Wolf Game: How the Merge Will Improve GameFi
Over the past month, the Wolf Game NFT collection has seen a steady rise back up in price since its initial release months ago. The project has continued to do well under tough market conditions and appears to be thriving with a community that is fully invested in the game’s dynamics.
Following an even stronger counter-trend among the web2 community that is highly critical of blockchain gaming, the steady success of Wolf Game is proving that there are plenty of possibilities in web3 for gaming to become a successful part of the ecosystem.
GameFi Mechanics
The Wolf Game collection has done many unique things to keep its project afloat through the crypto crash, but it’s the game’s adherence to technology that has really elevated it above other blockchain games.
Risk Protocol
The Wolf Game is centered around a protocol that uses inherent risk within the game to keep the game from becoming redundant. Much like WZRDS (but in an entirely more professional and transparent way), the game has created the possibility that other NFT holders can steal NFTs as part of the gameplay.
This feature allows the game to become varied, allowing players the ability to win or lose in certain situations instead of earning mindless passive income which focuses on profits more than entertainment.
On-chain
Another aspect that has proven to be successful for a number of different projects is by placing all of the metadata on-chain. Although this is a considerably more expensive option for projects to choose from, it increases the value of a token collection significantly because there are fewer obstacles between the NFT’s contents and the blockchain.
By placing everything directly on-chain, the entirety of the Wolf Game can be recorded on the Ethereum network without other platforms needing to be involved, meaning that the game will exist for as long as the Ethereum blockchain exists.
How the game works
The game takes place on a farm that raises sheep for $WOOL. Similar to CryptoKitties, this $WOOL is used to help breed new sheep for the farm where they can be staked in the farmhouse, safe from the wolves.
However, when inside the farmhouse, holders are forced to provide a cut of their $WOOL to the wolves as a form of tax which leaves the holder to decide whether they want to stake their sheep tokens for consistent income or leave them unstaked for higher rewards that come with a risk.
Over time, the game has continued to develop as well with a variety of different whitepapers being put out on their website where players can read about new updates to the project. These updates regularly consist of new content, collectibles, tokens, and games to keep players interested.
Opensea recognition
One highlight during the crypto crash was the recognition that came to the project from Opensea who openly called it one of the best games to release on the blockchain this year. The announcement came in the middle of July which was one of the hardest months during the crypto crash as many new projects failed to maintain momentum for more than just a couple of days.
GameFi after the Merge
Following the Merge, projects like this will have the most benefit from the increased efficiency on a proof-of-stake network because the entire game is on-chain and requires more network activity to operate.
Although the team was able to maintain the quality of their game while on Ethereum’s proof-of-work network, the shift to a faster consensus mechanism means that the game will become incredibly easier for players to manage in an environment where risk is part of the appeal.
By having the ability to stake and unstake sheep in much faster transactions, players will walk a thinner line of risk as they try to maximize staking rewards before wolves can seize their tokens.
