Written by Nicholas Korsgård (Chief Gaming Officer), Kim Bjerkeli, Sigurd Thomassen, and Heidi Anette Laugsand Johansen (Game Strategist, Balthazar Alpha Team)

Introduction

Are you into MMOs? The good old-fashioned ones? Then Domi Online might be the game for you!

This research report goes through the medieval-style MMORPG, Domi Online. The game prides itself on being different from most modern MMOs by not having any level- or skill-cap. We believe it is one of the leading MMORPG projects in Web 3, although it is still in the early stage.

Read on and be guided through the game’s background, gameplay, NFTs, tokenomics, and more. 

We’ll look into Domi’s webpage, artwork, and Avalanche blockchain before sharing our thoughts on the team led by PelleK, the roadmap, the whitepaper, and finally, some speculations on what is to come.

Come with us to the world of Domi!

TL;DR

• Domi Online is an MMORPG with a medieval setting. The game prides itself on having no skill or level cap, meaning that the hardcore players can keep going forever. Everything you do in Domi, except dying, is essentially “worth your time.” It is meant to be a remedy to the modern MMOs we see today. The players in Domi stay relevant, and being top-dog is a true achievement.
• Domi Online leverages the Avalanche ecosystem and the subnet technology to make transactions free in the game and offer a pleasant experience for gamers. In an MMO and games, nobody generally likes the extra costs for transactions and in-game trading due to blockchain technology. Domi uses the $DOMI token for its currency, and it is the only currency in-game, capped to 1,000,000,000 tokens.
• The team behind Domi Online is over 20 people strong and is led by PelleK, a famous YouTuber known for making music for games like League of Legends. Their lead developer also used to work on Runescape back in the day, bringing in a lot of experience from building “old-school” MMOs.
• The website is creative and user-friendly. We found some variations in the desktop and mobile versions, which is expected. However, some of the best features of the desktop site were omitted from the mobile version. We would also like to get a bigger idea of the game when visiting the website.
• Domi’s artwork is consistent and recognizable. It’s not very original or creative, but it is well thought out and of good quality. In Domi’s artwork, you’ll see similarities to RuneScape and World of Warcraft.
• The whitepaper is messy. It goes back and forth between topics that the writers could have collated. It is riddled with typos and grammatical errors, and in some places, it seems parts of the text are missing as sentences end abruptly. There is little information about lore, and we would like to know more about the project’s technical details.
• Domi has a decent-sized following on social media, and the project regularly updates the community through Twitter and monthly developer updates on YouTube.
• The game is the hardcore MMO player’s dream. Although it is definitely niche. However, the modernized graphics, alongside NFT mechanics and endless level and skill cap, could cater to a broader MMO audience.

Background

Domi Online is an MMORPG in the old-fashioned way, where the skills and the time you spend truly matter. It’s a no-level-cap, no-skill-cap game where death has significant consequences. The game is set in an expansive medieval world where players embark on a journey as one of four different classes. In the world of Domi, there is a vast land to explore, with biomes such as forests, deserts, ruins, caves, and islands. Players will meet mythical creatures in these areas while searching for loot and greater power.

One of Domi Online’s primary goals is to differentiate itself from modern MMORPGs in which players mostly end up the same, with a maximum level and repeated dungeon grinding to get the best gear. Usually, whenever a new expansion is released, all the time spent to get to that level and gear is rendered useless because of the higher level cap and new equipment introduced. Domi Online avoids this problem by keeping the level counter going and not putting limitations on a player’s progress.

The game is a homage to the old-school RPGs still being played today, but with a combat system and graphics made for modern times. Domi Online rewards players who put in the work. Power and economic prowess will be reflected through the hours spent in the game.

Gameplay

Mana

Domi Online is different from most MMOs today, which usually handholds the player all the way through. In Domi, resources are very important and scarce in nature. Mana, the resource which is associated with spellcasting or using skills, has a slow regeneration rate in Domi.

In contrast, in other MMOs, it is usually abundant. In some games, players might have to wait a few minutes, but the Mana regeneration in Domi can take hours, and the mana bar might still not be full when logging into the game after a long break. In order to regain mana while being offline, players will have to go to sleep in a house, which is sold as NFTs.

Domi inhibits mana in this way because they want auto attacks in combat to matter. Unless a player is rich enough to spend expensive mana potions, they would have to rely on their auto’s and weapons and think thoroughly through their use of spells.

No Limits

As previously mentioned, there are no limits to level or skill. Skill is intertwined with the ability to use a weapon, and there’s a distinct skill for each weapon type in the game. Levels are tied to the player’s character and increase HP and mana for every consecutive level. Hardcore players can achieve massive levels and still keep going as there’s no limit. Players can also train skills forever, but they get incrementally harder to level up as requirements increase. After a certain point, skills will take weeks of work to get to the next level.

Guilds

As with most MMOs, guilds are a central piece of the equation. In Domi Online, players can form guilds to compete for server domination. As usual, wars break out in domination scenarios, and the foundation for sever-wide PvP between guilds is laid. There is a rational motivation behind this as well, and it comes in the form of control over desired monster spawns and farming grounds. 

In the good old World of Warcraft, the fight for monster spawns became very apparent, especially in events where guilds were fighting for the title of “Scarab Lord” (see this video series for an epic adventure explaining how to become a Scarab Lord). In a game like Domi, where players can play to earn, the incentive is as high if not higher. Therefore, it is likely that the strongest guilds will form early to gain control and assert their dominance to maximize their profits.

Unforgiving

Domi is unforgiving. In a typical MMO like World of Warcraft, dying is inconvenient but not punishing. The same goes for most MMOs today; death doesn’t have meaning. However, in Domi Online, death could mean a weekend of grinding up in smoke. Players must strategize, acquire the gear fit for the job, and move slowly to progress. If they do not, death is almost assured, and with it comes the chance of losing equipment, backpacks, and a percentage of the character’s experience. In the whitepaper, they use the example of dying at level 80 and respawning back at the temple, losing their favorite sword while also being down to level 79. It might be less punishing in lower levels, but taking a one-level hit like that at higher levels means grinding hours, if not days.

Punishing mechanisms like this can be soul-crushing to experience, but it is also a powerful incentive for committed players to progress. It will also create a strong bond between players further down the path of Domi and mutual respect for those who got so far. With progression being a challenge, incentives for buying NFTs from other players in the marketplace will be present, and the obstacle of death will put an inherent limit on high-level players. Therefore, a high level is remarkable and will testify to the player’s skill and commitment.

From our own experience in Balthazar Alpha Team, back when actively playing the space MMO Eve Online, nothing felt more rewarding than winning a PvP fight and pulling off a gank according to plan. On the flip-side, nothing felt more soul-crushing than having a week of grinding, in-game, go up in smoke as the skirmish went sour, and you were left without a spaceship and limped back home, taking a big financial hit. Winning or losing, the mechanisms of true loss adds another layer to games, and when a significant loss is at stake, a game truly feels thrilling. When a player’s skill is the differentiator between you or the other guy making it out alive, then you’re actually gaming! 

Domi Online seems to be returning this, and it is very welcomed. Although it isn’t for everybody, these mechanisms make a game stick, leading some players to hold on to it for years.

Exploring

Domi claims to be different from mainstream MMOs in that players will be encouraged to explore the world instead of returning to repetitive quests for leveling up and killing enemies in their path. This way, players will uncover secret places and discover the different biomes in the game while progressing efficiently. When stumbling upon enemies too strong at the time, there’s no shame in turning back and exploring elsewhere until you’re strong enough.

Preparations

Although the game avoids repetitive questing, much effort and preparation go into boss fights and stronger enemies. Because mana regenerates slowly and potions are expensive, players will need to stack up on these resources by going on safer loot runs with weaker monsters before being equipped well enough to tackle dragons, giant spiders, and other similar threats. One thing is to go on a hunt; another is to return safely and successfully. Going out underequipped might not mean certain death but wasted consumables without any boss-loot. Preparation and planning are crucial to success, and the extra five minutes waiting for a full mana bar could be the difference between life and death in Domi.

No Time Wasted

Domi is intended to be playable and enjoyable for everyone while still allowing hardcore gamers to shine. Everything in the game is essentially worth the player’s time, except dying. Regardless of a player’s playstyle and planning, leveling up and obtaining power and status will be laborious but rewarding.

Classes

There are four classes to play in Domi Online. These are sorceresses, priests, amazons, and warriors.

Sorceress

This class relies on ranged auto attacks from wands, spells, and mana shields. The class’s  magic abilities are fast to level up, although it requires a lot of mana. Therefore, mana regenerating foods will be essential to a sorceress’s life. The magic spells of a sorceress are very effective with high DPS (Damage Per Second).

This class can not use swords, axes, or bows.

From the whitepaper, we can see that sorcerors have 13 different spells to learn.

Priests

This class also relies heavily on auto attacks from wands, spells, and mana shields. Priests balance offensive and defensive capabilities for a hybrid combat style.

It has a lot in common with sorcerors and can’t use swords, axes, or bows either. The priest’s skills are shown below.

Amazons

This class relies on bows and needs a steady supply of arrows to attack. They’re adept in magic leveling and can’t use swords, axes, or wands.

The spells are listed below.

Warrior

This class is a good old-fashioned melee class. Warriors rely on melee auto attacks with swords or axes, using shields for defense. Potions and stones of health will be key to healing in a warrior playstyle.

Spells are listed below.

Professions

With one of the latest developer updates from June 2022, the team behind Domi announced a professions prototype for cooking and fishing, following high demand from the community.

Lore

Little is said about the lore, except that there won’t be boring repeating quests or fetching and escort quests. There will just be an epic quest line that challenges players to brave new areas and meet new characters from the story. Some quest line characters are voiced by actors like Anthony Howell from Elden Ring, Tracy Wiles from Diablo IV, and Stewart Scudamore from Assassin’s Creed.

Tokenomics

Domi Online has one native cryptocurrency, and that is $DOMI. $DOMI is a multi-utility token that will be the currency in-game and will also provide governance power for the proposals laid forth on-chain to determine future features of the game, Domi Online. $DOMI tokens do not entitle any influence on the management of the company.

The three main economic utilities of the token are listed below.

• Staking: The game gamifies the staking process in a way that users will earn while playing or access certain exclusive areas in the game. But they will have to stake $DOMI as an access token. The size of the stake will allow for even more restricted areas to be explored.
• Payments: $DOMI will be the native platform currency, and it will be used for purchases such as houses, gear, collectibles, and consumables.
• Play-To-Earn: Players and guilds that play the game, complete quests, and hunt high-level monsters will get various rewards in the form of $DOMI, rare gear, or NFTs.

The distribution of the tokens can be seen in the pie chart below.

From Coinmarketcap, we find that the total supply of $DOMI is 1,000,000,000 tokens. However, the circulating supply is around 76,000,000 tokens at the time of writing. Meaning there is a lot of vesting left to do.

Alpha Team’s Thoughts on Tokenomics

We would like to know more about the mechanisms for $DOMI, as we currently can’t find any burn mechanisms or recycling of the token. It is not necessarily something that is needed. Still, we’ve seen more and more projects that have a capped token economy leverage recycling of tokens back into reward and staking pools. Maybe we’ll see more information about this down the line.

NFT Game Assets

Domi Online’s main NFTs will be houses and rare gear.

Houses

Houses will be found throughout the cities in the world of Domi. They will be sold as ERC-721 NFTs, and a limited amount of houses will be made for each city and will only be purchasable through Domi Online official sales. Houses will be tradeable on secondary marketplaces after the initial sales.

As mentioned above, houses per city will never inflate beyond what is stipulated by the team. However, with new cities, there will be more houses.

Keeping houses limited and only increasing the supply with expansions to the game in the form of new cities will likely keep or appreciate the value of the properties owned by players.

Houses will come in three tiers, giving various extra benefits depending on the tier.

Gear

The most powerful and rare gear will also provide the player with a related NFT when looted, allowing players to sell the item to willing buyers. Armor, weapons, rings, boots, pants, shields, and amulets are all in the gear category.

Below are lists of items in each category. We can expect that the rarest or the most expensive ones will be NFTs, if not all of them.

Alpha Team’s Thoughts

There seem to be a lot of items specifically designed for the Warrior class, and we’re curious to see how this will be balanced out when the game launches. If an Amazon only has seven different bows to strive for, whereas the warrior has 11 swords and six axes, which makes for ten more weapons to choose from, it would feel imbalanced, and progression would probably feel slower.

For now, the information on the items and NFTs feels a bit scarce.

Domi Online website

We compared Domi Onlines’ desktop version of its website to its mobile site to see how it measures up and if there were any changes they could make to the site to improve it. Follow along to see our verdict. In this test, we used a Samsung Galaxy S10+.

Link to website: https://domionline.io/ 

Desktop

When entering the website, we first saw the animated background gif with vivid colors and energetic effects on the weapons. On the front page, we could also see the Domi coin and links to Gate.io, Trader Joe, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap.

The heading menu was on top of the site. When clicking on any of the sub-titles, it would directly send the user to the desired part of the single-page website.

Scrolling down, we could see the latest updates, including some pictures and links to prior updates. A video was also added to the website, showing a small part of the in-game world, including the updates and work done.

There is an entire screen worth of information explaining Domi Online and other aspects of the game, such as the reward system, MMORPG, and NFTs. A subtle effect would occur when hovering the cursor over the abovementioned aspects. The website’s creators had also implemented three nice golden frames, introducing Domis’ thoughts on grinding, lore, and housing.

The Tokenomics part of the site did fit the screen somewhat odd. The big icon introducing each section of the awards did not fit alongside the subtitle and vice versa. However, when scrolling down, the top menu would disappear (and re-appear by scrolling up), making it so that we could see everything very clearly. Although the tokenomics seemed a little untidy at first, the animations made it so that everything worked perfectly.

The designer had created the project’s roadmap to look like a sword, making it a creative sight for our eyes. The roadmap clearly shows what has been done, when, and future goals. More on this further down in this research report.

Lastly, the team is presented, giving the visitor a choice to “see more” in addition to the projects’ partners and Q&A.

At the bottom menu, we could see their social media, as well as an opportunity to go “back to top”; if the user clicked, they would find themselves back at the animated background gif.

Mobile

By opening the mobile site, we could see that the background gif has been zoomed in due to the nature of the mobile screen. The heading menu had been minimized, and by clicking on the three-lined symbol, the menu would appear, and the user could click on the desired subtitles. As in the desktop version, the Domi logo and heading menu symbol reappear when scrolling up and disappear when scrolling down.

The video also played off nicely. However, we were unable to see previous updates which were shown on the desktop besides the video seen in the picture above. The four other aspects, such as “game,” “coin,” “Defi,” and “Previous,” were easily accessible on mobile and fit the screen well. Continuing, the information part of Domi Online had an extended layout with an option to “show more” as well, so it wouldn’t take ages to scroll down the site. The effects we saw on the desktop did not appear on mobile, but this made no difference to the use of the site.

On the other hand, the tokenomics part of the website had a different layout. When the user would hover the cursor on the image on the desktop, the user would see each % underneath on mobile. We did notice that there was no explanation for the different reward pools, such as we saw on the desktop. One could argue that this isn’t essential to the user, but we enjoy it when websites give desktop and mobile users the same information and experience on both devices. The roadmap also looked different on mobile and was underwhelming compared to the desktop version. Apart from this, the information was the same.

Scrolling down to the team, we could see the members in a 2×2 format with the option to “see more,” followed by the partners, which looked really good on mobile. The Q&A was easy to use on mobile. At the end of the website, we could not see any information about the resources or social media platforms which we could on the desktop. Neither were they added elsewhere on the website, meaning that if a user could only see the mobile site, they would not be able to find or follow the social media even if they wanted to.

The Verdict

All in all, the website was mostly free from errors. We did see some differences in the mobile and desktop versions, which is expected. However, we were taken aback by the mobile site’s roadmap section regarding how low of a statement it made compared to the desktop. The sword on the website impressed us, and we were happy to see a creative outlet in the roadmap. However, it did not reflect on the mobile page. In addition, in the lower menu on mobile, there was no option to follow and see their social media platforms. 

We’ve seen much of what we expect in a website, but the one thing we feel missing is a bigger idea of the game. We would like to see more artwork from Domi, perhaps even a soundtrack or some phrases from the voice actors on the website, to truly impress us and create an atmosphere on the page. 

Artwork

Domi Online manages to keep its artwork and graphics consistent and recognizable throughout the content. Although their artwork isn’t very original and creative, it is well thought out and of good quality.

In regards to their artwork in-game, you’ll instantly notice the similarities that Domi Online has to other MMORPGs out there, such as RuneScape and World of Warcraft. The graphics are timeless and clean, with a UI that will probably be revamped before the game is released. 

Blockchain

What Chain Does The Game Run On?

Domi Online will use the Avalanche ecosystem for its blockchain purposes. There was no information in the whitepaper on why they picked Avalanche or the reasoning behind the choice. However, in a presentation on the Avalanche Summit 2022, PelleK revealed the game and said they would use the subnet technology which Avalanche is known for. 

With an MMO where possibly every item will be an NFT, it is important to have zero gas fees and fast transactions to not ruin the experience in-game for players. With Avalanche subnets, Domi Online can specify its own rules regarding this.

Avalanche

Avalanche is a high-performance, scalable, customizable, and secure blockchain platform. It is built for three main uses.

• Building application-specific blockchains, covering private and public blockchains, depending on the permission factor.
• Building and launching highly scalable and decentralized applications (DApps).
• Building arbitrarily complex digital assets with custom rules, covenants, and riders (smart assets).

What separates Avalanche from other blockchains is its consensus mechanism. Consensus mechanisms have had almost 50 years of scrutiny, which has led to two different families of consensus protocols. 

The classical consensus protocols rely on all-to-all communication, and the Nakamoto consensus protocol uses proof of work mining combined with the longest-chain rule. Classical mechanisms can have low latency and high throughput but don’t scale well while retaining security.

Meanwhile, Nakamoto consensus protocols are robust, but the drawback is usually high latency, low throughput, and requires a lot of energy for their proof-of-work model, which is essential to their security. 

Another consensus mechanism that has become prevalent in recent years is the proof-of-stake model. Ethereum strives to implement this in Ethereum 2.0. Tezos and many new blockchains are also using it. 

Correlatively, Avalanche has made its own family of protocols, known as Snow. Snow combines the best features of classical consensus protocols and the best of the Nakamoto consensus. It uses a lightweight mechanism that samples the network, leading to low latency and high throughput without agreeing on the precise membership of the system. 

It can scale from thousands to millions of participants with direct participation in the consensus protocol. Because the protocol does not use any PoW mining, it does not use large amounts of energy, resulting in a lightweight, green protocol. In the image below, you can see a comparison of the different families of consensus mechanisms.

*Table above is from the Avalanche Whitepaper.

Subnets

Another of Avalanche’s prevalent features is its subnets. Subnets are sovereign networks that define their own rules regarding token economics and membership. It uses a dynamic subset of validators from the Avalanche main net to achieve consensus. Each blockchain in the Avalanche network is validated by exactly one subnet, and a subnet can contain many blockchains. A validator in the Avalanche network can participate in several subnets. The picture below shows an example layout of the network.

*Picture above is from the Avalanche docs on Subnets.

Team

Who Is On The Team?

• Per Fredrik “PelleK” Aasly – Co-Founder / CEO
  https://twitter.com/imPelleK
  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtXuWXsd7TYXwX2ZNLXfojg
  • YouTuber, Singer, Songwriter, and Actor 
    • 4m+ subscribers on YouTube
    • Official soundtracks for games like League of Legends, Magic: The Gathering, Power Rangers, Path of Exile and more.
• Harley Swann – COO
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/harley-swann-1b8700168/
  • Business Development Manager (Feb 2021 – Dec 2021) at ChainGuardians
  • Community Manager (Apr 2020 – Feb 2021) at Chain Guardians
• David E – Lead Game Developer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/DavidE2/
  • Director (Jan 2020 – present) at Ocean View Games
  • Technical Developer (Apr 2017 – Aug 2019) at Jagex
  • Game Developer (Apr 2014 – Apr 2017) at Fish in a Bottle
• Bret Dunham – Senior Game Developer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-dunham-dragonhill/
  • Unity 3D Developer (Oct 2020 – Mar 2022) at Filament Games
  • Lead Unity/Unreal Developer (Jun 2017 – Jan 2020) at IPsoft
  • Lead Unity Developer (Nov 2016 – May 2017) at Genius Plaza
  • Senior Developer (Jun 2015 – Nov 2016) at Kognito
  • Founder and CEO (Sep 2011 – May 2015) at Dragonhill LLC
  • Lead Engineer (Oct 2011 – Apr 2014) at CyberGriffin
  • Several positions within Vicarious Visions (Jan 1999 – Apr 2009)
    • From contract scripter to senior/lead designer
• Adam Kaye – Senior Programmer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kaye-306985116/
  • Senior Programmer (Jun 2022 – present) at Ocean View Games
  • Senior Game Developer (Nov 2019 – Jun 2022) at Fish in a Bottle
  • Game Developer (Jan 2013 – Nov 2019) at Fish in a Bottle
• Hosein Akbari – Unity Developer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/hosein-akbari/
  • Gameplay and UI Programmer (Sep 2014 – present) at Black Cube Games
  • Freelancer: Gameplay and UI Programmer (Nov 2020 – May 2021) at Ablizmo
  • Freelancer: Game Programmer (Dec 2018 – Jun 2019) at Juncture Media
  • Gameplay and Network Programmer (Jul 2017 – Oct 2017) at Pooyan Game Studio
  • Game Programmer (Nov 2015 – Jun 2016) at Glim Games
• Isaiah Rios – Environment Artist
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaiahrios/
  • 3D Artist (Oct 2020 – Nov 2021) at IGG
  • 3D Artist (Mar 2020 – Jun 2020) at TapBlaze
  • 3D Artist (Feb 2016 – Feb 2020) at Focus Vision Media
• Daniel Brinca – Senior Network Engineer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbrinca/
  • Senior Game Developer (Jul 2021 – Feb 2022) at RingZero Game Studio
  • Lead Game Developer (Sep 2021 – Jan 222) at LegendsOfCrypto
  • Lead Game Developer (Oct 2019 – Jun 2021) at Satoshis Games
  • Lead Unity 3D Developer (Mar 2019 – Aug 2019) at M2H
  • Senior Unity 3D Programmer (Mar 2018 – Feb 2019) at Efreet
• Francinette Hajat – Game Designer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran-hajat-4166a063/
  • Narrative Lore Writer (Aug 2021 – present) at ChainGuardians
  • Narrative Lore Writer (Nov 2021 – present) at Cryptoverse.vip
• Aleksej Ovchinnikov – Art Director
• Roman Busel – 3D Artist
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-busel-189300142/
  • Company Owner (Oct 2016 – present) at ZugZug Studio
  • Art Director (Oct 2016 – Sep 2017) at Arcanity
  • Lead 3D Artist (Oct 2016 – Jul 2017) at DESTINYbit
  • 3D Environment Artist (Oct 2013 – Oct 2016) at Game Insight
  • Lead 3D Artist (May 2010 – Aug 2013) at TSG Studio
• Maria Proskurina – 3D Artist
• Mauricio Porras – 3D Artist
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricio-porras-54487727/
  • CEO (Jan 2010 – present) at Ovisuals and Imagery
  • Lighting Artist (2013 – 2013) at Topaisson GmbH & Co
  • 3D Director (Jan 2011 – Jan 2012) at Avion.net
  • 3D Director (2006 – 2009) at 921 (La terminal Post)
• Latu Arifian – 3D Modeling Team
• Luan Luminato – 2D Modeling Team
• William Graney – Audio Director
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-graney-02943b245/
  • Freelancer: Audio Specialist (May 2021 – present) at Hypercube Video
• Gisha Djordjevic – Sound Engineer
• Roman Arsafes – Sound Designer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-arsafes-a1b96279/
  • Freelancer: Sound Designer (Jan 2021 – present) PelleK Team
  • Sound Engineer (2010 – present) at Arsafes Productions
• Penny Macleod – Lead Community Manager / HR
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/penny-macleod-646437226/
• Stina Bakken – Social Media & Marketing / HR
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stina-bakken-aa639b19b/
  • Influencer (Apr 2010 – present) at Stinablogg
• Marius Thuve – Chief Marketing Officer
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/marius-thuve-nordrum-598956124/
  • Product Content Manager (Dec 2021 – present) at Komplett Group
  • Digital Marketer (May 2020 – Dec 2021) at EasyWeb Norge
  • Digital Marketer (Sep 2017 – Apr 2020) at 4human.no
• Estelle Fly – Public Relations

Team Assessment

The team working on Domi Online consists of 20+ people, and their information was neatly found on their websites, with most of them having a LinkedIn account. However, at the time of writing this report, we could not find any job hirings or such.

Many people working on Domi Online seem somewhat inexperienced in game development. However, they have a few people with relevant experiences working on games such as RuneScape, Doom 3, Spider-Man games, etc. 

PelleK, their CEO, is known for working on official projects with games such as League of Legends, Power Rangers, and Magic: The Gathering. He’s also a well-known YouTuber with more than 4 million subscribers.

David E., their lead game developer, has worked for Jagex, primarily on their RuneScape Mobile project, and has implemented several QOL changes that players have wanted. Davids’ experience will most likely mean a lot for Domi Online regarding how the game turns out.

Although we have the impression that the team working on Domi Online is somewhat inexperienced, that doesn’t take away from the fact that this team is very dedicated to their work and is making a game that they themselves feel is missing out there. The team is dedicated to its work and principled in its ways of doing it. The team working on Domi Online is upfront about their goals for Domi and is striving to accomplish something huge within the MMORPG genre.

We’re confident that the team at Domi will not settle for anything less than exceptional when they release their game, and although we don’t have the highest conviction regarding their relevant experience within game development, that doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to deliver – many of the greatest games out there was made by indie developers. As such, we’re excited to see what the team at Domi can achieve going forwards and believe that their principled approach to their game will benefit them in the long run.

Who Are Their Backers?

Roadmap

Game Developer’s Roadmap

Expansions and Major Patches

Outside of the scope of the roadmap, the team behind Domi Online expects to see some players reaching higher levels around 6-8 months after release. This will allow those players to hunt some of the most dangerous creatures in the game. With an expected community growth as well, it is likely that new content and expansions will be ready at this time. We can expect a new continent available through a boat connection. The content will be for active high-level players.

Alpha Team’s Thoughts On The Roadmap

As we can see in the roadmap shown above, the project has already completed 3 of 5 goals for the project. These goals include completing the interface, gameplay mechanics, character, and environmental development. In addition, they have been able to get the token, $DOMI, up and running. 

For Q2 of 2022, we can expect to see the completion of in-game items, such as weapons and consumables, creating enemies with animations, mechanics, and abilities, and expanding the game world. 

In Q3 of 2022, the project aims to have an Alpha release of the game, including game sounds, main menu, account settings, and of course, getting the tokenomics in the game up and running by implementing the reward system.

As of the 30th of June, Q2 of 2022 has already passed, meaning that either the roadmap hasn’t been properly updated or the team is a little behind their schedule. 

If the project expects an Alpha release during or before Q3 ends at the end of September, we would expect to see some changes relatively quickly. However, this is no reason to stress. We are always positive about projects spending a little more time to get a quality project than rushing into something and crashing hard. 

In addition, the project does release monthly updates on its YouTube channel, but more on this in the socialnomics part of this report. 

Whitepaper

Link to the whitepaper: https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/web.api.domionline.io/Whitepaper_DomiOnline_1.pdf

The Domi Online whitepaper has some aspects which we find questionable, although the background design itself is nice. It starts with a brief overview of what the game aims to be and where it fits in the grander ecosystem of MMOs before explaining the game’s core mechanics that differentiate it from conventional MMOs today. It then describes the NFTs in the game before moving to the game’s classes and starting areas.

Finally, we get a few pages about the $DOMI token before ending the whitepaper with about 60 pages of tables containing the different enemies, items, weapons, and consumables.

Alpha Team’s General Thoughts On The Whitepaper

When looking at the whitepaper, we get the feeling that it’s been completed in a rush; the structure isn’t great, we find several grammatical errors, as well as the flow as a whole is questionable. 

A suggestion would be to structure the whitepaper with a table of contents and have the lengthy pages of tables in an appendix at the end of the document. If they were to go for a GitBook-style whitepaper as well, it would be easier to structure and keep things organized. Tables from spreadsheets could be added in their entirety without stealing all of the page’s real estate.

When reading about classes, we get intimate details of how the spells and skills work and information about the base stats. However, we wish there would have been a better description of each class in general and where it fits in the grander scheme. Will the priests be the classical healer? Although it could be obvious to some, we wouldn’t mind things like this being clarified. It would also be nice with some images of the classes, although it is disclaimed that it is still a work in progress and not at its final state.

We feel the structure of the whitepaper makes us go back and forth between topics that could have been collated. A fix to this would be cleaning up its structure and adding extra information like a dozen tables to an appendix. In some places, we find paragraphs ending abruptly, seemingly missing text and parts of sentences.

The whitepaper keeps pointing out how the game differs from other MMOs and that players will have to expect a grind in this game. However, it does not mention anything about the lore. A good game, in our opinion, has a story to tell. We’d like to see more in this department as well. We get names of some locations and the name of a couple of enemies, but it seems quite superficial from what we can read from the whitepaper.

On the technical side, there is little information. What’s the game engine, the server solution, how many players can play on one server, and so on? We know the game uses the Avalanche blockchain, but will they have their own subnet?

The whitepaper is from November 2021; since then, there have been a lot of monthly development updates. The changes we see on those updates are not reflected in the whitepaper.

Socialnomics

Social Media Followers Count

Platform	Follower count
Discord	15,562
Twitter	33,333
Youtube	723
Instagram	679
Telegram	8,647

Domi Online has quite a few social media platforms. Still, for this part of the research report, we will focus on Discord, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Discord has several channels, including official links, FAQ, general chat, fanart, and a Twitter feed, to name a few. The general chat seems talkative, and we can see the admins of the discord server being active, answering questions the community might have. In addition, we can see the admins giving the community a voice in the game design through the general chat, which we love. The project has also had art contests which the community seemed to appreciate, judging by the enthusiasm and amount of submits.

The Discord also has an area where they repost content from other social media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. As a little random fun fact, they have also implemented a “cooking” chat, so if you’ve got a love for MMORPGs and are an aspiring home cook, maybe this is your sign to join Domi Online’s Discord.  

The Twitter profile was created in October of 2021, and they added their Linktree in their bio, making their social media platforms easily accessible. It seems like they post approximately six posts a week, sometimes having two posts a day and skipping other days. From what we can see from their posts, their engagement rate is usually between 21-92 per post, equivalent to 0,07%-0,27%, which isn’t the best we’ve seen. However, some of the collaborated posts have reached up to 315, which is very close to the 1% we love seeing. 

The project mainly shares monthly updates on YouTube, but we can also find environment updates, gear showcases, and trailers for the upcoming game.

The main trailer and project reveal called “Domi Online” has been watched over 78,000 times, which is a significant number considering their 723 subscribers. 

Pelle K, the CEO of Domi Online, has over 3,89 million subscribers to his youtube channel, with videos ranging from approximately 160 thousand views up to an astounding 30 million views a video. PelleK has, without a doubt, a voice on social media platforms. We wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually see a thing or two on his main channel when the game is ready, giving the project a really good opportunity to be seen and heard by a bigger audience. 

From what we can see on Instagram, the project has 679 followers and 29 posts, where the oldest dates back to December of 2021. In the newest post, the team announced that a new voice actor had joined the team. The team seems to post every 2-3 days.

Previous social media layout in the lower menu.

New social media layout in the lower menu using the desktop.

From a recent change in their website, we did notice the social media platforms had gotten a new layout. However, we think that the previous social media layout was better; as of now, it’s much easier to overlook the social media links than before. In addition, the social media platforms did not even appear in the lower menu on the mobile site, which is an issue causing users not to get the chance to discover more about this project.

Speculations And Connecting The Dots

Domi Online aims to fill a hole in the MMO market with its old-school concept of actually putting in work and where hardcore individuals will be rewarded and revered. We love this idea and have been waiting for something like that for a long time. However, it remains to be seen if they can fulfill their promises and keep the game fun and rewarding.

With the recent additions of several voice actors and sneak peeks of in-game dialogue in their YouTube videos, we expect the team to focus heavily on the audio aspect of the game. Obviously, they have experts on this, with PelleK being the co-founder and CEO, but they also have three people on the team solely working on audio and sound. 

Since there is little to be found regarding the game’s lore, we expect the team is purposefully keeping a lid on it. As with an MMO, the story is the centerpiece. Seeing their effort in the audio department and the several voice actors, we expect an immersive experience when we can finally dive in and explore the world of Domi ourselves. 

From what we can see in the teaser videos and monthly updates, the game is also starting to look great on the graphical side of things. The WoW-Esque art style will likely appease many fans and provide a familiar feel to the MMO community.

As things are getting closer to launch, we will likely see a heavy push on the marketing front, as the team has geared up with a strong team in the PR department. Still, Domi Online seems to be one of the strongest game projects in the Avalanche ecosystem and one of the better MMO projects in Web3 overall. Therefore, we believe there will be a whole community of potential advertisers and proclaimers spreading the good word of a classical MMO with web3 mechanics.

Conclusion

Domi Online is the hardcore MMO player’s dream. Although it probably caters to a niche group of players, we believe its modernized graphics, NFT mechanics, and endless level- and skill cap will tempt even the broader MMO scene.

In the grander ecosystem, Domi has its place somewhere in the front as there are still not many MMOs in the pipeline worth speaking of, especially in the old-school medieval WoW-like type.

The game shows a lot of potential and is one of the most promising MMORPG projects in Web3 that we’ve seen. And it’s a game we in the Alpha Team are looking forward to playing ourselves. However, we wish the whitepaper would have been tidier and been kept up to date.

The team working on this project seems somewhat inexperienced. However, with everything they’ve produced so far, including the gameplay we’ve seen, we’re altogether positive about this project and really look forward to what Domi Online will be able to achieve.

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