An Open Letter to the Defi Kingdoms Team — Volume 1
Introducing the Edge
Being at the cutting edge is a perilous, yet rewarding journey. You have massive triumphs, hindsight filled blunders and a sense of accomplishment for the amazing things you’re achieving. With this position comes supporters, critics and partners that crave the game to constantly evolve to be satisfied. The Defi Kingdoms (DFK) community is a group of people that genuinely want the game to succeed and had their expectations satiated as DFK’s milestones have been met. However, there is much work to be done, reflected on and optimized. It’s important to remember this is the frontier, and pushing into the unknown requires so much more than a single group can give. It could be one person’s perspective that sheds light on a dark patch ahead, or sometimes illuminates what’s being left behind.
My goal is to address this article directly to the team, through the community. We all want DFK to be a colossal success, and without one side there cannot be the other.
Sustainable Utility
Problem — Disincentivized Gameplay
The average player is not financially incentivized to play DFK. They WILL get diluted if they so much as set foot outside of the liquidity pools (LPs). If you backdate purchasing a hero, item or asset within the game over the past 5 months you almost certainly would’ve been much better off putting your funds in the LPs and walking away. This is no coincidence, it is built into the mechanics of the game. A fixed summoning price, limited hero utility and extremely high APRs left this outcome predetermined.
Let’s take the Gen0 floor price for example; it has fluctuated between 1800 and 7400 Jewel since November 2021. The floor price at the time of writing this article is 2900 Jewel.
Your average interest accumulated from being in the LPs over those 6 months is approximately 450%. You would’ve made Jewel from questing and summoning your Hero, but nothing in the realm of 450%. Even if you had simply purchased Jewel and stored it with the Jeweler you would have been receiving airdrops and had liquidity instead of a semi-illiquid asset.
As amazing as it is to see absurdly high APRs, unlimited airdrops and an endless stream of giveaways, it’s not sustainable and it hasn’t promoted playing the game as it should. It’s often incentivised mercenary money to come in and crush new bright-eyed players who leapt to purchase heroes or Jewel before even realizing how DFK’s inflation works.
As the game develops, it’s likely the advantage will eventually shift to hero owners and DFK players, but until then it’s extremely important to ensure DFK rewards are going to the right places.
Solution
Hero Utility
The fundamental thesis of DFK being a successful game revolves around heroes having utility. While the roadmap is still being laid out, this has been supplemented through summoning events, the Perilous Journey (PJ), rarity airdrops and the upcoming land tournaments. The problem is the majority of these events are producing rewards from thin air without adding value to the game, which in turn dilutes existing players. These are unsustainable events that increase hero supply, give away finite in-game items and deplete the quest pool without sufficient compensation.
Let’s peep at what future sustainability may look like in these instances.
Understanding the Quest Fund
Many of the suggestions made in this article indirectly build the quest fund by building utility for the game itself. First, let’s understand the quest fund by looking at the breakdown of the in-game fees:
1% — Burned
10% — Sent to the Jeweler to reward xJEWEL/xCRYSTAL holders
30% — Sent to the Quest Rewards Fund
25% — Sent to the Development Fund, to pay for future game development and bounties
17% — Sent to the Marketing Fund, to pay for advertising, airdrops, etc
17% — Sent to the Founders Fund, used to pay milestone bonuses to the dev team
Note. The Jeweler additionally gets ⅓ of all LP fees.
Bolstering the Quest Fund
There can never be enough minds that are working together to produce ideas about this. I would suggest making a proposals forum in the discord that allows people/players to submit ideas to sustainably boost the quest fund. It only takes one great idea to make everything worth it. This also applies to event themes.
A Sustainable Summon
Summoning events should be goal-oriented, fun, and sustainable. Players should know what they’re trying to achieve. A ‘blind’ summoning event where players summon and get some airdropped prizes doesn’t do the game justice. Let’s look at sustainable theme focused summoning events that could be used in the future:
- If you summoned an advanced/elite/exalted hero during this event, that hero is eligible for the ‘Ascended Tournament’ (or raffle if tournaments aren’t released yet). The prizes for the tournament are a percentage of the quest pool that was created from summoning during this period. This quest pool percentage could be used to purchase Tavern Gen0 Heroes, or if you want to give out new realm Gen0 heroes then they should be given out by the quest pool percentage increase.
- Adding a percentage of the Founders or Development Fund received as a direct result of the event to prizes (as summons wouldn’t have been high during that time without the event, so money added was created from the event itself).
- To ensure hero dilution is kept in check, all heroes summoned during this time are eligible to go on “The Heroes Trial.” This can be structured similarly to PJ and the rewards for the event are a percentage of the quest pool (in the form of Gen0s, land, items etc) that were added during the summoning event. This burns excess heroes and uses the quest fund to pay for it, ensuring players are not getting diluted by the event itself.
Event-Themed Video Giveaways
Let’s not forget the 17% share of the marketing fund that was created from this event. We can use this to encourage summoning and promote the game through ‘reaction videos.’ When you watch someone summon and see their enjoyment, you want to be a part of it yourself. The gist of it would be:
- The coolest reaction videos get 100 Jewel in competition giveaways, the best ones get a Gen0.
- A daily updated compilation of summon reaction videos posted on DFK youtube channel with DFK team members’ favourites! Some will be hilarious and get loads of views.
- Great promotion, great for summoning, great for community involvement and the spirit of the game.
This is one of MANY ways to create sustainable in-game events. If you look at Yu-Gi-Oh, League of Legends, Magic the Gathering or other comparable online or card games, the prizes are top-heavy, and the community wants to watch the finals of these events and picture themselves on stage. We can take aspects of this and create a fun environment for all types of players.
We’ve now made an event that’s not diluting current players, doesn’t use unsustainable prizes, creates a festival-type atmosphere, encourages community involvement and creates a sustainable ecosystem where players can game within their means while not having to worry about external consequences.
The Hired Gun
These crazy reward-based events like the Crystalvale launch and airdrops for Xjewel holders only incentivise mercenary money to come in and destroy recreational players. This money doesn’t participate in the XJewel or Crystalvale parts, they just buy and sell the token in large quantities. Mercenary money is in, and then out, and steals your players’ fundamental ability to play the game and their enjoyment along with it.
You could say this is what cryptocurrency is, and that’s how this all works… But do you want to be like everyone else? You’re on the cutting edge — if you’re going to trend the frontier, I believe you’re all intelligent enough to do it in a way that you continue to push the boundaries. DFK is in a unique position where there are many ways to prevent mercenary money from destroying your current player base, all involving forcing the mercenaries to play the game by putting the best APRs in the heroes themselves, or ensuring prizes are based on participation tournament-like structures.
The Unlimited Giveaways That Are DFK
Problem
With at least three more kingdoms on the roadmap, there will be Gen0’s, items and hundreds of land plots to give away. While it may seem like the rewards are endless, there is no rush to distribute them in an unsustainable way. It’s important to ensure when these rewards are used, they return value to the game, and the recipient of this value should be the quest fund. I must also mention that any competition that involves ‘who can do the most of this’ is inherently flawed because we all know the bots can do the most of that. You can give the bot an edge based on their volume, but it’s important that anybody has a chance, and that it’s a tangible chance.
Some examples of ways to give away DFK assets sustainably:
- Questing — ‘The Bloater Skill Challenge’
The goal is for a hero to find 20 bloaters in 20 days. Every hero who accomplishes this gets a ticket to compete in an exclusive bloater-themed quest line. Each hero will have a badge on it that increases their bloater count as they find them so players know how close they are. This is an alternative to the current tournament ladders where bots reign supreme. Let’s be real, we don’t need to see how many bloaters the bots can get and these current questing leaderboards are inherently flawed because the bots are another form of mercenary money. These leaderboards only serve to disincentivize real players and reward the botted mercenary money that would be questing anyway. The bots don’t lose much from the bloater event as they can participate anyway, but current players get a tangible benefit that appears on their screen and gives them an extra reason to quest. It also evens out prize structures, as all players have access to the quest lines.
- Tournaments — ‘The Bloater Tournament’
If a hero gets 20 bloaters in 20 days they qualify. Let’s see the people controlling the bots at least have to compete in a tournament manually to win the prize, rather than just get it gifted to their account that they would’ve been questing anyway. The bots would also be indirectly rewarded by being able to sell their qualified hero at a premium, but at least the players get to enjoy the tournament and compete for the main prize. The quest pool also benefits from the sale of the qualified hero and the bots having to purchase a new hero to replace it through the double tavern fee transaction.
A World of Sustainable Concepts
The awarding of NEW Gen0’s to players should always involve playing the game, and a sacrifice to create these behemoths from the primordial depths. Introducing further Gen0’s into the game creates hero dilution, and as such, there need to be mechanisms to balance this.
The Colosseum of Flames
This is a 100 Hero battle arena that runs once a week. It’s an ancient colosseum where once the 100 Heroes enter, the doors are shut, and only reopened when 15 are left alive. The 85 poor defeated souls are burnt, and the 15 survivors qualify for special danger zone quest lines where Gen0’s and Land are given as prizes for an extremely lucky few. Players can send as many heroes as they want into this event. The risks are high, and the rewards are tremendous.
Instead of giving away gen0’s for very little, or for passively holding in-game currencies, players can now go into extremely fun quest lines to try and win amazing prizes, and of course, if they fall short, can get severance package items. Instead of diluting Gen0s value, there would now be fewer heroes on the market, promoting demand for summoning, purchasing and overall stimulation of the economy.
Quest Fund Gen0 Tavern Purchases
How it works
Gen0s from the tavern are purchased with the Quest Fund and used as prizes in a weekly colosseum tournament. Rewards will be based on numbers. A basic example:
- 100 participants = floor value for a hero is 33 Jewel = assuming 99% burn rate = 3267 Jewel worth of heroes burnt = assuming Gen0 floor price is 3267 that’s one hero up for grabs. If 1000 entrants, 10 heroes are up for grabs. There will also be death rewards that need to be factored in.
A tournament of this nature would:
- Reduce hero numbers
- Spread Gen0s through the community to smaller wallets
- Create demand for tavern heroes, generating fees for the quest fund
- Give any player a chance at getting Gen0s
- Promote Tavern purchases and hero summoning through supply and demand, hence replenishing the quest fund until an equilibrium is born
A hero’s level, type and rarity would need to be reflected in its chances for victory. The burn rate can also be adjusted. The lower the burn rate, the more entrants and the lower the chances of winning a Gen0, but other prizes can be factored in.
Burning events of this nature have to be handled with the utmost care, and severance packages need to be well thought out, factored into the prize pool and remain sustainable. When done properly, these events stimulate the in-game economy by giving players an extremely fun way to cycle through heroes. It’s of the utmost importance that these events are balanced, sustainable, and act as extra hero utility.
A Sustainable Questing Economy
Certain quests should require an in-game item entry fee. For example, to go on a fishing quest you need to pay 20 bloaters. That will supplement the demand for bloaters and basic quests, while also enabling the game to give out better prizes for advanced quests. Even questing that strengthens or evolves items but at a certain risk. For example, a yellow egg for entry into a quest, and if you succeed your egg hatches, if you fail the egg perishes but you get a seed that boosts your chances of finding an egg until your next egg drop.
Removing Jewelers 10%
Keeping Jewel staked in the Jeweler over LPs has traditionally been a financially worse decision, and it’s unlikely this is the Jeweler’s purpose in the game. Anyone who is currently putting their Jewel in the Jeweler is likely lazy, or wanting airdrops. ⅓ of all LP fees should be enough to incentivise bank use, and realistically you’d rather players have their Jewel in LPs and gardening over the bank to promote liquidity. The 10% of summons, tavern fees etc that go to the bank is better suited to go towards the quest fund. I would be surprised if the majority of players disagreed with this sentiment. There is no need to give additional incentives to XJewel holders. If you look at other dexes, the LP fees are enough.
Incentivising XJewel Holders
XJewel holders receive specialized use cases within the game. Governance, airdrops and Jewel-XJewel LPs are basic examples of this, but for now, these use cases are limited. When looking at more complicated uses of XJewel’s function within the game, examples could be:
- XJewel as a ‘wealth measure’ and players with a large balance over ‘X’ amount of time have rights to purchase land if they are actively playing the game. The land sold goes directly to the quest fund. If we stay consistent with the in-game themes, wealthy accounts should have rights to purchase things, BUT they have to go through quests to unlock these. It should eventually develop into guilds that can combine XJewel balances (while keeping them separate and accessible of course) who qualify to be able to battle other guilds for the right to purchase land. That is a long way down the development line and would require many escrow mechanisms, but for now, it can simply be to have a certain amount of Jewel in your account over a period of time while completing difficult tasks that indicate you’re playing the game.
- XJewel for questlines. Have a certain amount of XJewel in your account over a certain period of time and complete certain tasks to qualify for a questline.
- XJewel for tournaments. Have a certain amount of XJewel in your account over a certain period of time and complete certain tasks to qualify for a tournament.
To be considered ‘playing the game’, you would need to meet a certain number of summons, questlines, types of summons (for example a dreadknight) and so on. The difficulty can be adjusted based on the prizes for the events.
Locked Jewel (LJ) for the Quest Fund
Allowing players to exchange locked Jewel balances for fortnightly Gen0 raffle tickets and in-game items gives utility to LJ while also building the future of the quest fund.
- Gen0s are bought from the tavern by the Quest Fund
- LJ is valued at its locked price, not trading price
- Shows the team’s faith in the longevity of the project and in Jewel itself by the quest fund being open to accepting it
- Promotes gameplay by giving players items and chances at Gen0s for their LJ
- Encourages the use of LPs
Hero Hiring
Increasing hero utility is a must for DFK, and another way of promoting this while simultaneously boosting the quest fund is creating more ways that people can hire heroes.
- Hiring Heroes for Tournaments: Very likely already in production,
- Hiring Heroes for Quests: In the future, there may be quests where you need a specific team make-up, or there are certain combinations of traits that give you a higher chance of success. In those cases, renting a hero for the duration of that quest gives players the best chance of success and adds to hero utility.
- Special Quest Events: Questing to win a ticket to compete in a future event. Players may need to rent some high-level heroes to do the quest with, but to counteract the same heroes doing the quest multiple times, every hero would be limited to one entry.
Land Leasing Contract Prizes
Land has started to be given away already, but the majority of land should be kept to be leased to Players or Guilds as a prize for questlines, tournaments or events. Each leasing contract would last for a certain amount of time, and when finished, a new tournament or event would be held. This is completely sustainable, and ideas, concepts and gameplay can be built around it.
Exclusive Loot Quests
Loot quests will be Players vs Quest Fund. You will need to earn the right to compete in this through extreme monthly goals. These could be things like:
- Summon 15 Heroes
- Complete 500 Quests
- Summon 3 Advanced Hero
- Summon 1 Exalted Hero
- Hatch 3 Eggs
These will be exclusive once a month quests where you send your strongest team in, consisting of a balanced hero make-up. These are full of perils and dangers and aren’t for the faint-hearted. These heroes have battled their way into the quest fund labyrinth, so the rewards will be amazing, but the risk will also be a factor. They may come back with gold, jewels, eggs or other items, but they may also pay a price. It’ll be fun, exciting, eye-catching and needs to have concepts that create amazing social media content.
When are we getting an Anime adaptation?
If you look at the most popular games; Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, World of Warcraft, etc many of these have anime adaptations, and this popularized the game. People want to use Kaiba’s Legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon, or Ash Ketchum’s Charizard, and you know what? I want to see some paladins and dreadknights being summoned by players and used in crazy tournament battles, wars, or whatever this new fantasy world will entail. How much does it take to create a crazy good anime? Not as much as you may think, and much less than the amount of capital available to the DFK team in their marketing budget. My only suggestion would be to get on board a team of the best Japanese animators and make sure the quality is high level. ‘Cutting corners in anime doesn’t get you anywhere!’ — Seasoned anime fans. Characters could all start with basic heroes and their summons coincide with DFK’s summoning percentages, so every battle is random, exciting and full of surprises.
The Community Conclusion
The future of the game looks extremely bright. Most features that have the potential to boost the quest fund and give heroes utility are yet to come. With Tournaments, higher-level questing, land and added functions, DFK’s utility can start moving away from tokens, and more towards heroes. From a development standpoint, the DFK team is pushing the game forward at a tremendous pace, but sometimes the players are being left behind and ambushed by the mercenaries waiting in the wings. The community is such a large part of the project, and there are so many untapped ideas accessible there. Let us help protect our own, and in doing so, protect our project.
Kindest Regards,
Edmund Wolfson
Article Critiques
I’ll be hanging out at ‘The Trading Guild’ discord, where there’ll be dedicated sections to each article if you fall into any of the following categories:
Seer — You also enjoy hypothesizing future events, and have theories that we can add to the pool of insight.
Berserker — You can’t stand my inarticulate use of the English language, flawed theories, or overly incompetent article writing skills, and would like to express as much.
Sage — You’re curious and want more detail about strategies, have questions or want me to cover certain topics.
Priest — Simply joining because you appreciate the article, want to say nice things or have a snoop and hang out!
Ninja — The DFK team debunks everything, and I was so far off it’s comical. You’ve got some memes and witty comments prepared and ready to go!
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