https://x.com/coopernicus01/status/1922631608596652530
So I follow one or two AVAX gamers on X...
I saw this announcement today of an "MMO" launching tomorrow called MapleStory. Apparently this is an older game they're trying to revive with "WEB3" ponzinomics and EVM tech. I connected to the website via Metamask and it connected me to a custom network called Henesys, which is apparently built using AVAX contracts but not actually on the AVAX L1.
https://msu.io/
Turns out this game is currently banned in the USA at launch... no problem right? I'll just use a VPN (both Canada and Mexico work). But then you get farther into the process and realize your wallet is frozen until you KYC... so there'd be no way for me to cash out unless I get someone I trust from Canada to proxy for me... which I very well might do if the price is right... guess I'll find out.
Extremely mixed reviews
This game has been around for a long time and is very much kind of like a pay-to-win hack-and-slash type of situation. But with any luck USA being banned + KYC requirements could mean this launch is one of the best Ponzis to get in on the ground floor. As with most pay-to-win games... they let you play for free if you want but you can't get very far without interacting with the economy. hopefully most of the economy will be player-to-player rather than having to buy stuff from the devs. That would make the economy extremely valuable potentially... at least to start.
While the KYC requirement is super annoying and obviously disqualifies it as real WEB3... that also means the game will be way harder to Sybil attack and bot... which again potentially makes all the items found in game worth exponentially more.
NXPC?
The token they're using is NXPC... short for Nexpace... there are already a lot of liquidity pools up but none of the contracts have been officially verified yet. As you can see a lot of these pools have 6 figures worth of liquidity in them. That lowers the chance of them being scam tokens (and last I checked they were up x10 within hour of launching) but that doesn't mean you can risk it, unfortunately. Besides a player like me could get banned instantly for like no reason for using a VPN to circumvent the IP blocks... so putting money into the game might be out of the question unless I'm actually interested in playing it for fun.
NESO?
Looks like there's another token as well associated with the game called NESO. This is the coin you'd earn while playing the game. Not sure why they need a separate token here when the description explicitly says "has a fixed exchange rate to NXPC", but whatever I'm sure there's some kind of reason.
Huge file
The game itself was just over 20GB... which really surprised me considering it looks like a game that could have been built in 1999. The gameplay from previous games honestly looks like a slot-machine at a casino... which I'm sure is the exact kind of addictive feel they were going for.
Binance listing
Lots of people saying it's getting a Binance listing... and UpBit is listing it as well, which is interesting because Koreans are going to love this game and UpBit has never listed an AVAX game before (so I hear).
Heh... "ultimate" guide.
I mean it's not a bad video but it really shows you how little people seem to know about this game. What has become obvious from this game and reviews is that it's extremely RNG based. You just grind grind grind hoping you get lucky from the slot machine drops. We call this RN-JESUS! Probably a huge waste of time... I'm gonna love it.
This video also claims that once you get past the IP-block with VPN you can turn it off to reduce your lag back to local/direct internet links without getting kicked. Seems risky considering they could just do a wave of bans locking everyone's account who does that.
Grok claims the official contract address may have already been leaked by UpBit, but again I wouldn't trust AI with something like this without corroborating the sources.
It also appears that the withdrawal limit is $1000/day without KYC... but again that money is locked to your wallet and can't be sent to another wallet... so not quite sure what the point of that limit is at the moment. Level 1 KYC requires photo ID ($10k/day) while level 2 KYC is confirmed address ($30k/day). Again... unclear as to who needs $30k/day instead of $10k but I'm sure someone will use it.
Also good to point out that the corporate bastardization of blockchain tech continues to show us how top-down institutional architecture does not merge well with crypto. Crypto is supposed to be permissionless and frictionless. I wouldn't even call this game WEB 2.5... It's full on WEB2 trying it's hardest not to get fined by the regulators. It doesn't seem very sustainable to force every company that wants to interact with crypto to force them to have the security of a banking institution. But that seems to be what Maplestory is trying to achieve. I assume they'll make a lot of money just like all the other shiny new shitcoins do before they blow up into a million pieces.
Conclusion
Nobody should play this stupid game.
But I think I'm going to try anyway.