The MMORPG Legends of Aria has had a tough time. After facing a looming demise, it was bought out by an NFT company that now presents a rather bizarre offer: You can buy powerful characters, but you can’t even really choose them.
What kind of MMORPG is this?
- The MMORPG was originally called Shards Online and was supposed to serve as the successor to the legendary Ultima Online.
- In 2019, it was released as Legends of Aria, but it flopped. A relaunch was supposed to happen with Aria 2.0 in 2021.
- While still in rework, the “new Ultima Online” was bought out at the end of 2021 by the blockchain company Blue Money Games and transformed into a Pay2Earn game.
Ultima Online is still popular among fans. We show you in the video 5 old-school MMORPGs that are still being played:
Random characters with strong skills for 69 euros
Here’s what’s happening in Legends of Aria: The CEO has highlighted a new offer in the game’s official Discord. You can now buy exclusive characters for 1.75 SOL, which roughly equals 70 US dollars or 68.77 euros.
These characters are part of an “exclusive NFT collection on Fractal” and come in different “tiers”. Depending on the tier – Bronze, Silver, or Gold – they have varying skill levels, thus differing strengths.
Additionally, they receive weapons and equipment based on their tier and are guaranteed a special cloak, leveling 200% faster than “normal” players. Owners are also promised access to rare NFTs that will “come over time”.
Here’s the strange part: Even though it already sounds like Pay2Win, there’s an additional catch: Buyers don’t know what they are getting. According to the CEO, it’s a “Blind Mint”.
As buyers, you can neither choose which class you play nor which of the three tiers your character will be. Everything is supposed to be random, and you don’t know exactly what you’re buying before the purchase.
Whether Legends of Aria can still save itself with such actions remains to be seen. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch is confident that the MMORPG will at least survive this year:
