The Home Stretch
With five days remaining before Gods Unchained launches globally, the Immutable team seems to have kicked it into high gear. A new announcement has surfaced that a Genesis themed Streamer tournament will be taking place on October 27th and 28th, fittingly dubbed the Genesis Invitational. This tournament is comprised of some of the best players currently in Gods Unchained and looks to showcase gameplay and card mechanics to the masses before the big launch the following day. All players featured are verified Twitch Streamers, meaning you'll be able to tune into the action via their respective TTV Channels. The rewards are not confirmed yet, but the team promises a Genesis Pack Giveaway during the tournament (Genesis packs will no longer be minted after the game's launch next Tuesday). For all those who have participated in the Genesis Raffle event, the drawing was held yesterday and prizes are now being distributed. Keep an eye out today for an email from the team to see if you've been selected!
Genesis Invitational Participants
When to Tune In
The Genesis Invitational will be taking place Oct 27th and 28th, regional times are as follows.
9pm PST Oct 27th
3pm AEDT Oct 28th
6am CET Oct 28th
Evolution, the Backbone of Gods Unchained's Play to Earn System
Evolution is another feature that has recently been announced has many people pretty excited for what's to come. Directly from an email from ModPerks...
Today we’re introducing Evolution, a pillar in our economic design which will act as a “sink” to remove cards from circulation. This works by allowing players to effectively generate new, desirable assets in exchange for “destroying” their older ones. It’s also the backbone of our upcoming play-to-earn system.
By reading further down in the email, more details of evolution are brought to light, which I will touch on in this write-up. Evolution is currently the unofficial title of this feature, and the Immutable team is looking for any suggestions on a different name via their Discord.
How it works
Every so often Immutable will declare a series of cards, which will form the “materials for evolution”. By trading these materials in, you'll be able to receive the listed reward. Think of it as fusing, but with more materials required to yield a greater reward. This process helps both remove these cards from circulation and provide the player with a brand new asset. These new asset sets will only be available for a limited time upon announcement. The assets you could receive could be new boards, new expansion packs, limited trinkets, or ultra-rare cards.
ModPerks also added that evolution is a lever for driving asset scarcity. If a card isn’t seeing any play, for example, they can include it in a series, and ensure it still has value to the user. Plus, since Immutable won’t announce evolution materials in advance, all cards will benefit from anticipatory effects. Most importantly, the evolution process will help create a healthy play-to-earn (P2E) economy. This P2E economy that's being pushed forward is being designed by Immutable's Metagame Designer, Ramin Shokrizade. Previously the trainer for the UCLA and USA Olympic women's track teams, Ramin quit his teaching job to become one of the first professional cyber athletes in 1999. He co-wrote the first mainstream article on virtual goods sales in 2000, began developing the field of game economics in 2005, penned the fundamentals of that field in 2009, and began working on the field of game neuroeconomics in 2014. In 2018 he published a description of how game physiology design works and has given various international lectures on how to make games healthier, especially for children and esports athletes. He has been working with international regulators since 2013 to improve protections for consumers of online games, especially children and esports athletes.
Core Cards, Fusing, and Flux
In the vast majority of TCGs, publishers will sell core cards. In Gods Unchained, the primary way of obtaining core cards will be through either playing the game or buying them from other players and for the most part, Immutable won’t be selling core cards. As many of you know, you will be able to earn core cards in the game, which can be traded once you fuse multiple copies. With everyone able to earn core cards for free, however, the supply of these cards would quickly overwhelm demand, and their price would trend towards 0. With Evolution, Gods Unchained can maintain demand for tradable core cards over time, as they, along with assets found in Genesis and future seasons, become the “material” for new creation. Immutable will also be introducing a mechanism to prevent bot accounts from hoarding core cards for fusing. In order to fuse, players will need a material called Flux, which will be awarded based on performance in matches. Evolution and Flux are both fundamental economic mechanisms enabling our play-to-earn system, as they help ensure the assets players earn hold value. On the topic of Core Cards, Immutable may run limited events such as draft and sealed which allow players to open and keep cards from core packs. These cards would not be on the blockchain by default to ensure Flux and player activity remains the principal driver for the supply of core cards.
