Alright guys, It's another writing competition here at Publish0x. And for once I have been using the app/service for a while before the contest even came out. So I can give you the perspective of the game from someone who has had it for a while and give you an honest impression of the game. Like with every article I write for the contests it's probably not what the judges 'want' to see per say but it's my 100% honest truth perspective of the game. So let's dive in!
If you want to reach my review of the game from July 2020 go here.
What is Upland.me anyways?
Well this is how they describe themselves.
The way I describe the game is that you are a floating avatar mindlessly wandering around San Francisco and when you come close to a property you can buy it (if it is for sale). You then earn "rent" on each property you own. Can you sell your property if you want or also earn money for people who teleport to your property. And that is the game simplified down to it's roots.
Each property in Upland is based on a real world address. Each Property is a asset on the EOS Blockchain so when you own it you really own it! (think NFT).
How do you play Upland?
Well the short answer is to read the official How to Guide here: https://www.upland.me/how-to-guide-2/introduction
The long answer is: You buy and sell property looking to make a profit. Or you buy property and collect 'rent' to make a profit. Here is my profit from a few days on my 8 properties. You can see the circle avatar icons are people who teleported to my land looking for treasure and paid my 20 UPX fee.
You can also work together with players and build on top of properties. When you start up the game you are given starter money. You will need to buy property on the cheap (think 2,000 UPX or less) and hopefully sell it for 10,000 UPX or more. While you are trying to sell the property you get 'rent' on each property.
Here is the main screen from the website (they do have a mobile app that works really well as well).
Here is what the different buttons do.
There are these things called collections that can increase how much UPX you earn from your properties. For example there is a collection called "King of the Street". If you buy 3 properties on the same street you can put them into this collection and it will enable you to earn 1.3 times the normal rent amount on those properties. You also get a nice UPX bonus for the 1st time setting up the collection.
Right now you can get properties in San Francisco, Manhattan and Fresno. I am sure more areas are coming. When you first start playing you will be a "visitor" which means you don't physically own the properties yet.
Visitor: you are on trial period. You don't own anything and need to login once every 7 days to renew your visa
Uplander: you officialy own the properties and can buy and sell them. You need 10,000 UPX of net worth to be a Uplander
Pro: You will need 100,000 UPX of net worth. You will be able to own business licenses in the future.
Director: 1,000,000 UPX net worth. The Upland team will make you a custom made avatar picture
Executive: 10,000.000 UPX net worth. The Upland team will make you a custom 3D building on one of your properties.
Here is my 8 properties in San Francisco (the blue circles). If you start playing then before you buy ANY property you need to look at the collections and see what properties fit into them so you can earn even more UPX as 'rent'.
The Upland team also have this cool feature called Treasure Hunts. Basically the normal one you can spawn once a day for free somewhere on the map. You have a limited amount of time to find it and in order to claim it you have to be close enough to it to claim it. So what you have to do is keep teleporting around the map and looking for the arrows that point in the direction of it. Once you teleport close enough you can claim it and earn whatever was in it.
There are other Treasure Hunts where it is a pinata and that is open to all active players at the time. 1 pinata spawns and it's a race to be the 1st one to find it. The treasure is more than a normal hunt but you are battling everyone else and not just a clock.
There is also a train station in San Francisco that enables you to take a trip to Fresno and back. There is an airport as well in San Francisco that enables you to travel to Manhattan and back.
Can you make money from Upland?
If you are new to the game, then short answer is no.
If you have played for a while then maybe.
There is a mechanic to the game where you can sell your properties for UPX or a fiat currency (USD). BUT that requires someone to purchase your property with the fiat currency. There is no way to do anything with your UPX except spend it in game. You can't withdraw your UPX or exchange it for something you can trade on an exchange.
The game developers were talking about how down the road you will be able to build businesses in the game on your properties and real world companies could work with with you on advertising deals or something similar but in my personal opinion that will only apply to people who own popular addresses and that requires a TON of UPX (think in the millions).
If you are just an average user looking to play the game starting now then I am willing to bet you will never make any money off the game. Set your expectations.
Is it worth the time to start playing Upland?
As I have played this game for over 6 months my answer to this has changed over time. Part of me is looking at the game as just a regular game to play. However, the other part of me is looking at it from the perspective of other blockchain games where people play it to make cyrpto currency from it. So to that end I am going to split this question into two categories in order to answer it better.
Playing the game just for fun:
It is is a fun game. It's a cool concept to own a virtual property based on a physical address. You can join in treasure hunts throughout the day to earn some UPX if you want more added fun. It is fun to grow your collection of properties and get good deals. You will never forget when you sell your first property for a huge profit.
The downside though is that this game has been out for a while and inevitably there are whales in the game with millions of UPX who can scoop up hundreds of properties. They are playing the long game and earning their 'rent' over time and looking forward to partnerships and advertisers in the future to make a return on investment.
If you want a casual game where you spend a few minutes a day collecting rent and looking for new properties then this game is for you 100%. I would highly recommend it. The other thing to keep in mind is that when new cities are released you could pick up properties for cheap as being the intial buyer of them.
Playing the game to make money:
STOP, turn around and forget you ever heard of Upland.me. It is not going to happen. I can say that with 100% certainty because if you are deciding to play the game or not then that means you are not already playing and are already screwed. I can not say this enough there are people who already own the game and own the best properties. You will never be able to compete. Here are just 4 people who were by my avatar in the game...
Final Thoughts:
If you are going to take a stab and play the game then I would highly recommend joining their discord server.
You will also need their url to play: https://www.upland.me/
If you want to use my referral link then here it is: https://r.upland.me/ZKNA
If you use my referral link what happens is that if you do end up buying UPX in game then you will get a bonus (50%) and I will get a bonus. So if you buy 10,000 UPX then you will get an extra 5,000 UPX and I will get 5,000 UPX.
To celebrate the Contest coming to an end tomorrow I figured it was fitting to release my Upland NFT as well today! You can grab your free NFT here at my Atomic Hub drop: https://wax.atomichub.io/drops/3942
If I win a prize in this contest I will give out all 15 of the 1st editions to people who comment on this article with their WAX address. Like before it will be completely random. If I don't win anything from the contest I will still give out 10 1st editions! :) Good luck to everyone!
