Cardano NFT: Phoenix Arena – The Cryptonomist

This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a project developing a P2E RPG-style autobattler game that cooperates with other NFT projects: Phoenix Arena.

Last week’s guest was a project that reproduces the DeFi model with NFT and allows staking many Cardano NFT collections to earn HEXO tokens.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: Phoenix Arena

Hey, glad to have you here. Please introduce your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

My name is Oliver and I am one of the founders of Phoenix Arena NFT.

I am based in Glasgow, Scotland. I graduated from law school but found no interest in it. Since then I have worked in management, sales and engineering. 

I have been involved with cryptocurrencies and ADA since early 2019. All the skills from my past work experiences have been useful when it comes to Phoenix Arena.

What is Phoenix Arena and why have you chosen the Cardano blockchain for your project?

Phoenix Arena is a Cardano NFT project developing a P2E RPG-style autobattler game. The core gameplay revolves around players choosing their squad for battle from the character NFTs they own, selecting their items, skills, and attack sequences, and battling against other players.

The meta gameplay revolves around acquiring and developing skills and gear, and developing new hero/squad builds to climb up the leaderboard. Phoenix Arena has sold 3 NFT sets: Max, Diver, and just recently the set called Fluffy.

The NFTs passively reward users with the project in-game currency WARI and other assets. The NFTs will also provide owners with an in-game identity and items for their inventory.

We are drawn to Cardano for its scientific and engineering rigor to deliver a decentralized, secure and scalable blockchain. We believe Cardano will have a deeply positive impact on how humanity organizes itself. We hope to be a part of the evolution of this amazing platform through our modest contribution.

How would you explain the potential of NFTs in gaming to the most skeptic gamers who think NFTs and P2E/P&E (Play to Earn/Play & Earn) are essentially the same as P2W (Pay to Win) mechanics?

As a gamer one of the things that frustrates me the most is that you can grind for a full year e.g FIFA23 build up your squad and then you have to start from 0 again when the next game edition is released. There is no ROI apart from the entertainment.

Not only are NFTs most certainly the future of gaming but they will allow millions of players to interact with and compete with online gamers while earning tokens within a virtual world.

You can now earn while playing and own, collect, and even sell your in-game items. P2E can even be a boon to your budget when you play as a side hustle.

You’re collaborating with several other NFT projects including Cardania and Cardano Lands, can you tell us more about this? Why are these cross-projects collabs important? Is cooperation better than competition?

Phoenix Arena has a collaboration format where their NFT characters have items that have been created in the spirit of the project they are collaborating with. The previous Diver NFT had a collaboration with Cardania where Diver has a set of Cardania-themed items and Cardania-themed Divers also receive Cardania RADTokens as passive rewards. The latest Fluffy NFT drop has themed items in collaboration with Cardania, Melting Moonboys, and Derp Birds.

The token partnerships create a bridge between the different projects and is something unique in the CNFT space. With 1 NFT you can earn up to 6 different tokens, introducing you to potentially 6 different communities.

I am a firm believer that it is wiser to work together rather than against each other. For instance if a project wants to build a marketplace and the initial investment is 50K would it not make more sense for 5 projects to all invest 10k each to build software that could be used by all 5?

Thank you kindly for your time. Any closing thoughts? Where can people learn more about Phoenix Arena?

We are building a P2E game that is appealing to both the casual and the competitive hardcore gamers alike. PA collaboration system has the potential to bring the whole space together and battle in the Phoenix Arena. We are not only building a game, we are building a brand. 

You can learn more via our Twitter.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.