So, I decided to make the big dip after getting back into AlienWorlds to become a landowner for a change. If some of my longtime readers recall, I bailed out on the game, mainly because it had become extremely boring, I wasn't going to drop $3,000 for Nanominers, and other platforms looked more exciting. That was also about the time that AlienWorlds hooked up with Binance and first created mission on the BSC chain. Whatever the case, lots of time passed. Then I picked up a lot had changed since, and I decided to get back in. With a bit of wax scrambling, I put together a decent mining kit and re-entered the game.

A lot had changed since I last looked at it. The last time I was in AW, the blue moon mining center was the main motif of the screen. Now, the dialog and control screen was evolved a bit to a lot more interactive controls and pull down menus. 

The top horizontal and left vertical menus gave me a lot more access to the various controls. Not a whole lot was added, but the interactive UX experience was definitely improved from the old platform. So, off I went, started mining, and getting involve with more and more features. It helped to be part of communities like CryptoMonkeys, with already established platform in AW as well as extensive community-based mining efforts (Miners Union and Mission Control). That helped me re-establish very quickly as well figure my way around the new changes a lot faster. 

So, after a few weeks I started to get the itch to do more, and that was become a landowner. This was not a new features; landowning in AW had been around from much, much earlier, but I didn't have the means then to really consider it or engage. Now I did, especially with some leftover crypto I had sitting around in my main wallet. With the help of SimpleSwap, which I highly recommend for fast exchange in WAX from a variety of different tokens and coins, I plunked down some cash ($270) and got myself a homestead on AW planet land. 

While there were some plots asking for an arm and leg, I'm pretty much a conservative type, so I looked at the lowest entry point in the AW real estate market versus losing my shirt. That ended up being a crater location on Kavian (edited - There are 6 planets Neri, Kavian, Magor, Veles, Naron and Eyeke plus a 7th on BSC the Binance planet but that one is just for the missions on BSC). Ironically, my plot had the Kavian 19:9 location in it. Not quite 19:19 but close (inside digital joke). 

Ok, so now I have this plot. What do I do with it? Well, it does come with some immediate benefits. As an AW planet owner, I receive a DTAL payout (daily Trillium Allowance something) in TLM. It's basically about 6TLM for a non-altered plot. It fluctuates a bit day to day, but, it's income. And, of course, anyone who mines on my land pays a commission to me for doing so, which I also control. With the land console features in AW, I can determine the commission rate and then collect accordingly as it builds up. 

Now, you might be asking yourself, which I did, what does the Set Land button do? Nothing really in terms of a new advantage. It just pins you down to your own planet for mining, basically earning and paying yourself on your own land. 

The Manage Land button links you as a landowner to the management console, where you can set your commission as well as Boost your land. Here's where things get interesting.

Boost is a newer feature that AW launched around December 2022, designed to re-inject TLM back into the market as well as boost demand for it. More demand for TLM makes the game currency more valuable, which in turn boosts value etc. Well that sounds nice, but for the backwoods landowners which are about 97% of plots on AW, it's not such a good thing without some proactive work. See, the land I own now has a rating. That rating floats based on boosting. If I don't boost and keep the rating up, my daily DTAL goes down, which means less TLM for me. If I boost, in theory, my DTAL goes up, which means more DTAL for me. But here's the kick: the value of the boost to its cost is baloney. I get 6 TLM a day, and with a cost of 4 TLM for a basic boost, I net 2 TLM. That's just for one starting boost slot. If I open up more slots, I can boost more, or have folks help me, but it costs 160 TLM to get to another level. Seriously? 

So, here we are again, where AW had an interesting idea, but in implementation made it worthless to the general population it was intended to engage. Yes, a handful of landowners who already have high traffic will have no problem leveraging Boost to their advantage. But for most of us, it's a losing proposition from the start. 

In the meantime, I have some idea how to use my piece of rock to generate traffic, which most likely will involve community engagement, lotteries, prizes, contests etc. I'm thinking as well, since I'm a station owner in Century of Trains, I might do a cross-game contest as well. Either way, it will involve some work on my part to market and make happen. But, it's clear any advantage of landowning in AW now is clearly bent towards active community engagement for any change of success and growth. Simply being a crater plot on a planet doesn't produce anything. 

Special thanks goes to Dr. Yunani for helping me and my family get back into the game properly with all the new changes. Again, much appreciated!