Welcome to a whole new take on gamifying the business of real estate. Though it's a digital world, everything in it represents real things. Real geography, real addresses, real structures and monuments, a real market with supply and demand and real, in-game assets truly owned by the players thanks to the magic of blockchain.
This is a property trading game set on the border between the virtual and the actual.
Welcome to Upland.
The company behind Upland – SF-based startup Uplandme, Inc. – has made public on several occasions that bringing the gaming utility of blockchain to the masses is one of its main goals. You won't see any Web3 integration, contracts and signature signing when you play the game. Of course, that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Upland, based on the EOSIO blockchain, presents a sleek user interface where all of the wallet, key and asset management is done behind the scenes for you. The game is available to play by web on both desktop and mobile and is also available at your nearest app store, making the game universally accessible. Later this year, more advanced users interested in managing their own private keys will be able to do so.
Purchase of UPX, the EOSIO-based in-game token, is available by Credit Card, PayPal, cryptocurrency and app store payments.
Choose Your Path
When entering the game, you'll notice that it plots out parcels of properties based on real-world data, with San Francisco currently the only open city and New York opening soon. Players buy, sell and trade properties using UPX, a cryptocurrency tradable only in-game. This is part of the company's goals to remain compliant with regulations in the United States.
The goals of an individual player are completely up to them, with the in-game market developing its own forces of supply and demand according to various players' actions: some players collect small properties, some collect big ones, some buy out specific streets, and yet others buy property addresses starting with the number "1". It's an open economy that players must seek to learn, both in the game and outside of it, in order to flip their properties for profit and expand their asset portfolio.
Play to Own
Upland introduces the lay, non-crypto player to the concept of "true ownership" of digital assets, and encourages them to enjoy properties for their collectability as much as their future in-game function
Play to Earn
Are you crafty enough to turn 1 UPX into 2? Buy low / sell high, shill your heart out, invest in strategic locations, understand the player market. These are just a few of the ways to earn UPX without buying it. That extra UPX can then be invested in more properties, leading to more UPX, and so on. What do you do with those properties? In a very short time, players will be able to sell them for fiat through a special partnership yet to be announced.
Play to Complete
In-game "Collections" are Upland's version of challenges and completing them not only grants you with a one-time UPX reward and bragging rights but also boosts the earnings of whichever properties are in that collection.
Play to Hunt
Treasure Hunts are all the rave. Use your game explorer and minted properties (both those of others and your own) to receive hints and hop around the map competing with players for an UPX treasure. Every so often, the treasure is a huge one!
A Bright Horizon
Upland is currently in open beta but the team has published a very thought out roadmap for 2020. Building on your property, licensing businesses and advertising, flying between cities and managing airports, hunting in squads and teams, are all features that are coming – in 3D!
A Community Worth Being a Part Of
Gordon Gecko once said that trading is just a game between people, so it stands that the quality of the people matter. Where else will you find players that welcome rookies with such open arms? Veterans that intentionally pay fees to visit the properties of new players just so that they can enjoy? Participants who intentionally buy properties from one another just to support each other and the community? A whole bunch of tech-savvy pros who develop their own groups and tools for the game? And three founders who make themselves widely available for questions and comments.
Also: this is a game that loves live events. Holiday themes, leprechauns, pots of gold, Easter eggs, are just a few of the cool things that were spotted floating around recently.
After experiencing significant growth on Telegram, the party has recently transitioned to the game's official Discord server.
Your First Asset is Waiting
Upland maintains an actively healthy publish0x blog and #announcements channel in its Discord server. Aside from that, you can enjoy a 3,000 UPX signup bonus by joiningHERE.
Good luck, real estate mogul!
