Land has been a hot commodity in not only metaverse projects, but Web3 games too. Splinterlands is part of the old guard when it comes to blockchain gaming and finally, after years in development, their land will be usable by players in the upcoming expansion, The Secret of Praetoria.
For me, Splinterlands deserves a place in the blockchain gaming hall of fame as one of the original success stories, with the likes of Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Alien Worlds. The game attracted a lot of players and at the height of Play-to-Earn, it wasn’t a bad way to make some extra money too. In fact, in 2021, we named it the Token Gamer Game of the Year, primarily for what it had done for the space that year.
One aspect of Splinterlands that has been teased for years is the land dimension. No one was quite sure how it would work, but it was all but confirmed it would be a fundamental dimension of the game’s universe. The land claim token NFTs sold for wildly varying amounts and we even gave one away. However, the top 3 most expensive NFT sales on the WAX blockchain are all Splinterlands land and the prices are eye-watering
Land in The Secret of Praetoria Expansion
In The Secret of Praetoria Expansion, there are 150 player-owned regions each with 1,000 plots. Plots coming in one of four different rarities, Common, Rare, Epic, or Legendary, one of 14 different terrain types, different resource types, and then 100 plots can build castles or keeps. There are a lot of variables that influence how valuable a plot is and what you can do with it.
The details are difficult to summarize succinctly and I would recommend reading their recent document with all of the information. Land in Splinterlands is not a tacked-on cash-grab, it is foundational to the game’s world and its players. Moreover, it transforms this autobattler into something with significantly more flesh on the bones. It’s been a long time coming, but finally, The Secret of Praetoria will use land to put Splinterlands firmly back on the Web3 gaming map.