Develop a metaverse personality with blockchain and NFTs

By day Halil Keles is a systems engineer with considerable experience from the public and private sector, but by night he is an avid gamer.

His favorite game growing up was Starcraft, and through countless hours of competitive gaming, he earned the name “Memur” – a name he goes by in the cryptosphere. Now a founding member of Heroes of NFT, Halil is joined by his three co-founders, fellow players and industry professionals Koray, Barış and Eren.

Despite being a die-hard gamer, Halil does not see an inherent conflict between games and blockchain, as is often discussed in the new technological battlefield. At the moment, he tells us he doesn’t have much time for long gaming sessions, but his past as a player puts him in the best position to understand players’ needs.

“On the contrary, there is no fight with players,” he reassures.

“Ownership and transferability of assets is not possible in commercial games, but is of course possible with blockchain – along with a whole host of other features. The two sides will converge over time and bring the best from both sides.”

For Memur, crypto began as a hobby from an early age, but in 2016 he began to look seriously at the potential of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He sought a high-risk, high-return investment and began trading as much as eight hours a day. It was quite a jump from working life to becoming a blockchain entrepreneur, but Memur had been looking to get involved in startups for a while.

“With my three other co-founders, we started looking at putting together DeFi and NFTs,” he explained.

“I had played with football-themed physical trading cards in my childhood, so I could see the appeal and the potential.”

As the idea for Heroes of NFT developed, Memur realized that the role of the metaverse was going to be very important in the technology space, especially due to gamification and entertainment.

“We have physical lives, of course, but we also have digital identities. We wanted to create a metaverse where people could develop these digital identities. This metaverse has many features, including land NFTs and related DEFI applications for these NFTs one, such as staking NFTs and the single HON token.The great thing about our metaverse is that it is designed by real-world architects, and it’s a great place to spend time with your friends, thanks in part to voice chats and text chat.”

It is also possible for organizations to arrange meetings within the metaverse and brands will have their own places to market their products and dApps in HON’s metaverse.

“Of course, not only the brands but also individual people will have the chance to create their own community thanks to their land NFT with custom avatars in line with the metaverse fashion we have created.”

The HON team created a significant collection of more than 16,000 NFTs on the Avalanche network, specifically for their flagship PvP trading card game, based on 12 unique character identities and stories. Eight more characters will be added to the collection later. These characters each come with upgradeable attributes and a variety of base items with points for attack, defense and other qualities. On top of this, players will get the chance to create their own NFTs in the game and show their personality through their unique avatar.

The inspiration for HON came from various sources, but the gameplay itself will feel most familiar to those who have dabbled in Legends of Runeterra, Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, and Yu-Gi-Oh! However, the game mechanics and design are unique to HON, with players able to add new attributes to their NFTs by using in-game items. This creates strategic combination opportunities to increase the odds and add to the excitement of competitive play.

At launch, HON released a player versus player (PVP) mode as a starting point. There are plans to upgrade and introduce multiplayer options, extensive tournaments and the ability to watch matches in real time.. All these features will be built on top of next-generation blockchain gaming concepts involving an integrated economy with real value through native tokenomics. Through these tokenomics and the use of NFTs, HON tokens and HRM tokens, the foundation is set for a gaming experience with new play-to-earn (P2E) mechanics and engaging reward paths that keep players coming back for more.

Heroes, as HON calls its community, can buy, sell, trade and equip spell cards, weapons and upgrades to customize and enhance their characters. When not in use, these items will sit in users’ crypto wallets. Some heroes can also choose to sell consumables on the HON market, increasing the volume of exchanges and exploiting the game’s interesting economic design for potential profit.

Social elements are also built into the gaming experience. Friends in a player’s contact list will be able to see their matches with a slight delay. Also, the game itself will help players socialize with their HON friends using text chat, and when in the metaverse, voice chat will also be available.

NFTs are the heart, tokens are the brain

The core components of HON’s gameplay are the NFTs, the HON token, and the HRM token, which players can use to advance in the game and challenge each other. Consumable digital assets (spell cards) and NFT resources also enrich gameplay and make it more fun, with the marketplace feature adding a further dynamic. Some heroes might want to be warriors, others might want to be merchants, with things like weapons and cosmetic NFTs providing that in-game personalization that players want.

The HON token is essentially what manages the game, and token holders are rewarded with control over future events and decisions. Hardly limited to 200 million tokens, HON has a sustainable distribution design that will take around five years for the entire supply to enter circulation. This will be achieved through yield farming, vault farming, and asset staking by players who wish to earn a passive income from their NFTs and HON tokens. In-game rewards will speed up the process for engaged players.

The marketplace typically drives the greatest demand for HON accumulation, with players hoarding tokens to purchase upgrades and consumables. A marketplace fee of 2.5% allows HON’s team to maintain some stability in the ecosystem, while the continuous flow of HON tokens allows control to be continuously redistributed as well.

The Effects of ‘Crypto Winter’

With the downturn in the market having widespread effects on the GameFi industry, Memur and his team have decided to slow down certain releases and updates, but they are still very active. In May, they will attend May’s Avalanche Summit in Barcelona where they plan to showcase their products to get more feedback from the wider community.

Built on the Avalanche blockchain, the AVAX community has already provided incredible support to HON, now seeking peer review from further afield in pursuit of mass adoption.

Community ambitions

From the very beginning, Memur and his team have sought to build the project and community organically, avoiding “silly” influencers and pump-and-dump plans. Feedback from their community is critical to the development of HON, and to that end they are also looking for Project Ambassadors who believe in the HON mission to help accelerate its growth.

The HON community currently has 47,500 heroes on Twitter, 20,000 on Telegram, and more than 25,500 on Discord. These numbers are all organic and have been grown through sheer determination, openness and creative commitment over time.

“We are confident in our project – by combining NFTs, games and the metaverse, we are unique in this area,” concludes Memur.