In 2012 Chris Lexmond, founder of Influence, was playing EVE online like it was a full-time job, but without any of the benefits. This got him thinking “How could we create a game that gave players ownership of their content?” Because, after all, the players who breathe life into an MMO are the ones that truly make it fun.
Fast forward to today...
Influence is here to turn the gaming industry’s current model upside down by building a digital universe that is fun and interactive while being owned and governed by the community that plays it.
In order for us to get to where we want to go and for players to have control of the world they help create, we need people like YOU.
We can’t do it alone!
How can you help all of us achieve success in this new world of gaming?
We love content. We love videos, memes, stories, and a community that is engaged and growing.
Want to help get us there? This guide has been created to assist you.
Full post on the origin story of Influence: https://x.com/influenceth/status/1778596181100363784
Influence is a highly strategic space colonization game, where players vie for dominance and control in the newly formed colony within the Adalian asteroid belt.
The core loop of Influence is: Mine, Process, Refine, Build, Trade, Expand. You are a new colony in a new world, trying to survive in the asteroid belt. At the start of the game there is only a small city to get things going, but past that, the players decide the future. This in itself will keep players engaged and coming back to expand their colonies across Adalia.
MORE INFO: https://influenceth.substack.com/p/what-is-influence
Players assume the role of their crew(s) where they will play alongside the other colonists in Adalia. Competing through multiple avenues: mining, building, trading, (and later researching, and warfare).
In action, players will take mined raw materials and push them through player-owned marketplaces and deep realistic production chains, to purchase and craft hundreds of intermediate products enabling the construction of the pinnacle of industry: buildings and ships.
Overtime players will grow their settlements across asteroids and utilize ships to deliver and pick up goods within the Adalian belt.
With an emphasis on strategic decision making the game prioritizes impactful actions rather than grinds. Much of the “action” within Influence is in the thought process that goes into taking an action and the coordination between players and alliances. Influence isn’t played in minutes or hours, rather over the course of months and years.
Influence is a slow burn. At first, it has a steep learning curve, and players will be required to make choices they may not fully understand initially. However, over time, they will encounter nearly endless opportunities. Where there is risk, there is reward. Influence is played in months and years, not hours or days. Players will log in, monitor their supply chain, production, and current market conditions, and strategically choose what they want to mine, refine, build, or trade. While session lengths will vary, most players will be able to sit down, plan their moves, take actions, and then log off, returning hours or days later to complete them and continue fine-tuning or adapting their strategy.
Though Influence is not an "idle" game, it rewards players through strategic choices rather than enforcing arbitrary grinds. Actions are gated by time, unlike traditional games that require constant activity. For instance, instead of manually flying your ship for an hour across the belt, you click it and return a week later when it has arrived. This means actions have a bigger impact, and the stakes are real. Taking the wrong action might cost you a serious amount of time and potentially lost opportunity/SWAY. To the victor go the spoils.
Influence lives at the intersection between Sandbox MMO and 4X Strategy. In addition the game is designed around futuristic realism, allowing players to make educated conclusions about how to craft goods, travel the belt, and what might be useful at different phases within the game. The game is non-linear, rather all options for players are there and it is up to them to choose what they want to do in this open-world, allowing for emergent gameplay in a peer-to-peer, player-driven experience.
Influence is rendered in 3D, and players interact in third-person through control of their ships and the installations they build. The game is browser based, and is accessible to anyone with a modern computer, phone, and internet connection.
Influence’s vision is to build a digital universe that is fun and interactive while being owned and governed by the community that plays it.
Own your assets, have fun in a challenging space strategy MMO, earn SWAY in proportion to your skill and effort put into the game.
We want to remove the walls from the garden and give players the freedom of owning their assets and the ability to earn from their actions and efforts in-game.
However, something that we believe separates us from many other “blockchain games” is that we are working to create a game that serious and real gamers will enjoy and play for years to come.
Games first and foremost need to be FUN! Influence is working hard to create a game based on space realism in which players will be immersed.
The economy in Influence is based on mining resources from asteroids, which players can set the price for in a marketplace or choose to first refine the resources and use them to manufacture goods, before proceeding to a market.,.
Each step in this game will require players to make choices and each choice has a fixed cost. For example, if a player wants to fly a ship to take their goods to market, they need fuel. This means they either need to sink resources into producing fuel or sell their goods to then buy fuel. The more efficient they are the more they can yield for the work done.
The game simulates what life would be like if a player lived on an asteroid belt and had to work with others to keep the colony alive and thriving.
Today the gaming industry is the largest media sector in the world, and gamers spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on digital content. As of right now, almost 100% of that content players are paying for is not truly theirs.
In Influence, there are no more black markets that players have to utilize to do real-money-trading, instead, Influence gives players the ability to freely trade to their heart’s content.
An easy way to think about the economy in Influence is like the Auction House in World of Warcraft, but instead of trading gold that cannot be taken out of the system, players have an easy bridge to swap their tokens out of the system.
Unlike most web3 games that are either very simple money games, or loosely on the blockchain and similar to many other games already on the market, Influence is unique.
Giveaways are a great way to get some initial followers & traction for your channels. Feel free to contact us if you are looking to do something.
When making content about Influence, we recommend keeping the following in mind
There are many reasons, but here are a few short and simple answers to help you out.
Communication-related to Influence should never be toxic. However, well-crafted jabs focusing on the classes in-game can be used when appropriate. A sense of tribalism in terms of what your specialty is in-game can be useful, but try not to overplay it.
Example:
“As a scientist, I sometimes wonder if miners actually have rocks for brains, but without them, the entire colony would fail within a day”
Here are some recommended types of articles for creating written content:
Influence is a great place for content creators to showcase their skills and expand their audience while helping an immersive and unique project expand.
Blockchain gaming is at the bleeding edge of technology and, with that, educating your audience about this is key. While the Influence team works hard to lower the barrier to entry and showcase top-level user experience, many will still feel slightly overwhelmed. A great way to set yourself apart is to be able to guide your audience through the nuances of these barriers.
Influence streamers should strive to:
TIPS:
Recommended types of Video Content & Streams
Influence loves artists. We have many on staff already! Want to show off your skills and make some Influence-themed art? Awesome! We love showcasing our community art.
Here are some examples of Art that are popular with the Influence community:
Many Influence community members choose to contribute by being very active on social channels such as Twitter and Discord!
Some of the bravest Adalians assist with doing support and onboarding. These are some of the most honored Influence crew of the Adalian colony.
Here are some guidelines around how we should communicate:
- [Twitter] https://twitter.com/influenceth
- [Youtube] https://www.youtube.com/@influence-mmo/featured
- [Blog] https://influenceth.substack.com/
- [Reddit] https://www.reddit.com/r/influenceth/
- [Creator resources] https://wiki.influenceth.io/en/community/creator-resources
Details can be found here: https://wiki.influenceth.io