In October of the last year, Facebook came out with a crucial decision to rebrand the company. Under its new name — “Meta,” it made it clear for all skeptics (since for others, the announcement wasn’t a big surprise) that the company now goes metaverse.
However, Facebook’s, or, better say, Meta’s announcement produced much effect on the audience, raising the genuine interest in metaverse projects. Waiting for Facebooks’/Meta’s next big thing, people cannot help but wonder: are there metaverses they can try out already? Yes! And today, we’d like to introduce you to the most vivid ones so far (well, unless Meta blows our minds with their virtual world).
In October of the last year, Facebook came out with a crucial decision to rebrand the company. Under its new name — “Meta,” it made it clear for all skeptics (since for others, the announcement wasn’t a big surprise) that the company now goes metaverse.
However, Facebook’s, or, better say, Meta’s announcement produced much effect on the audience, raising the genuine interest in metaverse projects. Waiting for Facebooks’/Meta’s next big thing, people cannot help but wonder: are there metaverses they can try out already? Yes! And today, we’d like to introduce you to the most vivid ones so far (well, unless Meta blows our minds with their virtual world).
The Most Impressive Game Metaverses So Far
Starlink
Starlink is a virtual universe where people can purchase and own land, billboards, and other assets (virtual, of course). Users can earn a passive income from assets purchased within the Starlink metaverse.
Initially considered a metaverse game, Starlink is more than just that. In this virtual world, users can meet, make trades, and, of course, play games. Soon, the metaverse will offer games that imitate real-life experiences, yet with the major difference: they will be virtual.
Starlink is the first decentralized metaverse that will rely on community support in its further course. This means that the universe will exist by the equality rules, where everyone has equal rights and no privileges over others.
Decentraland
Decentraland is an Ethereum-based virtual reality platform for user-generated content. There, people can create and monetize their works. The platform has a built-in builder allowing users to create a whole variety of assets — like artwork, scenes, and challenges — and then introduce them in contests with prizes. More “tech-savvy” users can enjoy SDK tools for creating entire games and applications to be a part of the Decentraland world.
The world of Decentraland is virtually being built by the community. There, you can discover various picturesque locations and scenes, created and owned by users. Space scenes, medieval dungeons, villages… Indeed, creative minds “live” there!
Also, Decentraland provides a dedicated marketplace where users can purchase and trade land, real estate, even avatars, names, and wearables.
Axie Infinity
Another metaverse, but this time for raising digital pets. Players can raise and train phantasy creatures as digital player cards called “Axies.” Then, they can pitch them for battles against other players’ pets, and, of course, trade them.
Just like in RPG games, pets have levels, special abilities, and characteristics (health points, morale, skills, and speed) that define the playing style and current condition. Players can gain body parts (horns, eyes, ears, mouth, tail, and back) for their pets that influence their stats.
Finally, there are multiple pet classes, each having its strengths and weaknesses. During the battle, the game compares the card class of the attack to the defender’s Axie class, and calculates the amount of damage (in percent) based on that data. The game has interesting mechanics, and everyone who is interested in trying out Axie Infinity, can find more about it on the game’s official website.
My Neighbor Alice
My Neighbor Alice is an Ethereum-based multiplayer game where players find themselves on a mysterious virtual island. There, they can trade land, meet friends, and build and collect various items to customize their avatars and plots of land.
For those who want to monetize their items (fences, houses, plants, animals, and others), the metaverse provides an NFT marketplace compatible with other blockchains. Also, there’s a dedicated in-game marketplace where players can purchase and trade items. For instance, there, they can purchase pieces of land and then change the terrain the way they like. Also, they can decorate purchased lands with in-game items such as lakes, houses, decorations, plants, animals, and more.
In fact, the land is one of the key assets in My Neighbor Alice. After passing onboarding on the game’s marketplace, players can purchase a plot of land right away. Since there’s a scarce supply of land in the game, each piece of land exists as an NFT.
CryptoTanks
CryptoTanks is a metaverse game that can bring you tons of nostalgic vibes. There, players can gain tanks as NFTs to play various 8-Bit games with them. The available game modes include Battle Royal, Team vs. Team, and Random Team.
As developers say, their game is inspired by the iconic Battle City released back in the 1990s on GameBoy and Nintendo. But don’t think of it as some “tribute” or even “revival”; the game introduces its own virtual world with locations, tanks, and missions that weren’t in Battle City. Of course, DeFi, NFT, and crypto are unique features that set CryptoTanks apart from other 8-Bit games.
Besides game modes, the game has three battle types varying by rewards. Those are Rating Battles where players earn experience points they can exchange for tank upgrades, Token Battles where they can do the same but with in-game $TANK tokens, and Money Battle where they can form prize pools with other players, and the winner will take it all.
The Sandbox
The Sandbox is a virtual gaming world where players can build and own assets using the in-game SAND token. Also, the Game Maker tool allows them to create new assets as NFTs, upload them to The Sandbox marketplace, and integrate them into the metaverse.
The LAND token is a virtual piece of real estate in the metaverse that players can own. Once you have a piece of LAND, you can add new games and assets to the metaverse. If you collected multiple LAND tokens, you can combine them into the ESTATE one.
Finally, players can monetize their time in the metaverse. They can do it either by creating assets and trading them as NFTs or by purchasing a LAND, renting it or owning and populating it with other content to increase its value. Also, there’s an option to create and monetize games in the Game Maker, placing them on other players’ LANDS.
