Role-playing games, or RPGs, are one of the top formats for live-action games. The genre also came for play to earn gaming startups, wrapping up several mission-driven games with roles and narratives.
We looked at 10 play to earn RPG live action games with variations in the model application. The game selection is based on the strong sides and outstanding achievements of games, but contains warnings for volatility risks.
Ember Sword (MMORPG)
Ember sword combines a free to play version with a play to earn model for a battle-oriented MMORPG. The game’s play to earn mechanism hinges on collectible cosmetic elements that boost the in-game roles.
Reaching Ember Sword is possible at:
What Makes Ember Sword Stand Out
Ember Sword takes a game-first approach, with a deep storyline, elements of active gameplay and a meaningful personal character arc. The complete reward economics, and the newly added Land purchases, boost the game’s influence.
What are the Pros of Ember Sword
The game is already showing signs of building a strong community interested in pre-launch land sales. The land sale offering for Ember Sword was sold out fast. The startup takes a game-first approach and will use Ethereum for its land plots and game items.
What are the Cons of Ember Sword
At best, Ember Sword plans to be ready with a testing alpha version in Q1, 2022. There is no announced reward token, and the crypto earning element will hinge on NFT items and the vitality of the in-game marketplace. Unlike other games, such an approach makes it difficult to tap into the wider crypto market.
Neon District Cyberpunk RPG
Neon District is an indie game with $5m in venture backing, aiming to become one of the leading RPG for play to earn. Neon District is available for immediate play along with owning in-game NFT based on Ethereum and Polygon networks.
Reaching Neon District is available at:
What Makes Neon District Stand Out
The game offers an immediate start with enough funds to build the first team and set out on missions. Dystopian city missions to deliver a pizza can then be taken, to earn extra NEON rewards. There is no need to immediately spend NEON on new items or skins when building the initial team. Players get 300 NEON to equip their gameplay with the basic four characters. Neon District is part of the Animoca Brands play to earn portfolio, the company behind The Sandbox hit game.
What are the Pros of Neon District
Neon District has a distinctive dystopian aesthetic and semi-realistic characters with a complex mission map. The game claims to be attracting 33,000 daily players in early 2022. The game team took its time with the design and created a complex platform that could potentially host millions of players.
What are the Cons of Neon District
Neon District targets gamers first and crypto enthusiasts second. The game opens with an account, and using a crypto wallet is secondary. NEON works like an in-game asset and has no transparent market like other play to earn tokens.
Chainmonsters MMRPG
Chainmonsters Massive Multiplayer RPG is a game in closed beta, hoping to go public soon. The game had a server relaunch in early 2022, opening a new version for testing. The game plans to do most of its public development in the coming year. So far, DappRadar noted only 38 players per 24 hours, with occasional spikes in usage to a few thousand for special events or airdrops.
Chainmonsters can be explored at:
What Makes Chainmonsters Stand Out
Chainmonsters uses the Flow blockchain, a different set of tools to limit the effect of Ethereum gas fees. The Chainmonsters managed to sell out its genesis NFT collection, while also launching a complete metaverse world with public gameplay.
What are the Pros of Chainmonsters
Beyond the Genesis collection, the game has a player-driven economy. New items are being generated and wrapped as NFT. In some ways, Chainmonsters has elements of a metaverse sandbox game with crafting mechanics.
What are the Cons of Chainmonsters
The Chainmonsters NFT market on Opensea is limited, with only a handful of items traded on the secondary market. While the Chainmonsters game is well-developed, the tokenized reward potential is lower compared to other games.
Cardano Warriors
Cardano Warriors is a play to earn RPG with simplified pixel art. It is also one of the early arrivals on the Cardano ecosystem, which has awaited play to earn games to finally launch after several key network upgrades. Cardano Warriors also plans to include NFT mechanics.
Cardano Warriors is reachable at:
What Makes Cardano Warriors Stand Out
Cardano Warriors is, for now, a first-of-its-kind game, showcasing the potential of the Cardano blockchain. Cardano Warriors is already building a game strategy community with its simple but attractive pixel graphics.
What are the Pros of Cardano Warriors
Cardano Warriors is already launched and ready for play to earn, mostly because of its simplified graphics. The metaverse experience is more akin to casual games, and can be tested in guest mode.
What are the Cons of Cardano Warriors
The game has no organized NFT collection strategy. On OpenSea, there are sellers of so-called “commemorative” NFTs, which do nothing within the game, and are actually derivative money grabs. For some, the game’s design and idea may be too simplistic.
Chumbi Valley, Newest NFT Collection
Chumbi Valley is an RPG play to earn game with special emphasis on NFT collections. As of January 2021, its NFT genesis mint of pods was sold out, expecting a special hatching event to give more meaning and value to the NFTs. There will be no more pod sales for Seed Chumbi characters, making them potentially the most valuable NFTs in the game. On the secondary market, the characters from the genesis mint will be available through OpenSea.
Chumbi Valley is available at:
What Makes Chumbi Valley Stand Out
Chumbi Valley stands out for its strong presence and using an NFT launch as marketing. The game’s appealing and complex art adds to the mix. Chumbi Valley has a highly active NFT collection with 2,000 owners and nearly 0.5 ETH in base price for rare items.
What are the Pros of Chumbi Valley
Chumbi Valley has completed some stages in its development, with highly original and distinctive characters and a lush jungle environment. Chumbi Valley has also worked on its NFT market presence. Chumbi Valley already introduced a staking token, CHMB, which is traded on decentralized exchanges. As of January 15, 2022, the CHMB token can be locked for staking for passive income.
What are the Cons of Chumbi Valley
Chumbi Valley has a relatively volatile reward token that is yet to prove its utility and the sustainability of staking. The project relies on rather steep prices for NFT purchases, which may stop adoption for those that would rather test a free to play version first.
Hash Guardians
Hash Guardians is another Cardano-based game that is adding to the new traffic on this blockchain. Hash Guardians is just introducing Hashcoin, its native asset, following an upcoming game snapshot and balance claim. Hash Guardians also started with an NFT collection, which is available through Cardano wallets or through the official website.
Hash Guardians info is available at:
What Makes Hash Guardians Stand Out
Hash Guardians offers a new class of NFTs entirely on the Cardano blockchain, with verified origins and ID lists. The game relies on 2D graphics, and includes both play to earn mechanics and forms of passive income.
What are the Pros of Hash Guardians
Hash Guardians offers exposure to the Cardano ecosystem and potentially the ADA token, with some passive earning opportunities.
What are the Cons of Hash Guardians
Hash Guardians still relies on collections as its main source of income. The game is in development and there is no clear roadmap to actual play to earn mechanics. Hash Guardians is mostly selected for its upcoming potential and for its NFT art.
The Realm Defenders
The Realm Defenders combines free to play game with play to earn options, based on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain. As of early 2022, the game is in the stage of marketing and preparing the launch of NFT cards. The game includes RPG mechanics with character upgrades. In-game rewards include rare NFT items and TRD reward tokens.
Reaching Realm Defenders is possible at:
What Makes Ream Defenders Stand Out
Realm Defenders has built a complete reward economy, along with a game available in story mode and as a demo. The ecosystem includes treasure prizes and a token that can be staked additionally for rewards. Realm Defenders is one of the rare games using Polygon directly for lower fees.
What are the Pros of Realm Defenders
Realm Defenders offers advanced development and potential early access to NFT airdrops. An NFT marketplace is coming to the game by the end of Q1 2022 based on the game’s roadmap.
What are the Cons of Realm Defenders
The Realm Defenders (TRD) token is illiquid and still has very small trading volumes and no live price information. It is only traded on a single MEXC decentralized trading pair against USDT. In 2022, the game’s earnings market can only absorb a few hundred dollars without significant price swings.
Definity Legend
Definity Legend created a cross-category game with RPG and character gameplay, as well as realms based on digital land plots. NFT protected items also play a role in game rewards, earnings and upgrades.
Reaching Definity Legend is possible at:
What Makes Definity Legend Stand Out
Definity legend promises to tweak its tokenomics and achieve as much as $100,000 in rewards for weekly play rounds. An active collection of players means more liquidity and predictable play to earn results.
What are the Pros of Definity Legend
Definity Legend will include twice-weekly rounds and limited NFT rewards, which can be resold in the marketplace. The game will be a turns-based RPG and mission storyline, with rewards, guilds and land plots.
What are the Cons of Definity Legend
The Definity Legend game was still in its preliminary stage, with 120K players in pre-registration. The early stage of the game opens buyers to risks with NFT value, as well as the value of the OLD token. There are no data on OLD token price discovery mechanisms as of January 2022.
Eternity Multichain RPG
Eternity aims to bring pure Web 3 gaming with a fantasy storyline RPG. The game is still in its pre-launch marketing stage, but will offer unique user engagement via player-derived challenges.
Reaching Eternity Multichain RPG is possible at:
What Makes Eternity Multichain Stand Out
Eternity Multichain offers multiple player classes with a statistics-based strengths and weaknesses. The game promises a rich and evolving world with adventure and campaign gameplay.
What are the Pros of Eternity Multichain
This game will aim to launch the Eternity Developers Gaming Engine (EDGE) to build a custom-made multi-chain environment. GOLD and GLORY tokens from the game will lock in rewards. Eternity Multichain will target highly active blockchains with significant growth, including Polygon, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain and Fantom Blockchain.
What are the Cons of Eternity Multichain
The game is still in the pre-launch stage, hoping to bring the first version by the end of Q1, 2022. With no track record, Eternity Multichain is a risk and may have to prove its potential for play to earn results.
BlockchainRPG
BlockchainRPG is one of the ready ecosystems for play to earn rewards with an RPG storyline. This game offering is built on the WAX blockchain, a structure specifically created for game-speed transactions and for keeping score on game NFT items.
Reaching BlockchainRPG is possible at:
What Makes BlockchainRPG Stand Out
BlockchainRPG is an already developed game, with 20K players and more than 50,000 NFT rewards generated. The game offers its native token, GOLD, as a reward, as well as regular and special NFT drops.
What are the Pros of BlockchainRPG
BlockchainRPG uses a WAX blockchain account for greater speeds and much lower fees. The game has an established ecosystem of users and some liquidity. The game team shows signs of regular upgrades.
What are the Cons of BlockchainRPG
BlockchainRPG has a GOLD native token with trading pairs using niche tokens line BONE, the DeFi token of ShibaInu. The game’s numerous NFTs also rely on the game’s internal market and do not have a representation on OpenSea. WAX-based games are somewhat isolated from the wider cryptocurrency swap infrastructure, along with their in-game items.
RPG in the play to earn space differ in execution skill and art quality. As with other game classes, reviews are not investment advice. Some platforms emphasize the tokenomics, while others aim to grow their NFT market. RPG worlds vary in complexity, some offering complex missions and others more akin to casual games.
FAQ
Q: What are the sources of play to earn for RPG?
A: Character upgrades, in-game items and quest reward tokens are some of the sources of earnings within games. The possibilities to trade or resell those tokens and NFT items varies between games.
Q: Which blockchains host RPG?
A: Newer games seek to move beyond Ethereum. New games choose from a longer list of blockchains, including Polygon, Solana, WAX, Avalanche and other tools that work as side chains to Ethereum.
Q: Are RPG also metaverse games?
A: Some RPG involve real action play or metaverse sandbox characteristics. Others rely on character statistics, resembling quest or card games. The RPG category has a different fit for play to earn games, and only partially describes the reward mechanism.
