Legends of Aria is continuing to beat the drum of its revamp and restructuring into a blockchain and NFT-filled MMORPG. A new dev blog from the game’s new owners talks up plans to jumpstart the game, with information about its next alpha test for the revamped edition, details on what happens to the “OG supporters,” and rationalization on why the blockchain is necessary.
First, the alpha: Players will be able to test the game’s new client, complete with its new over-the-shoulder (OTS) camera angle, on Wednesday, May 11th; studio Reaper Games promises a special questline later in the month that will award unique items that can be carried over to the full launch. Access to this alpha will be available to those who are actively subscribed to the game, which incidentally will be a shared service between the relaunched version and the classic version.
After alpha, the devs plan a closed beta in June and an open beta in July, both of which will feature “on-chain” capabilities and will be “provided to select MMO gaming influencers to help showcase the new launch and drive more users to the game.” This ties into the new owners’ stated belief that more money needs to be spent on marketing to make the MMO stand out.
As for those who are supporters of the original vision for LOA, there will be additional rewards: Not only will the original game live on as LOA Classic, but Kickstarter backers of the first project will be able to redeem their goodies in the revamped version of the MMO, and those backers will also get early access to the sale of NFTs.
On the subject of NFTs, the post takes several paragraphs to explain why the game “needs” the blockchain, ultimately claiming that it wants to encourage RMT among players and that blockchain tech is the only way to do it (despite the fact that players have been engaging in RMT in MMOs for at least 25 years already):
“In Legends of Aria, we’ve seen houses sold on third-party sites for thousands of dollars, but like other gaming companies, there has been a need to crackdown and ban the users involved to protect the players. With the blockchain and NFT technology, we don’t need to ban real-money transactions; in fact, we can encourage them!
“This technology, whether we like it or not, is the way the industry is moving and we want LOA to be on the tip of the spear in terms of cutting edge innovation.”
For those who need to be caught up on LOA’s development from this point, we’ve got further reading here:
Additionally, we’ve written at length about how pay-to-earn, blockchain tech, and NFTs are poison for the MMORPG genre:
Perfect Ten: MMOs that have fallen to the dark side of cryptocurrency
Lawful Neutral: How is an NFT MMO even supposed to work?
Vague Patch Notes: NFTs in gaming are a bad, dumb idea
Vague Patch Notes: Why play-to-earn is a garbage idea
Vague Patch Notes: The metaverse doesn’t exist and isn’t a good idea either
GDC 2022: Control, revenue, scarcity, ethics, and the human challenges of the gaming ‘metaverse’
Vague Patch Notes: No, Little Orbit has not solved the MMO blockchain problem
