From the creation of legendary book series and tabletop games to much beloved video games like World of Warcraft and Skyrim , the fantasy genre just seems to stir something deep within each and every one of us. For years people have shown great interest in Role-Playing Games (RPGs). A little while ago I heard of a game bringing fantasy to the world of Blockchain, so I decided to check it out. So let’s brew our potions, ready our spells, and equip our armor: Here comes The Six Dragons .
Good Morrow Brave Traveler
I love fantasy. Plain and simple. I first encountered fantasy, like most people my age, when I decided to read The Hobbit, a novel by South African author J.R.R.Tolkien that gave the world a blueprint for modern fantasy all the way back in 1937. Tolkien further expanded this world with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954.
Fast forward a few years later, and Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D), introduced a new aspect to that blueprint, paving the way for people to immerse themselves in these fantastical worlds using RPG elements.
The OG of RPGs. All hail the King!
Let’s look at the template D&D created and what every modern RPG is based on. D&D is considered by many to be the first commercial RPG, allowing people to become those characters they loved so much from fantasy books. Night after night, you can still find friends huddled around tables with dice, spending countless hours building characters and weaving all-new narratives. Adding to this fun is the fact that players can continue adventures by saving statistics on ledger-style ‘Character Cards.’
Guided and governed by a ‘Game Master’ or GM, the person who enforces the rules and determines the storyline of the adventure, friends quest together using dice to determine every decision the party makes as well as their ultimate fate. Want to kill that goblin? Distract it? Or maybe you’re weird like me and want to try befriend it? You can choose any of these options, or literally anything you can dream up. You just better get a good roll, regardless of what you choose.
I myself used to play a dumbed-down version of D&D with an old friend of mine. He always took on the role of GM, but my trusty Elf Rogue kept me out of harms way, usually. I may or may not have died a few times, but that’s beside the point. I absolutely loved the RPG element of the whole experience, and I have been playing RPGs ever since.
My wife loved The Shadow of Mordor , an RPG that takes place in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I never got around to playing it, but it looks fun as hell…
Fantasy Meets Blockchain
The Six Dragons is the first of its kind: a fantasy-based RPG with digital ownership at its core built on Enjin , it integrates all the security of Blockchain with the added bonus of NFT-based items and an internal marketplace option for in-game assets.
Described as Skyrim for Blockchain, you know I downloaded this
Now, I didn’t have a ton of time to play this game, but I was able to identify and test out some of the Blockchain elements. A good example of this is the marketplace that easily allows you to sell, buy, or trade items that hold real world value. Games like World of Warcraft will actually ban you if you’re caught selling items for real money. Move over Blizzard , a new way of doing things is here.
Are you going to buy, sell or trade? It’s actually pretty easy
Another aspect I enjoyed was the crafting station, which allows you to use recipes you find from enemies you’ve killed. When combined with the required materials, you can create a unique weapon, armor piece or just higher tier items. You should know that, before you’re able to enter the crafting menu, you are given the choice of doing Off-Chain or Blockchain crafting. Each require you to go through an authentication process before continuing.
Is it a little slow? Sure, but it’s almost impossible to cheat or dupe. And yes, tons of games have crafting like this, but what they don’t have is Blockchain. You own those items and materials, and you can sell them, or at least attempt to sell them for whatever price you want. Not to repeat myself from past articles, but gaming and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) or digital ownership-based systems are made for each other when done right.
Let’s forge some awesomeness. Is that a word? It doesn’t matter! I own it!
Onward to the Dragons…Maybe?
Now, being a fantasy lover, RPG addict, and Blockchain enthusiast, I had to try this game out. And it was here I encountered my first challenge: installing the game.
The website had a convenient button proclaiming ‘Play Now,’ which upon clicking, started a download for a RAR file. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, except VLC player really wanted to run that file, as well as 3 other programs, none of which actually had the ability to do so!
I just want to Quest!
I then turned to Google, and was directed to Steam . At first I thought, ‘Perfect, Steam will facilitate everything I need to do with prompts, making this a very easy installation.’ So I loaded up Steam, searched for The Six Dragons, and found it immediately. But when I went to click download, I realized that…nothing was there. No download option.
Okay, so how do I play this game? Not too long after this I was fortunate enough to find an article saying I needed to use Winzip to extract the folder from the RAR file, which the website mentioned nothing of. Okay, so I will say, I did find the answer in the FAQ section after directly searching for my issue, but why not have some installation instructions if it’s going to be like this?
Anyway, whatever. I finally saw the launcher icon in the folder, and so finally, it was time to play. Oh no wait, sorry…it’s actually time to install. I literally forgot I hadn’t even installed the game yet! This better be good. Glass-half full Spizzo, at least its installing…
While installing I started doing some other stuff on my computer. Then suddenly, without telling it to execute, my journey into the The Six Dragons began. Taking over my screen, I was thrust into a cinematic intro with fire exploding out of the title text. Here we go!
It’s pretty awesome…who doesn’t love explosions? I particularly enjoy the embers afterwards
I was then greeted with the almighty login screen. Perfect. Time to start slaying, questing, dominating, and my journey to become the megalomaniac who rules over this new world of Blockchain RPGs. Too much? Sorry, I plan to be drunk on power ASAP. Anyway, I assigned my username and email and was told to simply login to let the questing begin, so I clicked the login…game-time baby.
Oh man, not gaming time yet. I was instructed to download an Enjin app and register it, and only once that was complete, scan a QR code to link my game account with my wallet. Can I just play this game? Don’t get me wrong, I understand I need to assign a wallet (I mean, it’s Blockchain life after all) and that the game is powered by Enjin, hence the app, but Good Lord, you’d think there would be some information from the website after the ‘Play Now’ button, telling you about what you should expect with the install and how to do it. Something!
This is the second time I would have liked a heads-up from the website that I don’t have to search for myself. Granted, ‘Let’s make lemonade out of this situation,’ I thought. ‘At least I’m finally ready to rock and roll…I hope.’ I closed my eyes and clicked the login button. Thankfully, it was finally time to start my journey into the world of The Six Dragons…
Epic quests await. This Heads-Up Display (HUD) is extremely familiar to me thanks to years of playing Diablo
Direct Me to the Nearest Castle Good Sir!
My epic quest had finally started. Spirits were high, as well as expectations. I was dropped into a green field, and to my left were rocks forming into a mountain. I was alone, naked, and afraid. Well technically I was wearing underwear. Regardless, I wasn’t exactly ready to take anything on, let alone dominate the world. A series of messages on the screen popped up, telling me to equip items my character had in his inventory. I quickly pressed the standard hotkey (I), and my ‘nude’ character appeared in an inventory menu.
Diapers? Maybe. Knighthood? Unlikely. Excitement? Maximum!
After equipping my self-proclaimed Mace of Death, and Cloth Armor of the Awesome People, I took my first steps into the world. Almost instantly I was engaged by a very rude Level 1 Skeleton, who foolishly thought he could contend with my raw Level 1 power.
Whatever, I easily dispatched my foe, only to be charged at by a Level 3 Spider. Hesitant, I pressed on to engage, and yet again, I prevailed. ‘I got this,’ I thought, and pushed onward into the unknown. Every hill or tree I passed, a new foe came charging right at me.
One thing to note is that enemies can apparently travel through rocks. I, on the other hand…cannot. Skeletons and spiders populated the area and were clearly my mortal enemies.
Bring it on you no-meat-having fool! I. Will. Crush. You!
While killing everything I came into contact with, I felt something was off. Then, it hit me. There was no music to accompany me on my quest. Sure, there were sounds, but zero music. The title screen had music, but the game…didn’t? After realizing it, when I wasn’t fighting something, the game felt empty. I’d even take some loop of generic free rights renaissance songs at this point. You know the ones. I shrugged it off, focused myself, and tried to figure out some sort of goal since I wasn’t assigned any Quests. Maybe one of those pop-ups I skipped said what to do? But if it did, shouldn’t it show up as a Quest?
Undeterred, I looked to my minimap. Multiple icons were visible, so naturally I headed for the nearest one. A town presumably? No. A portal I couldn’t access…
Screw you portals. I can’t access any of you
No worries, onto the next icon. After vanquishing my foes on the way, I reached uh, another portal that I…also couldn’t access. I looked closer at the icons on the map and saw a money symbol. That had to be a merchant, and where there are merchants, there are towns and safety. So onward I marched.
Can I Get a Discount?
After nearly dying two different times when I was attacked by three enemies at once, one of which was level 4, impressive, I know. I traversed over a hill and saw the goal in the distance. A series of small buildings, with fenced in farmland in between them. I finally made it to town. Time to upgrade.
I paid my dues, and ground my way into town. Honestly, it wasn’t very difficult
I spoke with the first person I encountered, someone pretending to be cooler than me…a merchant. The nerve of this guy! He thinks he can buy things for almost nothing while charging me 10 times what he paid? Typical. Not today friend. On to the next vendor…
There he is, the extortionist, I mean merchant
I moved onto the rest the of town, seeing what others had to offer. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that the first merchant I talked to was the only one in town for buying base items. You win this round buddy!
I’m sorry, how much did you say that Scroll was!?
Gimme some new gear!
Naturally, I couldn’t afford the new armor, even after selling the items I collected. Apparently the game was going to make me earn the armor, so I headed back into the world to collect more gold from my old foes: skeletons and spiders.
After a little while, I acquired the necessary gold and headed back to town to buy some new gear, and by new gear I mean a pair of bracers. Don’t hate. I was also pretty disappointed it didn’t change my appearance, but I could feel my power growing.
While my time was brief, my Quest is far from over. I will control all 256,000/m² in The Six Dragons. You’ll see! Oh, and yeah, the game actually has that much space…for now.
So What’s the Verdict?
I wouldn’t say the The Six Dragons is a polished game in any way, shape, or form. With generally rough graphics compared to what players are used to, empty feeling worlds due to the lack of music, slow authentication times that make you think your game is frozen during crafting, an overall lack of visual complexity, and of course, the totally informative and easy-to-figure-out installation process (not), there is still a lot of room for improvement which is to be expected as it is still in it’s beta stage.
However, keep in mind that the game is still in Beta and therefore has a lot of potential in my opinion. I definitely enjoyed my time playing and will continue to do so. If you love basic mechanics of fantasy RPGs as well as Blockchain and aren’t put off by something being rough around the edges, I’d say give The Six Dragons a shot.
Hopefully the developers will continue to improve the experience while maintaining the overall vibe they have created, as I am and will continue to be a fan. I wish you luck and hope you have fun on your future adventures in The Six Dragons. Just don’t get in my way…
Summary
The Six Dragons definitely gets kudos for being entirely free and that the Beta is available to everyone. Some Blockchain games require large sums of money to be able to play, and luckily, this is not one of them. The biggest issue it currently has is the lack of direction for new users to easily install this game. You’re in luck though. If you want to play The Six Dragons, I’ve compiled a set of step-by-step instructions so you can start your Quest ASAP and sidestep this one unfortunate aspect. Happy Hunting!
Installation Guide
- Go to The Six Dragons website
- Click ‘Play Now’
- You should see a RAR file download begin
- Make sure you have Winzip
- Use Winzip to extract the RAR file
- Open the Extracted file and click the launcher to start installation
- Once installed, start the game
- At the login screen, create a new account
- The game should direct you to the Enjin App via email
- Create an account on the Enjin App
- Use the Enjin App to scan the QR code provided to you by The Six Dragons login process, and it will automatically pair the app with your Six Dragons account
- Log back into The Six Dragons, and you’re now questing!
Closing Thoughts
The Gameplay, overall concept and replayability of The Six Dragons are what make it really worthwhile. If this is what it looks like in Beta, I’m sure the Official Release is gonna be awesome. Would be great to hear some music for a little more atmosphere, and a little more guidance on installation for new players. Other than those minor issues, The Six Dragons is very promising and I’ll be sure to check it out when it launches. Those spiders and skeletons don’t stand a chance!
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