With the blockchain role-playing game supported by Ubisoft, players can “split...

Nine chronicles, a blockchain-powered decentralized role-playing game supported by Ubisoft, announced its early release on the mainnet last week.

The game – one of the first of its kind – is an idea of ​​the Seoul-based company Planetarium. Nine Chronicles is a so called MMORPG or a massive multiplayer online role-playing game. It’s a tank with an acronym. But for laypeople, it means choosing an adventure with a touch of fantasy.

With Nine Chronicles, Planetarium hopes to lay the foundation for a new landscape of user-driven gaming communities.

“A lot of people were frustrated because these virtual worlds were created by companies,” says Kijun Seo, founder of Planetarium. “It was created to serve them and make as much profit as possible.”

“That’s not bad in itself,” Seo clarified. “But when you have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, it’s possible to organize and modify their software yourself and build something the community believes in,” he said, referring to the concept of modifying – an elaborate copy Paste that allows users to edit games the way they want without having to rebuild the software from the bottom up.

In some ways, the underlying premise of Nine Chronicles – a game based on democratic principles – is hardly new. Humans have been modifying games for decades, opening the backs of Ataris in the 1970s, and optimizing downloaded games in the 2010s to create bubble worlds: little rogue universes, parallel to the originals, yet controlled by the users. In some cases, modified versions have competed with the originals.

“There are some interesting examples,” said Seo. “World of Warcraft that is the most popular [massively multiplayer online game], released a major patch every year or two. There was a big change that was once called the Cataclysm that basically destroyed the map and created a new world over it that was cool on its own, but a lot of people wanted to stay in the previous world. “

Of course, the users overwritten the update. Old maps were restored, and a popular revolution – in game form – struck Warcraft’s creator Blizzard Entertainment in the nose. Almost a million accounts have been created.

“But Blizzard didn’t want that. It’s not their subscription base, ”Seo said. “So they sued and shut it down and after a couple of years released their own version of Warcraft Classic, which was actually more successful than the patch they released.”

That’s not how Nine Chronicles will work.

Blockchain has created an opening for a new dynamic between user and creator – as it seems to be doing in every sector – that mimics a democracy more closely than is currently possible. Forking or creating a new blockchain ledger could be the successor to modding. And in its adoption of technology, Nine Chronicles represents the avant-garde of movement.

Unlike modding, forking is based on an already existing network of nodes on which the game is run. The planetarium represents just a knot, a Christmas light in a jumble. When the creators get out, the game can continue and evolve. It is the critical mass of the users that gives it strength, not the parent company. In the ancient world, modified versions required a lot of server firepower. and even if someone got their hands on it, that person would have to keep the server running or all of the data would disappear.

“But what is really interesting and powerful about the blockchain is that anyone can turn off their node and the game will continue,” said Seo. “So you turn on a node and several nodes connect to one another. Nine Chronicles allows users to download the game and run the node on their PC. And that would actually connect to all of the other PCs playing Nine Chronicles. At this point everyone is part of the network. “

Nine Chronicles is literally created by its users.

The game, which was released last Tuesday, was sold out during pre-sale. It sold out to swap items and interact with some aspects of the game. It’s undoubtedly a good litmus test of interest, but Seo is also hesitant to get poetic about the release. “You’re running into problems,” he said. On the day of the scheduled rollout of the game, Planetarium had to postpone the release due to technical problems.

“But we’re back on the right track,” said Seo. “We sell a little bit of gold from Nine Chronicles every day. And we’ve sold out and sold out our daily allotments. The community has been very positive and most of the mining is now done by the community. Eighty percent of the people who chose to gamble joined the network as a miner. “

Kijun Seo strives to get the gravity of the game under control. Once it is out of reach of the planetarium, its real life begins. “We want to build a self-sustaining community within the game itself, where players feel that the contributions they make to the community are their own because they actually own the game. We are only the first creators. “