Greetings, Hive!
It has been a little over a month since I've learned about this NFT game project. It started on the old blockchain with great perspectives ahead. Then the new blockchain was announced and the transition took place. All projects are naturally affected. When the external factors require more attention, internal plans are put off for a while.
(Well, ain't it all like that? It is. Anyway...)
Still, the management took measures and already rebranded the game. It was called SteemCity. It is...more neutral now. And it has already paid weekly rewards in HIVE, as well!
I was putting off my third post on the topic, too. I was waiting for the new engine and for the new tokens, etc.
But that may take a while. And this is normal. Even those of us who don't know much about coding, we should know it is a lot of work to get things done. Like in other jobs. It's never at the snap of some fingers. So...meanwhile, I decided to post about the project and my involvement as a player and a small-time investor during this exact period of transition. (Is "small-time" a proper description? Cause it is now.)
Remember, this is not...well, any kind of advice. What I write is based on my hopes and beliefs.
So, we're in mass Power Down mode. Perhaps thousands of users. Looking to make use of their old coins while they can. Who knows for how long or if it will hold reasonable value? It might. It might but I am not relying on it at all.
I was happy to invest relatively large amounts of Steem before the HF and the split. I even opted to invest some of it after knowing that all the liquid I had remaining will be cloned. Since I was and I still am confident in the value of those CITY NFTs. (Non-Fungible Tokens.)
After I received my first draft of Powered Down Steem, the portion that my first week gave me, I was looking to immediately turn it into something I have more trust in. I already had a small amount of BTC while I had a reliable market to use and I mean Blocktrades. But things were under maintenance and now I get a suggestion to use Pol...something...ex instead. No, thanks, not right now. Maybe later...
But then again...
I was really happy to invest in CITY NFTs before, so why not do so again while it's possible?
After all, when I buy BTC, it just sits there. There's a reason I keep almost everything I have accumulated on the blockchain I trust. Which is now Hive. It is active here. BTC just increases or decreases in value. HP does more, it stimulates growth. And so do dapps, even games, in their own way. So my currency is more active in dCity than on any exchange. This is my thinking. HP is active, too, but not as liquid. CITY tokens can at present be traded much faster than w Power Down period. Of course, there is a risk. There always is. There was always a risk to not take risks, too. The risk of growing stale. So, a bit of a risk with the currency that was substituted by its new generation...
That all seemed like the perfect time for a YOLO move!
And so my non-fungible token city grew twice in size at the time of my first Power Down payout.
You can click to enlarge to a readable size. My income stats showed 1937 SIM at the time of the snapshot.
And by saying they are active there, they have grown up to 2054 three days later. (This is in SIM. Which is roughly 0.1 USD for 100 SIM. Roughly, according to some ideas about tying the price of the tokens to USD which was just an idea at the time being.) And they have generated about 8 additional HIVE and about 8 additional Steem as rewards during the weekend.
What have I invested?
About 700 Steem.
But here's something a comment by 
That 700 is not what I invested altogether. It's my current negative balance. My total investment is pretty close to the total count of my tokens multiplied by 4 which is... about 1600 Steem. The missing 900 Steem were gained through the game — rewards plus trading on the market.
So, have I lost any of it?
No. My NFTs have their market value at about 1.8 STEEMP minimum for the cheapest kind and I have almost 400 NFTs altogether. And not all I have are of the cheapest kind. Between 40 and 50 % of my NFTs have a minimum value of 5 STEEMP. And a few dozens out of those have a minimum value of 8, or 10, or more.
Why am I not selling those?
They produce for me. About 9 Steem per day. Or 80 days at this rate until I have all my investment returned without losing anything.
Anyway, I reinvest those as soon as I get them.
They provide weekly rewards. About 20 Steem and 20 HIVE next week. But I won't make any calculations here, because Weekly rewards are relative. But for enough people to advance above my ranking, that would mean a lot more would poor into the reward pool for everybody, including me. Anyway, I consider these rewards a temporary bonus.
Which I reinvest as soon as I get them.
Because I see this all as a small system within a larger system that has still some level of diversification. It is income quite more passive than the process of regular blogging and curating. Way less time-intensive than other games. Of course, if you enjoy being an active trader, you can spend a lot of time on the market and make a better profit than most. But the time cost is something a person should be able to evaluate...well, personally.
Isn't 80 days (daily income) or 16 to 32 weeks (weekly rewards) a bit too long?
Well, Yes and No.
It is too long in times of uncertainty since no one knows what happens when and what external or internal factors might change things at any moment. And while up until recently that principle was theoretically true, we now see it being true in practice.
But that's life in general and that has always walked hand in hand with investment. Of assets, of currency, of time to learn any skill, of work...It all has been always relatively stable.
So plans may have to change at a moment's notice but not having any plans is no plan at all. I feel I have to be prepared for the eventuality of things becoming suddenly normal again. Of things running as smooth as they are generally expected to be.
In that case, those 80 days and 16 to 32 weeks will be about halved because they complete each other. And even if that were not the case, that is not a long period for a real-life investment. Investments normally pay after years. We are quite impatient and at the same quite lucky here because of the same thing — fast tech combined with lots of hype and/or hurry.
In games, which are simulations of some reality, investments are usually returned in shorter terms since the games don't last that long. In RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games like StarCraft, a worker that costs 50 Minerals and 50 Seconds to build will pay for itself after 7 to 14 trips to the Mineral Line and back... which is just a few minutes. After that, it makes you richer in resources. Until the Minerals patch is depleted.
Remember that I said I was only a small-time investor? I am just playing at being one. Because I have only a small amount of resources to invest in anything. And lots of doubts. Over small amounts of resources. Is that reasonable?
Anyway, I am doing what I can. Others can go deeper. Imagine that our patience pays off! Just imagine...
I, personally, hope that this game will outlive other projects and turn into the popular phenomenon it can be. Mass popularity projects are what we all welcome, aren't they?
Good luck and have fun!
Take care!
Yours,
Manol