WHAT IS POLKER?
Polker is a free-to-play & play to earn poker NFT game that uses Unreal Engine 4. Well, at least, that's what the Polker managing director Conor Thacker said during his interview that was published on the 'Altcoin Daily' youtube channel on the 10th of Nov, 2021.
Despite the fact that Polker is based on the standard poker game, it has the gambling aspect taken out completely. In means that play chips used within the game can not be bought or sold. How can it be that a strictly non-gambling game is also 'Play to Earn'?
This is only one of the questions that we will try to answer in this project review. 'Play to Earn' mechanism, Polker NFTs and PKR token use cases, project roadmap, and the Beta Test 3 that took place a few days ago, are all going to be covered. Who knows, maybe we will make some 'just for fun' PKR token price analysis too.
Important! events for Polker community:
- 24th of Dec - POLKER will be listing on MEXC Global centralized exchange (CEX);
- 25th of Dec - the end of ERC20 (Ethereum) PKR token staking;
- 25th of Dec - the start of BSC (Binance) PKR token staking;
- Q1 of 2022 - game release.
'PLAY TO EARN' MODEL
At least, in the beginning, the 'Play to Earn' model in Polker game will be relatively simple. According to Conor, everyone who wants to play will be able to download the game at no cost. However, those that are interested in earning possibilities will have to buy a Game Pass.
The cheapest Game Pass will cost 5USD in PKR tokens and it will allow its owner to participate in Tournaments and win Polker NFTs. (Yes, NFTs. Not PKR tokens). More expensive Game Passes will allow winning NFTs of a higher tier. Players will be able to use them in the game or sell on the secondary market.
There are 6 types of Polker NFTs: standard, rare, ultra-rare, standard hologram, rare hologram, and ultra-rare hologram. I've asked one of the Polker team members about all the use cases of these NFTs, but I did not receive an answer.
USE CASES OF POLKER NFTs
In one of their Medium posts, Polker team stated that 'holders of the NFTs will be rewarded with impressive in-game benefits and abilities which they can then show off to others. 'So far it is clear that these NFTs are card dealers and each dealer has the ability to change the graphics of the table completely.
Will these NFTs have use cases other than visual ones is not completely clear yet. If not, would they be a sufficient incentive to play the game? However, a longer list of use cases is highly possible.
It seems like the team thinks of the Polker game as one of MANY games that will be developed and released by their studio in upcoming years. Some cross-game NFT use cases would not be surprising at all. However, these are only my personal thoughts and speculations.
PROJECT ROADMAP
THINGS ALREADY DONE
- Q4 2018 - Polker Prototype Showcase at Crypto Invest Summit in Los Angeles, CA USA;
- Q1 2019 - Platform Development;
- Q2 2019 - Patent Issued, no.10,867,474 from USPTO;
- Q4 2019 - Start Up summit in Malta, ranked top 10;
- Q1 2020 - Platform Development; Patent Issued, no.10,586,427 from USPTO;
- Q4 2020 - Patent Pending no: 17/094,003; Patent Pending no: 17/110,799;
- Q3 2021 - Celebrity Endorsement (Akon); CEX Listing (BitMart); Polygon Grants + Partnership; Chainlink Integrations; Quinel Pen Testing Integration; Polycon 2021; Added to Master Ventures Portfolio; Staking Live (ERC);
PLANS FOR THE NEAR FUTURE
- Q4 2021 - "Testnet" Game Release; CEX listings; Tournament Game; Staking Live (BSC); Christmas Tournament;
- Q1 2022 - Full NFT Game Streaming: Mainnet; Full NFT Game Executable: Testnet;
- Q2 2022 - Metaverse Testnet Live;
- Q3 2022 - Web Client Version: Testnet; Mobile Game Version: Testnet;
- Q4 2022 - Launch New Games; Expanding Polker Metaverse.
*My personal thoughts:
After scrolling about 500 messages on the official 'Polker Crew' Telegram channel, it seems obvious that at the moment, the majority of Polker community is waiting for 3 of these events: CEX listing (MEXC Global), BSC (Binance Smart Chain) PKR token staking and game release in Q1 of 2022.
It is widely believed that these events will help the PKR token price to change its direction. It has been gradually decreasing since the 10th of November, 2021, when it reached its peak after increasing by 15X in about 3 months. In the last 40 days, a correction of about +80% successfully happened.
PKR TOKEN PRICE 'PREDICTION'
'Prediction' is not my favorite word indeed. How could you possibly predict movements of something as volatile as coins and tokens of such low market capacity? Especially, when they have no levels of historical support and resistance and price history in general. Well, I guess we could try if it's strictly for fun.
The long timeframe potential looks obvious. I've participated in the Beta Test 3 and I know that Polker team is getting closer to releasing the product. Was this test perfect? Definitely not and I will tell you everything about it in a second.
Although I have absolutely no concerns about the development process, and PKR token price in the long run, when it comes to the short time frame things are getting a bit more interesting. PKR token followed other gaming tokens and put on a few Xs in a matter of days. Akon's shout-out helped it as well, as it made the price of PKR go up by 250% in 24 hours.
While following Polker's social channels for a couple of weeks, I noticed that many members of the community are pretty angry as a lot of them bought the top. In my humble opinion, the best time to buy (only if the project looks solid) is when it's in red, not when it is high up on the moon.
Is it possible that PKR price will make a significant jump to the upside? PKR token listing on the MEXC Global exchange might give a nice little boost. However, I would never buy PKR without having long-term intentions. Dollar-cost averaging is always a good idea and clever holders almost always outperform those who are addicted to the adrenaline of continuous day trading.
At the moment of writing, PKR tokens may be bought on two decentralized exchanges (DEXes) - Pancake Swap (V2), Uniswap (V3), and two centralized exchanges (CEXes) - BitMart and Bittrex. Personally, I am using @Bittrex, but be careful with this one. Always check what is the status of the coin or token, before trying to deposit or withdraw it. For example, Hive deposits and withdrawals are unavailable for the last two weeks or so.
How much room to grow does the PKR token have? Knowing that at the moment of writing it has a market capacity of only $8,322,769, it would be not surprising if it went up by 10X in a relatively short period of time. Especially knowing that the game release is promised to take place in Q 2022. It is likely to follow the direction of all-mighty BTC.
When it comes to a long time frame, the sky is the limit. Polker has a strong team of developers, which so far delivered its promises. It definitely has some good social following (79K on Twitter, +25K on Telegram, 24K likes on CoinGecko, etc.) Finally, it does have ambitions (Polker metaverse, developing other games, etc.) Is a bright future is inevitable? Let's talk about the cons!
MY PERSONAL CONCERNS AND OPPINION
BETA TEST 3, GRAPHICS, GAMEPLAY, ETC.
I'll try to speak briefly. Beta Test 3 started on the 18th of December and lasted for 48 hours. I happened to be one of 500 participants. At least officially there were about that many Beta keys given away to be able to join the game.
My experience was pretty bad as it was lagging like crazy. After the test, one of the Telegram channel moderators stated that in the near future they will publish an announcement of the next testing. It will take place through (* .exe) and not a stream server. According to him, this will make the experience much more stable.
During Beta Test 3 I had to rejoin the table or reload the page every 3-5 hands. What is more, many of us did not receive NFTs that we were promised to get for participating in the test. We were assured that everyone will get their NFTs after the test and I am sure we will, but the thing is that it was supposed to be a 'Beta Test with Full NFT Integration' and it kind of wasn't.
Evaluating game graphics is very personal. Personally, I find POLKER graphics rather old school. During his interview with 'Altcoin Daily', managing director Conor Thacker stated that 'Polker is built on Real Engine, so it has same graphics as Fortnite, Street Fighter 5...' I mean yes, it was built using the same engine, but saying that it has the same graphics sounds a little too much, doesn't it?
According to some statements, Polker team consists of about 50 full-time employees and it grows regularly. Some of the main guys behind this project such as Hector Mayorga (Co-founder and Chief of Gaming) and Conor Thacker (Managing Director) are highly visible. They participate in all kinds of events and share the footage on social media.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like Mr. Min Yi, which is a Chief Executive Officer of the company, is nearly invisible. I couldn't find almost any information about him. Not even photos. I might be wrong on this one, so any information is highly appreciated.
Last but not least, people on socials are starting to ask 'When Christmas Tournament?' as it was mentioned in the official project Road Map. There has not been any news on this one so far, although, something might be announced at any second.
This is all that I had to say about Polker this time.
What are your thoughts on this project?
See you in another review...
OFFICIAL links:
http://linktr.ee/polkergame
https://polker.game