The Value Proposition of an Ethermore Character

Ethermore is a web3 RPG on Ethereum, we explore the value of being a player character.

Web3 games come with one core advantage of their predecessors: you get to own and resell your game assets. This is a little different from the days of buying a CD or game cartridge for $90 and reselling it after you have clocked it for $10.

The core asset to own in Ethermore is a character. The core value is what you can do with it. You can mint one from the Ethermore website into metamask (for about the same price at the time of writing), unlocking access to participate in the game and community, then resell it whenever you wish, possibly for more than you even bought it for. We explore the economics of value behind the base asset to the game and what it means to own a player character.

Educational value as an on-ramp to DAOs

The main game mechanics of Ethermore is group decision-making on the narrative choices in the world, played out using the tools of DAOs to achieve consensus. This allows players to attune themselves with the structures and tools of a web3 world coordination and consensus making through gaming. It is essential that we have exploratory innovative and fun experiences in the dry world of consensus structures.

It will allow new and existing web3 users a place to experiment with DAO-like organizational structures and hopefully bring in many creative and lateral thinkers into the ecosystem of other web3 organizations.

Choices in the narrative are put to votes and worldbuilding/world-changing events can happen at the drop of a community build proposal.

Social capital and community

RPG gaming communities are always full of like-minded, diverse, and welcoming people that are there predominately to collaborate towards a shared goal. The subset niche of these folk in web3 is a small ven diagram and hosting space for people to break the ice through games, creativity, and problem-solving is a breeding ground for collaborations, new friendships, and opportunities to build things.

Due to the collaborative nature of the project, a tight feedback loop exists between the community members and the Ethermore narrative arc and world. The open-sky project has worldbuilding and choice-making a the heart of the experiences and as a result, ownership and involvement in the imaginary world are core to the project.

Character ‘Value’ Variables

Supply- Like other limited supply-based projects, you can have as many Ethermore characters as you like, but only 15,000 will ever be minted. This is usually the main narrative for limited edition ERC721 collectables, especially avatar projects, but Ethermore characters have secondary scarcity components in play worth a second look.

Demand- Web3 games are the wild west, and they are still teething and acquiring players that can work a smart wallet and engage with gas fees and minting. This means the player pool is low, but games are a huge on-ramp, and RPG gamers are very metaverse-native and represent a huge demand of the soon-to-be gaming market. Players may just wish to have an ‘ownable’ piece of art to represent their DnD character in meatspace at the table on their character sheet or web2 virtual tabletop environments. First-in-class projects of their sort will fuel demand for OG ‘character avatars’ without even venturing into the playability of the Ethermore world.

Replayability- Once a character has completed quests in Ethermore or participated in group narrative choices, they cannot be repeated. This displaces the scarcity value in two directions; those who want ‘virgin’ characters who can play through all game scenarios and those who want ‘experienced’ characters that took part in landmark quests or moments in the history of the game.

Character Death- All good RPGs have choices with consequences. Permanent character death is a possibility in Ethermore, with the burning of token and sending a Hero to the Null. This makes participation have high stakes and over time, lowers the supply of the overall characters.

Player character preference- Many players will want to play through as a particular Race or Class. There are different rarities amongst the character traits, and some people may want ownership over a rarer trait, but others may want a particular type of character experience.

Narrative options- Different Races and Classes will experience the world of Ethermore differently and have different narrative choices and options to be involved in.

Security.

The core character assets are represented by an ERC721 token on the base layer of Ethereum, secured with IPFS storage and on-chain provenance hashing, it is as secure as game assets can get in blockchain games. Many games settle their assets on layer 2 and side chains. This is due to the core value of moving in-game assets and inventory requiring lower gas fees. Ethermore characters are layer 1 with the narrative, gaming, and social value accruing off-chain.

But where is my sellable loot, man…?

Our core idea here is to plant the seeds of an imaginary world and like a good old decentralized game of DnD, build it together. Where it can go from here will be largely directed by the community. The base layer of the value will always stay with the original character, but assets may come on top of this as the project goes one way or another as built by the community.

From the ground up.

The main value prop to players is to be there as things get created in the world and have a part in doing so. Our earliest community-driven and voted content was basic things like the names of the moons (Keccak and Skein) or the Tallest mountain (Mt. Ethermore) but as this develops into choices that shape the world, kill characters, decide the fate of NPCs, then the flywheel of ownership, purpose, and value really kicks in.

Welcome To The Web3 Writing Contest

Ethermore is a web3 RPG on Ethereum, we explore the value of being a player character.

Web3 games come with one core advantage of their predecessors: you get to own and resell your game assets. This is a little different from the days of buying a CD or game cartridge for $90 and reselling it after you have clocked it for $10.

The core asset to own in Ethermore is a character. The core value is what you can do with it. You can mint one from the Ethermore website into metamask (for about the same price at the time of writing), unlocking access to participate in the game and community, then resell it whenever you wish, possibly for more than you even bought it for. We explore the economics of value behind the base asset to the game and what it means to own a player character.

Educational value as an on-ramp to DAOs

The main game mechanics of Ethermore is group decision-making on the narrative choices in the world, played out using the tools of DAOs to achieve consensus. This allows players to attune themselves with the structures and tools of a web3 world coordination and consensus making through gaming. It is essential that we have exploratory innovative and fun experiences in the dry world of consensus structures.

It will allow new and existing web3 users a place to experiment with DAO-like organizational structures and hopefully bring in many creative and lateral thinkers into the ecosystem of other web3 organizations.

Choices in the narrative are put to votes and worldbuilding/world-changing events can happen at the drop of a community build proposal.

Social capital and community

RPG gaming communities are always full of like-minded, diverse, and welcoming people that are there predominately to collaborate towards a shared goal. The subset niche of these folk in web3 is a small ven diagram and hosting space for people to break the ice through games, creativity, and problem-solving is a breeding ground for collaborations, new friendships, and opportunities to build things.

Due to the collaborative nature of the project, a tight feedback loop exists between the community members and the Ethermore narrative arc and world. The open-sky project has worldbuilding and choice-making a the heart of the experiences and as a result, ownership and involvement in the imaginary world are core to the project.

Character ‘Value’ Variables

Supply- Like other limited supply-based projects, you can have as many Ethermore characters as you like, but only 15,000 will ever be minted. This is usually the main narrative for limited edition ERC721 collectables, especially avatar projects, but Ethermore characters have secondary scarcity components in play worth a second look.

Demand- Web3 games are the wild west, and they are still teething and acquiring players that can work a smart wallet and engage with gas fees and minting. This means the player pool is low, but games are a huge on-ramp, and RPG gamers are very metaverse-native and represent a huge demand of the soon-to-be gaming market. Players may just wish to have an ‘ownable’ piece of art to represent their DnD character in meatspace at the table on their character sheet or web2 virtual tabletop environments. First-in-class projects of their sort will fuel demand for OG ‘character avatars’ without even venturing into the playability of the Ethermore world.

Replayability- Once a character has completed quests in Ethermore or participated in group narrative choices, they cannot be repeated. This displaces the scarcity value in two directions; those who want ‘virgin’ characters who can play through all game scenarios and those who want ‘experienced’ characters that took part in landmark quests or moments in the history of the game.

Character Death- All good RPGs have choices with consequences. Permanent character death is a possibility in Ethermore, with the burning of token and sending a Hero to the Null. This makes participation have high stakes and over time, lowers the supply of the overall characters.

Player character preference- Many players will want to play through as a particular Race or Class. There are different rarities amongst the character traits, and some people may want ownership over a rarer trait, but others may want a particular type of character experience.

Narrative options- Different Races and Classes will experience the world of Ethermore differently and have different narrative choices and options to be involved in.

Security.

The core character assets are represented by an ERC721 token on the base layer of Ethereum, secured with IPFS storage and on-chain provenance hashing, it is as secure as game assets can get in blockchain games. Many games settle their assets on layer 2 and side chains. This is due to the core value of moving in-game assets and inventory requiring lower gas fees. Ethermore characters are layer 1 with the narrative, gaming, and social value accruing off-chain.

But where is my sellable loot, man…?

Our core idea here is to plant the seeds of an imaginary world and like a good old decentralized game of DnD, build it together. Where it can go from here will be largely directed by the community. The base layer of the value will always stay with the original character, but assets may come on top of this as the project goes one way or another as built by the community.

From the ground up.

The main value prop to players is to be there as things get created in the world and have a part in doing so. Our earliest community-driven and voted content was basic things like the names of the moons (Keccak and Skein) or the Tallest mountain (Mt. Ethermore) but as this develops into choices that shape the world, kill characters, decide the fate of NPCs, then the flywheel of ownership, purpose, and value really kicks in.