Solana-based play-to-earn metaverse challenges the market with battle-based gameplay and Wizard NFTs

Many decentralized finance (DeFi) projects have arisen to provide earning opportunities to existing gamers. Unfortunately, the promise of profit alone is not enough to encourage gameplay in the long term, especially as the market becomes more saturated. Players are seeking out lore and complex storylines that involve a deep history, character and setting, one that a community can rally behind. Otherwise, they may risk being one of the blockchain games overrun by automated bots, who exist with the sole purpose of siphoning money from these gaming projects.

In contrast, storylines are essential to the immersive elements of gameplay, enabling players to lose themselves in the journey, as they would in a movie, book or traditional video game. Therefore, new projects that capture attention and build diehard players must follow this example, crafting the story first and incorporating play-to-earn (P2E) mechanics second.

Wizardia is a game attempting to change the narrative. As a member from their team shares,

“Without simply disparaging the GameFi space en masse - after all, it alone was responsible for 50% of the active wallets in the DeFi space at the end of 2021 - developers must learn from previous mistakes and build solutions to overcome them. Wizardia is looking to do exactly this by creating a game that stands the test of time and entices players regardless of simple monetary incentive.”

Recognizing this gap in the market, Wizardia has arisen to alter the narrative of new GameFi trends using the so-called “clickbaity” short-term incentives to attract users. Instead, the platform relies on their game itself, crafting a carefully constructed game world that will entertain, even amid a market downturn. In part, achieving this comes down to the team’s experience working on Triple-A games, including Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Titanfall 2 and Need for Speed 2015.

Subverting the trend

To achieve this mission, Wizardia takes players through the limitless expanse of the Fog, where safe havens have developed on the few pieces of land that have escaped the unknown. Players then interact with the game through a large graph-based map of continents where they may attempt to rule by exploring natural resources, building their defenses and learning how to improve their strategy.

The storyline is further brought to life with careful attention to detail in striking art. Wizardia’s team shares that they count themselves lucky to have found a supportive team that can conceptualize the game's intricacies, further enhancing the project’s gameplay.

It is true that not all ecosystem participants will be interested in the storyline, so much as they are interested in earning opportunities. For this reason, the team has enabled continued development through the availability of Arena Genesis NFTs, which generate royalties from the game while not ever having to invade the world of Wizardia itself. This development ensures that gameplay is left to only the most passionate gamers.

That said, those that define themselves as passionate gamers face reduced barriers to entry when participating in Wizardia since there is no buy-in fee for new players to begin participating. Instead, the NFT-based economy that exists with Wizard avatars at its core can be leveled up to improve their player-character through successful gameplay. Successful players may later choose to rent out their NFTs down the road.

A growing community

The last six months have seen the project’s private round being 90% filled, its seed round closing within a week and a community that has reached over 233 000 members. Wizardia has already reported over 2000 Arena Genesis NFTs being sold, with more than 60 KOLs and a group of well-known advisors onboarded.

It is only fitting that this year’s focus will be on similar metrics with goals to expand the game’s community base to 500,000 users alongside the unveiling of some of the key features, each of which will be released in staggered phases, starting with the Battle Arena and concluding with VR and AR integration. Users can also expect that initial exchange offerings (IEO) and initial decentralized exchange offerings (IDO) of the game’s tokens will be made available for use.