In Gods Unchained there will come times where players should start thinking and asking questions about the best way to move forward as the game develops and further unfolds. The game itself can become highly speculative and quite fun since certain assets will be on the ETH blockchain. This means for most players leaving yourself as many options as possible will be the best course of action since there are so many different groups all wanting to gather cards.
While we are waiting for them to re-enable the ability to fuse and for the materials required to do so to start droppings. There is quite a fair bit to think about and even speculate under their play to earn model.
Fusing itself is the act of combining the lower quality of the same card and turning it into Shadow, Gold or even Diamond quality. This increases their rarity and gives them an aesthetic change to the card itself. Beyond that who knows what else doing so in the future could bring. They still have lots of room to play around with this system.
The Whale
As far as players who will want to diamond everything quality cards right away that really falls down to the highest spenders games tend to have in them. They are usually called Whales as they make a giant splash with the amount of money they are spending.
We have seen in the past their spending impacts had on just the play to earn aspect of the game itself. One player purchased a very large sum of tickets from the last play to earn events that help drive the market price of those to new highs while also sustaining a price point for the sellers.
I myself in the past have played alongside these kinds of spenders in other games. They could be someone spending a few grand over the weekend to $100k in a single month. These people usually have what is called “fuck you money.” Where they have so much money they can afford to say no and are set for life. While other players could be spending either within reason or not of their income that is not the first type and the second kinds tend to be a bit more limited and short term since recovering of investment is going be more important.
Either way, these kinds of players are expected to have a thirst for higher quality cards. While some cards before fusing might only have two or three diamond variants of them in supply. One player starts fusing to meet Whale demand this will bring the overall supply of Genesis cards lower. Meaning less people, in the long run, can even have the basic meteorite quality version of the card.
Ultimately if there is a diamond quality of a card they want and not enough supply what they could end up paying might be shocking for many to hear about. It could be quite a rewarding opportunity if you are able to fulfill short term lack of supply.
The Large Investor, Flippers, And Collectors
While there will many different levels of investors and collectors in a game like Gods Unchained. There will also be those at the top who will want entire card sets of Diamond for reselling. They will want Genesis, Core, and all other sets to come out in the future in full Diamond or even other qualities as well.
The biggest issue these kinds of spenders will face is finding someone with the buying power to afford their asking price for assembling full sets. We know there will be gas costs (transaction fees) and a material cost for fusing. This will further compound the cost of doing business once the natural dropped diamond cards have dried up and fallen into the hands of people looking to hold long term. With the Genesis packs no longer being sold this will have a massive impact on supply and card costs over the long run.
Now a full collection could fetch a premium price. That is not an uncommon thing in the collection world. Even in a game that could be somewhat comparable like Magic The Gathering there are sets out there that ask for top dollar for what is in them. Such as this ebay listing from Alpha Investments asking $2.7 million for 57 full sets of Arabian Nights.
The biggest difference between physical good and digital goods could, however, play a bit impact. With physical goods, you have to spend a lot more effort to track and hunt down something and that product could have suffered damage or not been taken care of. Meanwhile, digital goods do not have to worry about damage and transactions are done instantly once a buyer is found.
In a game like RuneScape which is missing a few factors to be a great comparable. Sets of armor could sell cheaper than it would have cost to just buy everything separates off the market. Over time the buyers and sellers if there is enough supply come to market equilibrium between the individual items and the collection. This causes the item flippers to move onto another item. Over time the margin widens for a few hours or weeks till enough item flippers move back into an item's market to close the gap.
With packs like Genesis being out of print now in Gods Unchained, I could see a few in this category wanting diamond or gold complete sets. While we don’t know yet how high such a collection could be sold for to a buyer. Things like that Magic The Gathering Set shown above could take years or not actually find a buyer at that price with the number of sets trying to be sold. With how young Gods Unchained is holding full sets for two years, five years or even longer could become a reality if the game has enough staying power to remain relevant and have a growing player base.
The Average Joe Spender
While there are a few different groups all around the world that will fit into this I’m going to consider western spenders. Over the years in gaming, they were conditioned to spend $60 on a triple-A game, up to $15 a month on a subscription and some DLCs once in a while.
These players will be looking to make that initial investment as they will see it like buying the game. Granted it is a free game so they will be buying up cards off the market or booster packs. This giving item flippers and sellers the opportunity to cash in on this group of spenders on the lower levels.
On top of that over time they will be spending a little each month of their disposable income to increase and acquire the cards they want. Along with some bigger sized buying here or there when needed. This is quite good news for those holding the lower Meteorite quality version of cards. While this group of players is not expected to be spending a year’s budget on a single card they will be buying and using quite a few cards.
Flavor Of the Month Decks And Cards
Quite a fun thing to watch in a game like Gods Unchained will be what is called Flavor of the Month Decks. These will be decks that were played and won big tournaments, high rated decks on websites, and ones created by popular Youtuber and Twitch streamers.
These kinds of things overnight can take a card that might only be worth fifty cents and make it cost a couple of bucks or more if there is not enough supply to go around. Over the long run, those cards will slowly go back to their normal price as the type of players who are following this type of pattern sell-off to buy the next flavor of the month. Those cards in the short term once the selling starts could become cheaper then they started and might take some time to recover.
The great thing about all of this is sometimes the community has yet to find a way to include a card in a deck to make it amazing. All it takes is one player who can get enough attention in using otherwise worthless cards to make it the hottest thing to play with.
Will The Sum Of Parts Be Greater?
In games like Splinter Lands which is another trading card game, the sum of the parts can be worth more than the end product. That is in fact how I acquired some of my higher-level cards in that game.
You will have whales, collectors, average joes, and many other types of players who for some reason or another need a quick sale. They might need to unload at 20%, 40% or even greater amount under market. Even more so if the higher end stuff could take months or years to sell. In the short term, this could cause a bit of a panic in some of the cards that are seeing such large haircuts being taken to the price.
If you ever played a game you also know those annoying people who will want to .01 undercut everyone until they have crashed the market like the fools they are. The good news at least for dealing with these people will be the cost of gas affecting their bottom line if they have become over-aggressive and lose money.
I could see the costs of fusing along with gas in acquiring all the cards to do so as a major deterrent in ensuring diamond quality cards remain at a high rarity. The markets, however, will see such an opportunity and want to close the gap if there is profit to be made.
Lost And Forgotten Cards
There are quite a few ways this ends up happening. Over the years accounts will get lost and forgotten. A player might have been holding what use to be worthless cards and are now worth a small fortune but have no idea since they don’t play anymore. Other players might have lost their keys, passwords and just moved on taking their losses.
What usually happens are items in games and even the real world at the time no one thought had much value. AS a result not many held onto. At some point, we are expected in Gods Unchained to be able to convert a bunch of cards into different cards which could be a catalyst for this. Further compounded by players just wanting a diamond card and having a bunch of ones not worth selling. This could very well become a reality.
I recall playing a game like Everquest. A long time ago there was this weapon that did area effect damage per swing. It dropped like candy and everyone found it rather worthless. So most of the supply was sold to venders and many accounts with it were never seen again. Years later players found it was quite an OP item for gaining massive experience from killing off large trains of monsters. So it became worth quite a lot of in-game money.
Now I know what you are thinking that the last example was just for in-game money that never going happen where the player can sell for real value. When I use to play a game called Entropia Universe which was a real money economy game it also happened. A very abundant at the time healing device players got rid as they did not see much value. Years later with some changes to the game that item went from being not worth that very few players held to be worth the price of a car. Granted their where other factors but this are just an example it happens.
You never know what changes or deck releases in the future could make something lost and forgotten with very little supply remaining to worth a small fortune. These things are hard to predict and I expect a large part of the speculation market is going have fun buying up in bulk certain cards to only get bored of the game and never come back. Reducing the amount of active and in use supply of certain cards for some lucky players to still be holding years from now.
So should You Fuse Or Not?
There will be a few different spending types within the game. There will be endless reasons why a card price might spike in the short term or over the long term. What you should not do is limit your options until it’s time to sell and you are willing to take that risk.
Smart investors might buy enough cards to fuse them up to diamond but they will hold off from fusing. Years from now the sum of the parts might be worth more. They also might have trouble selling off the quaintly they have so fusing will be a better way to move their product faster if that is where the demand is.
Unless you just want a card in gold or diamond as you love how it looks there is no rush to fuse cards once that option is back on the table. Unless there are other benefits from doing so like needing to just to sell. You never know years from now how and what benefits fusing could provide the game is still quite young and being developed.
Holding singles of cards with enough to fuse if needed leaves you with so many options on the table. You want to be able to react to shortfalls in supply and take advantage of situations when they occur. You don’t want to be stuck holding a diamond card that is seen to have a value of $1k+ but will take years to sell. Unless that is the risk you can afford to wait and don’t need the money. Otherwise, you will just be another person selling off cards at a deep discount to move them today as you can no longer afford to wait around.
If you don’t have a reason to do something sometimes doing nothing until you do is the best action. You want to sell to as many as possible at the highest price you can get without it taking years to sell something unless you are fine with that.
Other Gods Unchained Content
- Fundamental Beginners Guide To Gods Unchained
- First Impressions | Gods Unchained
- Weekend Ranked Constructed
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about the game Gods Unchained. The game is in early access at the time of writing this.
This is not financial advice. Just some casual observations I’ve seen in gaming and other things in life. Past experience also due not always come to passing again granted they sure love to appear that way.
Feel free to use my beta invite key (referral link). This helps support me and shows actual interest in this game which helps determine how much content I will be making for this game in the future.
