If you look at the state of economies of traditional games, they’ve integrated tokens. For example, V-Bucks on Fortnite, Riot Points for League of Legends, and WOWtoken for World of Warcraft for trading in-game assets. 

These game tokens power microtransactions for purchasing assets such as special characters and weapon skins, which have generated significant revenue for the developers.  

The game I am about to discuss today, Big Time, targets gamers outside of the blockchain space by replicating role-playing games (RPG) like World of Warcraft and offering in-game assets in the form of NFTs.

The project is backed by famous investors such as Alameda Research, Digital Currency Group, OK Blockchain Capital, and celebrity Ashton Kutcher’s VC fund, Sound Ventures. It has grown a large community, which should help in generating usage.

You can play Big Time occasionally or let your kid or a friend play it for you. As usual, early players will likely get some benefits down the road. The good news is that you can choose your optimum entry based on your risk appetite, starting with amounts less than $100.

Big Time will be a free-to-play space-themed RPG game. The project’s in-game assets include usable items and virtual lands, which enable players to get token rewards. 

The project’s founding team comprises Ari Meilich, the co-founder of Decentraland, and Thor Alexander, a veteran gaming developer who wrote a book on MMO game designs. 

The project has generated considerable hype. Its Discord server has over 400,000 members and, according to the team, nearly a million users subscribed to their email list for launch updates. 

The game’s launch is scheduled for sometime in July, 2022. Until then, the team is running a beta version with enabled in-game NFTs. 

Since the early access launch, the game’s popularity has risen on the number one streaming website, Twitch. This will likely help in attracting non-blockchain gamers. According to a recent interview, over 600 active players play the beta version daily.

Holders of the early access NFTs can earn exclusive in-game assets like weapons, skins, or virtual land, called SPACE, by playing the game. The total supply of the SPACE NFTs is 600,000.

In the beginning, the virtual lands will be the only way to acquire in-game tokens, which will be used for crafting, repairing items, and opening other exclusive areas to explore and win NFTs within the game.

The timelines for pass access. Source: BigTime’s Discord.

There are around eight to nine weeks left for the early access users. Early access passes are categorized as gold, silver, jade, and ruby. These passes grant gaming access for limited periods. 

The gold pass eligibility began on Apr. 19 and the subsequent entries for different level passes will begin at later dates, with decreasing number of in-game items and their rarity.

The benefits for early pass holders. Source: BigTime Discord

Depending on your risk appetite, you can buy different level passes. They range from $85 for jade, to $570 for silver, and $3,420 for gold.

The risk in spending time and money playing during the early access period is that most NFTs are not required to play the game and serve only for aesthetic purposes. The demand for them should increase only if the game becomes sufficiently widespread. 

It is encouraging to see that blockchain gaming guilds like Yield Guild Games, Merit Circle, Neo Tokyo, and Avocado Guild participated in a SPACE NFT pre-sale offering, purchasing $9 million worth of the SPACE NFTs. 

Moreover, there is a chance that the value of silver and jade passes will rise when their access opens. As a holder, you can sell them at a profit to interested gamers, play the game yourself, or assign it to someone you know to acquire valuable NFTs.  

If you’re lucky enough to win a SPACE NFT in the early access, you can hold it for passive income after the game’s launch or sell it on the game’s marketplace. 

How to join early access? 

You can purchase an early access pass on OpenSea. To do so, you need to use the Polygon network.

First you need to configure your Metamask wallet to add Polygon. Visit Polygonscan website, scroll to the bottom of the page and then click on the ‘Add Polygon Network’’ button.

Approve the transaction on your Metamask wallet and you’ll be directly switched to Polygon’s mainnet.

You also need to add some MATIC to pay for gas and bridge additional funds to pay for the NFTs. Deposit MATIC from a centralized exchange or ask a friend for a small deposit of $1-2, it should cover you for a couple of transactions. To transfer funds from Ethereum mainnet to Polygon, use OpenSea directly. You can also use other bridges like the Polygon bridge or Hop Exchange.    

To redeem your passes, you have to create an account on the BigTime marketplace using your email address.

To link your NFT to the marketplace, click on your account icon, and select the ‘Redeem VIP Pass.’

Then select the Exchange with Polygon options by clicking on the arrow.

Connect your metamask wallet, make sure on the Polygon network. Then, sign the transaction to redeem your passes. 

Once you’ve redeemed an active pass, you will get an option to download the game launcher. It is currently built for Windows only, but the team will expand to MacOS shortly. Your marketplace login is the same as the game launcher login. 

There you have it: a project with solid backing, a competent team, and a large community, a rare combination in the blockchain gaming space. On top of that, there’s still time to acquire assets and virtual lands early at relatively lower prices. Thus, presenting a solid opportunity for you to make your efforts in this game worthwhile.

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