At 18:00 on September 15th, Fan Wei, the founder of the NFT project PaladinPandas, was a guest at Rhythm AMA, and had an online exchange with Rhythm BlockBeats on the topic of "What kind of imagination is there when the avatar is combined with GameFi".

Paladin Panda is 10,000 hand-painted NFT digital identities. With this identity, you can join the Alien Expeditionary Army and participate in the game. Through battles, you can get a large number of NFT prizes, which can be directly exchanged into ETH. The Paladin Panda consists of 9 dimensions and more than 150 elements, and no two Paladin Pandas are the same. They are generated based on ERC-1155. The first batch of early bird purchases is expected to start in late September.

Of the 10,000 Paladin Pandas, 709 will be airdropped to OHDAT's creator players, 91 will be reserved for community prizes such as airdrops and team status, and 200 will be reserved for "Paladin Panda: Expeditions" game prizes.

The following is the content of this AMA, organized by Rhythm BlockBeats as follows:

Rhythm BlockBeats: How did you learn about the field of NFT? Why did you think of doing the Paladin Pandas project?

Fan Wei: Hello everyone, I am Fan Wei, the founder of OHDAT, and Paladin Pandas is the IP of our first social avatar NFT. I graduated from Renmin University of China and the University of Maryland for my undergraduate and postgraduate respectively.

Before working on NFT, I was the innovation business director of 52TOYS, a leading trendy play brand in China, and I was also awarded the 2019 30under30 by Forbes, which is 30 outstanding entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry under the age of 30.

I have a deep understanding and practical experience in core modules such as the independent research and development and design of Chaowan blind box, IP incubation and operation. During the period of 52TOYS, I have worked with more than 400 outstanding trendy game designers at home and abroad, signed contracts and incubated several influential IPs internally, and have more than 4,000 core fans in Xiaohongshu and WeChat communities. force.

It is also very coincidental to pay attention to NFT. In February this year, during the Spring Festival, I discovered the NBA TOP SHOT virtual star card project. Its dynamic display broke through the limitations of traditional card collection, which is the unique charm that nft can bring. So after a certain period of preparation, I decided to start a business as an NFT collectible in May 2021, and received an angel round of financing of 1.2 million US dollars.

Our pandas are divided into many design combinations in different dimensions, a total of 10,000, each of which is different. They are divided into 6 occupations, and there are also differences in fur color and background rarity. Please pay attention. There will be more content later, so I won’t expand here.

Rhythm BlockBeats: NFT avatars are very popular. The prices of some well-known projects in the cryptocurrency industry continue to rise. Curry brought the avatars to another climax. Paladin Pandas is also an NFT avatar. Why did you choose the image of a panda?

Fan Wei: Regarding the IP of Paladin Pandas, it is a judgment made after careful consideration by the team.

1) Panda is a representative symbol of Asian culture: China has many general knowledge IPs that are well-known and loved by the world, and panda is one of the most widely recognized ones. As a Chinese-based creative team background, it is easier to push your own culture and design features to NFT collectors around the world through Panda

2) Application scenario landing: A mature virtual IP is not only a collection attribute, but also unlocks the user's avatar in the Metaverse through NFT, and participates in social and games, making this IP more plentiful. What Paladin Pandas wants to give users is that in the future, no matter what the painting style of the metaverse is, we can correspond to a design, allowing you to freely shuttle in different environments such as 2d, 3d, voxel, and realistic, and realize real freedom.

3) Use global popular elements to let more users who are not familiar with Chinese culture recognize:

Cyberpunk is an aesthetic style that has been popular in recent years and has influenced many young people. Paladin Pandas uses the idea of ​​panda cyber fighters, and the style of cartoon games, so that the cute panda and Cyberpunk can be combined, and it can be applied to the game application scene.

Our vision is to allow users to see the Paladin Panda as a symbol of virtual identity, and to find the joy of role-playing in the game, so that NFT can further open up everyone's imagination, just like I saw NBA TOP SHOT at the time

Rhythm BlockBeats: Will overly Chinese elements have some geographical restrictions, such as some projects with strong community consensus, Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape, etc., the image does not have regional elements, will overly Chinese elements block some foreign investors ?

Fan Wei: From this perspective, no matter which IP you choose, a certain number of collectors will naturally be eliminated, because you are in a subcultural community, and the aesthetics of collectors are different between different projects.

The strength of IP value mainly depends on hitting the hearts of many users and establishing a sense of identity that they think they are the person in that avatar. There are many aspects of Asian culture that we are familiar with but have not been explored. For example, MekaVerse, which was very popular a few days ago, is a French imitation of Japan's Gundam NFT avatar.

This market is only a few months away, and there are still many things to do in the future. Chinese culture can also make good projects. There are many copyright-free IPs like pandas that are accepted by the public that can be played freely. I am fully optimistic about the future of NFT, and I am not worried about the lack of market population.

Our overseas Discord communityhttp://discord.gg/8rw5Wr2fYUThere have been more than 4,000 people. It is not only overseas Chinese who are active, but also a large number of English users of other nationalities. Our group administrators include 1 American, 2 Europeans, and 1 Hong Kong Chinese. Everyone came here for pandas. Compared with a community of tens of thousands of people like Ape, we are not big enough, but In the past 10 days, we have grown from 1,000 people to 4,000 people, which has tripled. This is a good start, and we will gradually build the largest Chinese NFT brand.

Rhythm BlockBeats: The avatar community is very important, can you introduce how Paladin Pandas builds community loyalty through panda poo?

Fan Wei: Panda Poop is the community points of Paladin Panda. Incubating IP brands through the community is an effective path that has been verified countless times by traditional industries. With the help of the Discord platform, Paladin Pandas is developing a community operation governance model that combines humans and machines.

It is essentially the POW of the community. The proof of work realizes the standardization and quantification of community contributions through the statistics of robots. For example, if you invite a friend to join the group, you can get 150 panda poops and participate in the second creation activity of community fans. You can also get a lot of Panda Poop, and make outstanding contributions to the community, such as introducing business cooperation, writing a song for the community, etc., will be recognized as outstanding contributors, and Panda Poop will be rewarded.

Through the setting of role identities and the establishment of privileges, a community can show strong motivation and executive power. As a result, users who were originally attracted by the product's beauty and creativity turned into a stronger sense of identity with the organization and IP. This is a complex system that requires development and participation. I think it is one of the core thresholds of NFT today.

Through this system, we have accumulated thousands of fan creations within two and a half weeks of publicity, which is a huge improvement to our brand culture, and it is also unimaginable in the traditional operation path. Here are some excellent fan creations to share with you.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Do you think there is a bubble for NFT avatars? Do you agree with the social capital story?

Fan Wei: Whether there is a bubble for NFT avatars depends on when the metaverse scene arrives, and whether more people can be infected by the virtual world and come in. It must be in a very hot state at the moment, and it is also very healthy for a booming market to have certain bubbles, which shows that everyone is optimistic about this field.

I very much agree with the concept of social capital, as I mentioned above, let me explain why I am firmly optimistic about social capital:

1) The Metaverse is a world of virtual social networking and games. Judging from the huge global investment every year and the arms race of giant Internet companies, the Metaverse will come sooner than each of us imagined.

2) When the metaverse comes, no one can monopolize social identities, because the huge number of users and personalized aesthetics will lead to a large number of social asset suppliers in the market to meet the unique self-setting of users in the virtual world. . Therefore, there will inevitably be a lot of money-making opportunities for social assets.

3) Better creativity and design + strong community operations create a strong conflict with the scarce number of NFTs, resulting in a shortage of supply, allowing NFT digital identities to generate collection and investment value.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Can you introduce the GameFi gameplay of Paladin Pandas? Unlike most GameFi games, the rewards of the game are still NFT, not ERC-20. Is there any advantage to this design?

Fan Wei: Of course.

Paladin Panda - Expedition is a rogue-like game in the role-playing category, and each adventure is a random map.

Each adventure can take 1-3 pandas. The more you play, the stronger your combat power, you can pass more levels and win more loot.

Every action will trigger a battle or a random event. The great randomness makes the game full of excitement every time you play it.

Before each elite or boss level, you will be prompted whether to retreat. Retreating can directly get the existing loot, while continuing to fight has the opportunity to get greater rewards, but it is also full of risks. If you lose, you will lose 50% of the loot

Every time you return to camp, you can draw the Paladin Panda through the loot, as well as a large number of popular NFT collections in the market!

6 major occupations:

The Paladin pandas have six occupations: Iron Wall, Assaulter, Marksman, Mechanic Officer, Physician, and Bard. Each occupation has its own unique skills and characteristics

Iron wall, a natural meat shield, shelter teammates, strong defense, but slow action

Assaulter, the main force of close-range damage, can be matched with a variety of team combinations

Marksman, the king of long-range damage, has a fatal blow, but is weak

Mechanical officer, can control the battlefield situation through the equipment, panacea

Physicians, protracted battles are often inseparable from medical support, they are the best choice and are easy to be targeted

Bard, greatly increases team output, and protects the team from some control effects

Stage 1 (In Nov. 2021) The first stage of development is expected to be launched by the end of November 2021

Panda's endless expedition, earn while playing, each expedition can form a team of 1-3 Paladin pandas.

One panda can participate. Through continuous games, game coins can be accumulated and exchanged for a large number of NFTs, including Paladin Panda NFTs.

Holding 3 pandas will greatly strengthen the strength of the team, so as to break through more levels and quickly win rich rewards.

The prize pandas come from the pandas that we bought from the secondary market below the floor price, and make them into prizes to give back to the community

Stage 2 (In Jan. 2022) is the second stage of development and is expected to be launched by the end of January 2022

Open equipment and skill system, pandas can change skills and equipment, strengthen skills to achieve breakthroughs. Change jobs by changing weapons and get hidden jobs!

All weapons, equipment and skills will be turned into NFTs, which can be minted and sold to other players

Stage 3 (In Apr. 2022) The third stage of development is expected to be launched by the end of April 2022

The panda home system is open. In addition to adventures, pandas can also rebuild their homes and invite friends to visit and interact to share joy.

About P2E prizes are NFT settings, we hope to attract more players who are interested in NFT. We provide NFT projects with great potential for investment in the market, allowing users to earn money through hard work, or through lucky draws to have the opportunity to get valuable NFTs. Many users love them but the price is high and they cannot be easily bought. We Give them a chance through the game. At the same time, for users who want to cash out directly, these NFTs can also be easily traded on Opensea to make a profit.

We hope that through a good economic model, more and more players who like NFT will join our community, hold pandas, recognize pandas, and make this IP ecology more prosperous. Many game models similar to Ponzi seem to be in the present, but the future may not be a lasting thing. I think this is a big difference between our IP thinking and many short-term thinking of cutting leeks.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Why did you design a game that divides races? Inspired by Axie or Rarity?

Fan Wei: We don't actually set races.

Some pandas have different coat colors, which we set up in consideration of allowing users to have the joy of extracting the hidden money in the blind box. There are not many of them, and most of them are natural black and white pandas.

Our main distinction is occupation. Each panda is chosen as a class along with its own weapon. After the end of our second phase of development, pandas can change their jobs by changing weapons, which will have more interesting game strategies and richer avatar props to change. The playability of IP is greatly enhanced.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Why did you design the dungeon gameplay? This mode is very rare in blockchain games.

Fan Wei: The gameplay is similar to the dungeon, the game world view is mainly in different Odaily expeditions. Similar to the setting of Borderlands 3, the Panda Legion drives a spaceship to fight against Odaily to find the lost bamboo shoot ore.

The consideration of roguelike is mainly to make the game more random and fresh, and each challenge is a new adventure. It can make the game more playable, and with the P2E mechanism, it is a good game that has a chance to explode.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Do you think Play To Earn must be a must-have method for blockchain games?

Fan Wei: Right now, this is not a scam, but a future trend.

The traditional game market itself has already become very competitive. If you enter the game purely from the traditional idea of ​​fighting for art, fighting for buying volume, etc., it must be uncompetitive.

The new relationship between game operators and players brought about by chain games, the status of players has been greatly improved, such as in-game props and skins, etc., all belong to users.

It is this change that liberates ownership relations that we should pay attention to. NFT is just a carrier of this change, and we also want to participate in it. Chain games have broken the traditional game mode, allowing users to experience the recharge in the game. It is no longer pure consumption, but becomes NFT. Use repeatedly. P2E is only the first manifestation of this transformation.

This kind of change mainly occurs in games and social networking. We look forward to and embrace change together.

Rhythm BlockBeats: What plans does Paladin Pandas have for the future?

Fan Wei: We will continue to invest in building IP along the line of thinking I just mentioned, so that more people will recognize the value of Panda NFT.

For example, from the perspective of IP brand and social assets, we will have entertainment star cooperation and more media exposure in the later stage, so that Panda IP will receive more attention and recognition in the NFT world!

Let this IP, entity, and virtual world appear in front of everyone. From the perspective of the game, we will continue to purchase various new and interesting NFT items on the market, and get them in the game to reward players and give back to the community. Let IP expand outward from the community with more power and vitality.

The community is the core of NFT IP incubation, not one of them. The WeChat group is also a position that we will focus on. If you are not familiar with nft, you can follow us and integrate into the big family of nft without borders. From the perspective of other application scenarios, we will design more 2D and 3D content of Panda, and connect it to other NFT games, or metaverse interfaces, so that users can realize the experience of holding Panda NFT and traveling freely!

There is still a lot to do in the future, and the NFT sale of an IP is just the beginning. If you have more questions about the project, you are welcome to add my WeChat communication: Paladin_006

The above is the entire content of this AMA.