Below is Part III from our Metablox Whitepaper 2.0, which includes our Game Mechanics and Experience Design. Part I on the Vision can be found here. Later on I will post the final Part IV (Technology and Team) here for your convenience too.
Also, join the Metablox.co Discord to be part of our Journey!
Experience Design & Game Mechanics
Yu-kai Chou (Co-founder and Head of Experience at Metablox) is a world-renowned Gamification pioneer best known for the Octalysis Framework. Yu-kai’s work has helped Google, Uber, LEGO, Tesla, BCG, IDEO, and many other global companies. Over 1500 Academic journals and Ph.D. theses have been written about the Octalysis Framework and how it applies to a variety of industries. Yu-kai is applying top-end Octalysis design skills to Metablox to create a delightful, meaningful user experience and journey while building lasting value for the community.
Battleplan
The Metablox Battleplan is the complete Gamification design for Metablox. You can review the Metablox Battle Plan here.
Game Loop
The Game Loop is a breakdown of the motivations and key drivers of action on Metablox. The Gameloop will evolve with each iteration of the roadmap.
Metablox Gameloop 2.0 (by Yu-kai Chou) on Jan 8, 2020
✨ Mint pricing
How it works
Blox on Metablox can be bought as NFTs. For example, Jun’s first apartment in San Francisco was 3632 26th Street. He can purchase the block that this address belongs to as an NFT.
To purchase the Blox, a person will use ETH, MATIC, or USDT.
The Blox is stored as an NFT in the crypto wallet of the person.
What does it mean to Mint an NFT in Metablox?
“Minting” an NFT in Metablox means that the Blox was purchased for the first time — the NFT is added to the blockchain and stored in the crypto wallet of the buyer.
How does Mint pricing work?
The Mint price is the base price of the Blox (determined by Tier).
Each city in Metablox will have 10 phases. A city moves up in phase at each 10% purchase threshold of a city.
Example: If a city has 5,000 Blox:
- Phase 1 = the initial phase.
- Phase 2 = triggered when 500 homes are purchased in total.
- Phase 3 = triggered when 1,000 homes are purchased in total.
- Phase 4 = triggered when 1,500 homes are purchased in total.
- And so on…
Upon reaching the next phase, the base price of unclaimed properties will increase by 1.5x compared to the previous phase. Since the founding principle of Metablox is solid growth and lasting value – instead of exuberant speculation and hype – the goal is not to quickly sell out all properties within a city. Rather, the Phase of that city will reflect the organic demand, which could reach full saturation over an extended period of time.
We want to make buying an NFT owned by someone else more appealing than a newly minted one – until the market demand is high enough to open a new phase with a new set of unminted properties that is much higher than the previous phase.
This ensures that Metablox owners will have steady rising values for their NFTs as floor prices increase while community interest in Metablox remains healthy.
Below is the current work-in-progress Property Base Price from the Metablox Battleplan. Please review the Experience Design section for the entire Battleplan.
All prices in USD.
| Phase | Requirement | Tier I Base Price | Tier II Base Price | Tier III Base Price | Tier IV Base Price | Tier V Base Price | Unlocks |
| Phase 1 | None | $100 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | |
| Phase 2 | 10% of Region Owned | $150 | $300 | $450 | $600 | $750 | Landmark 1 Auction |
| Phase 3 | 20 % of Region Owned | $225 | $450 | $675 | $900 | $1,125 | Landmark 2 Auction |
| Phase 4 | 30% of Region Owned | $338 | $675 | $1,013 | $1,350 | $1,688 | Landmark 3 Auction |
| Phase 5 | 40% of Region Owned | $506 | $1,013 | $1,519 | $2,025 | $2,531 | Landmark 4 Auction |
| Phase 6 | 50 % of Region Owned | $759 | $1,519 | $2,278 | $3,038 | $3,797 | Landmark 5 Auction |
| Phase 7 | 60% of Region Owned | $1,139 | $2,278 | $3,417 | $4,556 | $5,695 | Landmark 6 Auction |
| Phase 8 | 70 % of Region Owned | $1,709 | $3,417 | $5,126 | $6,834 | $8,543 | Landmark 7 Auction |
| Phase 9 | 80% of Region Owned | $2,563 | $5,126 | $7,689 | $10,252 | $12,814 | Landmark 8 Auction |
| Phase 10 | 90% of Region Owned | $3,844 | $7,689 | $11,533 | $15,377 | $19,222 | Landmark 9 Auction |
If an early Metablox owner buys an NFT for $100 – besides being a more sought after Blox to begin with – the Metablox owner will likely level the Blox up with memories, which allows the Blox to generate more MetaRent.
After a certain time if the base price of other unclaimed NFTs becomes $225 (Phase 3), the Metablox owner should at least be able to sell their NFT for $225, considering any random unclaimed and Level 1 Blox is at $225.
If the Metablox owner wants to sell quickly and lowers the price to $200, not only is the Blox higher level than unclaimed Blox, it would also be cheaper. It would be a reasonable assumption to believe that people who care about the Metablox ecosystem would want to purchase it rather quickly.
If everyone wants to trade at below the current phase mint price, then the mint price will not move to the next phase. But if everyone is starting to trade at above the current mint price, then it makes more sense to mint new ones, which would eventually raise the mint price to a new phase.
We are very dedicated to making sure people not only have growing value in their NFT assets, but they have liquidity that corresponds to market demand.
⭐️ Blox Tiers
Each Blox in Metablox will come with two main attributes that affect the value and scarcity of the NFT:
- Blox Tier
- Blox Level
Blox Tier is reflected in a five-tier system. Tier-1 Blox are the most abundant while Tier-5 Blox are the most scarce.
How Blox Tiers are determined
Blox Tiers will be predetermined before they are minted, and will be based on their proximity to Landmarks, which are the epicenters of memories and meaning connected to a physical location. Three factors will come into play: proximity to landmarks, the number of landmarks that they are near, and the Landmark Prestige Score.
Each city will only have 100 Tier-5 Blox and 300 Tier-4 Blox
| Tier-1 | 56% of a city |
| Tier-2 | 24% of a city |
| Tier-3 | 12% of a city |
| Tier-4 | 6% of a city |
| Tier-5 | 2% of a city |
How Blox Tiers affect MetaRent generation
High Tier Blox generate more MetaRent than Low Tier Blox at the same Level, and cost more to mint.
| MetaRent/day | Tier 1 | Tier 5 |
| Level 1 | 10 MetaRent/day | 30 MetaRent/day |
| Level 20 | 62 MetaRent/day | 183 MetaRent/day |
| Mint price | Tier 1 | Tier 5 |
| Phase 1(<10% of the city is owned) | $100 to mint | $500 to mint |
| Level 5(40% of the city is owned) | $506 to mint | $2,531 to mint |
Blox Tiers in general remain consistent throughout the experience. Unless later voted separately via the community, a Tier I Blox will remain a Tier I Blox forever. However, it can be leveled up into a Perfect Blox, and can eventually become part of a Mechablox.
The specifics of how much MetaRent is generated upon different Tiers/Levels, powerups unlocked, Max MetaRent Storage, Memory Slots, and Memories required to level up is documented in the Metablox Battleplan Spreadsheet.
🌇 Blox Levels
Blox Levels reflect how much care and dedication the current and previous owners have committed to infusing it with memories related to that Blox that touch peoples’ hearts.
Each Blox level unlocks Memory Slots that the owner can use to root memories. Memories can attract Memory Marks by other users who have connected their wallets onto Metablox.
Once the owner roots a threshold of Memory Marks into the Blox, the Blox will level up. Each time a Blox levels up, it will mine out a certain amount of Metablox Coins.
Benefits of high Blox Levels
Higher level Blox within the same Tier generate more MetaRent than lower level Blox within the same Tier.
Higher Level Blox will also have other benefits, including a higher Maximum MetaRent Storage for a Blox before it needs to be collected, higher maximum for Attention Boost Bonuses, as well as faster Rooting Times for new memories.
A newly claimed Blox will start at Level 1 and start generating MetaRent each day according to its Tier. The Blox will level up to Level 2 instantly (0 Rooting Time) when the owner adds their first first memory and it will start to generate more MetaRent. Reaching level 3 will require three more Memories, each requiring a sequential five day Rooting Time.
The specifics of how much MetaRent is generated upon different Tiers/Levels, powerups unlocked, Max MetaRent Storage, Memory Slots, and Memories required to level up is documented in the Metablox Battleplan Spreadsheet.
👯♂️ Ownership Generations and Generational Leveling
At Metablox, we believe that Blox are more meaningful when they pass through generations of owners, each uploading and rooting their own blend of memories. It is also healthy for the ecosystem when NFTs have trading momentum beyond people just buying unclaimed properties.
When an Unclaimed Blox is purchased by an owner, it will officially be a Gen I Blox. The owner can level up the Gen I Blox to level 5 by attracting Memory Marks from other Metablox users, until it gets capped as a Completed Gen I Blox. The Blox will continue to generate MetaRent as a Gen I Level 5 Blox but will no longer level up until it gets transferred to another owner.
How to grow to the next Generation?
Once the owner sells the Completed Gen I Blox to another owner (incurring a 2.4% commission), the Blox becomes a Gen II Level 1 Blox (or Level 6 Blox for ease of language). The new owner can then upload and root new memories to, increase their NFT Shelf display space, and gather more Memory Marks to level up another 4 times, becoming a Gen II Level 5 (or Level 10) Blox.
The cycle can then continue. The Gen II Blox owner can sell it to a third owner, becoming a Gen III Blox.
In this way, if a person buys a Completed Blox from another owner, what the new owner has purchased will always be more valuable than what the previous owner had.
Perfect Blox and Mechablox
When a Completed Gen V Blox is passed to a sixth owner, it becomes a Perfect Blox. Perfect Blox can no longer be leveled up but will generate the max amount of MetaRent, provide the most amount of Memory Slots, and has the most amount of NFT Shelf Space a Blox could have.
When five Perfect Blox of the same Tier and same City is owned within a wallet, they become a Mechablox. A Mechablox behaves like a Landmark, ceasing to generate MetaRent while incurring MetaRent upkeep costs. At the same time, it will earn Metablox Coins every week indefinitely based on the Tier of the MechaBlox. Landmarks and MechaBlox are the only two entities that can indefinitely earn Metablox Coins overtime.
The tier of the Mechablox will be determined by the tiers of the five Perfect Blox that the MechaBlox consists of. Five Tier I Perfect Blox in the same city will become a Tier I Mechablox, while five Tier V Perfect Blox will become a Tier V Mechablox.
A MechaBlox will cease to function if one of the five Perfect Blox components is no longer owned within that wallet, or if the wallet account does not have sufficient MetaRent to pay the upkeep costs.
If one of the five Perfect Blox components is no longer within the wallet, the other four simply resume back to normal Perfect Blox status and start generating MetaRent again.
If a wallet is unable to pay the MetaRent upkeep for the Mechablox, then Metablox Coin earning will cease and will resume its weekly Metablox Coin accumulation once the wallet has enough MetaRent to pay the upkeep again.
As Perfect Blox itself will be rare in the first year of a city, and therefore a Mechablox will be exceedingly rare. However, those who have Perfect Blox will likely be able to sell it to other Perfect Blox holders who have the ambition of creating one of the very few MechaBlox in existence.
Incomplete Blox do not activate the next Generation
If a Gen I owner only levels up the Blox to Level 3, this Gen I Blox is Incomplete. If the Gen I owner sells the Incomplete Blox to someone else, the new owner will still be a Gen I owner and can root memories to make it a Completed Gen I Blox. Then it will be capped for the new owner until they pass it off to another owner (which will start at Gen II Level 1).
A Blox can only move forward to the next Generation if it has the required amount of Memory Marks to become a Complete Blox.
The specifics of how much MetaRent is generated upon different Tiers/Levels, powerups unlocked, Max MetaRent Storage, Memory Slots, and Memories Marks required to level up is documented in the Metablox Battleplan Spreadsheet.
💸 MetaRent
MetaRent is the core currency on Metablox and is used for a variety of operations and utility. MetaRent is not stored on the blockchain but on the Metablox database.
Creation of MetaRent
MetaRent is generated each day from every owned Blox, based on its Level, Tier, and a variety of other Boosters (Community Bonus, Attention Bonus, etc.). To obtain the created MetaRent from each Blox, the owner must return to the Metablox platform and one-click collect all the newly created MetaRent. Each Blox will have a Max MetaRent Storage based on the Blox level.
| MetaRent Storage | Tier 1 | Tier 5 |
| Level 1 | 10 MetaRent/day300 MetaRent Max Storage | 30 MetaRent/day300 MetaRent Max Storage |
| Level 10 | 38 MetaRent/day1,139 MetaRent Max Storage | 114 MetaRent/day1,139 MetaRent Max Storage |
| 💡 Important: Once a Blox hits the Max Storage, it will stop creating more MetaRent. In order to resume MetaRent creation, the owner must collect the MetaRent from the property (or level up the Blox with bigger Max Storage). |
In this way, those who hold a large amount of MetaRent and the utility that comes with it are the people who regularly participate and contribute to the ecosystem. People who only return to MetaBlox once per year will not have a high amount of voting power.
There are many things that require the spending of MetaRent, each causing the MetaRent to be removed from the ecosystem and controlling the inflation of the economy.
How MetaRent is spent
Many Metablox operations require the spending of MetaRent:
| Operations | Utilities |
| Rooting MemoriesLeveling up a BloxHosting NFT art, characters, trophiesLandmark UpkeepMechaBlox Upkeep | Landmark auctionsEarly access to new regionsMystery boxesAesthetic property improvementsCreations of Collectives |
🧠 Memories, Memory Slots, and Rooting
A Memory is a piece of media with descriptive text that describes why that memory is meaningful. Memories can be Rooted in Memory Slots within a Blox, which in term could attract Memory Marks that will help the property Level up.
There will only be a limited amount of Memory Slots for each Blox per level. Only one Memory can be rooted at a time, and without boosters it will take days for a Memory to take root in a Blox. This restriction motivates owners to not hastily root irrelevant memories but only include memories that are truly outstanding among the rest.
In the foreseeable future Memories are strictly image files with a text description. In the future there will be more exploration on feasibility for video/audio memories.
🧘 Memory Marks
Memory Marks are emotion tags users with a connected Wallet (does not need to own Blox) can use to label memories. Currently, there are 4 possible Memory Marks: Inspiring, Heartwarming, Hilarious, Solemn.
A user with a wallet connected could label one Memory Mark per day, plus one more per day for each Blox they own. This means that any wallet with no Blox can tag one Memory with a Memory Mark each day. A wallet with 10 Blox owned could tag eleven Memories with Memory Marks each day. Each wallet can only tag one Memory one time.
Accumulating Memory Marks allow a Blox to level up. Memory Marks required to level up can be found here in the Battleplan Spreadsheet.
Memory Mark Rewards
Memory Marks can generate MetaRent rewards for the Wallet account. Each Memory Mark that has the SAME Mark tagged after it on the same Memory within 30 days will generate one MetaRent. This can happen up to ten times for each Memory Mark.
For instance, if Wallet 1 tags a memory as Inspiring, and no one tags the same memory as Inspiring within 30 days, no MetaRent is gained.
If within 30 days five other wallets tag the same memory as Inspiring, then Wallet 1 will gain 5 MetaRent, while Wallet 2 that tagged the second Inspiring mark will gain 4 MetaRent.
If within 30 days eleven other wallets tag the same memory as Inspiring, then Wallet 1 gains 10 MetaRent, Wallet 2 gains 10 MetaRent, Wallet 3 gains 9 MetaRent.
This is an application of Octalysis Game Design Technique #95: The Bandwagon Streak.
Memory Mark Sorting
Users are able to browse different Blox and Memories by sorting with Memory Marks. A user can sort and select the most Inspiring Memories of a Community (Zip Code), or the Funniest Memories of a City. This way the properties that have the most Memory Marks
Attention Bonuses
Blox generates more MetaRent when more people pay attention to them and the Memories Rooted within. The Attention Bonus is calculated based on views of a Blox in the trailing seven days vs the views of the city during those seven days.
For instance, if there are 1,000,000 views in San Francisco in the past seven days, and a Blox has 10,000 views, it will receive an Attention Bonus of 20% (10,000/1,000,000*20). If the Blox has 10% of the city’s attention, the Attention Bonus is 200%, or tripling the MetaRent generation.
🌉 Landmarks and Auctions
After certain periods and milestones, famous Landmarks of a city (such as the Golden Gate Bridge) will be up for auctions. People can only bid for Landmarks with MetaRent (but the owner of this Landmark NFT can later sell it for ETH, MATIC, or USDT).
There will be a Landmark auctioned every month, with the major Landmarks being auctioned once a certain % of a region is owned. A Neighbor or Collective must own a Blox in the city to qualify to bid for a Landmark.
Landmarks do not generate MetaRent and in fact cost MetaRent to upkeep on a weekly basis. However, a Landmark will earn Metablox Coins for the owner every week indefinitely based on the Landmark Class. There are three Landmark Classes – B Class, A Class, and S Class.
The Class of a Landmark is based on its Prestige Score, which factors in popularity on review sites and overall recognizability internationally. Landmark Classes are determined at the beginning of each city’s release, and generally will not change.
Landmarks and MechaBlox are the only two entities that can indefinitely earn Metablox Coins overtime.
If a wallet is unable to pay the MetaRent upkeep for the Landmark, then Metablox Coin accumulation will cease. The Landmark will resume its weekly Metablox Coin accumulation once the wallet has enough MetaRent to pay the upkeep again.
🪙 Metablox Coin
Metablox Coin is generated via two methods: Leveling Up a Blox, or passively generated via Landmarks (or later on Mechablox which is a Landmark-equivalent).
The main method to earn Metablox Coin is to level up your Blox. Whenever a Blox is leveled up, it generates a certain amount of Metablox Coins. How many Metablox Coins are generated is determined by the Tier of the Blox as well as the Generational Ownership of it.
Referencing the Metabox Battleplan Spreadsheet, a Tier 1 Generation I (Levels 1-5) Blox will generate 1 Metablox Coin when it levels up. A Tier 5 Generation V (Levels 21-25) will generate 25 Metablox Coins when it levels up.
Since there are only a certain amount of levels possible for a Blox, the Metablox Coins that can be earned from a Blox is capped.
Landmarks do not generate MetaRent but actually have an upkeep cost each day that drains MetaRent. However, a Landmark can earn a small amount of Metablox Coins every week perpetually. This means the amount of Metablox Coins a Landmark can earn is not capped and can go on forever.
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MechaBlox are the completed collection of five Perfect Blox of the same tier in the same city and act as Landmark equivalents. This means a MechaBlox will also slowly earn Metablox Coins indefinitely as long as the owner still holds all five Perfect Blox.
Metablox Coins will be tradeable on the open cryptocurrency markets so Metablox Coin owners can liquidate their assets for other Cryptocurrencies, increasing their liquidity without necessarily selling their NFTs.
💝 Bounties
tl;dr: A Blox owner can give a MetaRent bounty to those who submit Memories related to that location that is approved and Rooted.
🏘 Neighborhood Bonus
Communities with more memory-infused Blox within will receive a Neighborhood Bonus, increasing the amount of MetaRent collected. If 5% of a community is owned by people who root at least one memory in each Blox, then the whole community Blox will generate 5% more MetaRent each day.
If 95% of a community is owned by people who root at least one memory in each Blox, then the whole community Blox will generate 95% more MetaRent each day.
Upon reaching 100%, the Neighborhood Bonus will jump to 150%, rewarding communities that are fully owned with owners contributing their share of memories to it.
This will incentivize Blox owners to invite their friends to purchase Blox in the same community, or perhaps concentrate on owning properties in the same neighborhood. It also rewards the Museum Curator player type in Metablox.
🚀 Boosters & Mystery Boxes
Boosters help temporary gains within the experience. This includes decreased Rooting Time, Discounts on NFTs, extra MetaRent production and more. Boosters can be obtained from Mystery Boxes that can be purchasable by MetaRent.
The contents of Boosters and specifics of Mystery Boxes will be revealed in future updates.