Gods Unchained is a bit of a favorite of ours, as regular readers will know. We tipped the alpha as one to watch back in 2018 and the game has moved from strength to strength ever since. Now, it’s raining $GODS tokens.
While the gameplay is excellent for a TCG, there has been a call for more. Blockchain gaming is simultaneously demanding and has a low bar. That is, it is demanding in that players expect lots of different ways to earn and acquire NFTs, but has a low bar insofar as most blockchain games (Gods Unchained excluded) are simple.
The Gods Unchained community has been anxiously awaiting some staking mechanic commonplace in other areas of blockchain gaming, including semi-rival, Splinterlands. Now, the developers have introduced something resembling staking, but not quite what many expected.
Offering of the $GODS
In a recent blog post, InFinitySquid, Product Manager of Monetization at Gods Unchained, offered some new information on how holders of $GODS (the game’s token) will be rewarded to its playerbase.
The intention with Offering of the $GODS appears to be to add more utility to the game’s token; this is a common flaw of blockchain gaming tokens which cause the price to gradually sink. Although it isn’t staking in the usual sense, by holding $GODS you are essentially “staked”.
There will be two types of rewards for this initial 1 million $GODS: the first 33% will be a “surprise reward” dropped to players snapshotted between 1st December 2021 and 12th June 2022 with $GODS in their Immutable X wallet. The second will be ongoing, delivered monthly, and snapshots will be taken on a weekly basis.
Your Immutable X wallet must be linked to Gods Unchained, there must be $GODS in it, and players must have completed one or more of the following in the relevant reward period:
- Played a game
- Minted an NFT in the Forge
- Purchased an expansion pack
- Bought or sold a card on an Immutable X marketplace
As for how rewards are calculated, it’s a little difficult to put accurate numbers on it, but the formula is as follows:
For example, if a citizen has held 10 $GODS tokens in a period and is eligible for rewards, and all other eligible citizens in that same period held a total of 100,000 $GODS, the citizen would get 0.01% of the reward pool. If the reward pool for that period is 20,000 $GODS, the citizen’s reward would be 2 $GODS.
https://twitter.com/GodsUnchained/status/1542991467387445250?s=20&t=aBDTIXr27MH86qp9mPqSxg
Staking and regular rewards for playing a blockchain game has swiftly become central to popularity, at least within the Play-to-Earn community. Splinterlands is houses a staking system that has proven popular and in which there are consequent rewards for staking. Likewise, Blockchain Brawlers has a Pink Battle Tag system in which holders are entered into a raffle for a percentage of a prize pool each month.
To my eye, Offering of the $GODS has a twofold purpose: a passive staking mechanic for players that increases the utility of the token, and a loyalty reward scheme. It’s hard to imagine this not being a net positive for the game’s community.
