players will stop consuming in the game and focus on mining, withdrawing and selling. In addition, the initial circulation is generally very small. Under the pressure of mining, withdrawing and selling, the token price falls quickly. Users can only reduce consumption and start mining, withdrawing and selling earlier, causing the token economy to enter a death spiral.
The key to avoiding the "death spiral" is to make the selling pressure of tokens smaller than the buying power brought by project construction. In terms of assets, the core is to distribute tokens to real players/loyal users who support project construction to achieve a win-win situation with consistent interests; and the core of users is to attract as many real players/loyal users as possible.
Design highlights of MDBL token
Assets
De-NFT: $MDBL tokens have replaced the ecological niche of traditional NFTs and become the core asset in the ecosystem, rather than a means of NFT shipment. All activities revolve around $MDBL, directly empowering the token itself.
LBP fair launch: LBP was launched with an extremely low initial FDV of $5 million, and a large number of tokens were released at the beginning to create high circulation. Nearly 39% has been released so far, which means that the price of $MDBL does not contain a low circulation premium at the opening, and the price is not inflated, which effectively reduces the selling pressure caused by the subsequent token release. As the project progresses, the token price is steadily rising.
Staking mining mechanism: Users can obtain the qualification to earn gold in the game by participating in staking mining. The threshold for earning gold in the first season is the top 500 players in terms of staking volume, which currently only requires more than one hundred dollars. Through the staking mining function, players can mine ecological assets, external tokens, and in-game props. This effectively prevents the users from sharing the real players' profits, and at the same time avoids the high-priced NFT from depriving small and medium-sized players of the qualification to play. As of now, the staking volume of $MDBL has reached 16.18% of the maximum total supply, resulting in more than 40% deflation, and the actual circulation is 22.6%.
Ecological asset deflation: MODragon has completed the burning activity, and DragonBall's burning activity is in progress and will be held regularly. In the game, $MDBL and its locked form eMDBL, as well as DragonBall, all have mechanical consumption and burning scenarios, which bring asset deflation.
Dynamic Game: Game rewards are distributed in the form of rankings. There is no "token consumption balance point" in the past. Players need to continuously improve their strength through in-game consumption and compete for high positions in the rankings, which promotes dynamic game among users and avoids imbalance in the token economy.
User side
UGC narrative: Compared with the general selection of a segmented track for game projects, such as leisure, strategy, and competition, Dragonverse Neo adopts a more scalable UGC narrative. According to official news, all 20+ DragonPal maps in this test were created by users. The advantage of UGC is diversity, which is expected to attract fans of all kinds of games. Creators provide gamers with games and token rewards, and gamers provide creators with traffic and token consumption, which together bring token deflation, lock-up and a larger user community to the project. The project party provides token incentives and ecological support for both, realizing a positive cycle of tokens and traffic.
Tokens are mining machines: Under the token-as-mining model, users have the opportunity to choose to hold a large number of tokens. The more tokens a user holds, the less likely they are to choose to mine, withdraw, sell, or destroy themselves. Therefore, these large-scale token-holding users have become important nodes of the ecosystem, and have reached a high degree of interest consistency with the project owner and the ecosystem.
At this point, the project parties, game players, and creators have reached a consensus of interests in the ecosystem rather than a counterparty relationship, realizing a positive cycle of "project parties incentivize players and creators through tokens - creators bring more incremental players - more players bring more revenue to creators - a prosperous ecosystem brings more token consumption and deflation."
Can other projects replicate the mechanism of $MDBL?
It is difficult for other projects to replicate the $MDBL mechanism, mainly due to the following two prerequisites:
Background of MOBOX: Since 2018, MOBOX has operated nearly ten games in the BSC, TRON, EOS and other ecosystems. Its early success and long-term attitude towards work have attracted a large number of loyal users and market trust.
Token distribution model: The MOBOX project chooses not to distribute any tokens to itself and investors, but to release all tokens to the ecological community, making users more willing to trust and follow the project and reach a consensus on interests with the project.
This is a story about a project team and the community jointly challenging the status quo of the blockchain gaming industry, each sacrificing part of their own interests in order to pursue long-term growth of the project and personal wealth. Hidden behind this is the MOBOX project team's years of accumulation and innovative spirit.
The design of $MDBL provides new ideas and hopes for the blockchain gaming industry. In the future, the development trajectory of $MDBL and Dragonverse Neo deserves continued attention and research.
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