Original|Odaily Planet Daily

Author|How about husband

What kind of blockchain game can drive the market crazy?

The second test has received over 1.2 million reservations, with nearly 25,000 users participating in the internal test, and a ten-day retention rate of over 47%; the third test has nearly 4,000 daily active users, with a ten-day retention rate of over 90%, and the total transaction volume of the NFT trading market exceeds 1.15 million USDT, with the test token ranking first in opBNB trading volume.

This is the GameFi newcomer CardsAhoy (CA). As a fast-paced collectible card game, players can freely collect various cards, build their own decks, and use wisdom and strategy to battle players from around the world and win rewards. Compared to other blockchain games, CA's gameplay is simple, with each round lasting 60 seconds, making it easy for players to get started and experience the fun of fast-paced competition.

Odaily Planet Daily elaborates on the playability, economy, and the unique GameFi mechanism design of CardsAhoy.

I. GameFi becomes the key to breaking through Web3 on a large scale

For users accustomed to Web2, Web3 is a completely new and unfamiliar territory. How to promote the large-scale adoption of Web3 has always been the goal of practitioners.

Referring to the Web2 era, social software and online games have become two sharp tools for promoting the large-scale adoption of the Internet. However, the development of Web3 social networking is slow, and the opportunity to break through is relatively slim. As a digital technology product, games naturally fit the characteristics of Web3 and are a key factor in the large-scale adoption of Web3 in the next stage.

If Web3 is destined to replace Web2, then GameFi is definitely the sharpest "sword" in the Web3 camp.

Since the last bull market, the development of GameFi has attracted global attention. Whether it is native crypto projects or Web2 game giants like Ubisoft, they are racing to lay out GameFi. Two games have successfully broken through: Axie Infinity successfully popularized the Play-to-Earn concept and brought income to impoverished areas in Southeast Asia, realizing social value; StepN combined sports and games, and with excellent marketing and operations, it attracted more Web2 users into GameFi. The commonality between the two is that the game design is simple, easy to get started, and easy to spread.

However, any game has an obvious drawback: its popularity will decrease over time, and this is even more pronounced for Web3 games compared to traditional games. Although the economic model will boost the game's publicity in the early stage, the game's survival turning point will also come earlier.

After experiencing two popular GameFi games, what qualities should the next breakout project in Web3 possess? How to achieve a balance between the economic model and playability to prolong the game's popularity? The GameFi newcomer CardsAhoy has provided its own answer.

II. Playability of CardsAhoy

CardsAhoy is a card collection and battle game, where all cards in the game exist in the form of NFTs. The game adopts a fast-paced and easy-to-learn approach, allowing players to engage in battles using MEME-style cards within 60 seconds.

CardsAhoy is developed by the MetalistGame team, with most team members coming from Web2 game giants such as NetEase, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Riot Games. The official development team has gathered experienced developers in well-known card strategy games such as Hearthstone and Onmyoji.

Although the funding amount and investment institutions for Cards Ahoy have not been disclosed for the time being, the background of the partners displayed on the official website is solid, including well-known entities such as Binance, OKX, NetEase, Associated Press, and Eternal.

CardsAhoy is more like a simplified version of Hearthstone, simplifying the complex deck of Hearthstone without losing the essence of competitive gaming, achieving a good balance between ease of use and competitiveness.

Players can pre-configure their battle teams. In PVP, pre-configured decks take turns to appear, with each card having a certain "health" energy. Using a round-robin approach, they collide one by one. Based on skills and attack attributes, they consume the energy of the opponent's cards. Once the energy of a card is depleted, it is replaced by the next card, until all cards are used up.

The entire game lasts for a maximum of 60 seconds, and players can even adjust the battle speed to quickly complete the match and move on to the next round.

The cards in the game are divided into different rarity levels, with higher rarity resulting in fewer cards and stronger energy in battles. Cards of different rarity can be obtained through various means, including ladder competitions, opening Ahoy treasure chests, and alchemy.

The multi-channel card acquisition reduces the threshold for user participation, preventing the game from easily falling into a "Ponzi scheme" mechanism.

Each card in CardsAhoy belongs to a specific faction, and each card in each faction has a unique battle mechanism. When configuring a team, players can choose leaders and members from different factions to create multiple strategic team combinations for PK battles. Currently, the game has four selectable factions, including the Plant Faction, Animal Faction, Zombie Faction, and Neutral Faction.

The gameplay of different factions varies, requiring players to explore on their own and develop their own preferred system.

At the same time, as players level up in PK battles, they can unlock higher-level team configurations and upgrade their cards as needed. This can be achieved by consuming more of the same parallel cards to unlock more powerful skill effects.

By adding a certain probability of nurturing gameplay in competitive card battle games, CardsAhoy meets the needs of different gamers and significantly increases player engagement.

In addition to gameplay and card development, CardsAhoy also offers a variety of battle mechanisms and daily changing challenges. The continuously updated ladder competition allows players to earn chest points through daily battles and exchange them for ladder chests. The types of cards in the chests change randomly every day. The number of available team configurations also changes randomly every day, requiring players to update their team combinations according to the rules of the day.

The disadvantage of Web3 games compared to Web2 games lies in the limited playability mechanism. However, from the game mechanism design of CA, in addition to being simple and easy to learn, the combination of the competitive nature of card battles and the nurturing nature of card upgrades forms a combination effect where 1+1 is greater than 2.

III. Economy of CardsAhoy

The economic model of GameFi has always been the most important factor for Web3 players, and CardsAhoy adopts the NFT + dual-token model. The NFT types are cards and treasure chests, and the dual tokens are CAC and AHOY, with CAC currently being the native token in the game, while AHOY is the governance token, which has not been launched yet.

As seen from the above image, the channels for players to obtain CAC tokens include purchasing on the market, winning in ladder competitions, burning cards, token staking rewards, activity airdrops, guild rewards, and winning in the arena.

The CAC token has not been listed, but there are relatively many ways to demand CAC tokens, such as the alchemy system, purchasing arena tickets, seasonal chests, boosters, energy, lucky four-leaf clovers, and other essential gold-making items. Additionally, upgrading the guild also requires a large amount of CAC tokens.

When the demand and supply of tokens are balanced, the game's vitality will be stronger. The design of CA's game token economic model reflects this point.

At the same time, CA's NFTs are also an important source of gold-making, obtained from box draws, treasure chests, and smelting synthesis. NFTs of different rarities have different values in the market, with gold cards being the most valuable. In the third test, a player opened a gold card panda with a cost of 30 USDT, valued at nearly 600 USDT.

The box draw mode is gradually becoming mainstream in Web2 online games and is the main source of income for most project parties. Due to the uncertainty of box draws, it is very addictive. By adopting this popular method, CA can increase player stickiness.

However, compared to the single sense of satisfaction of card draws in Web2 games, the uncertainty of returns in CA is more likely to amplify the advantages of this model.

As mentioned in the quoted part of the article, most GameFi projects such as Axie and StepN do have NFT + token model designs. However, in the later stages of the game's development, the high barrier to entry for new users leads to new users subsidizing old users, forming a Ponzi game mechanism.

However, the project party of CA did not use NFT as a complete entry barrier. This relies on the forward-looking nature of the project party, and another reason is that CA is essentially a competitive game, mostly relying on players' own strategies to win. Although cards of different rarities have different abilities, the multiple upgrade channels also reduce the gap between paying users and regular users.

CA has appropriately balanced the proportion of the economic model and playability. Playability can prolong the game's turning point, and the economic model determines the level of game popularity. Only when the two work together can they become the key to breaking through.

Rather than saying that CA has created a new economic cycle, it is more accurate to say that CA is bringing GameFi back to the original development path of games.

Since the release of the project's white paper in October 2023, CardsAhoy has undergone two tests, both of which have performed excellently compared to other GameFi projects during the same period.

In the 10-day closed beta test in November 2023, nearly 25,000 users participated, with a total online time of nearly 180,000 hours, over 40 million collision data, and a total transaction volume of over 210,000 TUSD (test currency, equivalent to USDT). The ten-day retention rate at the end of the test exceeded 47%. Additionally, the highest transaction price for a single card NFT in this test reached 600 USDT.

In the just-concluded third test, CA's performance remained outstanding. This was also a closed beta test, but NFTs were retained and supported CAC test tokens and USDT trading. The total number of participants was nearly 4,500, with daily active users reaching nearly 4,000, and a ten-day retention rate of 90.13%. CAC test tokens ranked first in opBNB trading volume, and the total transaction volume of the NFT trading market exceeded 1.15 million USDT, with the highest card transaction price being for a level 3 gold panda master, valued at 6,000 USDT.

Both tests achieved outstanding results, laying a solid foundation for the upcoming public test version.

Wei, the founder of the DGA guild and a player in the third test, said, "CardsAhoy is a high-quality Web3 game with potential, featuring exquisite art, fun experiences, and deep gameplay. The game has many seemingly contradictory aspects, such as being easy to get started but requiring strategic thinking, attracting paying players while also appealing to free players, and coexisting with both casual and hardcore gamers. Although it is a personal competitive game, it has strong social attributes. The economic system demonstrates its characteristics and operates steadily. According to my personal calculations, the return on investment is expected to be between half a month and three months. CardsAhoy is expected to become a long-term Web3 game that is breakout, enjoyable, and profitable."

Yuyong Ai, a former Hearthstone world champion, also publicly stated on social media that this is the most fun Web3 card game he has played, with very high playability, and shared a lineup with a perfect win rate.

Not only that, CA has almost become the first choice for professional players in Web3 card games, and is highly sought after by professional players.

From the players' descriptions, it can be seen that this game is not like the previous GameFi models, but rather focuses on the unity of playability and economy, which is the key point emphasized throughout the article that playability is the key to maintaining game popularity.

IV. Returning to the essence of games, CardsAhoy will lead a new narrative for GameFi

Web3 games provide the greatest value to games, namely the free circulation of assets and player asset ownership.

NFT and token assets are connected to a globally liquid financial market, increasing liquidity, trading frequency, and premiums. For game developers, there is more opportunity to earn tax revenue. For players, the game becomes an asset income, and retention rate, average revenue per user, and lifetime value will all increase.

The Web2 online game "Fantasy Westward Journey" has successfully verified this concept. Over 22 years, "Fantasy Westward Journey" achieved a trading income of 20 billion, becoming NetEase's most profitable game by establishing an open and stable player trading system.

However, compared to Web2 games, the current market size of Web3 games is still very small, accounting for only 3% of the total market value of cryptocurrencies. To drive the development of Web3 games, several industry pain points need to be addressed: improving infrastructure and experience, lowering entry barriers, and providing high-quality game content.

At the same time, the playability of the game is the most important factor in the game. Only by immersing players in the fun of the game can the balance of the economic system be promoted. Improving the interactive experience, reducing the experience threshold for mainstream users, and optimizing the infrastructure of Web3 games are also key factors.

As expressed by the project team of CardsAhoy, they aim to focus on the fun of the game, concentrate on creating a fun product that can be operated for more than 5 years, and will undergo a comprehensive redesign of the economic system to ensure the rights of players. At the same time, the project party hopes to simplify the game mechanics and concepts, creating a game that everyone can play and making young people the first users of Web3 games.

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