In collaboration with Ubisoft and the global venture fund, Hashed, Planetarium has just announced the final presale for their new MMORPG, Nine Chronicles. What makes Nine Chronicles unique is that it will be powered by its players using blockchain technology and an elaborate in-game economy.
Nine Chronicles had previously done a presale that sold out in 18 hours, which means players are sure to be excited about this final presale, especially considering early backers who partake in the sale will get a 5% bonus to Gold and other in-game benefits. Some of these perks include rare food material and opportunities to get legendary costumes, along with other exclusive items that are only going to be available by partaking in the presale.
In an announcement from Planetarium, the company provided details on the continued development of Nine Chronicles and are excited to launch what is intended to be "a serverless MMORPG powered by the players," utilizing Planetarium's Libplanet blockchain engine.
Typically, blockchain functions as an ongoing list of "blocks" that use cryptography—secure communication or codes—to interlock and form a secure record of transactions. Generally speaking, a blockchain is managed by a network as opposed to a single overseeing entity, and since each block contains code that interlocks with the one that came before it in the chain, the records can't be changed or tampered with; at least not easily. This makes blockchain an important part of maintaining secure financial records for cryptocurrency transactions, such as those using bitcoin.
Considering Nine Chronicles will have such a robust in-game economy, the blockchain setup will allow for securely maintained digital assets, such as player inventory. Since so much of the game depends on player participation to run, the beta testing and presale periods have been extremely important parts of finalizing the game's development. Even the perks for participants in the presale are intended to boost the in-game's economy in anticipation of the game's launch.
Nine Chronicles is not the first blockchain game to hit the market. Popular games like CryptoKitties come to mind, and in terms of a blockchain MMORPG, there's the example of Huntercoin. What makes Nine Chronicles unique in terms of the game's development is that it comes with advisement from Ubisoft, one of the top game design companies in the world. If nothing else, it's an interesting development in the continued mainstreaming of blockchain games.
Source: Planetarium