Hello! If you are new to reading my articles, I have been doing some posts about my fondness of Splinterlands via Splintertalk. Having been involved in researching other games that would suit my fancy, I have encountered, what I can say is, a typical MMORPG using the generic UNREAL engine but with a certain twist: the game at a certain level lets you 'mine' materials that you can convert into NFTs. Welcome to the World of MIR4.
*My Character @ Level 65
The game is your typical MMORPG, with a hint of your most generic open world RPG games that is available in the genre, such as Black Desert Mobile, Tera, Blade and Soul Revo, and other titles that would go alongside the generic landscape of doing the same repetitive boring stuff: kill mobs, go to waypoints, kill the boss, level up, etc.
What made me compel to play the game is not just about the NFT. I somehow was hooked into the storyline: a bit cheesy, but brings a lot of depth to your character, as you wonder around in search of solutions to problems caused by certain scenarios placed upon by the Protagonist NPCs, which is kind of funny, since experiencing first hand plot ideas from legendary RPG Series, such as the Breath of Fire saga, Final Fantasy franchise, Chrono Trigger saga, Phantasy Star and Secrets of Mana, you'd definitely expect that the story revolves around your character... but it felt that playing the game, it felt that the story was more centered towards the actions or decisions done by the NPCs and not by my character. Of course, in order for these things to happen, you will be the one to 'enforce' these things by doing tasks for the party. Quite weird, but, I got really hooked to it.
Of course being a typical MMORPG you have classes to choose from: same problems with other games of the genre, there's a class that everyone prefers to use, which is the Arbalist: the long ranged crossbow touting heroine. You also have the generic spell caster class, a sorceress; your semi-tank support healer Taoist; your 1 vs. 1 specialist, the Lancer (my character class, by the way), and your tank, the Warrior. It still follows your generic RPG interface, like equipment, skills, spirits (your typical pets) and your usual grinding and crafting activities.
But, like I said, what makes this generic game a bit different is, when your character reaches level 40, you will now have access to the NFT aspect of the game. You can now convert the darksteel (a material that you collect in game via mining) into NFT tokens. You can also sell your materials, loots, and gear in an in-game Market, where you get paid with gold coins (gold coins can be bought using real money) and use those coins to purchase in the market or other items in the in-game store. As of today, the biggest jackpot so far is when the developers allowed high level characters be converted into NFTs and sold: I have seen people dropping thousands of dollars to purchase these NFT characters to be used in-game. This brings a whole different feel to the entire game: not to mention the different activities that makes it special, like the Valley war and the Clan Expeditions.
*Defense of Bicheon Valley Territory
Hopefully, my next articles will give you a more specified look into the game: perhaps why a lot of Filipinos have been playing it and how it managed to also create a buzz amongst gamers across the globe.
Cheers, and sending you an advance greeting of a Happy New Year!