This article is sponsored by QTUM.
While the hype surrounding metaverses and Play-to-Earn may have temporarily died down, investments have continued to flow into the sector. In January 2023 alone, investors poured $156 million over ten investments into the blockchain gaming industry, as the dream of an immersive social and gaming platform in virtual reality continues to live on. One of the more recent investments comes from QTUM, providing the funds to develop their own native metaverse known as Moonland.
Crypto natives may already be familiar with the vast majority of metaverses currently available in the space, which are mostly just social platforms for users to chat and interact with each other, perhaps with several mini-games in between. However, Moonland goes beyond that notion by becoming the gateway into a slew of video games, where users can jump between different video games in the Moonland metaverse.
With the inclusion of NFTs, exploration, running your own business, and engaging in epic large-scale battles, you’ve got a recipe for a metaverse that’s truly unique. If you’re curious to find out more, buckle up and join us as we take a trip into the Moonland metaverse.
What Exactly Is Moonland?
Set in outer space, Moonland is a brand-new gaming metaverse built on the Qtum blockchain, where players can explore the surface of the moon, perform various missions, and battle against vicious monsters or other players.
Source: Moonland
Each player in the Moonland metaverse will get to design their in-game avatar - or ‘digital twin’ using Moonland’s character creator. With hundreds of different options, players can create a realistic copy of themselves in the virtual world or something truly unique. If looks don’t matter to you, you may also choose to customize your avatar’s weapons and skills instead to create a character that fits your play style. Whether it’s a stealthy assassin or a gun-toting brute, the choice is entirely yours.
Source: Moonland
Once your avatar is all good and ready to explore the world of Moonland, there’s plenty to see and do. As mentioned previously, Moonland plans to become a portal to a diverse gaming ecosystem where users can access different games without having to leave the Moonland metaverse. In other words, players are able to seamlessly switch between a wide range of games while still retaining access to their virtual assets.
Incorporating the tried and tested tropes of traditional multiplayer games, players can join various clans and factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. However, be prepared to face the possibility of betrayal and unlikely friendships, as players can switch freely between these factions, which will constantly affect the balance of power in Moonland.
Performing missions and managing your resources will also be a key part of the Moonland experience. Players can send their avatars to perform complex missions that require a combination of strategy and skill, allowing their characters to gain more experience over time. More importantly, by completing more missions, players can earn more resources which will be integral to keeping their avatar alive, improving their stats, as well as providing them with better weapons and armor.
Source: Moonland
However, if you prefer a more passive approach, resources can also be earned through trading and exploration. Moving away from the traditional formula of grinding through numerous quests and monsters as the only way to earn more loot, Moonland offers users a chance to gather resources simply by owning a plot of virtual land or running a business in the metaverse.
On your journey through Moonland, you may even find rare eggs that can hatch into special pets. Acting more than just a virtual companion, these pets could give special bonuses to your character. Though if pet-hunting is taking up too much of your time, you could always get a cloned version directly from the in-game hatchery.
Source: Moonland
The Moonland Economy
Like most blockchain games, the in-game economy of Moonland will center heavily around NFTs, which are used to represent in-game assets. Items such as wearables, weapons, and consumables will be freely tradeable on the in-game marketplace. Even if players have various items from different games scattered around in their inventory, they will be able to trade them all in one place.
The Moonland metaverse uses its own native utility token, known as Mooncoin, to facilitate in-game transactions, acting as a medium of exchange within Moonland’s economy. Similar to the vast majority of cryptocurrencies, Mooncoin retains its value beyond the metaverse and will also be tradable for other assets. In other words, Mooncoin allows users to accrue real-world value by gathering more items and resources reminiscent of the Play-to-Earn concept.
Conclusion
While it is still early in development, Moonland already has a detailed roadmap ahead for 2023. With the initial funding from QTUM, The team is also currently creating the initial characters, environment, and soundscape of the metaverse, placing equal emphasis on aesthetics and sound design.
Recently, Moonland gave an early glimpse into its metaverse, although the team has not disclosed a release date for the alpha version yet. Even though the GameFi and Play-to-Earn scene has seen better days, investors, such as QTUM, continue to believe in and support the blockchain gaming industry, as it represents not just another use case for developers to tinker with but also acts as a way for Web3 to improve the status quo of the gaming industry as a whole.
In a world where gamers can truly own their in-game assets and influence a game’s direction, GameFi has become the gateway for onboarding new gamers and developers into the world of blockchain and crypto, opening up a new path forward for the mass adoption of Web3. With so much effort being poured into the space by the industry’s pioneers, it will be a matter of time before a truly native triple-A title takes the world by storm.
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