GameFi — Promises and Disappointments Based on Two Projects (Part 1 — Mech Master)
Introduction
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in GameFi, a concept that combines gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi). The potential of this new trend has attracted many investors, and various projects have emerged to capitalize on it. In Vietnam, one of two prominent GameFi projects that I focused on have been gaining attention — Mech Master. However, their performance has been uneven, with Mech Master in particular facing a number of challenges.
I was compelled to write this post due to my personal negative experience with investing in Vietnamese blockchain gaming projects, as well as the attitude of some team members towards regular gamers.
One of the main issues I have encountered is the lack of transparency in project development. Some teams have failed to provide regular updates or have kept investors in the dark regarding the project’s progress. This has led to frustration and uncertainty among investors, who are left wondering whether their investments will ever pay off.
Another problem I have faced is the attitude of some team members towards regular gamers. In some cases, team members have been dismissive of feedback and concerns raised by players, which has led to a breakdown in communication between the two groups. This lack of engagement with the gaming community can have serious consequences for the success of the project.
Furthermore, the volatile nature of cryptocurrency and the lack of regulation in the blockchain gaming industry have made investing in these projects particularly risky. Many investors, myself included, have lost significant amounts of money due to the unpredictable nature of the market and the lack of safeguards for investors.
In conclusion, while the GameFi trend in Vietnam holds promise, it is important for investors to be cautious and do their due diligence before investing in any project. As an investor, I have learned the hard way that not all projects are created equal, and that there are risks involved in investing in this industry. It is my hope that the industry will evolve and become more transparent and investor-friendly in the future.
I have the moral right to write this article because:
- Firstly, I have invested a lot of time and resources into the projects in question.
- I have tried to support the team in every possible way, providing constructive criticism and feedback, pointing out flaws and offering solutions to address them.
- I have tried to promote these GameFi projects.
- I have communicated closely with the team members and provided them with valuable advice, and even acted as a moderator in one of the projects’ language-specific Telegram channels (which is discussed in this part of the article).
- I base my judgments on the teams’ activity in social media. This inactivity for an extended period of time leads to certain conclusions, among other things.
However, as it turns out, the teams of the projects I chose apparently had no plans for long-term development, lacked experience in promotion and development, and had no desire to listen to the community (which I will discuss separately).
I will not go into too much detail about all aspects of the games, as it would require a lot of writing. I will try to focus on the problems with the projects and possible ways to solve them (I have proposed many ways for the teams to address the problems, but unfortunately, they have ignored them).
Attention!
It’s important to note that while the main goal of this article is to bring attention to the existing problems in these projects, it is not meant to attack or harm anyone. Rather, it’s intended to shed light on the issues that have been ignored for too long and to encourage the teams and investors to take action to resolve them.
As an investor who has invested a significant amount of time and money into these projects, it’s only natural to be concerned about their development and progress. And when those concerns are not addressed or acknowledged by the teams behind these projects, it’s important to speak up and share those concerns with others.
While it may be uncomfortable or even risky to speak out against the actions of others, it’s important to remember that transparency and honesty are essential in building trust and creating positive change. Hopefully, this article can serve as a catalyst for positive change in these projects and in the larger GameFi industry.
Project № 1 — Mech Master
Let’s start with the first project. We’re talking about Mech Master, which I first discovered in Q3 2021 when it was just gaining traction.
Mech Master is an AAA 3D NFT game that features giant robots called Mechas. Its turn-based strategy nature allows players to plan their tactics to win the intense PvP battles. Assemble a squad of Mechas, equip them with deadly weapons, and attach them to clever leaders, aka Pilots, and you are good to join the game.
At the time of my first dive into the world of blockchain games (which was November 2021), I was looking for potentially attractive and interesting projects to invest in. Among the GameFi projects I was considering, I came across Mech Master and dove into studying it.
Social networks and project links:
- Twitter — 96.7k followers on 29.09.2023, last tweet on 21.01.2023 (more than 2 month ago)
- Telegram ANN Group — 29.49k followers on 29.09.2023, last announce on 21.01.2023 (more than 2 month ago)
- Telegram Global Channel — 25k followers on 29.09.2023 (more than 6 month ago)
- Discord — 29.76k followers on 29.09.2023, last announce on 22.11.2022 (more than 4 month ago)
- Facebook — 27k followers on 29.09.2023, last message in 26.12.2022 (more than 3 month ago)
- Medium — 5.3k followers on 29.09.2023, last post on 22.12.2022 (more than 3 month ago)
- Youtube — 18k followers on 29.09.2023, last video posted on 31.08.2022 (more than 7 month ago)
- Instagram — deleted
- Fandom
- Whitepaper
Here is what the Mech Master themselves write in their first article on medium:
Mech Master is made by Mirai Studio, a team is built around industry veterans hailing from the likes of Riot Games, Scopely, Tilting Point, Strang Loop Games, Microsoft Publish…, bringing the future of online multiplayer to a universal audience.
Mech Master is a strategic turn-based RPG game where players are open to build their own territory with future technologies and protect their homeland with:- Strategic Gameplay. 7 races, 8 elements, combined with hundreds of pilots, thousands of pieces of equipment, the possibilities are endless. There is no limit to the number of strategies available at players’ disposal.
- Trade Market. Mech Master has one of the most enormous libraries of assets that players can trade around to build the strongest Mecha lineup. Almost every item in the game is created by players, from materials found by players. They will become players’ own unique assets which can be very valuable on the trade market.
- NFT Collectibles. There are many different ways that players can collect in-game items (mechas, pilots, equipment, land..) like rolling the gacha, taking part in auctions for super rare items, earning very special 3D items with top-notch art/design from event rewards…
- Ranking and Tournaments. Players can battle others and climb up the global seasonal ranking. Top rank players around the world will have the chance to participate in a special tournament at the end of each season for tons of valuable prizes. And then there will be a very prestigious Mech Master World Cup annually with even more extraordinary rewards.
- Metaverse. Mech Master is also one of the first games to implement AR technology into the game. You can become part of the Mech Master Metaverse by owning a 3D Model of a Mecha, which you can show off by taking photos with your Mecha everywhere, in real life.
The article from September 22, 2021, it is stated that:
GameFi has recently announced the establishment of a new game studio called Mirai Studio to push forward the next generation of blockchain-based gaming and metaverse.
Mirai Studio, based in Vietnam, is now actively working on the Mech Master, a blockchain-based gaming project globally. Mech Master’s project is the result of the contribution of every 35+ people to create this amazing in-house game. This is a team of experts and highly skilled individuals all across the country, who come together for one mission only — creating this incredible Mecha game for everyone.
The first time I heard about the project was in the GAMEFI Telegram channel — before the announcement of MECH BOX ROUND 2.
I decided to participate in this event, studied the project documentation, answered questions on the launchpad website to get into the IDO and IGO… At first, everything looked quite good. It was beautiful, promising, and had a lot of potential. The community was growing actively, announcements and articles were regular, and interest in the project was only increasing. But it lasted until a certain point.
The project was active as long as the $MECH token and Mecha NFT sales were going on, selling them for real assets (BNB token).
Backed By
I want to immediately highlight the companies and funds listed under Backed by for the project, whose attention I would really like to attract. I have studied their portfolios and also tried to find mentions of partnerships with Mech Master to confirm that they are truly associated with the project.
- Icetea Labs (Email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram) — is an international-level, made in Vietnam platform, designed to develop decentralized applications using blockchain technology. IceTea Labs is an dApp development platform leveraging the advantages of blockchain technology to perceive the advanced digital economy.
There is an article on Mech Master’s Medium from November 20, 2021 about a strategic partnership with Icetea Labs. You can read it yourself if you’re interested, but it talks about Icetea Labs providing financial support to Mech Master:
Mech Master will receive substantial support for project development through the early financial support provided by Icetea Labs. The firm will offer partnership development, token economics advisory and marketing, and community engagement, helping us grow and expand multifold.
On the Mirai Studio website itself, it says:
Mirai studio is a subsidiary of Icetea Labs. Established on 8/6/2021, we are a team of veteran game and platform developers with great passion to bring an evolution to the current gaming era. And we belief that we are building a solid foundation for the future gaming industry.
So, most of the questions can be addressed to Icetea Labs.
- Red Kite (Email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram) — is a top-tier launchpad that allows investors to participate in token pre-sales of carefully-chosen Web3 projects. Red Kite is a cutting-edge launchpad powered by PolkaFoundry as part of the growing $PKF ecosystem. Red Kite has a reputation of choosing their projects carefully through vetting, which takes everything from the origins of the project teams to legitimacy and implementation capacities into account.
There is an article on Mech Master’s Medium page dated October 15, 2021, about a partnership with Red Kite. The article mentions that an IDO will be held with the support of Red Kite PolkaFoundry:
Following the successful private round with total fundraising of almost $2M, we are glad to announce that the native token of Mech Master, known as $MECH, is going to have its Initial Decentralized Offering (IDO) launched on Redkite Launchpad 24th of October 2021. It is our great honor to witness your participation in the Mech Master community.
- GAMEFI (LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram) — is a dedicated gaming Accelerator & Launchpad, pioneering a framework for crypto games to advance their project delivery through pre-designed, ready-to-integrate smart contracts with the most extensive collection of resources to all participants in the booming game finance economy.
In the Mech Master’s Medium blog, there is an article dated September 2, 2021 about a partnership with Red Kite and GAMEFI to conduct an IDO:
We are thrilled to announce that $MECH will be launch on RedKite & GameFi.
Also, there is a mention of this on the GAMEFI website on the homepage and other resources:
On the GAMEFI website, there is a separate page for the Mech Master project:
The next article dated October 4, 2021, discusses the launch of IGO on the GAMEFI platform (and the origin of Mirai Studio):
Mech Master, one of the blockchain-based gaming products of Mirai Studio, is pleased to receive significant assistance from GameFi. Of late, Mirai Studio has been launched and invested by GameFi to push forward the next generation of blockchain-based gaming, metaverse, and VR.
- Morningstar Ventures (LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram) — investment firm focused on digital assets and blockchain technology, investing in early-stage tokens and equity rounds.
I also couldn’t find the Mech Master project in their portfolio:
- Youbi Capital (LinkedIn, Twitter) — is a venture capital firm investing in Blockchain technologies and disruptive decentralized business applications.
The article from 09.10.2021 talks about a strategic partnership with Youbi Capital:
Mech Master is pleased to announce that Youbi Capital has joined our team as a key investor in the very early stage.
Youbi Capital provides the Mech Master team opportunities to raise capital and support our community-building initiatives. This cooperation is a significant milestone in Mech Master’s early success. We are poised that Youbi’s investment will be instrumental in our growth and journey multifold.
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio.
- DAO Maker (Twitter, Telegram) — brings next-generation digital financial solutions.
- Au21 Capital (LinkedIn, Twitter) — hybrid Venture and Hedge Fund that invests in high growth blockchain and AI companies.
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio.
- x21 (LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium) — is a Blockchain Advisory and Investment firm dedicated to helping mainly blockchain startups accelerate their growth and exposure in the industry.
There is an article on Medium dated 24.10.2021 about the partnership with Mech Master:
The X21 Digital team is excited to announce the addition of Mech Master to our investment portfolio.
- MiH
- Magnus Capital (Twitter)
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio.
- Kyros Ventures (Twitter, Facebook, Telegram) — Vietnam’s leading crypto venture fund, providing support and access to the Vietnamese Crypto Market.
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio:
The website is not maintained, and the Twitter account is empty. It seems that the company is inactive.
- 3basics Capital (Email, Twitter) — focusing on developing early stage projects with an edge of longevity in the infrastructure and ecosystem of blockchain industry.
There is a Mech Master project in its portfolio:
- HG Ventures (Email, LinkedIn) — finding a bridge between the blockchain and life.
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio.
- Vendetta Capital (LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium) — invests in, leads, and helps projects to accelerate developing novel solutions to address the core issues of scalability, privacy, and interoperability for decentralized protocols and applications.
I also did not find any mention of the Mech Master project in their portfolio.
This is one of the questions on the AMA with BSCDaily from 13th December, 2021…
This article from September 6th, 2021 mentions the majority of funds that participated in the private sale:
Mech Master want to show immense gratitude to IceTea Labs, Youbi, and Basics Capital for initiating the fundraising, as well as the other well-known blockchain venture capitalists such as OneMax, Au21, MiH, Magnus Capital, x21, Seer Labs, Heslin and OIG.
Besides, we are also excited to have the other large reputable blockchain venture capitalists such as OneMax, Au21, MiH, Magnus Capital, x21, Seer Labs, Heslin and OIG cooperate with us for this round.
This article (AMA with TokenHunter) from September 29, 2021 mentions the majority of funds, token price for holders and the team:
But for some reason, most of the funds do not show the Mech Master project in their portfolio. This also says a lot.
There are several questions for these companies/funds:
- How do you evaluate the current state of the Mech Master project? Are you satisfied with its development?
- Will you take any measures to revive the project, or can it be considered dead?
- Are you willing to listen to the community’s opinion on further steps for development and rehabilitation of the project?
- Will you look for another team of developers if the current one is not coping with the tasks?
- Have you been disappointed in the project? Have the funds invested in the project justified themselves?
P.S. I suspect that the investor companies recouped their contributions from the sales of Mecha NFTs on the marketplace, as they were sold for BNB instead of the project’s token $MECH. But this is only my assumption as to why the funds do not pay attention to the fact that the project has been silent for more than 2 months.
I would like to receive answers to these questions, but I don’t really hope that this will happen.
The team
In the next article from September 6, 2021, there is a description of the team members:
Our Project Leader, Hikari Mai, has over 10 years of experience in the IT industry, seven years as a manager, working for some of the biggest IT companies in Vietnam, including 2 years of working experience in Japan.
Ron Nguyen, the Head of Marcom & BD, graduated from RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, armed with 10 years of experience in marketing.
Mech Master’s designers Le Nguyen and Long Hoang have a huge experience in this sphere. Le has been working in the IT field for 10 years. She has experience in game design ranging from hardcore to casual mobile games. Having an extensive knowledge of visual design and Teamwork spirit to identify and solve problems, Long has been taking this game design thing quite seriously for almost 10 years now.
Anh Nguyen, Art Director, is a 2D concept artist with over 15 years of experience in 2D art. He worked and leveled up from large companies, like VCCorp, VTC, VNG to small studios and start-ups. He is a man full of unique ideas, looking to make truly interesting games.
Our Lead Unity, Tu Hoang, has over 7 years of extensive experience in the game industry developing industry for both mobile games and PC games. With experience working on some big projects with Scopely, Strange Loop Game, and an NFT game before, he will guarantee the highest quality of our game.
Yu Nguyen, Lead BackEnd, started making games in 2014, won multiple domestic game competitions, including Imagine Cup Vietnam and Microsoft Publish. Ever since, he has worked for many large-scale projects, some of which achieved up to 20,000 concurrent users.
Thi Truong, Mech Master’s Advisor, has been a blockchain soldier with hands-on in-depth for several years. He started as a Software Engineer, then Solution Architect, then a Director at FPT Corp. He joined Kyber Network as a Product Manager after leaving FPT. Thi founded Polka Foundry at the end of 2018.
In another article dated September 15, 2021, there is the following image of the project team:
And earlier, there were these images of the team on the project’s homepage (without links to profiles):
Here’s who I was able to find on LinkedIn:
- Ron Nguyen — ex-CMO. Left the team in Q1 2023.
- Hoang Tu — Unity Lead. Left the team in 08.2022 according to the profile.
- Thao Khuc — Leader Visual Effects Artist. Works in the team to this day.
- Bich Le — Server Lead. Works in the team to this day.
- Mai Ngọc Quang (Hiraki Mai) (telegram) — Leader. Works in the team to this day.
- Thi Truong — Advisor from Icetea Lab.
- Luong Hoa — Head Of Department. Works in the team to this day.
- Hanh Nguyen Thi Hong — Marketing Team Leader. Left the team in 11.2021 according to the profile.
- Minh Le — Business Analyst. Works in the team to this day.
On the Mirai Studio website, the founders listed are:
There is another article from 21.10.2021 that talks about the Project Manager of the project. There is also an article about the Executive Advisor from 22.10.2021 and an article about the Art Director from 26.10.2021.
Unfortunately, these articles (as well as the project’s website) do not include links to the team members’ profiles, so it is not possible to contact them directly and ask about the project’s progress.
As seen from the description, the team has solid experience. However, if you look at the end result, you will be very surprised, as the released mainnet version of the game is quite raw: the mechanics are repetitive, PVP consists of only one map and a limited number of actions, and numerous bugs prevent some matches from being completed… In general, the product is not at the level expected from such a team. But let’s take it one step at a time, I will return to the project’s problems and the team’s reluctance to address them.
I can separately praise the work of the 2D-Artist, as the illustrations, art, and concept images are really attractive. The game design with gameplay (unfortunately, only on paper) is also well thought-out and diverse, but it has not been fully realized yet.
I also want to say separately about Ron Nguyen — the project’s CMO, with whom I personally communicated on Discord. He was responsive at first, answered questions, promised to consider my suggestions and pass them on to the team, but eventually started ignoring my messages. I am publishing our chat on Discord, as it discusses my suggestions for the project’s development, and there is practically no feedback from Ron:
And then I found out (in private LinkedIn messages) that he left the project and is no longer involved with it:
Like many other members of the team (or CM)…
So, it became clear to me that the project is more dead than alive if key employees quietly leave it immediately after the mainnet release…
The project advisor Thi Truong also did not clarify the situation with MechMaster:
Roadmap
I have seen two versions of the roadmap in total, as it changed over time and not for the better: many ideas were abandoned, key elements were pushed back to a later date.
In the article from October 22, 2021, the following roadmap is indicated:
What was not implemented or was implemented not as planned as of March 29, 2023:
- Q4 2021
- Stake tokens to increase MECHA level — staking was only added to receive the $MECH token, so it was not implemented. The implemented staking can be read about in this article from 31.10.2021 and this one from 01.11.2021.
- AR application — implemented, but completely useless, without any practical benefit. You can only take photos and videos with Mecha in AR mode. The application did not receive any further development, although the community asked for it. This article from 02.11.2021 describes plans for Metaverse that did not come to fruition.
2. Q1 2022
- DAO platform & equipment enhancement — not implemented at all.
- Master Mecha Arena (IOS + Android) — not implemented. Currently, there is PvP matches available on mobile devices in the same way as on PC, but it’s not clear if this is exactly what was planned.
3. Q2 2022
- Tournament — held later, but without any interest from players. Mostly the same players played to get the prizes at the end.
- Moon Land sale — announced and even shown in the testnet, but then quietly removed from the roadmap without notifying the community in any way. In fact, it was not implemented.
4. Q3 2022
- Land customization & Guild battle — not implemented at all. In addition, I will separately talk about guilds later on.
5. Q4 2022
- Multichain: ETH & DOT version via PolkaFoundry — there is currently no mention of this. They could not even implement it fully for BSC. Eventually, this item was quietly removed from the roadmap.
Here is how the implemented basic staking looks like:
And this is the description for AR on the main page of the website:
As we can see, a large portion of the planned features for the previous version of the roadmap were not implemented. Lets take a look at the latest version.
Currently, the following roadmap is displayed on the website homepage:
- Q4 2021
- Stake tokens and MECHA replaced the previously announced Stake tokens to increase MECHA level
2. Q1 2022
- Only 2 out of the promised 4 items remain, and the last item is now Mech Turn-based beta test (PC), with no mention of mobile devices.
3. Q2 2022
- Mech Turn-based Mainnet (PC)— was launched almost a year after the designated time, indicating poor planning by the team.
- Mecha factory, Mecha renting and Pilot academy — are new items that were not implemented.
- The Moon Lands item is no longer present.
4. Q3 2022
- Mech Turn-based Mobile (iOS, Android) — replaced the Land customization item and was only implemented in Q1 2023.
5. Q4 2022
- Next feature of Mech ecosystem — is a very vague item that doesn’t say anything specific.
In the end, a significant portion of this version’s roadmap remained unrealized. Moreover, there is no understanding of what is planned for Q1 2023 and beyond. This speaks volumes about the team’s plans, or rather, their lack thereof.
It is strange to observe not the evolution of the roadmap, but its degradation. GameFi projects usually do not take this path to success.
Additionally, the website features a certain Mech Frontline FPS:
It goes without saying that it’s highly unlikely to be implemented at this point.
Moonrace
Moonrace was something that was implemented quite well. In this event, Mecha NFT owners entered their NFTs into a race in the hope of winning valuable prizes based on the distance traveled, staked $MECH tokens (which is where the token purchase was incentivized), strategized their participation in the race, and teamed up with other players to achieve maximum benefits. I myself enjoyed this event and earned a decent amount of $MECH tokens (which are now practically worthless).
The race was announced in an article on November 20, 2021:
I won’t go into detail about it. I’ll just say that:
- The $MECH tokens earned in the race are now practically worthless.
- The equipment earned in the race is not needed by anyone, and no one is buying it.
- The pilots earned in the race are of no practical use, and no one is buying them either.
During the race, there were also many mini-games, including those related to an AR application, in which I also participated and even won prizes. But unfortunately, this activity declined along with the project.
Recently, partnerships with several projects have also been announced. For example:
- Creo Engine — is a gaming blockchain platform similar to Steam. The article dated 20.09.2022
- Coinc — the on-chain data analysis and media corporation. The article dated 06.10.2022
The $MECH token
The $MECH token is a simple ERC-20 in-game token.
From the images presented in the medium article from September 24th, 2021, it can be understood how the $MECH token of the project was planned to be used. Each aspect can be considered separately, but, jumping ahead, I will say right away that the utility of the token in the end turned out to be minimal.
At the very least, they should have:
- Used the $MECH token for selling Mecha NFTs. Instead, the NFTs were sold for BNB, which, of course, allowed the project to earn good money from buyers. Moreover, the team set a minimum price in their marketplace at 0.3 BNB, which is quite a lot, considering that these NFTs could be listed for sale on unofficial platforms (such as tofunft) for a lower amount.
- Allowed the purchase of Moon Lands with $MECH, which were never released. This would have increased the utility of the token.
- Not closed the staking function of the token and added the promised staking function to increase the level of the NFT.
Tokenomics
The article from October 23, 2021 describes in detail the tokenomics of the project and the utility for the token, but a large part of it was never implemented:
In the end, the token is practically useless, it lacks sufficient utility to sustain its price. That is precisely why its price is so low and continues to decline with each passing day:
Moonland
The first mention of Moonland I saw in an article on Medium dated 13.10.2021:
Moonland is the first interactive 3D Virtual World of the Moon, divided into land plots represented by a unique NFT. Players can personalize Moonland, mine Dark Matter, build Moonbase, and special facilities.
Moonland plots will solely belong to the user who purchased them — this means that your NFT is authentic and can be sold or traded only on your terms!
Moonland is a virtual land platform that allows users to buy and sell virtual land plots on the blockchain. According to the article, the MechaVerse team was planning to release Moon Lands as a way for users to use $MECH tokens (or BNB) to purchase virtual land in the MechaVerse world. However, it seems that this feature was never implemented and the promised utility for the $MECH token remained minimal.
Also described there were the elements of the lunar base:
Every Moonbase in Mech Master has various parameters that add to the gameplay, such as:
- Mecha Factory
- Pilot Academy
- Battlefield
- Paint Shop
- Equipment Factory
In the same article on Medium from October 16, 2021, there is a more detailed description of the Moon Land elements.
However, none of this was meant to be implemented. Nevertheless, the mention of Moon Land remained on the main page:
Mecha NFT
NFTs for Mecha are also quite interesting according to the idea. The introductory description is given in the medium article of October 13, 2022. There are also separate articles for each type of Mecha.
I won’t dwell on them in detail, but I’ll just note that:
- Although Mecha classes are different, they are almost identical in the game.
- Mecha weapons and skills practically do not affect gameplay (the set of skills is minimal and monotonous).
- More rare parts that Mecha consist of also practically do not affect gameplay (for example, Mythic). I don’t understand their value then.
- Mecha elements also do not greatly affect gameplay.
As a result, it turns out that all Mecha are monotonous and almost equal. But it would be nice if, at least, Mecha with Mythic parts were more valuable.
Guilds
Initially, the creation of guilds was announced for the Moonrace event. More information about guilds can be found in the article Guild — All you need to know from January 12, 2022.
They were supposed to help players unite and get more rewards from the race, as well as become the basis for developing communications within the game. I joined the Atmos Aggregated Mech Industries LLC guild, which we, together with its founders, brought to the top of the rankings. We invested a lot of $MECH tokens, time, and BNB (to pay for gas) into its development.
And in the end… the previously working functionality of guilds no longer works, I simply cannot log in because my Discord is not linked:
I have reported this error to the team many times, but they have not fixed it.
Also, a lot of BNB was burned on using Nitro Lab, which can be read about in the article Guild racing — All about Guild Hall and Nitro Lab.
Testnet
During the testnet phase, players who were allowed to participate in testing through the WL were provided with a launcher for Windows. It had numerous bugs, which were gradually being fixed. The team even opened access to the ClickUp project, where errors were being tracked and participants could leave their reports. However, it’s currently unavailable.
I also took part in the testing and submitted reports on the bugs I found, including critical ones. The team rewarded us with $MECH tokens for this.
During the testing phase, it became clear that the team was not able to fix all the bugs and that it was too early to launch the mainnet. However, for some reason, the team decided to release it faster (although it would have been better to postpone the release). This was probably due to obligations to investors. But I still don’t understand why the game was released in such a raw state. Did investors not see the obvious problems? Perhaps they weren’t too concerned about it. I believe they received their investment back.
Mainnet
The Mainnet was launched on December 22, 2022 (as announced in the article) on Windows with many bugs, repetitive gameplay, and only one PVP map. It is unclear why, after a year of development, they couldn’t create at least a few PVP maps and diversify gameplay in some way (for example, by adding the promised various PVP modes).
Since the launch of the game in mainnet (and even a couple of months before), it became evident that the team had abandoned the project.
Bugs stopped being fixed, questions addressed to the team on the project’s social media were ignored, and the feedback disappeared completely.
Even moderators, who apparently were assigned to the project by GAMEFI, left Discord and Telegram, although they were not very active in helping the community understand the project since the IDO. It got to the point where I myself was providing players with various aspects of guidance. Eventually, I became a moderator of one of the language channels for Mech Master on Telegram.
Additionally, the previously functioning Gacha, Service, and Reward have not been working for a long time:
When attempting to claim a reward for playing, I receive an error:
I’ve reached out to the team members multiple times to fix the non-functioning services, but nothing was ever done.
Here’s how the game UI was supposed to look like:
How it looks like now:
It seems that the game servers are not working. So much for the mainnet launch.
I would like to focus separately on the mechanics of daily/weekly tasks. I was very surprised to see simple and overused tasks like “log in to the game”, “play 5 matches”, “win 10 matches”, etc. in the mainnet game. Does anyone still use such tasks, except for low-quality MMO RPGs?
Moreover, in almost all AMA sessions, Ron (Mech Master ex-CMO) emphasized that Mech Master was being created with a focus on interesting gameplay, not P2E mechanics. But they didn’t achieve either.
Regarding P2E: the project could potentially attract players’ attention if it weren’t so stingy with rewards. The $MECH token only lost value when it became clear that rewards in it were very meager.
Overall, it seems that all these improvements to the mainnet were made on a residual principle, when the team was no longer interested in the project itself and tried to just release something. But if the Mech Master team had been more responsible about players’ opinions, they could have changed a lot.
At the very least, they should have launched a series of polls among the community about introducing certain aspects into the game. I’m sure the community would have suggested at least a few interesting options for implementation. But the team decided to act according to their own ideas of how to create games in GameFi (without taking into account players’ opinions). This was one of the fatal mistakes.
Communications
Regarding community interaction, Mech Master had a huge gap from the very beginning. To begin with, the outsourced moderators often couldn’t even answer basic player questions. They took long pauses to find answers and often gave generic responses that were not even related to the questions asked.
Discord was chaotic. At first, anyone could tag everyone through @everyone. After my message to the moderators, they removed that ability. Then there were many scam messages that were only removed after I brought them to the moderators’ attention.
The Discord server itself was not protected (there were no specialized bots or spam protection systems), and it was not developed at all. In Telegram, communication was more active but with the same problem of moderators not understanding the project.
In general, the team’s communication was rated 3 out of 10.
Next, I will publish the full correspondence with one of the team members in Telegram — Nguyen Khanh, as there was no response to all of my suggestions and help. The team decided to abandon the project. Well, if so, then at least investors should understand how the interaction with the team went and its result:
Separately, it’s worth mentioning the release of NFT boxes on the Binance platform and the AMA with their representatives. At that time, it seemed like Mech Master was about to reach an agreement with Binance on listing the $MECH token, and then things would start to look up… But unfortunately, nothing good came of it.
The boxes were sold out, but they still contained the same Mecha NFTs, only with a different color scheme stylized for Binance. For most buyers, the cost of buying the boxes did not pay off.
Interaction with Binance was limited to that. And yet, this could have greatly fueled interest in the project. Unfortunately, the Mech Master team missed this opportunity.
Or perhaps Binance’s risk management kicked in. We’ll never know.
I can’t say anything good about working with regional moderators either. Because it simply wasn’t there. I know this for sure because I am one of those moderators. Not only were we not given information that was being prepared for publication, but our requests and questions were also ignored.
One of my colleagues (also a moderator in Mech Master) complained to me that all of his appeals were simply ignored.
Chats are not moderated, questions are ignored, news is not published… Isn’t it obvious that the project is abandoned?
With such an approach, it was already possible to understand what awaited the project in the future.
Conclusion
The story of this project clearly shows that no matter how great the idea may be at the beginning, it can easily turn into something unworkable and uninteresting.
The project had huge potential, good art, thoughtful game design, and decent prospects. Unfortunately, the team failed to deliver. There was no proper management of the development cycle, no promotion of the project, and no development of social media. There were no good moderators or project specialists who could answer all the questions from players non-stop.
And as it turned out, there was no well-thought-out tokenomics. If the team had negotiated the listing of the $MECH token on one of the major exchanges, providing more utility to the token, its price could have remained at a fairly good level, which would undoubtedly have been beneficial to everyone.
If the team had been eager to respond to community requests, open to suggestions and discussions, the project would not have lost all its followers, who, like me, were following the project closely.
In the end, I remained loyal to the project until its very end. I believed that with the revival of the crypto market, the project would come back to life. But apparently, this is no longer possible.
I hope that investors, funds, and companies that participated in the development of the project will pay attention to my post and provide their comments on the situation that has arisen with Mech Master.
Perhaps someone’s strong decision still offers a tiny chance to revive the project and develop it to the plans that were set at the very beginning. There is hope, although it is already very slim.
I believe that every member of the project team should bear some personal responsibility for the fate of the project and the expectations of players and investors. When it comes to such an attitude towards the community, this is fair.
In addition, many players invested their own hard-earned money in the project and expect at least feedback from the project team. Or at least honest answers to questions that arise. It is better to immediately admit problems than to hide from the community.
I am sure that many members of the Mech Master team plan to continue working in this field, and therefore their business reputation should be important to them. I would not hire employees who behave in such a way. Each of them could have reached out, explained the reasons for Mech Master’s failure, and told their story.
Currently, the GameFi industry is poorly regulated, and investors are not protected from such cases. This greatly harms the industry and repels new players. It is necessary to develop a unified approach to protect ordinary players so that they are confident to some extent in the safety of their investments. Of course, no one can give 100% guarantees, but this is what we should strive for.
I would like members of Icetea Labs, Mirai Studio, and GAMEFI to pay attention to everything voiced here and react properly. At a minimum, it would be nice to start a dialogue and shed light on the current status of Mech Master. This is the minimum that needs to be done right now.
