Blockchain Brawlers Economic Evolution
By Mike Rubinelli, Head of WAX Game Studios
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of how our economy is going to function, let me first introduce our team to you. We are WAX Games Studios. A newly formed subsidiary inside WAX Studios. We are twenty members strong coming together to make a difference in the play to earn gaming space.
Our team has collectively built some of the biggest and best games in video gaming history. Our expertise and high levels of consideration are on full display in this product. There is not one aspect of Blockchain Brawlers that we haven’t spent a material amount of time thinking through. The good news for you is that we will always be customer-obsessed.
In this report, you will see our thoughts on the topics that should matter most to you and proactively answer the questions you should be asking yourself about the games you play.
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me
We believe actions speak volumes. As gamers, we are too trusting. At WAX, we don’t take your trust or goodwill for granted. We have very high demand from a player base standpoint wanting to play this game on day one. Despite the huge demand, we have only sold our limit of 750 Standard Brawler Packs and auctioned 200 1-of-1 Legendary Brawler NFTs. We will soon release another 100 Ric Flair Brawlers, bringing the number of Day 1 players to 1,050. That’s it. No more Brawler, Ring, or Gear Packs planned pre-launch. The remaining 200 1-of-1 Brawlers will be auctioned post-game launch.
The reason for this limited supply is our firm belief that successful game economies should be driven by the players and not by a company. If the audience for this game is going to grow we need you, the early adopters, to grow it by being our producers. We need you to Brawl. Earn. Craft. Repeat.
Without you the game doesn’t grow via a player-driven economy on secondary markets. If you lose, we also lose. We need you all to do well. Our risk resides in our ability to ensure you have a successful and enjoyable experience. Our interests are 100% aligned. Our risk is commensurate with yours.
Method to the Madness
There is another reason for the small launch audience. We’ve done this intentionally so that we can effectively measure how the game is performing before opening the game to a larger audience. We have more than 20 different behavioral metrics we will be monitoring.
We need to have a very deep understanding of how you play or where your interests lie inside the game’s core loops. These are all things we are paying close attention to as we strive to hit an equilibrium of currency output and sinks.
We have trended towards being too tight early as opposed to being too loose with the payouts. We modeled many scenarios tied to engagement levels across the two distinct starting cohorts. How closely player behaviors and tendencies match our projections and what is taking place in the various markets and DEXs will impact our decision-making.
A lot of games try to launch with a big audience early to show a robust player base, but if the game is unbalanced or gets assaulted by bots in ways they didn’t anticipate, then everything craters with little chance to recover. We want to make sure we know our audience and how they perform before we make any adjustments on the road to growth. And there will be adjustments.
These Actually Are the Droids We’re Looking For
Speaking of bots, we get this question all the time: “What are you going to do about bots?”
We understand why people think they have an unfair advantage. We certainly don’t like technology to have a decided edge over a real-life player who has a passion to actually play our game. We could spend an inordinate amount of time and energy fighting an uphill battle with little chance of winning, but we are not going to do that. There is no “free to start” mechanic in this game. Additionally, we will lean into a roadmap over time that is driven by growth and features tied to real players that make dynamic choices tied to ever-changing competitive parameters.
In other words, a rote repetition piece of code won’t be able to compete long term with much success with these features which promise to be the highlight of the world of Brawlers. The obvious place you start will be deeply rooted in Player vs. Player competitions.
Real players will clash to try and win unique gear, 1-of-1 championship belts, massive BRWL jackpots and global leaderboard flexes, while being cemented in the annals of the Brawlers’ history for all eternity.
So Crafty
We have seen a lot of confusion tied to erroneous reports and assumptions around the Blockchain Brawlers’ crafting system. Let’s put this topic to rest. Any person can craft any item in the game except for a Legendary Brawler.
You want something? Then you should craft it. It is that simple.
Crafting involves only two components, BRWL tokens and Gold NFTs. You can earn them through playing the game, or you can purchase NFTs on the secondary market and BRWL on Alcor. We will not publish the recipes here because the numbers do not mean anything to you until the game launches.
We are not going to publish the earnings per level tied to your in-game assets either. You guys will figure out the amount earned the nano-second the game is published. I know this is the kind of sleuthing you enjoy, so once we launch, have at it.
A Different Kind of Arms Race
If you have made it this far, I want to share with you some things that reflect how we see this experience as completely different from other P2E games.
We have always said we want players to be forced to make tradeoffs and interesting choices during their journey. We want to build an experience where players don’t know the optimal path to the “end game” because that definition is up to the individual player and typically changes as the game grows and evolves.
There should be no universally accepted “best set of Brawlers and gear.” Well, how can this be you say?
Just get as many Legendaries and epic Brawlers with Legendary gear as possible right? Maybe, but maybe not. Here’s the thing — there will be a meaningful value for owning every level of Brawler or Gear — even common ones. For example, the best earning Gold NFT production combination in the game will be a Scotty Wideye (common Brawler) with Brass Knuckles (common Accessory). Note: It’s worth pointing out that BRWL will never have an RNG component to it, but Gold drops do.
A Common Brawler with a Common piece of gear will earn appreciably more Gold than a Legendary Brawler earns with Legendary gear. Legendary Brawlers will earn appreciably more BRWL than anyone else in the game, especially Common Brawlers, but if Legendary owners want to get ahead quickly, the recipes they will be crafting will keep them in a constant gold deficit.
And if they simply craft their own Common Brawler, that will greatly slow down the amount of BRWL they could be earning and BRWL is going to be highly coveted. Both groups need each other.
The Common to Legendary ratio is approximately 2:1. The gold drops and recipes are all tuned with this in mind. But there are still plenty of things that no one knows. For example, I have no idea how much you guys will charge or pay for Gold NFTs. It’s your economy and your game — the ultimate player participation experience.
We have no control over what you price your items for or if you even decide to sell any items at all. We know the gold pinch doesn’t ease for Legendary holders until day 45 (or thereabouts) if engaged in constant play.
The amount of BRWL that will have been generated up to that point though will be massive. So what is the tradeoff that you decide to make? Who knows, but I will have my marketplaces up on screen, dashboards live and popcorn at the ready to sit back and watch the action.
We want this to be a hotly debated topic in the chat rooms.
Ending on a High Note
Given our profile in the industry and the talent and insights we have as a team, WAX Games Studios has a sizable competitive advantage. We are confident our efforts will be a win-win for everyone involved.
JustMike
P.S.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You want my opinion on how I am going to choose to play? I am going to plow my resources earned back into the game to build a full stack of eight high-end Brawlers in a Legendary Ring. But that’s just me, I like to race to the end game state. If you start with one Legendary Brawler, this will take around 80+ days of heavy-duty brawling. While this may seem to take a while, once you’re there the output is mind-boggling. If you start with just one Common Brawler, the time to a full stack of Brawlers is considerably longer at more than six months, and that involves serious dedication to brawling. Of course, all of this can be shortcut by purchasing items that your fellow Brawlers are selling on the secondary market. After all, this is your game and these will be your choices. There are a plethora of opportunities along the road to the optimal roster to bank some wins.
