How Can We Learn From Thetan Arena?
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how we can determine a good NFT game. Today, I’ll give an example of a good NFT game. By no means is this investment advice, so please do your own research. Let’s dive straight into it.
The game is Thetan Arena.
Previously, I mentioned that there are four factors we can look at to determine a good NFT game. The four factors are: (1) Intuitive, (2) Founder and Team’s Past Experiences and Successes, (3) Roadmap, Whitepaper, Vision and Tokenomics and (4) Community. I believe Thetan Arena has nailed all these factors, and is heading in the right direction.
1. Intuitive
Take a look at Thetan Arena gameplay. The art style looks polished. The graphics look smooth. The game looks like Brawl Stars, which has been downloaded more than 200 million times ever since its release. We can pull out statistics of how multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games, which involves a third-person hero shooter video game, is popular. But more than that, when we look at new games, I believe there is an element of intuition. Do we feel the urge to want to try it? I know I do.
Thetan Arena is like Brawl Stars. The difference? You get to own the Heroes as NFT, and you get to earn cryptocurrency for every game that you win.
2. Founder and Team’s Past Experiences and Successes
Take a look at Thetan Arena’s Team. The team consists of WolfFun Game members who have created games before. One of the most established games is Heroes Strike, which shouldn’t come off as a surprise that the gameplay is almost identical to Thetan Arena. This information tells me that the team has people who knows how to develop a fun game from start to end. It seems like most NFT games today have alluring cinematics as a video teaser to capture attention, but very little focus has been placed on the actual gameplay itself.
I believe everyone cares about how the game looks, but we also care about how the actual gameplay is like.
Even though there is a huge fan base behind an idling-based game, I believe a strategy-based game wields more longevity. This is why I feel that showcasing an actual video gameplay is more useful and practical than the cinematics of the game. Imagine being hooked on the cinematics of a game for months only to discover that the game is not the genre you’re into. Maximum Awkward. The WolfFun Game members gives me confidence that they can produce Thetan Arena as a finished product. Following which, the game will inevitably have its own bugs, glitches and server upgrades.
The team members had prior experience to Thetan Arena, which I believe will serve as a guide on how to better manage the game.
3. Roadmap, Whitepaper, Vision and Tokenomics
Take a look at their Roadmap and Whitepaper. Honestly, their roadmap is simple and doesn’t say much. Our hope is that its simplicity is tied with practicality on achieving the tasks by the due date. On the other hand, Thetan Arena’s whitepaper is impressive. I wouldn’t go into too much details of the game, as I believe the gameplay speaks for itself. Let’s delve into its economy. One of the biggest hurdle of play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity, is that the entry to the game is harsh. In order to try and play Axie Infinity, you’ll need to first purchase three Axies which costs at least $500 USD.
The usual response is that the new player can always sell the Axies if he don’t wish to continue playing the game. If he don’t want to incur losses, he can farm Smooth Love Potion (SLP) for a week or two and make up for the difference in his Axie sale. That being said, it isn’t solving the root problem. Thetan Arena understands this, which is why newcomers will be given a default hero to play, and can be used to earn native in-game tokens (Thetan Coin). You can make enough tokens to open new premium heroes on Thetan Marketplace with the free hero.
Simply put, newcomers can try Thetan Arena and see if it suits their playstyle.
Similar to Axie Infinity, there is a daily cap to how many Thetan Coins ($THC) you can earn per day. It also seems like there is a limit cap to how many Thetan Coins a hero can earn, till you use Thetan Coins to upgrade your hero to increase its capacity of earning the coins. The higher rank you are, the more coins you earn per win. Other than using Thetan Coins to upgrade your heroes, you can also use the coin to buy Thetan Boxes to unlock new heroes, cosmetics and bet on matches. This information tells me that there is a healthy burning mechanic, utility and value proposition of Thetan Coin. Also, there is Thetan Gem ($THG) too.
Think of it this way: Thetan Gem is the AXS version, and Thetan Coin is the SLP version of Axie Infinity.
4. Community
The official gameplay of Thetan Arena is not out yet. Even its Thetan Arena Genesis Box (aka the first batch of Premium Heroes) has not been launched. The only concrete thing that we have for now is its alpha gameplay. Their online presence wasn’t established till 2 months ago, and they already have garnered these numbers: Twitter (106k Followers), Telegram (82k Members), Facebook (40k Followers) and Discord (33k Members). More importantly, these channels are active with users brimming with anticipation to try Thetan Arena the moment it is released.
Sure enough, it isn’t anything close to Pokémon Go or Pokémon Unite, but it is definitely a good start for Thetan Arena.
There are a number of things that will cement the foundation of Thetan Arena. It takes time, but I believe the team will get there eventually. The team needs to work with major exchanges and start listing Thetan Coin ($THC) and Thetan Gem ($THG). The team needs to come up with a fully functional in-game marketplace to facilitate the buying, selling and trading of Heroes. It goes without saying that with an in-game marketplace, there is a need for an easy-to-access in-game crypto wallet. It is like Thetan Arena’s version of SkyMavis’ Ronin Wallet. The team needs to launch the game not just on the app store for both Android and Apple users, the team also needs to integrate an easy way for PC gamers to try Thetan Arena. Let’s see if the game will succeed, or if it turn out to be an elaborate scam. I guess only time will tell.
