MIR4 was released in August 2021 for PC on Steam and is also available on mobile for iOS and Android. The MMORPG from Korea promotes NFTs and the ability to earn money while playing. This attracts many fans to the game – as well as players who need to be banned.
What kind of MMORPG is this? MIR4 takes place in an Asian fantasy world and visually resembles established MMORPGs like Blade & Soul or Swords of Legends Online. It was released on August 25, 2021 in Europe and has already been a hit in Korea since late 2020.
With the 5 classes Warrior, Wizard, Taoist, Spearman, and Crossbowman, the selection of playable characters is quite limited. Many actions are also automated, as is common with mobile games.
However, the game focuses more on crafting through “Life-Skills”, loot, and exploration. All of this is especially important for obtaining “Dark Steel” – a resource that can be exchanged for Dracos. Dracos are a type of cryptocurrency and can be exchanged for real money, even though the hourly wage is rather low.
How is MIR4 performing? With an average of 72,244 players and over 97,000 at peak times, MIR4 is currently the largest MMORPG on Steam (via steamcharts.com). However, it is constantly competing with New World for the top spot. Especially at unusual times, during the early morning hours, MIR4 is regularly leading.
The success of MIR4 even secured it a place among the most played games of 2021 on Steam – just not among the top sellers of 2021. The reviews for MIR4 are rather mixed and quite similar across all platforms:
- PC: 64% positive and “mixed” among all 10,265 reviews on Steam
- iOS: 3.5/5 stars with 563 ratings in the Apple App Store
- Android: 3.5/5 stars with 102,902 ratings in the Google Play Store
There is also a direct client, but no statements can be made regarding it. One of the biggest points of criticism are bots and errors. Both issues are being worked on. However, this initially deterred some players:
Daily updates on bans – over 7 million accounts suspended
Where do the bans come from? In a daily “Progress Report”, the development team reports on the game’s status and the players. It always includes the numbers of daily and total account suspensions, as well as explanations for the reasons. In the latest post from December 29, it states:
- Accounts banned on December 29: 9,102
- Total accounts banned: 7,424,206
- Reason: use of unauthorized programs and violation of the Terms of Service
The number of banned accounts is far greater than the population of our neighboring country, Denmark. According to Wikipedia, it was 5,840,045 in January 2021.
In any case, the use of automated programs (bots) to grind Dark Steel seems to be extremely widespread. After all, it allows players to earn real money.
Farming the resource is not the only way to earn money in MIR4:
Characters can also be transformed into so-called NFTs and traded. This appears to be worth even risking bans for some people.
What are NFTs? NFT stands for “Non-Fungible Token” and refers to something similar to digital collectibles. Each item is unique due to a code, and whoever owns a corresponding item can sell it.
The value fluctuates quite a bit and depends on various factors, including how much demand there is. There is a lot of speculation involved. MIR4 aims to prevent inflation of its currency by limiting the total amount of Dracos.
NFTs are currently a new trend that more and more developers, streamers, and others are jumping on. MeinMMO explains in detail, what NFT really is and why the trend is making some companies worth millions of dollars.
