GM Tigers, 

On 17 Nov 2022, we hosted Legends of Elysium, an up & coming Web3 trading card game. The game’s co-founder, Marcin Skowrinski, shared some of the best insights we have heard in our weekly session. We discussed topics like their motivation to build Legends of Elysium, gameplay, sustainable tokenomics, digital ownership, and much more. If you missed the live event, here’s a recap for ya

Origins

Marcin first learned about crypto back in 2013. Back then, there was no crypto industry, people only knew about bitcoin. He bought his first BTC the following year, and that began his foray into the world of crypto. Gradually, he invested in and supported various emerging projects. Marcin tells us he met his co-founders while raising capital for some early projects in the space.

Apparently, one thing that brought them together was their love for gaming and crypto. They saw the web3 gaming revolution kicked off by Axie Infinity and the subsequent games that came after it. However, Marcin and his team were not happy with what they saw. 

The blockchain games they played felt more like the games that came out in the 90s. Most early titles had a very simple gameplay experience. Marcian and his co-founders wanted to close the gameplay gap between Web2 games and Web3 games titles had a very simple gameplay experience. Marcian and his co-founders wanted to close the gameplay gap between Web2 games and Web3 games. Their primary goal from the start was to create a game that was enjoyable to play rather than a game that people only played to earn money.

Lore & Gameplay

If you design an interesting story that allows players to get lost in the universe that you have created, They would become enchanted with it. making them play the game for a long time. That’s how Red Dead Redemption does it, and that’s how Legends of Elysium plans to do it in Web3 gaming. 

In terms of gameplay, Legends of Elysium is a Play-And-Earn fantasy project that is a combination of a card and board game. The team was inspired by popular games like Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.

Here are some game modes Marcian revealed to us:

• League: Ranked multiplayer matches between players 

• Exhibition: competitive game modes that will be held as recurring esports events.

• Mini tournament: eight people join the room, pay entry fees, and the winner takes it all. Plus, there can be multiple winners.

• Adventure : single player campaign mode in which the players can explore the lore of The Legends of Elysium.

UX and Community 

The developers of Legends of Elysium want to give ownership of in-game assets to the players. but they also think that the decision to interact with blockchain and other Web3 stuff should be left to the players. meaning that players do not need to be familiar with web3 stuff (blockchain, wallet) to play the game. They can just hook it up and begin playing like a normal Web2 title, and only turn on the Web3 elements if they choose to do so. Learning all about blockchain and crypto is a huge barrier to entry for most traditional gamers. According to Marcin Web3, gaming needs to remove these barriers to onboard more traditional gamers. 

Since the developers are themselves gamers, there will be no "pay to win" system in The Legends of Elysium. Each deck has different creation rules. For example, every deck in the game will have only one legendary card, which reduces the ability of rich players to hoard all the strongest cards for themselves. 

A big chunk of the game’s revenue will go to the players. This is because the team feels that the community is extremely important for the game and wants to reward them for their contribution to this ecosystem. The community will play a big role in the development of the project. as they directly vote on future expansion packs they want to play. 

Organized communities of gamers are the future. Marcin tells us that when he was younger, they used to gather to play in internet cafes, the guild system is a kind of a renaissance of this phenomenon.

Guilds enabled a lot more players to come into the Web3 gaming ecosystem because they removed the barrier to buying an asset.

Tokenomics

In Legends of Elysium, there will only be one token, LOE, which will serve as both an in-game token and a governance token.

Having only one token is an interesting strategy. While this opens up more room for speculation, the game should do just fine if they are able to integrate useful sinks within its economy.

Most tokens are in the hands of whales; which gives them disproportionate voting power in the ecosystem. That is why the team is implementing the dual voting system - which gauges the voting power of players based on their involvement in the game as well as their token holdings. 

The most important thing for the game (or any project) is to be elastic and adaptable. This means that the game should be flexible enough to make changes as they receive feedback. 

In Closing 

This was without a doubt one of the most insightful Twitter spaces we have ever hosted. Marcin and his team are the OGs of the space. They understand what has worked (and not worked) for the games that came before them. Legends of Elysium is truly a masterpiece in the making, and we can’t wait to play it. Sadly we’ll have to wait as the game is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can show them some love on their social channels and learn more about the project. 

Ciao!