‘Hamster Kombat’ continues to claim many friends – enough

Hamster KombatIt's got a viral Telegram-based clicker game associated with an upcoming crypto token launch. Really Big – Amazingly big. Because the Iranian authorities are very worried. It distracts citizens From this week's presidential election, in A A.P Report it.

Seriously. The game was released in a way that its creators never imagined. But the engagement engine that powers this thing has reached its limits—at least with me. And the hundreds of millions who play the game every day can hit the limit unless they have unlimited shillings of friends.

Hamster Kombat Notcoin, the original viral Telegram crypto game. Similarly, it requires you to tap the screen to collect in-game coins—but allows you to accumulate more coins by investing those coins into a virtual, hamster-powered crypto converter. And it really wants you to invite all your friends to play along.

That's where things get weird – as a multi-level-marketing guest.

Hamster Kombat regularly adds new exchange upgrade cards that help you earn more and more money, and then binds those new cards to it. “Daily Combination” It gives you 5 million in-game coins just for using certain cards.

Usually those cards can only be unlocked if you get another friend to start playing by clicking on a special referral link. It quickly becomes clear that this is how Hamster Kombat is said to have amassed over 200 million players by encouraging players to market to them.

It's a very simple, numbers-boosting game – and if your numbers can't be boosted due to the requirement to convince more people to jump in, many FOMO-fueled players will be out of luck. If you can't find another friend to pull you into the fray.

I've been plugging away at Hamster Kombat for a month, taking advantage of every new perk and promotion I can, collecting some big coins in my game. Along the way, I managed to convince some of my good colleagues here Decrypt Join me as we cover this oddly popular gaming sensation.

But Hamster Kombat expects a lot from me. Newly introduced cards have been requested. one more An invited friend or a total of nine invited friends to shop using my referral link. And unsurprisingly, those cards go into the daily combo, which means I can't stack up as many virtual coins before the demo drops as I used to.

Look, I won't lose sleep here. I don't play Hamster Kombat because I'm desperate to claim a crypto wallet – I don't expect much, and if the makers of Hamster Kombat like NotCoin allow you to offer future perks and rewards, I'm sure I'll let them ride. I am playing to observe this social phenomenon and record what I see.

But this shift shows the limits of an engagement machine as massive as Hamster Kombat — and how difficult it can be to sustain endless growth without forcing new incentives and perks. At some point, the hype will inevitably cool off, and the developers may be pushing hard to prevent that from happening before the July launch date.

I can't stomach any of my friends or colleagues just to sign up for this game and help me get more digital coins on my hamster exchanges. How long will more than 200 million Hamster Kombat players feel the same way?

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Decrypt.

Edited by Guillermo Jimenez