The world's first #free2play MOBA #gamefi launch nears as Thetan Arena has laid the world at its feet with impressive Open Beta signups of 11,000 Players in only 4 days!
The article is the opinion of the author Ronni - a member of the RADA community.
1. Project Introduction
Thetan Arena is an #esport game where you can gather your friends, form a team and battle with others while you earn token rewards based on your skills. Thetan Arena's gameplay is designed to revolve around the combination of your individual skills and teamwork. MOBA & Battle Royale are the two gaming categories that Thetan Arena are pioneering in terms of launching the first #free2play and #play2earn MOBA game on BSC (Binance Smart Chain).
The intense highspeed gaming experience that combines the MOBA gaming category, led by games like DOTA2, and the Battle Royale gaming category, led by games like Fortnite, has never been seen in #gamefi before. It is guaranteed to catch the attention of Players in the world's leading AAA Titles in traditional gaming. The gaming mechanisms that have proven to be the world's highest earners both for Players and for the Companies behind the games, these two gaming categories have mass-market potential beyond most. Combined with the explosive growth in global #esport in the last 5 years it would seem Thetan Arena has all the cards on hand it needs to lead the emerging #gamefi category combining MOBA and Battle Royal with #play2earn.
In their whitepaper, Thetan Arena tells you to “gear your heroes up with a large selection of hundreds of weapons. You'd better come up with a good tactic as well because the most fierce war awaits you right from the moment that starship drops you off on the battlefield.” And looking at even the earliest videos of gameplay on Youtube from back in August, the game does seem to have one of the most intense highspeed gaming experiences in #gamfi and that will be very interesting to follow in the coming months as the game launches publicly.
2. Market Review
Thetan Arena is the first #gamefi MOBA Battle Royale title and make no mistake, the potential mass market combining the world's most popular and highest earning gaming categories with #esports leads to perhaps one of the most interesting market reviews written on a RADA backed project until now.
The historic evolution of MOBA as a gaming category started almost 20 years ago and took off globally with Dota and later League of Legends (LOL) as the absolute AAA title category dominators for more than a decade that established the category. The success in the genre has helped convince many video game publishers to copy the free-to-play MOBA model into their games and as a result, MOBA is the king of gaming in professional #esports 2021 and beyond.
Free2play as a business model in gaming, as used by the largest MOBA titles, has contributed to the category's overall popularity. Players can download and play AAA-quality games at no cost. These games are generating revenue by selling cosmetic elements, including skins, voice lines, customized mounts and announcers. However, none of these gives any functional gameplay advantages to the buyer at all and all of the ingame assets are owned by the company behind the game and not the Player.
Play2earn on mobile is also an emerging trend that makes the mass-market potential of Thetan Arena much larger, much earlier. Just looking at the Battle Royale gaming category, the top 5 titles of 2020 on mobile alone had more than 1 billion players in total, which is more than a 200% growth since 2018 - in this gaming category alone.
The rapid growth and success of the Battle Royale gaming category is linked to several factors, amongst others: the way all players start in the same vulnerable state eliminating any intrinsic advantage for players, as well as being well-suited as a spectator #esport. In other words it's very simple and easy to get into the game whether you want to Play or Watch, that simplicity makes it easier to follow and to be a Fan, as well as to get started and become a Player. Other factors behind the huge success of the Battle Royale gaming category include specific games' business models, amongst others Fortnite Battle Royale being free and available across all computers, consoles, and mobile devices.
There are very few competitors within both the MOBA and Battle Royale gaming categories in #gamefi. One to mention is Spider Tank (Eth), others would include BattleHero (BSc), but it would seem Thetan Arena (KAI/BSc) is miles ahead of any existing #gamefi competitors. So the competition will be coming from other emerging or pioneering #gamefi projects and as recently as this week DeFi Warrior (another RADA backed project) announced a new Royal Battle 3D game mode. So Thetan Arena seems to be one of few serious contenders combining #free2play with #play2earn in the new hybrid gaming category of MOBA Battle Royale.
3. Product Review
Thetan Arena’s whitepaper provides comprehensive information about gameplay and other game-wise features such as the ecosystem, token economy, NFTs, details and progression regarding the development and roadmap, as well as creative and consulting teams behind the project.
Thetan Arena's mission is not just to create an e-sport game but a platform game that connects crypto owners with gamers and streamers. Or as they say, “these three components will create a sustainable ecosystem that makes gaming, sharing, and in-game peer-to-peer exchange famous worldwide.”
Thetan Arena plans to focus on 3 major elements:
- Gameplay must be really attractive and entertaining, keeping players interested in participating in the game every day for many years. The game must have useful features that help link players together, such as Guild, Guild Wars, or Guild Quest. Players must be connected and interact like a miniature society in the game.
- The streaming system supports streamers directly to popular platforms such as Facebook/Twitch/YouTube and Thetan Arena's streaming system. Players can use Thetan Coin ($THC) or Thetan Gem ($THG) to reward Streamers.
- Digital asset Owners have a deep connection to the Players. They can be a Player, and they can also be someone who works with the Players to create the perfect team. Thetan Arena will support providing a blockchain-based platform to make it transparent, convenient and easy to get onboarded into the world of #gamefi.
Community-Driven Game Design:
Thetan Arena wants to become the first Blockchain-based MOBA game that is truly owned and governed by the Thetan Community. In the FPS and MOBA genres, community-driven game design has also flourished for years in different shapes and forms amongst others as Custom Maps has been widely seen in gaming titles like DOTA, CS:GO and LOL.
Gameplay
Heroes in Thetan Arena are categorized into 3 other groups according to their signature skills and statistics, including Tank, Assassin, and Marksman.
There are two different kinds of Level attributes in Thetan Arena - Hero Level and In-game Hero Level. Before joining the playground, Hero Level represents the base attributes of heroes at that Level. When they come into the battlefield, heroes' base attributes will be at In-game Level 1. During the match, Players can level up heroes from Level 1 to Level 10. The In-game heroes' attributes will increase according to their roles.
The Rarity of a Hero is determined by 2 elements: the base rarity of that hero and the rarity of its skin. Heroes with a higher rarity have more unique plays, abilities and will have a chance to get bonuses in battle rewards.
There are 3 different levels of rarity:
- Common Hero
- Epic Hero
- Legendary Hero
Skin Rarity: Skin rarity is determined by the frequency of the skin in the selling pool. The rarer the cosmetic is, the better it looks, with more visual effects and bonuses in battle rewards.
There are 3 different levels of skin rarity:
- Default Skin
- Rare Skin
- Mythical Skin
Trophy Class represents the mastery of using a hero, which means that hero has played in thousands of matches. Trophy Class increases the power of the custom skills chosen by heroes in the game. The higher the Trophy Class is, the more reward the hero can earn in battle!
Tanks are responsible for becoming frontlines facing up to the enemies and preventing their teammates from getting damaged.
Basic Attributes
Health Point: High
Attack Damage: Normal
Speed: Slow
Assassins are deadly and silent killers who can engage the fight, eliminate the target in a single combo, and retreat without being noticed.
Basic Attributes
Health Point: Low
Attack Damage: High
Speed: High
Marksmen are the main damage dealers and are responsible for maintaining the DPS amount during the fight.
Basic Attributes
Health Point: Normal
Attack Damage: High
Speed: Normal
Skills in Thetan Arena are categorized into 3 different skill sets based on their main attributes. Each skill set is also divided into 3 different levels of rarity - default, rare and mythical.
3 skill sets include:
- Effect Skill: Inflicting status on self, allies, and enemies.
- Damage Skill: Used to greatly increase the amount of damage in a short period.
- Support Skill: Aiding you against enemy attacks.
Every week, there are 15 randomized skills to be selected in the skill pool. Players can only choose the skills which are available. The skill pool will be refreshed weekly.
Thetan Arena's gameplay is designed to revolve around the combination of your personal skills and teamwork. Challenge yourself with various game modes: MOBA & Battle Royale.
- Battle Royale (Solo / Duo)
- Tower Siege
- Super Star
- Deathmatch
- Custom Battle
Thetan Arena also regularly hosts special competitive events coming with a wide variety of rewards.
- Campaign (PvE)
- Collection (PvE) (PvP)
- Leaderboard Competition
- War (PvP)
System
Ranking is a system that sorts players' ranks based on the trophies they get in matches. The goal is to create groups of players with the same standards of skills in order to get battles with great quality. Ranking also helps others recognize top player's achievements.
The ranking system consists of 11 ranks, and players need to achieve a certain amount of trophies to advance to the next one. Each rank will be divided into many small tiers, helping players keep track of their progress more easily. It also provides a better classification for match-matching.
Every day, the top 20 Champion level players will become Super Champion. At this Rank, Players will get exclusive items for the Super Champion Rank and be honored on the leaderboard for 24 hours.
Players will participate in battles and receive trophies based on the results of those battles. Players will rank up when reaching a specific amount of trophies.
The hero is limited by a daily limit that more or less depends on the rarity of the hero and the skin used by the hero.
Players' Rankings will be reset at the start of a new season (one season lasts three months).
The reset will follow the rules:
- Players from the Platinum Rank and above will reset to the beginning of the Platinum Rank (Tier 5).
- Players with ranks below the Platinum will not be reset.
- The purpose of this reset process is to give higher-ranked players more motivation to continue to rank up at the start of the new season. And players at lower ranks have the opportunities to access higher ranks.
The process of ranking up helps players receive many valuable rewards such as Thetan Coin, Power points, Heroes. The higher the orders, the more valuable the rewards are.
The rank reset at the beginning of the season will also reset the rewards from Platinum Tier-5 and above, which gives players more opportunities to receive more rewards.
The Leaderboard is a system that ranks players in the game based on their achievements. Leaderboards help increase competitiveness among players and create exciting challenges, forcing them to work hard to overcome them.
The Leaderboard in Thetan Arena is divided into several categories to create different challenges for players to conquer. Players can optionally change and view their ranks according to the categories of the leaderboards.
Leaderboards are classified as follows:
- Trophy Leaderboard: ranks players based on total trophies.
- Victory Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of wins.
- Streak Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of consecutive winning streaks.
- Hero Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of heroes they own.
- Guild Leaderboard: Guild ranking based on each Guild's Guild Trophy.
- MVP Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of MVPs achieved in matches.
- Triple Kill Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of times they hit Triple Kill in matches.
- Mega Kill Leaderboard: ranks players based on the number of Mega Kills achieved in matches.
Except for Trophy Leaderboard, all other Leaderboards will reset at the start of a new Season (a three-month Season). The goal is to equally divide the opportunity to compete for the top ranks for new and old players.
The Battle Pass is the key reward system of each Season (one season lasts three months). The Battle Pass provides players with many valuable rewards, helping them power up to achieve a higher Rank in the season. As the reward system represents a Season, the Battle Pass will include Season-specific rewards such as new heroes, new skins, avatars, etc.
The Battle Pass is divided into 60 Tiers. Each Tier requires a certain amount of Season Points to pass and receive the rewards of that Tier. Players can obtain Season Points by participating in Battles or from in-game quest rewards.
Each Tier of the Battle Pass is divided into two types of rewards:
- Normal rewards: normal rewards, average amount, and not much variety.
- Premium rewards: premium rewards, large quantity, variety, and special rewards.
At the beginning of the new season, the player's progress on the Battle Pass will be reset to 0, and the reward of the Battle Pass will also be changed according to the characteristics of that season.
Guilds are organizations created by the Players. The guild helps to increase the connection between the players with quests that require the efforts of all members to support the guild's growth and collect valuable rewards. Guilds create a more challenging environment by ranking races with a scale between groups of players.
A player must reach a certain level, and a small fee is required to create a Guild. Players can set Guild membership requirements to increase the quality of Guild members.
Players can join any Guild as long as they meet that guild's eligibility requirements. Players can also participate through the invitation of guild members.
Guilds have their Levels. The higher the Level, the more valuable features will be unlocked. The Guild needs many Glory Points and other resources to level up, requiring all guild members to work hard to collect enough. Guild Level also determines the maximum number of Guild members.
Guilds will be ranked against each other based on the total Glory Point. The more complex the members work to collect Glory Points, the higher the Guild rank will be.
Guild Leaderboard will be reset at the start of a new season to ensure fairness between the new Guild and the old Guild.
Guild features:
- Guild Shop: exclusively for Guild members, selling special items only available here.
- Guild Role: a positioning system for guild members, members with particular positions can receive additional benefits in collecting in-game resources.
- Guild Vault: the guild's asset store, members will contribute assets here to help the guild grow more.
- Guild Quest: The core feature of the Guild. Every week, the Guild Quest system will generate many quests with increasing difficulty and rewards. Based on the volume of quests completed, members will receive various rewards. Guild Quest is also an essential source of Glory Points to level up the Guild.
- Guild War: A feature that allows guilds to challenge each other. Their rank will be based on aggressive achievements. The guilds with the best achievements will receive many valuable rewards. (This feature is in development and released as soon as possible).
4. Unique Selling Points
Free2play is a relatively new concept in #gamefi. It has established itself as the world's strongest game mechanism to attract new players because it removes any potential risk, and as with any customer journey, once the risks are removed the potential customer feels safe enough to continue. In #gamefi Players have to invest a certain amount of money to even try the game, which is unreasonable but has proven to be one of the most effective strategic customer acquisition models in gaming.
Many traditional Players steer clear of #NFTGaming due to that singular reason, they want to try before they buy and Thetan Arena meets the (potential) Customer exactly where they need to, with the door open and ready to come in and try, it's designed into the game from the start.
Pay2play limits the customer pickup and makes it harder to hit critical mass in terms of customers online that are ready to play against others and it’s exactly there that the #free2play model works wonders because the players don't need any investment to experience the game.
Thetan Arena utilizes #free2play by giving all new Players a default hero to play and can be used to earn native in-game tokens (Thetan Coin). When the new free player attains a certain rank, by playing, they get the 2nd and 3rd heroes they need for their team.
You can make enough tokens to open new premium heroes on Thetan Marketplace with these three free heroes.
Free Heroes vs. Premium Heroes
- The free hero offers fewer opportunities for earning tokens compared to the premium hero.
- You cannot buy, sell or trade a free hero.
- Free Hero cannot participate in Special Events.
- Free Hero cannot Evolve to Thetan Hero.
- Free Hero cannot be traded on the marketplace.
Thetan Arena offers the following #play2earn options:
- If you don't want to invest money into the game, you can use Free Hero to participate in battles to accumulate enough in-game rewards of Thetan Coin ($THC) for playing. You may also sell $THC in a peer-to-peer manner to the market or use it to open more Premium Hero, but it takes time.
- If you can't wait, a combination of $THC and $THG may be consumed to open Thetan Box to get Premium Heroes. With Premium Heroes, Players can dedicate playing hours to level up, and possibly trade them for $THC. In addition, you can also use Premium Heroes to participate in various special events to earn more $THC and $THG in reward. If you want more, sharpen your skills and conquer the leader-boards.
- As a digital asset holder, you can treat Premium Heroes as digital assets that may earn rewards/income by actively battling in the Arena. The owner of premium heroes can enter into private arrangements with the actual players, entering into direct peer-to-peer arrangements for rental of heroes or sharing rewards obtained cooperatively. Players who are unable to obtain these Premium heroes may also work together to earn digital tokens, because they have the time & skills to optimize your digital assets.
- As a Player, who spends time to sharpen their skills & ability to optimize any Heroes and become partners in the ecosystem.
- As a streamer, you can stream games to attract game players to support you and receive rewards from the Thetan community.
Free2earn is a relatively new mechanism in #gamefi. #free2earn means that Players do not need to invest any money to play the game, the only thing they need to commit is time and effort.
When a Player starts the game, the system will give the player a default character called Raidon. Players use this character to participate in completely free battles.
When the Player wins the match, they can claim Thetan Coin and Thetan Gem.
When Players log into the game for the first time, they will be given a free hero at Level 1 and 2 more heroes later. Players can still use $THC (Thetan Coin) or power points to upgrade those heroes for free normally. The only difference is that free heroes are not eligible for minting and being sold on the #NFTMarketplace.
5. Tokenomic
Thetan Arena has 2 tokens which are: $THG and $THC used as economic incentives to encourage users to participate in the ecosystem activities. The mechanisms described above have two main goals:
To reward players for interacting with Thetan Arena while incentivizing them to utilize tokens for transactions, to create an internal circulating economy. To decentralize the ownership and governance of Thetan Arena.
To ensure the sustainability & scalability of the ecosystem, a 2 token model is applied.
Thetan Gem
- Token: $THG
- Contract: 0x9fd87aefe02441b123c3c32466cd9db4c578618f
- Whitepaper: https://doc.thetanarena.com/
- Website: https://thetanarena.com/
The native digital cryptographically-secured fungible token of Thetan Arena ($THG) is a transferable representation of attributed governance and utility functions specified in the protocol/code of Thetan Arena, and which is designed to be used solely as a compatible utility token on the game’s ecosystem.
$THG is a functional utility token that will be used as the medium of exchange between participants on Thetan Arena in a decentralized manner. The goal of introducing $THG is to provide a convenient and secure mode of payment and settlement between participants who interact within the ecosystem on Thetan Arena. $THG may only be utilized on Thetan Arena, and ownership of $THG carries no rights, express or implied, other than the right to use $THG as a means to enable usage of and interaction within Thetan Arena.
$THG also provides the economic incentives which will be distributed to encourage users to contribute to and participate in the ecosystem on Thetan Arena, thereby creating a mutually beneficial system where every participant is fairly compensated for its efforts.
There will be Special Events organised by Thetan Area which allows $THG and unique crypto collectibles (NFTs) to be earned.
Participating in tournaments will allow users to earn $THG.
Participating in the Marketplace will allow users to earn $THG.
Users would receive $THG rewards by staking Thetan Heroes and participating in a variety of ecosystem games and tasks, for example completing certain challenges, outperforming other players, accruing play-time, introducing new users to the game, or participating in governance.
In order to promote decentralized community governance for the network, $THG will allow holders to create and vote on on-chain governance proposals to determine future features and/or parameters of Thetan Arena
Thetan Coin
- Token: $THC
- Total supply: unlimited
$THC can be earned by playing the game. Once you earn them, you can claim them to your wallet.
Earn
- Battle: The amount of $THC bonus in each battle depends on the trophy class and hero rarity.
- Quest: When you complete the quests in the game, you will receive Quest Points. After receiving enough Quest Points, you will be able to exchange them for $THC.
- Battle Pass: Players can earn $THC through the Battle Pass. The Battle Pass will collect the most valuable items in a season.
- Ranking Rewards: Players can earn $THC if they rank up.
- Guild War: Players can earn $THC in guild war (the function is expected to be developed in 2022).
- Tournament: Players can earn $THC in tournaments organized by the system or the players themselves for their guilds.
Utilities
Thetan Coin ($THC) is the main currency used in Thetan Arena's operations.
$THC is used in the following activities:
- Buy Thetan Box: Thetan Box is the source of Hero for the entire Thetan Arena ecosystem
- Hero upgrade: $THC is used for upgrade heroes, providing specific advantages in the game
- Reward to streamers: $THC can use for reward streamers when they stream games
- Bet on matches: $THC can be used for betting on matches in the streaming system
Thetan Treasury
All of the revenue streams of Thetan Arena will be split into 2 groups:
- X% will go to the Company to keep developing Thetan Arena to be allocated towards all active contributors proportionate to their contributions.
- Y% will go to Thetan Treasury to be allocated towards all active contributors proportionate to their contributions.
To develop a self-sustainable, closed-loop economy, the treasury would be re-distributed as incentives for active contributors interacting within the ecosystem. All users must participate in the development of the game in order to receive rewards. Eventually, once governance is introduced and the network decentralized, the parameters and conditions for allocations to the various groups will be determined by governance, and no centralized party will be able to unilaterally control such aspects.
The Treasury receives inflows from:
- 4.25% of all Thetan NFT marketplace transactions.
- The $THG portion of the ecosystem fee.
- Selling Heroes, Thetan Box, cosmetics, and in-game consumables.
Additionally, there will be fees when players want to level up their game characters, play in tournaments, and upgrade Heroes.
There will be various other similar income streams in the future from cosmetic sales, tournament entry fees, licensing fees, and more as new opportunities present themselves.
Thetan Box
Thetan box is a box system sold by Thetan Arena system to users on the marketplace.
Purchasing a Thetan Box costs $THG and $THC depending on what kind of Thetan Box you choose (Use $THC to purchase Common and Epic boxes. $THG for Legendary boxes).
The $THG portion is variable and subject to adjustment based on a myriad of economic factors.
6. Roadmap
7. Media
The following are Thetan Arena communication channels and communities. Subscribe now to follow the latest information. Don't miss out on the hottest match!
8. Partners & Investors
In addition to the above investors, Thetan Arena is currently a game about to launch in the ecosystem of Yield Guild Games - the largest #play2earn organization in the market right now, that originated with Axie Infinity and now are diversifying into additional games.
Getting on the radar of YGG is a game maker for any new #gamefi title.
9. Team
Wolffun was established in 2014 with four core members who had a belief that games are an integral part of human life and a means to discover the hidden abilities of individuals, groups, and society when real- life limitations make it impossible: the imagination in adventure games combined with quick thinking and handling, both individually and as a group, the interaction and teamwork define the outcome.
Blockchain technology evolves gaming adding: decentralization, security, transparency, freedom, blockchain can help traditional games do things that were not possible before. Heroes Strike, with nearly 10 million downloads, became the proof for Wolffun .
Heroes Strike was in development for more than 3 years and became the initial model behind Thetan Arena, so in that sense, the team behind Thetan Arena brings in the experience that is required to lead a project as ambitious as this.
Thetan Arena team brings together members who are both prominent and experienced in the field of game development as well as blockchain technology. The game development team was founded in 2014, with a specialty in Online PvP games for mobile platforms.
Tank Raid Online was released in 2015 attracting more than 5M players to date and is still known and loved worldwide and has achieved many prizes since its launch, including Google Editors' Choice.
10. Summary
Play for Free, Play to Earn is the catchphrase of Thetan Arena and hopefully, it will also be the vantage point for most traditional gamers as they start googling how to get into #gamefi. They can do what they do in traditional games like Dota2 and Fortnite with all the added benefits of blockchain-based #gamefi and a MetaVerse to drive the storyline along with actual ownership of ingame assets and the freedom to transfer those ingame assets anywhere. It would seem that the traditional gaming top category earners top titles are up for a challenge.
As part of the research for this article, it really was very hard to find a serious contender in the MOBA category within #gamefi. The same can be said for Battle Royale as a gaming category in #gamefi, the titles are far apart and few and most of them are not very attractive for the mass market player base. Thetan Arena seems to be one of few serious contenders not only in both categories but also in this new hybrid #gamefi category, where Thetan Arena is alone as the singular serious contender that has the potential to become the world's biggest gaming category (financially) in the next 5 years.
The customer segmentation of Thetan Arena is very clear and that might just be the strongest point in the strategy of Thetan Arena, few competitors in the emerging market and hardly anyone that seems to be aware of their customer strategy in direct relation to the product strategy. The audience is younger males from all over the world and on any device. Entry-level barriers are next to none, if you have a device that can run the game, you can play it without any additional requirements - and for a #gamefi project that is launching its first public game soon, the timing of the mass market explosion in #gamefi in combination with the strategic approach to defining a new hybrid category, Thetan Arena was an easy choice for RADA to back as a project.
If Thetan Arena, led by the #free2play mechanism conquers the global market share, they have the potential to do anything with the most effective marketing mechanism ever invented in gaming: free2play. It's hard to see the limit for Thetan Arena, not in the sense that the tokens will go to the moon and beyond (they might), but in the sense that this project might just get millions and millions of customers and for any gaming company in any category that is the direct road to success.
Sources: Information gathered as part of research for writing this article will be linked below where relevant
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Disclaimer: Information is gathered through research from the project's official Whitepaper and other official sources. The content in this article is the author's personal views for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment or financial advice. RADA and the author are not financial advisors and will not bear any responsibility in connection to any potential investments.
