Empowering Gamers to Save Life in the Metaverse… and in the REALS

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

― Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces

To save life on Earth, first we must EXCITE as many people as possible with powerfully emotive mission, theme, story and art. We must then ENGAGE and retain them through novel, but fundamentally fun game experiences. Check out our last post for how we plan to do that. Done right, this gives us the opportunity to ultimately EMPOWER our audience — unlocking their vast potential to actively map biodiversity, and grow closer to nature through deeply fun positive experiences.

As you play Guardians of Earth (GoE) you’ll discover that, in addition to having fun saving life in the game world, you can help save life in the REAL world. You’ll do this by taking on different game roles beyond the standard role of ‘Guardian’. Whatever roles you take on, you’ll OWN your contributions to the mission, and be rewarded accordingly.

Image: Mock up of a player profile screen showing their relative kudos across different player roles. Note this is a work-in-progress and things will change. We haven’t confirmed the idea of players having pets yet… but what do you think? ‘Muckie’ is kinda cute, no?

Explorers

Explorers traverse the real-world, submitting photo or video sightings of wildlife they find.

Explorers can convert their sightings into Encounters, tradable NFT game assets that they can own. Encounters provide their owners with special in-game powers of teleportation and resource generation. Explorers can sell their Encounters to other players, and even earn royalties from future trades on the GoE marketplace.

Anyone can become an Explorer by submitting sightings of wildlife from the real world. They don’t even have to know what it is they have found — as that’s where the Elders come in (see below). Explorers are already able to build their sighting collections through QuestaGame. We will add Explorer gameplay to GoE as an update after the initial game release.

Image: Explorers’ badge.

Elders

While Explorers submit images of wildlife, it is the Elders who identify and/or validate the identity of wildlife in these images to ensure high quality data.

Elders earn BioToken ($BTS) for every verification/validation they provide. That is, Elders mine $BTS by providing valuable biodiversity knowledge. They are ‘mining’ BTS on the blockchain of life on Earth. We currently reward Elders with ‘BioCoin’ which we’ll convert to $BTS once it launches).

Anyone can become an Elder by contributing correct species identifications through QuestaGame or the Bio-Expertise Engine. We will add Elder gameplay to GoE as an update to GoE after the initial game release.

Image: Elders’ badge.

Protectors

Protectors trade in GoE NFTs — Spirits, Keepers and/or Encounters. In doing so, Protectors:

• unlock potential to earn through trading their NFTs.
• compete to be recognised among the top Protectors for the GoE world.
• excite Gamers by unlocking Spirits and Keepers for all players to experience in the GoE world.
• empower Explorers by trading in Encounters — with financial rewards going directly to the contributing Explorer.
• provide funding that supports our mission of saving life on Earth by connecting people with nature through ethical tech. Revenues support the development and maintenance of GoE’s game and its enabling EarthGuardians.LIFE ecosystem.

Anyone can become a Protector by claiming a GoE NFT. Keep your eyes on the GoE Marketplace as it is iteratively updated towards the game’s launch. Make sure you are on the Greenlist to be eligible for future Spirit, Keeper and Encounter NFT drops. Consider becoming an Explorer and minting your own Encounters.

Image: Protectors’ badge.

Play for fun

The initial focus in Guardians of Earth is always on PLAY. It’s about players having fun while exploring and mapping the magic that is life on Earth.

It is not about playing to earn. Note how this is very different from many other Web3 games that position themselves as ‘Play-to-Earn’. These games are enticing users through earnings primarily, over any focus on creating deeply fun experiences. As such Play-to-Earn games often draw criticism of being un-fun ‘Ponzi schemes’ that simply channel money from new players to the earlier adopters. Clearly this isn’t the case with Guardians of Earth, where earning is an empowerment feature, but not the core player experience.

This said, the more Guardians PLAY, the more likely they’ll take on Explorer, Elder or Protector roles. These roles provide players opportunity to EARN thanks to bestowing direct ownership of contributions to the mission to PROTECT life on Earth. We call our model Play-Earn-Protect.

The GoE game will captivate new audiences on a fun and meaningful mission. By demonstrating that players’ real world efforts are valued it will empower a new generation of biodiversity mappers.

Image: Example custom avatar.

Your journey

It’s great to have so many Guardians already on this mission with us. We are excited to see what kind of Guardian you become, and where your adventure takes you in the real-world.

Every great adventure starts with one step. Why not take your first step today? Here’s a few ways you can help out:

• Look out for more posts on this blog
• Read our Whitepaper and FAQs
• Sign up to our e-newsletter via the GoE Homepage
• Follow our Twitter and Instagram and help spread the word
• Join us in the GoE Discord
• Got nature skills? Join the ranks of our early Explorers by playing QuestaGame, and/or join the ranks of our early Elders by identifying species through the BioExpertise Engine.