When people found out that rarity game got a new interface and the name switched to Rarity 2, many were confused about what happened. In short, Rarity 2 is not an ‘update’ or ‘sequel’ to Rarity 1. In fact, Rarity 2 has existed for a long time with the name ‘Scarcity’: it was a fork of the original Rarity, deployed on the Polygon blockchain by an entirely different team of developers.
Because the old Rarity team has stopped working on the project and put the domain on sale, the Rarity 2 team purchased the site to implement their Polygon-forked version of Rarity on the Fantom blockchain. The team promised that Rarity 2 will be an evolution to its predecessor.
The History of The Rarity Game
Rarity was created by DeFi legend Andre Cronje, the same creator who gave birth to Yearn Finance, back in around September 2021. It’s a NFT-based adventure role-playing game inspired by Loot and Dungeon & Dragons. The launch of Rarity on the Fantom blockchain got a lot of support from the crypto community: people were seeing it as a new form of economic-incentive gameplay or even an extension of yield farming.
Andre wanted to make the game accessible to everyone so players could create an unlimited number of summoners, send them to battles, etc. by only paying gas fee on FTM (which is usually below $0.01). In the beginning, players had to input variables directly into the smart contracts to play the game, but the community around Rarity started to build different front-end interfaces that are easier to use. (Some of which still exist now, such as raritymmo.com, raritymanifested.com, rarityextended.com, rarity-visualizer-ui.vercel.app,…)
Unfortunately, at the start of February 2021, Andre was no longer involved in the project and the team behind rarity.game sold their domain but still expressed that they wanted to build another D&D style game. In the meantime, a Ukraine-based team led by Paul Scott and Fraser Brown bought the rarity.game domain. And so, Rarity 2 began.
Differences Between Rarity 2 and The Original
Only Named Adventurer/Summoners Can Claim Gold
In Rarity, any Summoners can claim gold when they level up. Because of this, the team behind Rarity 2 is concerned that bots can automate the process of minting summoners and leveling up, leading to an economy flooded with gold.
For Rarity 2, only named Summoners can claim gold. The community can vote to change how much the names should cost in order to hinder bot gold miners and improve the game’s economy. For now, names cost 60 $RGV (currently about $1): this is the native currency of the game used to vote in its DAO).
It’s important to know that you can still create a character and play the game without spending money besides FTM as gas fee. This does not go to Rarity 2 creators, but to the Fantom blockchain on which the game is hosted. However, full interaction with the game’s economy requires you to buy names for your characters.
The Community Controls The Gold Supply
The priority for Rarity 2 seems to be maximizing the potential of the game economy. There was too much of a possibility for the gold supply in the old Rarity to pile up perpetually, so Rarity 2 governs the gold supply by an algorithm that is also adjustable by $RGV holders. Players of the game can now dictate whether the gold supply will inflate or deflate.
Encouraging Players To Level Up By Themselves
Rarity 2 developers feel that it’s unfair for someone to just buy a high level summoner and bypass hard work. In traditional video games, a game would lose many fans if people deem it too ‘pay-to-win’, meaning no matter how much you grind the game you still lose to big wallets purchasing better characters/equipment.
Buying one’s way to in-game success will likely transform the game’s community from thinkers and players to big-spenders. As a result, Rarity 2 implemented a special tag system. This will put a mark on summoners which have exchanged wallets, and these bought-and-paid-for summoners won’t enjoy the same rewards as the normal ones.
Old Players’ Reaction and Rarity 2 Launch Party
Even though Rarity 2 has very similar gameplay and art design to the original, many people are not happy about the change. The first reason is because you cannot transfer your characters from Rarity 1 into Rarity 2, so all the hours they spent grinding the game have now gone to waste. Secondly, some players are loyal to Andre’s vision and thus skeptical whether the new changes will actually benefit the game. Thirdly, the sudden introduction of the name-paying system to claim gold is perceived by some as a cash-grab taking advantage of a pre-established fan base.
But ultimately, it’s too early to point fingers and throw around accusations. There are still Rarity 1 players who are interested in seeing where the game will go. Moreover, the Rarity 2 team promised compensation for old Rarity players in an upcoming launch party.
To enter the launch party, players need to buy an NFT ticket, which costs 350$WG at first before increasing to 400 $WG (Wrap Gold). $WG is mined by creating an Adventurer, purchasing a name for them (costing 60 $RG), and leveling them up. The process won’t take long as Adventurers already gain 350 $RG at level 2.
Adventurers that attend the launch party can start farming $RGV, and 20% of this will go to any Rarity 1 Summoner that is also attending the party (you have to buy separate tickets for them). There was also an airdrop of 60 $RGV to 4,000 original players of Rarity as extra compensation reward.
