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Wemade’s ‘play-to-earn’ game Mir 4 challenges pay-to-win paradigm

By Kim Byung-wook

Published : Sept. 5, 2021 - 14:30

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Mir 4 users mine black steels. (Mir 4 YouTube Screenshot) Mir 4 users mine black steels. (Mir 4 YouTube Screenshot)
Amid growing gamer fatigue over extreme pay-to-win games, a South Korean developer has come up with a new mobile game that offers just the opposite: Users can make money simply by enjoying the game.

Wemade’s Mir 4 is a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game that carries on the previous success of the firm’s The Legend of Mir 2, which recorded 500 million global users.

After its global launch in some 170 countries on Aug. 26, it ranked as the fourth-most-played MMORPG on steam as of Aug. 31.

What sets Mir 4 apart is its unique “play-to-earn” system that allows users to convert in-game resources into tradable crypto assets.

Users who collect 100,000 units of dark steel, an essential resource in the game, can “smelt” them into one Draco, a blockchain-based coin created by the firm. Wemade projects the value of one Draco to be around $3.

To preserve the value of the crypto currency, Wemade said it would continually adjust the number of black steels that players could craft into one Draco.

“The Draco ecosystem provides mid- to long-term investment opportunities,” said Choi Yun-young, Mir 4’s community manager. Simply put, the more popular Mir 4 becomes, the greater the returns investors can expect, he explained.

To control the black steel supplies, massive battles are expected between users from different countries.

Also, Wemade is preparing a nonfungible token platform where users can trade characters in the form of irreplaceable NFT cards. The platform is set for launch this month.

Mir 4 revolves around the story of an Asian princess from a fallen kingdom who runs away from an ambitious lord, who wants to kidnap and marry her as a way to become king.

Users get to select a role -- warrior, lancer, Taoist, sorcerer or archer. The mission is to team up with a grandmaster and his disciples, rescue the princess and unveil the mysteries surrounding her secret powers.