I thought we should take a look at how players are able to earn crypto in Gods Unchained, GU, how their income model is, and compare it to other play 2 earn games. See if there is anything that makes this game different.
How does GU earn their money?
Like most other games the income comes from sales. The main income stream is generated from the sale of new card packs to the players. Like with most trading card games, TCGs, or collectible card games, CCGs. It is two names for virtually the same type of game. They will continue to make expansions for the game, and thus be able to sell more and new cards. This is the main income stream.
There is also a second income stream, royalties from the sale of the NFT cards. This is by their own accord no way near as large as the sale of card packs.
Other games earning
Just like GU other games need to have a revenue stream. And so far almost all of them are relying on the players "investing" in the game. Purchasing things. For the most part NFTs of different types. And I assume the secondary market, just like with GU, is a way to earn royalties for the game makers from any sales.
How can players earn from the game?
There are a few ways that a player can earn crypto in GU. I will try and go through them all and hopefully, I will not have missed anyway. If I have please let me know.
My meager daily earnings in the game over the past week
10 daily games, every day you can earn fragments by winning as many of your 10 first games as possible. The number of fragments you earn from a win will differ slightly depending on a few factors. The first factor is what is your level or rank in the game. The higher your rank when you win, the more fragments you will get.
The second thing that will impact the number of fragments you will get is the level of the cards in the deck you win with. The higher the level of your cards the more fragments you will get.
And what I have found is that ~250 fragments will earn you roughly 1 $GODS. There is also a 2x bonus for your first three wins.
The weekend ranking tournament, lasts a couple of days. Your 18 first games from the start of the tournament will impact the reward you will get. The simplified version is the more wins you get the more and better rewards you will get. The rewards also get better with higher ranks. And it is your starting rank that matters, not the rank you have when you win.
The reward you will be able to get here is card packs. And they have no direct value in info themselves. But if you do well enough you will be able to get card packs from the current expansion. And these contain upgraded cards.
Getting more cards in general will allow you to potentially increase your earnings. This is by you being able to construct better decks and being able to upgrade your cards. Or potentially selling your upgraded cards on the marketplace. And this leads us to the next way you can earn.
Selling cards or playing the market, are two ways you can potentially earn by doing. The first one, selling. Well, this depends on whether you can find a buyer for your card or not, obviously. But with a large enough player base, you should in theory be able to sell your cards. But do not expect to make any big money, there are cards that are worth a lot. But they are far and few in between.
The second thing you can do is on the other hand a bit riskier. But it is probably the easiest way you can be able to earn from the game. This is to buy undervalued cards. And selling them when the price goes up. This of course could lead to you losing money as well.
Playing in tournaments, this is the last way I know of that you are able to earn from the game. Playing in tournaments and placing high enough that you are able to get some of the prize pool. Depending on the tournament, the prize pool can vary in size and what you actually get. Not to mention that some tournaments may have an entrance fee associated with them.
Earning from other games
This more or less looks similar in most play 2 earn games. But of course, the size of the different components might vary. And many of these games however rely solely on the influx of new players in order to finance the winnings of the "old" players. This means they are more or less structured in the same way as a ponzie scheme. Meaning they collapse when the new money dries up.
I have taken a look at this structure in a previous post, if you want to read more about that topic:
Play 2 Earn games, are they always doomed to fail?
Will Gods Unchained stand the test of time?
There are a few things that are in favor of Gods Unchained. The biggest one I would say is that even if it is a play 2 earn game. It is at its core a good solid game foremost. If we look at other play 2 earn games they are for the vast majority just monetization schemes with the very minimum of a game badly tacked on. But Gods Unchained, I would argue, has this the other way around. It is at its core a good solid game. And it has on top of it a play 2 earn addition.
The second thing it has going for it is the fact that it does not rely on the influx of new players to bring in new money to the game. Instead, players will continue to reinvest in the game in order to get the new cards that will be released over time.
This is in a sense a similar problem to the first one. But one that arguably will be a more long-term solution than most other games. If we look at Hearthstone, which uses a very similar monetization model. It has since its inception in 2014 groves well over 1 billion dollars. Probably 2-3 billion. And the game is still going strong.
The last thing the game have going for it is if players are "cashing out" it will not impact the sustainability or viability of the game. As players cashing out do not remove money from the game itself. Unless you count them selling their $GODS token.
The cons of Gods Unchained
The con is that most of your earnings will be tied into the game, in the NFT cards. This means that if you truly want to "cash out" it will rely on other players buying your NFT cards. So if the game is looking like it will die, most of your cards will be worthless.
I would also like it if they were to add more types of play, like a draft similar to what Hearthstone has. I think that would add to the longevity of the game.
If you think that this sounds like an interesting game that you would like to check out yourself, and maybe participate in an upcoming tournament. I would greatly appreciate it if you would consider signing up using my referral code.
https://godsunchained.com/account/register?referral=UMNIcMwQdC
If you do, we both get 10 $GODS when you reach rank 6 and have verified your wallet.
But in short, I would say that Gods Unchained stands head and shoulders over all other play 2 earn games, with a few exceptions. What are your thoughts on this, do you agree with my analyses of have I made some mistakes or bad assumptions along the way? Please sound off in the comments section down below.
And as always I would really like it if you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: Screenshots by me, Gods Unchained Media
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