8/27/2020 0 Comments Upland enters Manhattan, NY![]() Here you have it. Even More Virtual Real Estate available. Upland has officially expanded to include Manhattan, New York. At time of writing, Manhattan’s second bubble has been released. These series of calculated releases is based on the percentage of San Francisco properties that have been sold and introduces Upland’s Fair Start Act, which is to even out purchasing opportunities for all players regardless of a player’s in-game net worth. This includes some properties being locked out from purchase, therefore in theory allowing players of modest means the chance to purchase properties closer to their in-game net worth. This is the first and will no doubt requiring some tweaking as the game structure develops, but it also illustrates how the team has been listening to community concerns. The 5 Manhattan bubbles are determined at increments of 40%, 42%, 44%, 46%, 48% of properties sold in San Francisco. Ex. First bubble accomplished when 40% of San Francisco had been sold, Lower East Side was opened. Other regions of Manhattan include Upper West side, Upper East Side, Midtown, Village/Chelsea. Once 50% of San Francisco has been sold, all of Manhattan is available for purchase. *** Update: As I write this Upland added another feature that will open up all of Manhattan randomly for a short period of time. The details on when or how this will happen is still pending. Maybe the time you read this it has already passed.** What does the roll-out for New York look like? During this controlled release Upland had prepared challenges for a chance to win 12 hour exclusive access to open segments. Personally I have mixed feeling about it. Time will tell how it all unfolds. The other thing worth noting is Manhattan will open up in vanilla mode. This means there will not be any collections to collect and no Treasure Hunts to find. Thirdly, any new game enhancements like the property build or business license will not be available in Manhattan. San Francisco will remain as the main focus. You may be saying then why bother with Manhattan if you are unable to do anything? I wrote a small analogy referencing real estate sub division in real life you can read about it here. Upland is very similar. It’s about building your own portfolio one layer at a time. My trip to Manhattan including my experience with bubble 1. Yup flew over to New York State. First I sent my gallant seahorse to one of the airport parcels. Purchased a ticket for 2,500 UPX at one of the terminals, and on a flight lasting about 45mins. You even receive a nice animation of plane take off. Sat back, chill. I took a peak to see the progress and was nicely informed my flight had 19mins remaining. Once I landed another neat notification prompted me I was ready to deplane the aircraft. From the airport it was sending my Seahorse to the first minted property in Manhattan, and was it every busy. The block explorers were hoovering around like seagulls waiting for food in this case the first light green indicator (for those who haven’t read through my blog, light green indicates a property within range and available for purchase) and off to the races. Needless to say it wasn’t the smoothest experience. On my end I had freezings glitches, the game went under maintenance a few times and there we no sends (sends - paper airplanes that allows your block explorer to jump from one property to the next - paying rent unless it’s your own property), but that was quickly addressed. Frustrating a bit, but also in a good way. Because to me this indicated there’s interest, the game is growing and also offers the team hard evidence on resource demand to better prepare for bubble 2 etc. Conclusion: It was exciting. I bought a few properties and stayed for about a week before purchasing my return ticket back to San Fran. At this moment it is unlikely I’ll participate in bubble 2, but will see how things move along for bubble 3 and onward - or maybe all of Manhattan will be available if the demand continues. There are really good stuff happening, take advantage of my referral code: https://discover.upland.me/TheCatalyst to gain a bonus on your first property purchase. Soon -- I'll touch on NFTs (non fungible tokens).
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8/6/2020 0 Comments Collectibles? Are we talking about comic books and sports/ non sports cards again?![]() Well yes AND no. Quite often when the word collectible or collection is spoken it is almost always synonymous with comic books or sports cards. We envision some young boy (traditionally male) tuck away in his room amazed by the heroics of his superhero of choice. Comic books made the concept of collections and/or collectibles mainstream. Prior to that collectibles were reserved predominately for the wealthy. Collections were made of lost treasures, exotic goods, rare arts and artifacts and not always obtained legally or through fair trade, nonetheless the idea of a collectibles has existed for a very long time. Some would easily say collectibles are for people who have nothing better to do with their time, or it is a waste of money. Both statements are incorrectly perceived. Unfortunately, those same people think if the reason why is too subjective or too abstract the practice is useless. Collectibles are not about time wasted as it is about how you choose to use your own time. Collectibles are not about waste of money if its your own money. Collectibles and Collections are more to do with intrinsic value, extrinsic value or both. With so many different personalities and characteristics on this planet there’s a collectible item somewhere to match. Do a google search for ‘collection hobbies’ as an example and see the list a various interests. Coin collectors, Wine collectors, Mineral collectors and so on. anIntrinsic value are those collectibles, that we just love and enjoy for the sake of it. They are usually of a fond memory (souvenirs, keepsakes), or something we deem important be it historical, educational, or informative.
Extrinsic value are those that can be traded or sold for an agreed upon price. Antiques collections, rare books are some. And there are some collectibles that offer both - many hobbyist will have within their possession a combination of the two. As with anything the important thing is maintaining a healthy balance to keep oneself ‘grounded’. UPLAND - DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES (better known as NFT - non fungible token). Digital collectibles are an addition to and extension of traditional collectibles market. You can own, buy and trade or even create digital collectibles. The most popular and recognizable is the Cryptokittes phenomenon. Their highest collectible sold for over $100,000 USD. You may not understand why, it may just mean that style of digital collectible/NFT offers no appeal to you, but maybe something else will. In Upland as discussed in previous posts, the standard starting point is purchasing properties that work with an existing collection to boost your earnings, and later you can offer those properties (NFTs) for trade or to sell. In addition, what you could also imagine is establishing a collection style that you find appealing especially once the property upgrades are implemented. Will it be a property of a particular size? Unique location? The style of your upgrades? These are just some random ideas. Upland at a later date will be releasing additional collections to help boost value. Wait — Hold on, at least with traditional collections they appeal to the 5 senses! Yup. No argument there. Digital collectibles/NFTs as of today do not entice all 5 senses. We can not smell, taste or feel NFTs. But this does not mean they should be dismissed so quickly. Overall NFTs (more in-depth article will be provided later) are created to address, fraud, immortalize traditional collectibles from the remnants of decay, help equalize or empower creators to monetize and control their own content, offer buy-ins for development projects, possible links to physical goods and services, revamp loyalty programs and more. There are endless applications where NFTs are being applied and gaining attention in various sectors from industrial, retail and entertainment. In Upland - collect for fun, upgrade for fun, trade for fun or fiat (soon). And in near future run a virtual business. The possibilities could be limitless. — What can you imagine? 8/1/2020 0 Comments Upland!!! Ok Im in![]() Assuming you already signed up and received your UPX and poked around with the user interface (see quick reference guide from previous post), it would be wise to get a sense of the game and how the mechanics work. When purchasing your property the most beneficial ones to buy are the unminted (grey) properties no previous owner. Why? You avoid paying markup costs as a second or third buyer. Some of the benefits to getting in early. It doesn’t mean you will only buy unminted properties. In some cases you may want or feel like you need to buy a minted (owned) location. See colour guide image made by player ZHIDALGOKIDZ.
Depending on your budget it would be best to tackle the collections first. There are 21 original collections to obtain with many of the higher collections sets sold out and only available on secondary market (2nd buyer or more). Some more lucrative that others (meaning more expensive to purchase but in return offer higher yields). Scrolling from left to right you will see what the collection are, what’s needed to complete them, what the one-time reward is and what your yield booster will be. To determine where a property lies within a collection and to avoid mistakes, when you find a location of interest select it and you will the see base information. When you click on ‘Boosted Earnings’, it will provide a list of collections that the property is can be applied towards. See below Keep in mind only one property per collection. You can swap out less yielding properties as your portfolio grows for properties offering more yields. A slide show sample of the kinds of properties you will find in San Francisco and how they relate to real life. There is no direct link to the actual physical property. |
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