The current landscape of blockchain-based games is filled with Web3 adoptions of Web2 games. A few examples are:
Card games where the cards are tradable NFTs.
Battle games with tokenized in-game currencies.
Sandboxes where the land is bought and sold on secondary markets.
While these games may succeed, the true potential of blockchain gaming lies in creating novel experiences.
Welcome to District N - a team versus team elimination-style competition spanning over six months. Fifteen teams of one thousand players will enter, and three teams will remain to claim a large prize.
Breaking down District N, four components make for a completely new and exciting gaming experience.
Use of NFTs
Value Distribution
Game Design
Social Coordination
Players purchase an entry bundle consisting of two NFTs to enter the District N ecosystem.
District Card - The District Card assigns every player to one of fifteen teams (Districts). With this card comes decision authority, discussion channel access, and prize rights.
Base Character - The Base Character is a blank profile that acts as a canvas for players to build their District N identity.
Throughout the game, successful teams and their players unlock new NFT attributes to add to their Base Character. These attributes are won through in-game success or are purchased in the store.
District Cards will be consistently traded on secondary markets, with players cashing in on their team’s recent success, exiting under pressure, and joining a new team to participate with their friends or followers. District Cards have an explicit value, explained below.
All revenue collected from entry bundle sales is put aside into the game vault. The vault holds prize money for the winners of the game and gives each District Card an explicit price. Consider the following example:
John creates a lottery for his ten friends and guarantees the winning ticket will be a single digit from zero to nine. John’s friends buy into the lottery, hoping for a 10x return.
After all the tickets are purchased, they maintain their value because they offer a 1/10 chance at the 10x sum.
John then tells the holder of ticket 0 that they have not won the lottery - making that ticket worthless.
The other tickets’ value has increased by around 11% as each participant now has a 1/9 chance at the 10x sum.
This process continues one by one, with remaining ticket values increasing until the winner is crowned.
The value of a District Card is quite similar to the value of a ticket in John’s lottery. After initial mints, they each maintain their value. As the game progresses, teams get eliminated, sending their District Cards to zero, thus increasing the value of the surviving team passes which have a greater chance of claiming the lucrative vault.
As referenced above, NFT attributes are available for purchase in the form of crates. These crates each have a cost of 0.05ETH to unlock. Half of the revenue collected from the crates is added to the vault for later prize distribution - further increasing the explicit value of each District Card.
The vault is distributed to the top three teams at the end of the six months.
Bonus: Assuming at least one District N player purchases an attribute crate, the expected return of a player playing District N and NOT purchasing any crates is positive… Can people afford not to play?
The games are simple but require intense strategy and coordination.
Each game will have members of every team voting on a decision, direction, or amount for an optimal outcome.
Teams will be eliminated according to the structure below at each game’s end.
Game 1: 15 teams → 12 teams
Game 2: 12 teams → 9 teams
Game 3: 9 teams → 7 teams
Game 4: 7 teams → 5 teams
Game 5: 5 teams → 3 teams
Game 6: Ranking the top 3 teams
Each of the six games has a unique design that boils down to a simple skill the team must master.
Game 1 - Attack and Protect (Partnerships): Teams build partnerships and agreements with other teams to protect themselves and eliminate others.
Game 2 - Platform Points (Run Counter): Teams elect whether to stay on their base or strive for the points on the centre platform. If too many teams strive for the platform, they lose points.
Game 3 - Day’s Work (Prisoner’s Dilemma): Teams elect whether to cooperate on a task or act for themselves.
Game 4 - Break and Take (Ultimatum Game): Teams offer an amount of a total prize to other teams who have the option of accepting or rejecting and leaving both teams with zero.
Game 5 - Cost of Trade (Investing): Teams bid for the right to increase their points by 10% and trade the tool between each other.
Game 6 - Man the Ship (Alignment): Teams will be forced to divide themselves into roles and be ranked on their cohesion as a unit.
This challenge is the first of its kind, aligning 1000 players towards a common goal against equally sized and motivated opponents in the hunt for a financial prize.
District N is social by default, requiring interaction and alignment for financial success. This is a new concept with traditional gaming and within the Web3 space.
Upon assigning each participant with their District, a week of social organization will occur. Players will be encouraged to switch teams and organize themselves with their friends and people they trust.
Token-gated Discord channels will exist in the District N server for strategic planning and discussion. Players will be encouraged to select leaders, spot traitors, and form trusted sub-groups within these servers.
Updates and controversy will also occur on Twitter outside the gated servers. The District N team will be paying close attention to team strategy and execution and will be providing updates for the world.
Each team will also be provided with their own theme, graphic content and items to promote themselves in the hunt for new members and external partners.