Maplestory's case for ecosystem-driven value accrual
GC ALPHA 36
Disclaimer: None of this information should be taken as financial advice. DYOR + I will hold some of the assets that are spoken of in this newsletter.
(P2A) EVENTS & SOCIALFI
Ragnarok Landverse Genesis closed beta is coming February 20 - 26
Make sure to pre-register for the event for exclusive rewards
A new event coming to King of Destiny this week: Sheep Escape
A short-time burst, high-risk, and high-reward event with GOD rewards
Smolbound Playtest 2 is coming February 14-17
It's still gated for now, as you need a Porpoise or Smol Brain to sign up.
Playember launched Penguin Life
You can climb the leaderboard to earn rewards and Abstract XP
Pirate Nation launched Lockbox Lurker Rewards
4.4B BOOTY points, 44M PGLD, and $200K in $PIRATE will be distributed to the top 5K on the leaderboard
Pre-registrations for the Avarik Saga Red Covenant event are now live
Kuroro Beasts P2A event with 30M in KURO rewards is now live
MARKET TALK
INSIGHTS FROM MAPLESTORY UNIVERSE
Over the past few days, Sunyuong (the CEO of MSU) and Dominic (the CBO and VP of MSU) have released a bunch of new information on the game’s economy
Here’s what we learned:
The core functions of the NXPC token will be “Fission” and “Fusion”
Fission: sinks NXPC and returns randomized items from a predefined loot table (the only way to issue new items)
Fusion: when all required types and quantities of game items are collected to create a complete NFT basket, they can be fused into tokens (the reverse process of NXPC Fision (a token faucet)
Collecting all items for an NFT basket will require cooperation from multiple players, and they can pool their NFTs together
This creates an economic layer through dependencies and promotes teamplay or guild play
Dynamic reward and pricing NXPC to fission and fusion will address item inflation and value inflation
Supply will be adjusted based on the organic demand of the market, ensuring the long-term sustainability of item value
However, Gabe Leydon argues that this assumes a stable currency or it won’t work
Why? Because the model relies on predictable value flows between NXPC and game items. If NXPC fluctuates too much the model breaks down, because incentives become unstable
In contrast, a stable currency stabilizes value flows
Furthermore, Dominic speaks on gaming IPs, especially monetization flywheels
He mentions CoD, Mario, and Gundam use IP revenue cycles such as microtransactions, licensing, and collectibles
And argues that Web3 will fundamentally alter IP monetization:
“Web3, however, decentralizes this. The value cycle shifts from company-driven monetization to ecosystem-driven value accrual. “
MSU’s value driver is game items and will protocolize the act of chasing, upgrading, and trading them through blockchain
The protocol will lock in item scarcity preventing oversupply and NPXC will capture ecosystem growth, “acting like an ETF for the entire game economy”
Summarized:
Players chase, upgrade, and trade scarce in-game items → $NXPC locks supply and captures ecosystem growth → every new dApp, tool, and participant creates demand → gaming IPs become investment-like assets
MINTING SEASON
Last week Apix posted this small list of “gaming mints to look forward to”, let’s put our speculator hat on and talk about them:
DUPER (0.08 ETH / 999 supply)
DUPER is launching its Ace of Spade collection tomorrow, February 11. Trying to raise around 80 ETH or $200K
One of the best recent comparisons for this mint is Gigaverse, which easily minted out its 0.055 ETH 9966 (6900 mintable) collection, raising ~$900K in 10 minutes (on a bad day)
Whilst I believe they will mint out fairly easily, its price point of 0.08 ETH is a bit steep, making me think there won’t be as much upward post-mint price action
The game also lacks a strong Twitter presence from the founding team when compared to Dith and Gigaverse
Fishing Frenzy (? RON / 888 supply)
Fishin Frenzy announced its Founder collection last week, which mentioned a low supply of 888, however, didn’t mention the price yet (I assume somewhere in the 80 - 100 RON range)
The game has ~7M installs and 50K+ MAU + saw a good boost from joining the Ronin ecosystem just the week before
Lots of engagement on the brand account + both the founders (Derek and JW) after they announced the mint
Bullish on their expansion towards a fishing MMO and pretty confident this will do well
Fableborne (? RON / initial supply of 7250)
Fableborne announced its Kingdoms NFT collection around 2 weeks back, the NFTs will play a large role in shaping the POWER economy
We know almost 40% of the supply is going to existing NFT holders
A strong presence from the team, both Kam and Tyler
Not too worried about the leading mobile Web3 game with good positioning in the Ronin ecosystem minting out
Onchain Heroes (? ETH / 10K supply)
OCH’s Heroes collection should be launching when the game goes live, which I assume is going to be in February
Whilst we don’t know the price yet, I assume it will be somewhere in the 0.03 - 0.05 ETH range
Even though the Genesis collection is down from its highs (largely because of poor market conditions), they will act as a strong price anchor for this mint
Furthermore, OCH has lots of interest from whales, who want to grab multiple Heroes. So, I am pretty confident they can raise 300 - 500 ETH
The above is NFA, just playing a speculator here and talking about upcoming mints you should be exposed to
ON THE RISE
Open Ronin is coming this Wednesday
What kind of announcements can we expect?
B3’s token is launching today, will the “onchain miniclip” perform?