Zed is a blockchain-based game that fuses horse racing with NFTs and blockchain technology. The game allows players to earn crypto as well as owning, breeding, collecting, and trading NFT racehorses while monetizing their in-game experience through winning races as well as siring new horses. In this post, I'll cover the basics of what ZED is, how it works, and how to get started.
The basic concept of the game is that players can buy, breed, and trade racehorses. They then enter these horses into races to win prizes. Although it seems like a simple concept, I was blown away by the amount of depth, complexity, and detail that the team put into the progress, and unlike many other NFT based games, this is a fully developed, realistic environment.
The Race Mechanics
One of the most important parts of the game is the race itself. As part of the race, players select a horse from their stable, select an appropriate race, and then watch as their horse competes against the other horses to win the prize.
The race winners are determined by a provably fair algorithm that takes a variety of factors into account including the horse's distance preference, GATE preference, handicap, and fatigue factor. Just as in real life, including these factors means that the "best" horse won't always win and adds variability to the races. Likewise, the actual performance of the horse itself deviates from race to race and a horse can have a "good" or "bad" day just as in real life. The end result is that the winner of each match won't necessarily be the most expensive horse in the race.
Another factor that I believe will help ensure fair play is the concept of "Racing Classes." After their initial race, which is run in the "Griffin" class, horses are placed into different classes that are designed to ensure that they compete against horses with similar abilities. A horse that consistently wins races will accrue points that push it into the next higher class while a horse that consistently loses will be lowered into another class. Horses can enter races of higher classes, but not of lower classes.
This ensures that "better" horses can promote and enter higher tier matches, but it also protects players that might be struggling and prevents higher tier horses from coming in and dominating lower tier matches.
Breeding Horses
Although the race itself is the central focus of the game, breeding and trading of horses is an essential part of the ecosystem, and the team has taken great care to make sure that the breeding aspect of the horse races is just as well developed as the race itself.
For example, the DNA that each horse inherits is (obviously) a combination of the DNA from the mother and father, but the concept of DNA actually has implications in the way that each horse performs. For example, a horse that is bred from the Nakomoto bloodline will have more consistent in-race performance while a horse of the Buterin bloodline will be exhibit more variability (good as well as bad).
Additionally, breed type can be passed down through mother and father, and the rarity of the new horse will depend on the rarity of the parents. There is a clear advantage of being an early adopter and owning a "Genesis" horse as they are the purest breed that can not be reproduced.
Finally, a new horse can inherit various coat colors depending on the coat colors of the parents. There is quite a detailed formula for calculating the possibilities of different coat colors, but there are two main takeaways. First, coat color isn't just symbolic and affects the characteristics of the horse. Second, coat color inheritance is subject to a bit of random variation, and crossing two parents won't necessarily produce offspring of the same color coat. The details are quite involved but can be found here.
As with real horse racing, there will be an active market for breeding the most desirable racehorses that have proven themselves on the track as well as a marketplace for the horses. As of the time of writing, both features are unavailable, but will hopefully arrive soon.
Summary
In summary, ZED is a well-developed, highly detailed blockchain-based game that fuses the age-old hobby of horse racing with the advantages of NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology. Although some features are still under development, I like the concept of the game and wish them well on their success.
References
https://community.zed.run/2020/11/05/zed-run-racing-update/
https://community.zed.run/characteristics/
https://community.zed.run/breed/coat-colour/
