When the online blockchain card game, Warsaken, first appeared on the radar, there was a lot of speculation as to whether things would get off the ground and become a reality. Keep in mind, the Blockchain world, and particularly the NFT side, was coming off the heady drunkeness of Bitcoin reaching the stratosphere and everything crypto being pulled upward along with it. So as things progressed into 2022 and then in 2023, a lot of the hot air that originally pushed many projects along disappeared in a slow leakage. 

In the meantime, however, the Warsaken community through Discord kept growing leaps and bounds. While the game itself went through many delays for actual launching, that didn't stop the excitement as well as the collectability of the NFT series, especially as more and more NFTs were introduced adding to the original series of the game. That said, the Warsaken NFT series on WAX was never intended just to be a card collection venture. It was and continues to be a personal project of the game's creator, Brandon Adams, as well as the fruition of what has now been a multi-year effort into NFT gaming on a card basis versus just click Pay-to-Earn models. 

The idea of a competitive card game was not new. Obviously, there were many predecessors to this approach, Magic: the Gathering being one of the most popular in physical card form. And Brandon originally did try to go that route with an actual, physical card game project. However, after a disappointing but extremely educational experience with that first attempt, he went back to the drawing board and started closely looking at the Wax Blockchain as a viable next phase (the physical card game version was rebooted a bit later with a second Kickstarter run). The move was the right one. The physical card game market was saturated and matured. Competition was fierce and market entry was going to cost an arm-and-leg to have a viable presence. Blockchain, on the other hand, was open territory and hardly explored (even Magic, ultimately, had to go online as well to retain income). 

There was though a number of early online blockchain game examples to choose from, with Splinterlands being the most comparable game already existing. However, Brandon was looking for something more than just lining up a digital hand of 5 cards and throwing out quick sprint games. In fact, his approach was far closer to the idea of an online chess game, utilizing multiple cards and resources for a strategy-oriented gameplay that requires some thinking, skill and eventual experience buildup to succeed. 

The Warsaken approach came with a three-pronged strategy: a Standard game model, a Blitz model, and a Cabal (Solo play) model. Blitz hit the wire first, becoming the first real-time game version of Warsaken online, even though it spent a good amount of time in prototype form (Tabletopia). Standard came next, which really opened up the full value of the game for players. By this point the series 1 NFT line of Warsaken had been fully developed and the project was well on the way with the expected second series.

A good amount of growth and reflection happened in that period, which lasted roughly about two years to where we are now with the latest status. In that time, Warsaken NFTs have peaked and come down like the rest of the blockchain world, filtering out momentary speculators, but the community has remained sizable and the demand for playing the game continues to maintain. It, of course, helped that Warsaken's collectability provided added value, both with a built-in staking mechanism awarding cardholder with a fungible game token that could be exchanged, as well as the ability to blend to produce greater value NFTs, both in-game and on the WAX exchange. 

So now, with the release of series 2 in the form of "Savage Escalation," the Warsaken project is building up yet another layer to the foundations already in place. The Standard game is in functional form, and Blitz (a fast-paced quickie form of the card game) maintained interest and groups despite the long wait for game development (developers aren't cheap). With a game that already have an extensive and heavy ruleset, adding another 244 new card elements steps up the need for study, depth and understanding the interrelationship of more pieces. It also gives the collectors something to chase after again, whether for game enhancement or market flipping. 

If you want something more than a shooter, you're looking for a community, and always liked the idea of a chess-style game, as an online NFT operation Warsaken may fit the bill. Given the new series and new ramp up, entry now is a very good opportunity. While a full operational deck takes 65 cards, you can easily put one together on the secondary WAX market for very little cost, allowing immediate play. It's a low risk, high fun return for a blockchain NFT game that has managed to prove itself and continues to keep growing.