Seizing the classic game IP MapleStory, Avalanche's game ecology is gradually developing

On March 11, public chain Avalanche announced that Korean game developer Nexon’s chain game “MapleStory N” is expected to be launched on its network subnet by the end of 2024. With the announcement of this news, Avalanche's token AVAX quickly rose in response, with a price of $54.08 on March 13, a 24-hour increase of 11.24%.

According to the official statement released at the Game Developers Conference GDC in March last year, the blockchain game "MapleStory N" in the MapleStory Universe IP originally chose Ethereum's expansion network Polygon, and Polygon Labs will also cooperate with MapleStory Universe launches comprehensive cooperation in development and marketing. However, according to people familiar with the matter, the temporary change of the online blockchain may be related to Polygon’s termination of the scalable modular framework Polygon Edge.

The choice of Avalanche as the final solution shows that its subnet settings are considered very friendly to game developers. In particular, the 3A-level FPS game "Shrapnel" built on the Avalanche network was officially released in November last year. This high-profile, well-made game further stimulates the community's expectations for the Avalanche game ecosystem.

Polygon lost "MapleStory N"

A person familiar with the matter revealed that after Polygon Labs stopped supporting Polygon Edge, Nexon has begun to look for alternative solutions. This modular framework has played an important role in developing Ethereum-compatible networks, so Nexon is stepping up its search for new solutions that can meet its needs.

In the initial planning, Polygon Supernet aimed to provide a dedicated "application chain" for Nexon. Like Avalanche's Subnet, Polygon's Supernet provides dedicated subnets for individual projects, giving creators some customization options.

However, due to strategic adjustments, Polygon Labs announced on December 12 last year that it would stop supporting Polygon Edge. The company said it will focus on Polygon CDK, aiming to build an Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem with interoperability and a single liquidity pool. This decision seems to have had some impact on the development of MapleStory N.

The IP of MapleStory has a unique influence in the Chinese community. Its origins can be traced back to "MapleStory" launched in 2003, which is a side-scrolling free massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It is the flagship IP of Korean game developer Nexon and has a history of 21 years. According to official data, the cumulative number of users worldwide has reached 180 million, with total revenue reaching US$4 billion.

In 2015, Nexon released "MapleStory 2", a 3D MMORPG, and "MapleStory World" was launched in September 2022. However, the user base of "MapleStory Worlds" gradually dwindled, and "MapleStory 2" also suffered commercial setbacks. So, after careful consideration, Nexon turned to Web3 for potential solutions, which ultimately led to the development of MapleStory Universe.

As a game company that has provided game services for more than 20 years, Nexon hopes to further develop a sustainable service model. As a result, Nexon has raised the boundaries of gaming services and user experience to a new level, creating a new IP universe. The core goal of this IP universe is to "share control of IP assets through the blockchain." Nexon's vision is to transition from the traditional "MapleStory" IP to a community-based "game service" model. With this move, Nexon aims to take the gaming industry a giant step forward and bring players a richer and more meaningful gaming experience. This new game service model will pay more attention to community participation and interaction, allowing players to establish closer connections and cooperative relationships in the game. Nexon believes that through open and transparent blockchain technology, players can better control and benefit from their in-game IP assets. Through this new game service concept, Nexon will continue to work hard. The newly established MapleStory Universe consists of four main parts, the blockchain-based PC MMORPG "MapleStory N", a mobile game version of MapleStory N "MapleStory N Mobile", a blockchain-based UGC game platform MapleStory N Worlds and an API-level development toolkit MapleStory N SDK provided to developers.

Drive the creation of user-generated content (UGC) and modded (MOD) games by empowering users and providing rewards. The ultimate goal of the MapleStory Universe project is to build an ecosystem co-created by the community and get rid of the model of game companies unilaterally providing content.

<em>韩国游戏开发商Nexon的经典游戏《冒险岛》(MapleStory)</em>

Avalanche’s game ecology is gradually developing

A series of factors contributed to MapleStory Universe’s final choice of Avalanche. The latter supports three chains with different functions: contract chain (C-Chain), platform chain (P-Chain), and transaction chain (X-Chain).

As more and more traditional manufacturers turn to Web3 game development, while blockchain games bring innovation, they also face technical challenges such as network reliability, transaction delays, and scalability issues.

To address these challenges, Avalanche has launched an effective solution called Subnets. Subnets are independent and autonomous networks, allowing each project to build a customized chain based on their specific requirements.

Avalanche的子网主要有以下几个方面的特点。快速响应。游戏内的操作能够以闪电般的速度得到确认和处理，消除了烦人的滞后和延迟。其次，低成本。通过定制区块链，Avalanche上的游戏开发商可以提供无Gas交易。

此外，子网还具有可定制的参数。鉴于不同游戏的特点各异，子网允许游戏工作室根据游戏的特定需求进行定制，提供了前所未有的灵活性。

另一个特点是高可靠性和无停机时间。借助子网，游戏可以不间断地进行，这种可靠性对于维持无缝的游戏体验至关重要。最后，合规性。通过自由制定一些规则（例如KYC要求），Subnets可以在全球范围内运营，以遵守当地法律。

<em>Avalanche区块链网络的架构</em>

凭借这些特点，Avalanche在与Polygon的竞争中获得了优势。目前，有100款游戏正在构建在Avalanche平台上。目前比较火热的有《Shrapnel》、复古风格的大型多人在线角色扮演游戏《Spellborne》和第三人称生存类游戏《Providence》。

2023年11月，Avalanche推出了备受瞩目的游戏《Shrapnel》。该游戏是GameFi领域少见的首款全射击游戏（FPS），并伴随着相关代币SHRAP的上线。GameFi项目为Avalanche生态助推，去年12月1日前后，Avalanche的 TVL 增长 17%，之前30天内代币价格增长80%。

此次Avalanche和MapleStory Universe合作的公告显示，选择Avalanche是基于Avalanche在Web3游戏中的良好记录和安全性，MapleStory Universe希望可以实现区块链无缝整合，因此采用Avalanche子网和 AvaCloud 服务，简化了流程并增强了游戏体验。

当被问及为什么Nexon选择放弃Polygon时，MapleStory Universe合作伙伴负责人Angela Son强调了团队认为使用Avalanche的优势。她表示，Avalanche的核心团队Ava Labs一直在协助MapleStory Universe解决服务器和基础设施需求，以确保其正常运行。

除了技术方面的优势外，Avalanche也拥有强大的社区影响力，这似乎与MapleStory渴望发展社区影响力的目标不谋而合。据官方数据显示，目前Avalanche已促成了1亿次交易，拥有2500万个独立钱包和1700个网络验证者。

根据CryptoPotato的报道，在2023年11月，Avalanche的地址数突破了600万个。在接受Thinking Crypto播客采访时，Ava Labs的总裁John Wu强调了网络的显著扩展：John Wu表示，2023年，Avalanche网络经历了显著增长，地址数量翻了一番。他透露，Avalanche目前运营着20个实时子网，并预计在今年内启动80多个子网。

Avalanche的2024年发展计划颇具野心，“旨在成为以太坊的竞争对手”，其中包括对Avalanche协议进行技术更新，将交易最终化时间从两秒缩短到250毫秒以下。 目前来看，Avalanche能否实现目标，还有待市场的检验。

根据公开资料和合作公告，《MapleStory N》预计将在2024年底在PC上推出。Nexon使用Avalanche子网来运营游戏，与《Shrapnel》和《Off the Grid》等游戏的上线基本模式相同。

游戏将不会进行NFT预售，而是让玩家通过玩游戏来获得物品作为NFT。Nexon表示，MapleStory Universe也会发行自己的代币。

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