Introduction

The Wish game seeks to be the first killer metaverse gaming app that builds player addiction and loyalty by focusing on the two primary elements that have arguably been responsible for the two most successful fantasy MMORPG games in history; namely, an engaging story, and rich lore. In this respect, the game will maintain a story first mentality rather than being built around a specific feature or mechanic as so many of the current generation of uninspiring games are.

When seeking inspiration for how to build such a game, we need only look to the previous market leader and current market leader in the fantasy MMORPG space.

Case Study : World of Warcraft

When World of Warcraft launched, it already had a dedicated following because it was essentially an online continuation of the successful story based Warcraft series. The events of Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne expansion created rich lore that World of Warcraft could draw from and expand on. This lead it to have over 12 million subscribers at its peak during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. This makes sense because players had a reason to come see the conclusion to the story of a character they had been invested in for over a decade at that point.

Case Study : Final Fantasy 14 Online

The current market leader in the fantasy MMORPG space is arguably Final Fantasy 14 Online. At the time of publication of this paper, the subscriber count is near 37 million! Although there were 13 previous versions of the game, they all took place in different worlds with different stories, so the lore wasn’t as continuous or strong as Warcraft Lore. This meant that the team had to focus on making the story as engaging as possible. By putting the player at the center of the plot as the Warrior of Light, and masterfully crafting epic story arcs across multiple expansions, the game has built a type of player loyalty never seen before.

Spoilers are so frowned upon that unlike other games, FFXIV free companies (the equivalent of guilds in most other games) will not discuss story elements to avoid spoiling surprises for new players. You can also see this reflected in the fact that unlike most games, where every cutscene is posted hundreds of times on sites like YouTube, FFXIV cutscenes seem to exist exclusively in the game, and not splashed across social media.

Conclusion

As coindesk noted in this article, blockchain games should look to the past and learn from pre-blockchain market leaders. The Wish game started development before blockchain gaming became popular, and is designed around creating rich lore, complex characters, and an engaging story with many pivotal reveals that will leave players constantly guessing what comes next and keep them coming back for more, building loyalty over multiple expansions, just like the past and current greatest games of the genre.