The Rug Game: Last-place Elimination, winner-takes-all 'Survival Game'

Writing: Cookie, Beat BlockBeats

On January 7th, a new Token Game called "The Rug Game" appeared on the market and quickly gained traction. The Token system of the game consists of the governance Token $TRG and 10 game tokens $T, $H, $E, $R, $U, $G, $G*, $A, $M, $E*. Currently, governance Token $TRG is not online. Among the ten game tokens, $T has the best market performance, with a cumulative increase of more than 4000% from the bottom of the market to the highest point in the history of the price. At present, the price of $T has fallen slightly, the market value is about $443,000, 24 hours volume is close to $148,000.

The lowest market value and 24-hour trading volume is $G*, the current market value is about $37,000, and the 24-hour trading volume is about $18,300. Despite being the weakest of the 10 tokens in the game, $G* has increased by an astonishing 2,000%.

So, what is The setting of "The Rug Game" and what are its game mechanics? (Risk warning: BlockBeats reminds users that the security of this project is unknown and the related Token price fluctuates greatly. Users should understand the game mode in detail and participate cautiously.)

Background - Closely associated with CultDAos

尽管 CultDAO 官方并没有表明 The Rug Game 是由他们推出的项目，但在该项目正式上线前的 1 月 2 日， @SkyWalker64007 就已经发现了 The Rug Game 合约部署地址与 CultDAO 相关地址间的关联：

Photo credit: @SkyWalker64007

In terms of Game mechanics, one of The goals of The Rug Game is to burn a $CULT. Since the project came online, about $43,000 worth of $CULT has been burned, with the highest increase of $CULT exceeding 80%.

$CULT burning situation (photo credit: @DudeShib)

$CULT price action

Let's take a look at the mechanics of the Token game.

Game Mechanics -- Last-place Elimination, winner-takes-all "Survival Game"

The game will begin 30 days after the game Token goes live. The reason for this is that every 30-60 days a "last-place cull" occurs -- the liquidity pool of the lowest-scoring tokens in the game is automatically withdrawn, known in the game as a Rug. Players do not know the exact date of the occurrence of Rugs, and the first rugs may occur on the 30th day after the Token goes online, or later, so the closer each session gets to the 30th day, the more volatile it is expected to be.

This "Rug" game Token will be the one with the lowest score, so far the score is as follows (Check out the live score here) :

As you can see, the game Token with the highest score is currently $T and the lowest is $G*. The "GAMEOVER" bar says that the lowest score $G* is "Rug", but as the score changes, the display changes accordingly

Scores are tied to two factors, which means there are two ways to score.

1. The higher the transaction volume of game tokens, the more points will be awarded. This requires communities of different game tokens to advertise as much as possible to attract new players to their respective camps.

2. InThe Rug Game websiteBurn The Token$CULT or $TRG of the CultDAO to "bribe" The Rug Game DAO. The player can choose the beneficiary side of the "bribe", and the amount of $CULT or $TRG burned * 1.5 counts towards the score of the corresponding side. For example, if $A in one of the game tokens has 90 points, and A player burns 20 $TRGS and chooses to credit the score to $A, then $A's score changes to 120 points.

50% of the "bribe" amount received will be allocated to the pledge of $CULT or $TRG according to the Token type, and the other 50% will be destroyed.

Each time a Rug occurs (i.e. the lowest scoring game Token is automatically removed from the pool), the $TRG pledge and the highest scoring game Token holder are rewarded:

1. Reward for $TRG Pledge: The remaining ETH in the pool that is automatically withdrawn will be used to automatically repurchase $TRG. The repurchased $TRG will be distributed to The Rug Game DAO and the $TRG pledge in an unknown proportion. $TRG will pledge tokens to $dCULT ($CULT Pledge Token) and $uRVLT ($RVLT) who hold any of the 10 game tokens (only 1 is required). $RVLT is a Token holder within the CultDAO ecosystem.

2. Reward for highest scoring game Token holders: After a Rug occurs, the highest scoring game Token holders receive a winner-takes-all transaction tax accrued by all other game tokens in an unknown percentage.

All game tokens have a 4% transaction tax:

1. (The portion of the game Token holder with the highest score gets) 1% is stored in the corresponding contract as ETH

2. 1% Buy and destroy $CULT

3. 1% Purchase and destroy $TRG

4. 1% goes into the black hole

The game logic of this mechanism is generally self-consistent, but it also has two disadvantages:

1. Long round cycle. The "attention economy" nature of this type of Token game is strong, and "staying hot" is important. The turn cycle of 30-60 days, 10 game tokens, the total game cycle will reach 30 * 9 = 270 days in the shortest case, which is not conducive to the maintenance of "attention". Without a good strategy to keep the heat on, the game rewards (transaction taxes) will also decrease, which in turn will affect the project's life.

2. "The weak stay weak." Token community with low score ranking is not easy to attract more people to chase score, so it has to rely more on aggregating existing community strength to "bribe" to save itself. But communities need to be built, and consensus can't be built in a day. Will anyone step up to the plate? If not, I'm in a prisoner's dilemma -- while a collective effort to "bribe" might save the Token, would it be better for me to "join in if I can't beat it" to buy the strongest Token? Also, there is no official word that the credits will be reset after every Rug. If it does not reset, it will inevitably make the "weak remain weak" situation worse.

conclusion

The Rug Game's official tweet is fairly straightforward about their intention to launch the game -- to burn a $CULT. Modulus (Modulus Chain). They will also launch another game with Modulus chain, burning $RVLT. (Modulus chain is CultDAO's new ZK chain and $RVLT will be the first Token.)

The Rug Game's deep association with CultDAO also resulted in a variety of investment strategies for the project. Among the players who are optimistic about the project, there are some who are more aggressive and directly buy the strongest game Token $T, and some who are more conservative and buy $CULT. It remains to be seen how strong The Rug Game will be in injecting new life into CultDAO.

(BlockBeats reminds us again: This article does not constitute a recommendation or investment advice. In a bear market, such speculative projects are more likely to become hot spots in the market, and are also more likely to cause violent fluctuations due to accidents. Please be cautious and avoid FOMO.

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