Worst NFT Game Ever? | Parallel TCG Gameplay and Review
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- #Parallel is a newly-released (beta of course) #crypto #tcg that made a mild ripple in internet discourse a couple weeks ago. A slew of former Hearthstone streamers signed on as Parallel Ambassadors, and a brief clash of fandoms ensued on Twitter.
I, being the most unbiased and neutral crypto game reviewer to ever live (peer reviewed fact), just knew it was the perfect game to bring back this series after a year of dormancy.
In general, I think that the discourse regarding this game is profoundly stupid on both sides. The fans of Hearthstone are getting extremely worked up and calling Parallel a scam or ponzi scheme without any legitimate proof. I doubt any of them have even downloaded the game. On the other hand, the Parallel players are too cocky and overzealous considering how underwhelming their product is.
This is a good example for me to preach something very important; forming your own opinion. You're allowed to dislike crypto (like me), just like you're allowed to like it. However, your voice is valueless if you're not actually playing the game and giving constructive and reasonable criticism and feedback. Just like you can't claim "crypto = you own everything and the blockchain is 100% secure" without actual substantiated examples and proof.
It's exactly why I make these videos; I think that many of the concepts implemented by crypto games are misconstrued as being a whole lot better than they are, and many of these games fall apart before even reaching the actual crypto aspects.
Half-baked, over-priced, and under-played, Parallel doesn't set itself apart from the competitive TCG market in its current state.
However, this is easily one of the most promising NFT games I have ever played. I still wouldn't play it in my free time, nor do would I particularly agree with everything they're doing, but I have to acknowledge their efforts.
I guess since I own a pack of NFT cards I'm technically invested in this game? Although the cards are worth so little on the resale market that I'd need to pay more in fees to sell them than they would ever be worth. Please allow that information to influence your opinion as appropriate.
47/100 (Slightly below average)
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
3:40 What is Parallel?
8:17 The Great UI Tragedy (2024)
11:10 Card Art Catastrophe
13:35 The Audio is pretty OK though
14:23 Gameplay Overview
24:54 CRYPTO CRYPTO CRYPTO!!!
31:20 FUNdraising ($132 million dollars)
36:17 Becoming a Bagholder
37:41 Brain Rot Amplifier: ENGAGED
39:18 A Brief Rant
43:00 Jauwn Score and Recap
48:29 Final Score and Outro 
Игры
2 days have passed since I uploaded this, and already a lot has changed about the game.
I tested out the new update and here is a brief summary of the things that are currently different than in the video:
-The price of their token is now $13.70 (-30%)
-They released a scuffed update that has a severe memory leak issue, devouring 20+ GB of RAM and then crashing, if the game even launches.
--I actually only managed to play one game, now it just launches into a black screen and nothing happens. No official communication from the dev team on a timeline for fix
-The new expansion pack released and the cards are now available in game. Some of the most OP base set cards have been nerfed heavily.
-They added some new skins to buy in the shop + the new Planetfall expansion packs
This update did change my perception of the game as it seems really strange to release a fully-fledged expansion pack to a game that is still in beta (practically alpha), while shipping a broken update and not fixing some of the most commonly reported problems. The CEO addressed the complaints on Twitter with the following tweet:
"People in web3 say they want open iteration and development in real time, they don’t. They’ll tell you they understand is a grey box and will adjust expectations accordingly, they won’t…
But when you find the people that do, hold on to them because they’re in for life"
I don't think that this is enough for me to lower my score on the game just yet, unless they don't fix these issues within a timely manner. If this continues, I suspect that players will get frustrated and start leaving quickly as the developers prioritize shipping new cosmetics / cards over fixing issues that have been around for 10 months.
Again, all just my opinion, from the PoV of an outsider who isn't invested in the game.
Did any of you actually try the game? If so, what did you think?
I've actually tried the game, it seems like a decent enough hearthstone clone, but see my other comment on your video for my thoughts on it's long-term success. I'm actually surprised that the expansion even released at all given their schedule of drip-feeding cards in battle passes, not to mention it seems the crashes (both on my end and my opponents end) have become more frequent.
The meta seems mostly the same for now (Paragons seem to have almost exactly the same pick rate as they were before the expansion, barring one that I didn't see among opponents until today), though I have seen a few of the new cards in opponent's decks.
This might be about as good as crypto games get, since I imagine that tossing out crypto would cause people to come to it more easily at this rate.
At first I was upset this didn’t get recommended 2 days ago, but apparently I got it just in time for the update 😭
Ily Jauwn❤️
@@GotchardandGo I just saw your comment now, I agree I think the NFT and crypto aspects are just holding it back. The devs created their own biggest problem to solve and now they are fighting against it. I think they had no choice but to release the expansion since they already collected payment for it back in October. If they delayed it the investors would get really mad. Again, it's a problem the devs themselves created by collecting money so far in advance. I don't envy them, they've got a lot of work to do and I'm not sure if they can do it, especially with their focus seeming to be split between this and that silly AI game
Unless they set fire to all their work and their servers and everything else related to this terrible waste of space, there is no way they can make this rubbish better.
It's fun, bought a 30$ deck got to plat 2 and I'm about to make 300$ on the first month, not so worth monetarily but is fun
"My first match EVER put me against the game's #1 ranked player"
He must have presented 50% of the currently active players that moment.
Do you even difficulty curve?
YOU GON LEARN TODAY
i laughed FAR too hard at that. if that ever happened to me in a game it would be a core memory lmao
Oh goodness, I mostly listen to these, I thought it was an exaggeration til I checked.
This random card game I've never heard about is totally going to kill Hearthstone, for sure for sure
nice pfp :)
homestuck?
the best Hearthstone killer is Hearthstone
@Arhenbuh115 it was lor unironically for a while. Then they fumbled as their monetary system just isn't viable for a card game
@@tylern6420gamzee what r u doing here…
"Epilepsy Warning: you have three seconds." -Sseth
Was that from his Highfleet review?
@@icycrusader1947 Yup, that's how he starts his Highfleet review.
@@pauldonnor2295 Nice, glad to remember the Sseth catalogue.
Hey, hey people Sseth here with another abstract game no one asked for and even fewer people understand that will no doubt end up consuming way too much of your time.
I'd like to the thank the Merchants Guild for the 30 some odd hours and counting I've already lost to The Matchless Kungfu.
Honestly refreshing to hear that one of these games is actually commissioning art from artists (what a concept!) instead of just pumping out Midjourney slop. Shame about the implementation.
A lot of the common feedback I saw about this game was lambasting them for AI art, which is really a shallow take. People just assume that because it's a crypto game, or a bad game, that they must be using AI art too. It's really disrespectful to the actual talented artists that work on games (whether they are crypto or not, I mean the artists just want to get paid at the end of the day too) to just call their art AI without absolutely no proof
@@jauwn It's just the AI hysteria working through literally everything right now because it's the big bad everyone can farm internet points from. Seen a lot of people get accused of using AI because their art has a generic kinda anime style, or because they're learning so they're aping off existing artists (which you're supposed to do, learning by using references is the way to go.)
You can even have a twitch, livestream drawing, and people will still give you shit for it regardless. The art communities on twitter were always honestly Dark Souls levels of toxic and elitist but now they have one more excuse to justify their behaviour and they're milking it. I don't know where people's sense of nuance went or their ability to admit mistakes but I'm pretty tired of it now.
The slopification of the internet continues
@@ectothermic I've already seen someone who I've watched podcasts of for a while now get accused of using AI to fake his voice. Despite the fact there's been 0 change in how he speaks at all. I really don't get it.
@@ectothermic no way, people are salty the thing that barfs out generic slop trained on stolen art are also salty about people using the tool to make a quick buck? who would've thunk it. I do feel for the artists accused of being AI lazy asses, not only for getting their shit stolen but also for being generic enough people mistake for the algorithm output. Ah well! Many such cases.
“You are having a lot of fun even if you don’t realize it” is so ridiculous of a sentence I don’t know if it’s scary or hilarious
Whales will always gaslight. Every game I've ever played with a shop had whales trying to gaslight me.
You do find fans saying stuff like this about almost every game that had hype around it. It's just weird that people can't simply say “seems like this isn't for you”.
you missed the "today" part, which makes it seem even more like a threat.
You probably didn't notice...
But your brain did...
Man tried to roll a deception check and got a nat 1.
Theres a special layer of hell for card game designers who put the text ON the card art
especially white or yellow without a stroke. WTF were they thinking
A crypto game getting a 47 total score is like a gacha game that attracts more than whales and people that don't wanna admit their game has problems. Truly miraculous.
I wish I could go back and re-score the game that got a 48 because after I dropped the video a ton of people told me that it was an almost 1:1 asset flip of an existing mobile game I had just never heard of. So basically the best crypto game is still a sub-par gacha game that only whales will play
@@jauwnmaybe you should do an updated video on it if it still exists
Yeah I'm doing updates on every game I've ever reviewed just at a slow pace since I want to give at least a year or so for them to "build" before I come back
@@jauwnso is genshing impact of nft games?
@@mariox204nah, even genshin as shit and dry as it is right now isn't so bad it can be slandered as being in the same quality as a nft game
pick one for your new fancy game:
a) create a dialogue tree
b) create a text parser
........
z) use AI to reinvent problems that were solved in RPGs 30+ years ago
I think AIs are technically more advanced text parsers that just are not fully there yet.
with a 10 second pause between each interaction
There probably are good uses for LLMs in video games but none of them will involve cutting down on staff. I mean we play story driven games exactly because they were written by a human, that's why people hate radiant quests.
I can't wait to run around for 30 minutes because the AI made up a character that doesn't exist in a location that isn't real
@@logemcdoge4620”Where’s Fharshmaggle? Mr. Midjourney said they were right here!”
$131 Million for a card game is CRAZY.
We live in the worst possible timeline indeed.
On the bright side, none of that money came from normal gamers. It's the NFT bros money getting flushed down the drain. Even then you still gotta feel bad for them.
@@randomblock1_ no. no you do not. I will never feel bad for anyone who invests in crypto. they do it to make money, and for no other reason or purpose.
I wonder how many crypto games are actually just tax fraud schemes because that could explain these ridiculous investment sums.
@@paperclip9558 young dumb and ignorant. You can still change.
I'm genuinley depressed at how all these NFT things and Web3 in general can just make money... vanish. 132 MILLION dollars gone. We all know school funding and hospitals and how that money could remake a small town or start an actual buisness but... even in the realm of games! Give that shit to DDO and you'd be looking at one of the greatest revivals out there! Give it to the guys who made DE and just IMAGINE what they could do!
It's just sad, man. This money just being destroyed for no reason at all.
or you know make a decent wow clone as there are none.
and people have tried to get funding for a wow clone (classic-Wrath ear) and invester just stonewalling it.
the exact same game whit crypto here is 50 bilion.
the above a full sized team of profesionals and game devs vets whit 90% of the roles and seats filled to make a mmo in the scale of classic wow.
whit a working demo to prove that they can make the products.
we need 50 Mil to make this come to life and we know that milion of player would love to play this.
-Investor have zero intrest.
some crypto bros.
we going to make the next MMO.
whats the dev team made up off, the CEO crypto bro and 1 marketer and 1 other guy.
wheres the dev team there is none.
network person there is none.
we got a office but its not a game dev office we dont even have any space planed to host the game even.
the white paper or anything about the game there is none.
well there is the A4 sheeet whit the word the Next MMO you ever will play.
- Normally this would get tossed out in any normal investor meeting.
but Crypto bro said Crypto and suddenly 5 Bilion is in his hand.
Give that to ten or twenty of the two-blokes-in-a-garage indie dev teams, and you'd get some great stuff. And also six puzzle platformers, three open world survival craft games, four card-based roguelikes, and a couple of boomer shooters.
You think that’s bad, just wait until you realize the implications of inflation.
Literally trillions of dollars going up in smoke every year.
Not destroyed, it's a wealth transfer from gamers to scammers.
Can't wait for Jauwn to stream the next random NFT card game with Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon TCG Online, FTL, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Old School Runescape all running on top of it.
Next stream I’m definitely playing 3 card games at once it’s way too fun
Of course chat will be ignored as my focus will be fully absorbed but it’s still fun
@@jauwn For optimal engagement, you also need some footage of people playing with kinetic sand, and Subway Surfers gameplay
@@OurBenefactors Don't forget hydraulic presses and Family Guy funny moments.
@@jauwnddont forget markiplier in the corner for the algorithm
Don't forget to add some random UI elements from other games into the stream layout.
Like a Minecraft hotbar, a CoD minimap, a Zelda stamina bar and a GTA ammo counter
Hi, former High Legend Wild Hearthstone player here. It's really a shame to see a lot of people that I used to watch (and play against) jumping ship to this pyramid scheme of a hearthstone cope. They are paying the FUCK out of former hearthstone (and current) players and grandmasters in order to get people to play (and inherently buy) parallel. The card sharing aspect (where you can borrow cards from paying players for tournaments, and if you win the cards owners get a significant cut of profits) plays almost exactly like a pyramid scheme. I don't inherently hate the idea of digital ownership for online CCG/TCGs (coming from someone who has paper CCG/TCG experience, I hate crypto as an investment engine), but web3 and crypto have A LOT of work to do if they want to re-gain the trust of your average gamer.
Thanks for the great video as always Jauwn. Love the content man.
I felt like it was irrelevant to throw my credentials around but I’ve been playing HS since the closed Beta and made top 100 multiple times until I quit in 2018. I am the perfect person to potentially be a fan of this game but it really didn’t do it for me, it’s expensive, slow, and unrewarding.
And regarding the sponsors, someone told me that they’re offering high six figures as payment, but without any proof. Should that be true then it would absolutely make sense why so many sold out so quickly.
@@jauwn if Parallel wants success in the mainstream online CCG/TCG market, they need to learn how to make the onboarding process easier and faster for players that have card game experience. Same reason why a game like shadowverse never really stuck with me. Games are games, I don't want to be treating it like a job just to unlock shit the free way.
I believe the numbers for sponsorships are up in that realm but I don't think there's anyone actually saying how much they got paid (i'm sure tylerootd, thijs, or others mentioned it, I just have to find it).
If you do want a laugh though, look at the twitch viewership for the game. There was recently a stream with Feno, Tylerootd, Lambyseries, and one other person and it was a very dead stream lol. No-one seemed to want to watch it.
Oh I saw the numbers on twitch but didn’t bother mentioning it as it felt like a kind of pointless “low blow”. Nobody expected this game to get any sort of viewership so it doesn’t surprise anyone that these streamers threw away their fanbase in exchange for a cult of bag holders (and a fat stack)
Considering that parallel is currently giving away $500,000 to the winner of their tournament I can definitely believe the sponsored streamers are getting paid a number that would make you cry
@@jauwn yeah they're probably making bank off of those people, and sooner or later the "ambassadors" are gonna utilize the guild system to prey new players in by saying "oh, you can just play for free and guild members will lend you the cards." That's what scares me the most about this if it somehow takes off (which I doubt)
@@matSundI think they’re already doing that.
On your complains about the UI, its unfortunate that the shortcomings are so bad. I actually quite like the STYLE they were going for, the direction seems to be really good. But the execution is awful for all the reasons you mentioned.
Not like it matters because I would never play this game anyways lol. Good or not, if a game has crypto or NFTs attached, its so far off my radar that its in the next country.
It's a shame too because I bet if they just threw away all the crypto aspects and made it a normal game with a real money marketplace it would be 2x as popular (but make a lot less money)
@@jauwn Definitely. Like you said, TCGs with a sci-fi theme are very rare, and I'm sure there's an audience that would lap this up. I was surprised to learn that all of the images are made by actual artists too. I wouldn't put it past these kinds of people to just AI it up and call it a day. Some of the stuff you showed is really cool, but you barely get to enjoy them when they're so small.
What a shame that all of this talent is being wasted on a game that nobody will talk about or even play within a few months.
Edit* aaaaand I got to the part about their next game powered by AI and LLMs. There goes the last shred of respect I had
their style reminds me of Warframe
@@ember9361 my psyche took a thousand hit points of damage reading this, but you're not entirely wrong. still gonna spend the rest of the night trying to recover, though...
@@ember9361 After giving it a second glance, I can agree.
Balancing a crypto game seems like it would be especially tricky - you have players invested with several thousands of dollars worth of cards, and in the crypto world, losing your whales to cards suddenly losing value is potentially dangerous if cards hemorrhage value.
Furthermore, in a speculative environment, it sounds like a recipe for major insider trading, letting certain individuals know if the cards they're holding are about to lose value so they can leave someone else holding the bag, while they invest in cards likely to gain value with respect to upcoming changes to the meta either from buffs, nerfs, or new cards.
Not that that's any different from physical trading card games. Which really should be the main point of criticism: what does this game (or any other crypto-based game, really) do that Magic the Gathering Online didn't 20 years ago?
@@L_O_V_E_L_A_I_N Somethingsomething resale somethingsomething immutable ownership somethingsomething metaverse.
In a way, it's kind of like South Park's underpants gnomes. Step one: do something useless (like reinventing CCGs with cryptography attached to them), then ???, and then PROFIT! The saddest thing about it is that it actually makes profit... for the scammers.
@@L_O_V_E_L_A_I_N besides Web 3... basically nothing.
Oh my god. The games UI has the charm of a mobile f2p FPS load-out screen.
Look at Yu-Gi-Oh, even Konami knows that at the end of the day, that a TCG needs some style behind it. There's a reason that most of the Yu-Gi-Oh videogames have incredible UI aesthetics and flashy animations.
Literally the most important thing about a card game is UI. The entire game is just a UI.
Look at Balatro as a great example
@@jauwn Also I know you said having a Sci-Fi TCG is interesting (which technically it is) but considering it's NFT; my GOD. Why are NFT games so obsessed with 'Artstation sci-fi 3D render portfolio-core'
Cause that’s just the artists they hired, that’s all the art they make. I think it looks pretty cool in some cases but rarely ever on a card. Neat art; shitty card art
@@novelezra Because "futuristic".
Even Marvel Snap looks better than this game.
There's "futuristic style", then there is actual playable with a futuristic style.
nft card games absolutely confuse me, PHYSICAL card games already provide exactly what these people want but with actual value and gameplay, fucking hell magic has had a speculative market for decades
Wouldn't your Black Lotus be cooler if it were on a blockchain that wastes a medium sized country's worth of electricity?
Also I don't get the impression that anyone actually likes this since it makes a game pay to win, that's why tournaments so often ban rare and overpowered cards. Half the appeal of online TCGs is exactly that there is no scarcity so you can actually get to play with the cool cards.
What's ironic is one of the world's biggest bitcoin exchange websites used to be a MTG card trading website. It got shut down after it was found to have lost/stolen thousands of bitcoins from customers.
@@OldDistantHermit Don’t forget that you can’t hold it or frame it or use it as a bookmark!
@@animatrix1490 Can't even use it as a coaster
when u said "which is headquartered in the cayman islands" i almost said "of fucking course" out loud lmao
18:03
I can't imagine the same happening in any other kind of game. Even in a card game, it's insane. I've only ever fought the #1 best player in one game, and it was a niche custom map that I helped playtest.
I know I was so surprised when I was re-watching the footage and editing, I was like "what the hell that guy is LITERALLY the number 1 player on the leaderboard". He's literally the gatekeeper for the entire game
And Jauwn was top 4k while losing most games. There really isn't anyone playing this.
4,000 is a shit ton for a crypto game though so I have to give them credit for that
@@jauwn Scary thought, though, that you lost over 80% of your games, had a miserable time of it, and you rank within 4000 players. Which means if the game does tout as many players as it claims, there are thousands more who're losing at even higher rates.
It kind of feels like the game's core gameplay loop is designed to alienate anyone who doesn't bag in.
I saw a video talking about the game that was basically titled “parallel: the best way to earn money playing games”
In summary it was: buy the best starter NFT deck, don’t bother playing at all without 100% NFT decks even if you suck. Just keep grinding and take advantage of the high earnings while they’re still giving them away.
Never underestimate the dedication of those with unlimited free time
You mentioned the game had balance issues, which brings up an important question: how are the devs supposed to balance cards in this game? Like, if a certain NFT card raises in price because its overpowered, you can't balance it without undermining its value, especially considering that the games "play to earn" system adds even more value to overpowered cards. I suppose if the playerbase understands the possibility of balancing as a sort of "investment risk", they could be fine with it, but I have a feeling that most people who spend a ton of money on an overpowered card aren't going to be happy if a patch makes its value plummet. To me, it really seems like the devs have created an un-balancable game, which doesn't exactly paint the best picture for long term success.
Two options, they either change cards or they don't. Just like other cards games, marvel snap for example, you could spend real money to get a card then it's nerfed a week later. Shit happens but unlike marvel snap in this game you could sell it if the card is no longer performing to your liking (I know at a substantial loss but at least the option is there). Or they don't change OP cards however when the next set comes out I'm sure there will be even stronger cards that are more OP than the last (power creep). So in both cases the person who spent a lot on an OP card could feel bad but that is literally all card games.
In MtG Arena there is a different format for rebalanced cards. They also have a banlist as per typical for TCGs.
@@PerryProject_ if it has a low value because of a nerd, no one will buy it. either you sell it at high value or you never sell it.
@@PerryProject_If a card is too OP and therefore too expensive, the devs have 2 other options:
1) Ban the card, which makes people feel bad; or
2) Reprint the card so more people have access to it.
OP should not equal Exclusive
That's why market systems in games should really only be based around things with an intangible value like skins, I mean I don't like the skin market place for Counter Strike because of all the problems but at least Valve doesn't have to worry about balancing weapons.
Imagine the damage NFTs could do if they were ever in anything good ever. Even big companies couldn't be bothered making something that actually played well, it's like sticking a couple of sparklers and an umbrella in a glass of stagnant pond water.
Appreciate the videos, you always know the result but just seeing how badly everything is put together is still baffling.
Imagine TF2 hats using the block chain.
@@stigmaoftheroseIt'll take an hour to trade and burn down 100 trees per trade.
@@bulletflightwell you have to fuel that fire on the team's captain
@@B.L.U.S increases its value even further! Stonks
@@mapytrix3982 but im the buyer ;-;
The thing about play to earn games that act like they're freeing the average gamer by giving them the option to sell in-game items is absolutely hilarious. Not only because real money markets can be done without crypto, but also because games that ban that stuff like Neopets still have real money markets and can't stop people from turning the game into a money opportunity.
There's nothing beneficial being done at all with these games because fans can work around everything.
I think that it would be better if companies officially supported the real money marketplaces of their game though, as it would be safer for everyone. Of course, there are so many reasons as to why they don't officially enable these markets, some of which I mention in the video. None of these reasons are tech ones; which is why using the blockchain to do this is nothing more than a simple way to get around having to abide by AML and KYC regulation.
@@jauwn my perfect monetized game would allow you to put real money in and trade it, but not take it out. To create real money markets that allow impatient players to buy good items from other players, but keep the investors out lol
It also allows for a healthy way for casual players to get premium currency without paying. Think Xanje or Animal Jam, despite some flaws in the actual games their monetization is the best example I can think of.
Basically like EVE online then?
@@jauwn I've never played that game, but if it's a game that allows you to transfer premium currency to other players for items or common currency then yeah
@@jauwnto a certain degree sure, but it’s found that when players play not to have but to earn money; it destroys the game’s economy. Bugs will be found immediately in order to gain more money and very often you are destroying any player created content around the game that isn’t about making money. You don’t go work at McDonald’s for a night with the boys, because it sucks.
Honestly, that Shield Pod card seems like something they could have just made keywords for. Contained for the untargetable effect, then Banished for the remove from game effect. I get that like, old MtG cards had descriptions now replaced with keywords. But I feel like if I were making a game like this, I'd want to have some of those lessons learned. Never played this and never will, but those effects seem pretty basic.
Again to my point that the devs clearly have never played a card game before and did little to no research on the current market
I feel that can be said about other things these crypto bros are trying to do. They seem to reinvent the wheel regarding finance too. They encounter problems that were solved 300 years ago, and are completely oblivious to that fact. It seems like crypto games are on par with how the gaming industry was 20-30 years ago. Really strange.
@@oliver_twistor indeed. I have yet to see a single thing that can exclusively solved with NTFs, or at least better with them. Basically everything works equally well without the stuff.
The developers of this game were at the UBC Gaming Expo as a main sponsor of the event. They showed us that slick intro cinematic for Parallel, but not any gameplay or that hilariously bad clip of Colony-they just explained one Colony scenario they had with no real visuals. They didn't mention NFTs at all and I only found out because they were giving away free snacks at their booth, and while I don't play TCGs I have friends who do so I figured I might as well sign up for the mailing list to be nice-only for the mailing list confirmation email to have "parallelnft" in the name. Naturally, I immediately pulled the brakes on that and didn't hit the confirm subscription button.
Hilarious seeing you cover it here, and how much worse it is than their presentation led pretty much the entire convention to believe. I feel kind of embarrassed bringing my friend from New Zealand there. At least my arcade-going friends set up a banger free-play arcade in a separate room from the Parallel booth, so we could forget they existed.
13:46 "Fine" is cool and all, but it should be worth mentioning that the competition is harsh. I still remember much of Hearthstone's OST despite having quit many years ago, and YGO Master Duel's OST genuinely has some of the best OST in gaming, composed by the guy who did Octopath Traveller.
Very true. Hearthstones OG soundtrack is one of the most nostalgic ever. Yugiohs is kind of silly to me, it’s extremely epic but it’s not bad by any means
50 minutes of jauwn? Just when i thought my day couldn't get any better!
Today really is a beautiful day
Agreed
Bro taking your pc apart just so you can give a crappy NFT card game a fair score on performance is crazy💀. Mad respect at the dedication
30:10 this isn't the first AI powered game
The first AI powered game is AI Dungeon
I don't know why I had to fact check this but I did
@39:05 needs subway surfers and some slime videos for the complete experience
it does
It had neither so it idnt peak brainrot yet. In fact it needs minecraft parkour or a podcast playing for peak overstimulation
That's a weird way to spell Powerwash Simulator my guy
And family guy clips too
shout outs to jawn for playing a dragon maid ygo deck
Got me to diamond rank in 2022 although it’s not very meta anymore (it’s still really strong)
I tried to get back into YuGiOh back in 2017 when I was in the hospital and there were so many different cards and stuff like synchro/pendulum/etc it made my head spin. The last time I played YGO was around 2007.
Oh well. my only cards now are a piece of Exodia and a Pot of Greed (my kinda cards) card I found in the parking lot at a Walmart.
@@jauwn If you play it with a small branded engine it honestly can do quite a bit
I think i got rid of all my branded cards, but tbh my Dragonmaid deck is doing just fine. I have over a 50% winrate with it, just swapped out some of the cheap monsters for the meta countering spells
really wish they'd make some dragonmaid support, it's way past overdue
Number companies are common in Canada, but signing your certificates and executables with a numbered company is particularly odd.
Good to know. Like I said it's not really suspicious at all since it's a crypto game but it definitely caught me off guard
Could these numbered companies be shelf companies?
Possibly, like any company. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_company
@@Ghost_Matter just seems strange to go that route, when trying to offhandedly recall a name to look up is a whole lot easier than a string of numbers.
seems like a Canadian company of a few people would just register several hundred thousand numbers using a random number or serial generator. have them sit on a shelf to sell to others, so they wouldn't have to go through the registration process as a new entity
This is literally the best crypto game ever.
It still sucks, but it is head and shoulders above all the other crypto games.
It even uses crypto in an innovative way, predatory as it is.
I am genuinely impressed. On the normal game scale, this actually gets a 3/10.
(edit) Yes, crypto is literally a boys' club for terminally online people with too much money. You nailed it. I speak from experience.
What are your thoughts on Parallel? Have you tried the game? Do you think it stands a chance against the titans of the market?
It's been a while since I've made a video in this format (almost a year exactly, actually), but I really enjoyed putting this video together. I had quite a lot to say, hence why it is so long, but I think it's all quite relevant, especially considering the recent resurgence of crypto games in the past few months. With so many crypto games having started development in 2021 during the big NFT bubble, it's about time we start seeing the fruits of their labor. How will that fruit taste, and most importantly, how will the overall gaming market react?
Thanks for watching!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
3:40 What is Parallel?
8:17 The Great UI Tragedy (2024)
11:10 Card Art Catastrophe
13:35 The Audio is pretty OK though
14:23 Gameplay Overview
24:54 CRYPTO CRYPTO CRYPTO!!!
31:20 FUNdraising ($132 million dollars)
36:17 Becoming a Bagholder
37:41 Brain Rot Amplifier: ENGAGED
39:18 A Brief Rant
43:00 Jauwn Score and Recap
48:29 Final Score and Outro
How tf did you upload 9 minutes ago but comment 23 minutes ago. My god he finished to Time Machine.
I wrote the comment while the video was unlisted so I could have it prepped
I know a game called skyweaver and a doctor Who tgc that are nft card game too
I wouldn't be surprised if the text was even more illegible with higher resolution screens.
It’s not really any better on a 1440p screen it’s still way too small but it’s at least technically legible if you used a magnifying glass. I had a scene in the video that I ended up cutting out cause it was already so long but I held my finger up to the screen (27”) and the card text is barely the size of my pinky finger’s cuticle
It’s crazy that there have been so many card games that try to copy aspects of Hearthstone, but none of them even try to imitate the UI of HS which is one of its biggest strengths.
that other nft game, gods unchained seems to look more or less the same in terms of ui placement just not as polished looking ig
It's time for more Hydrocity Zone playing in the background.
What is it about Hydrocity Zone that always makes me happy, no matter how crummy of a day I might be having?
@@qu1253 If I spend thousands on a black lotus, I wouldnt settle for anything less. Electricity companies should quake in their boots whenever I decide to interact with my black lotus
It's pronounced "Hydrocity".
Yeah banking mana is a very interesting mechanic, it would be cool to see this time of mana system in another card game, meaby with an already establish brand and fan favorite characters.
Lorcana, I'm talking about Lorcana
Lol I knew that someone would comment saying that the only thing I found unique is actually not unique. It always happens
@@jauwn Yeah things like that have been done in several card games already. I first saw it in the indie card game Mythgard.
It's been around for like 20 years, it was originally used in duel masters/kaijudo
@@fireky3 Duel Masters is the best, yo. Bring it back from its self-imposed Nippon exile.
18:04 NO FUCKING WAY LMAO YOU LITERALLY CANNOT MAKE THIS UP IM CRYING
19:40 jesus fucking christ why would anyone play past this point? No XP for games lost??? You literally need to start hitting alt+f4 every time you start a match against someone who's higher ranked than you to even have a hope of improving your starter deck without dropping cash. There's no reason other than naked greed for the devs to do that.
There is a huge issue with conceding in the game right now. Go in their Discord and you will see countless people complaining that 90% or more of their games end in a concede at turn 3
Most attentive Dragonmaid player
50°C on a modern CPU is pretty much "cool" nowadays.
A better metric would be to look at TaskManager and see how many Threads are under load.
Just to compare, I am just watching this video in a browser and my 7950x3D (watercooled) is sitting at 45°C with just 3% CPU load.
The "general" temperature of a CPU is normally the hottest CPU tempereture sensor on the whole chip.
Now, with transistors getting smaller and smaller with every new process node, we run into a problem called "heat density".
Meaning that the small transistors are getting worse and worse at getting rid of their heat the smaller they become.
That's why the trend is getting to "hotter" processors although their total heat output (TDP) largely remains the same
*cough* except Intel *cough*
Example:
My 7950x3D hits nearly 90°C and thermal throttles at "just" ~140 watts of power consumption.
This is largely because of the 3D V-Cache, but the chip is designed to run that hot under continuous load.
The chip reaches 80°C as soon as there is slight few-threaded load on the 3D chiplet, just because heat conduction is pretty bad on that specific chip.
Factorio for example will get there easily, and that game is largely just a single-threaded load.
Sorry for the wall of text.
Jauwn has made it, applying fresh thermal paste?!
By hand no less
@@jauwn o7
I have to say I’m a big fan of these videos, but they don’t HAVE to be about NFTs as long as there is something funky going on. I think I just love watching bad game reviews 😁
I see people giving this studio a cool 100M for the _promise_ of a video game and it makes me so disheartened. Particularly when I see all of the tents that have been cropping up in record numbers of late. Yeah...sure, we can't increase taxes to fund public services, how would people afford their imaginary bullshit then?!
I always love the stop scrolling intro, the vibes on it are immaculate.
As a former HS semi-pro player, I was surprised to find a card game that was more miserable to play that current HS. Good write up.
God damn, remember when you could just turn a game on and unlock everything in it by playing it normally?
152k subs on 52 videos started a yr ago..... GD!!!!! that kind of growth with out degrading yourself and/or promoting degeneracy is actually quite amazing.....
I think it just goes to show 2 things.
1. The youtube algorithm has improved a TON in 2023 and it heavily promotes new channels that make good content. I've seen a lot of other channels grow insanely fast like myself for doing the same thing.
2. Honesty and integrity is worth more than anything on this site. It's very rare that someone is making videos with my quality as a hobby, without any sponsorships or paid incentives. Again, the trend is shifting towards new RUclipsrs that are doing the same as me and I am 100% in favor of that. Support the hobbyists, bring back "Old RUclips"
It's too easy to sell out when I have DMs from mobile games offer $5,000 cash for a 60 second ad read. Not many people have the financial stability to be able to comfortably turn that down
@@jauwnafter having found your channel only recently and then binging your content, it was funny hearing "Thanks for 100 subs" from a dude who has over 100k now
Recommended Settings 32GB Ram, GTX 1080 💀 They are definitely mining off your PC
It's strange, because in Magic the Gathering Online (the old one, not arena) you do "own" your cards. You can buy and sell them from and to others, I think a lot of people even rent them. It's a pretty interesting system, would have thought that mtgo would be a base point for an nft tcg.
same with pokemon trading card game online. they completely removed the player run economy and replaced it with a closed credit based system in the new version that's as buggy as parallel, and i believe they're looking into the whole digital collectibles thing for it as well :(
It actually goes further than that - if you collect a full set of cards on MTGO, you can theoretically trade it in for that same set in paper. It's harder to do it now because WotC isn't supporting it anymore, but how's that for owning your digital cards?
And yeah, rental services are super popular, since they let you essentially treat the game like a subscription MMO (and that's assuming that you're not planning on sticking to Penny Dreadful, where ManaTrader's free rental tier is enough to let you play multiple different decks a month without paying a cent).
@@LadyMapi That's fascinating, thank you.
Referencing old relinquished card text is an obscure reference even for many people lost in the Yugioh sauce. Kudos to you for that.
Still have my original relinquished starter deck from what, maybe 2002?
Don't forget about detours! Your style of editing and commentary is very pleasing.
And I forgot Jordan (capitan sparklez) played Blankos. It was so long ago. I don't remember the whole thing of it but I hope he just was curious and accepted deal with epic. They give a lot of money to creators. Even markiplier does promotions for epic.
He was paid by Mythical Games (creators of Blankos). But I guess it doesn't matter since Blankos shut down for good last year
@@jauwnwhat a horrendous loss for the industry
If Halo killers teached me something is that when a game has "franchise killer" on the name, you are sure as hell they ain't delivering
Instead on focusing on innovation they focus on copying a pre existing formula to make cash
the way you casually bring up all of the issues crypto has with just making basic transactions. your 50$ becoming 33, having to pay transaction fees with a fucking fluctuating price, because if literally everything about crypto isn't a speculative coin or token what's the point amirite, the fact that if you input the wrong address your money's just gone...
even without any of the other shit with crypto, the fact that there are people who genuinely think this is somehow the future is amazing.
I can't even call banking cards an original idea since a similar mechanic is used in "Duel Masters/Kaijudo" which itself is meant to be a simplified version of "Magic the Gathering" if I remember correctly.
It's amazing how consistently underwhelming yet predatory these crypto games end up being. It's almost as if the only ones making money off crypto are the ones pulling the rug.
Also, they're bragging about making $20-$40 dollars a day. I work as a bagger at a grocery store and I make $13. An hour. Times 8 hours, I get $104 most days before tax. Granted, I'm not having fun, but looking at how Parallel plays, I'm willing to bet they aren't either.
Let it be known that I despise the grind. Earning things by playing is good, but having to sink tens of hours just to get one thing will make me not want to play your game. This is the exact thing that makes me hate battle passes, and to see one in a "Beta" project makes me wince, especially when you're able to pay to skip the grind. If it's too grindy, I don't want to play it, because I don't think it's fun.
That being said, it's nice to see the Jauwn score return. I've been watching some of your old videos to catch up, and was thinking "Man, I wish this scoring would make a return."
Hearthstone doesn't need a Hearthstone killer, it's fully capable of dying on it's own.
Dark days with the crypto/NFT bubble being re-inflated, but at least the bright side is there are more games for Jauwn to torture himself with!
I do appreciate the sonic carnival music that plays when you're explaining how the crypto systems work. It's a nice touch.
What you said towards the end - concerning meta decks being the only decks anyone ever plays - made me think. How would they handle blatantly broken cards? They can't exactly nerf the cards, as that would directly impact peoples investment. Or that's part of the risk of "investing" in these kinds of games and they just nerf them anyways. I'd also expect the powercreep to be insane, incentivizing people to constantly spend more money and thus chaining themselves to this game even further.
thank you for subbing the entire videos in your entire channel. huge respect
Another great video, I just wanted to say please don't stop the detours you mentioned as well. Your videos on diggles, para world and robot wars etc. are my favorites of your content so far.
I second this.
28:26 "Why would anyone ever want one of these NFT cards, considering that the only difference in-game is an easily overlooked shiny glow?"
Ok but Jauwn, you've played TCGs, you know very well that card game players will pay hundreds for the same card with an easily overlooked shiny glow.
started watching your vids when this was your main format!! your old intro was so loud! seen 100% of your videos since then and it's just gotten better! this video particularly has so much polish and obvious attention to care start to finish. thanks!
Hey Jauwn!
I only just discovered your channel a couple of days ago from your latest epic games video. I spent the weekend watching the backlog of crypto game videos and it's really fun to watch the gradual development of your video style from 2022 up to now. You've really found a creative voice and your comedic timing is fantastic. Keep up the awesome work and give 'em hell!
dawg you can't give all this away for free, seriously, an arm reveal, desk reveal, AND TORSO REVEAL?! All in ONE VIDEO? You're missing out on easy subscriber goals or even Member Exclusives!
Sock reveal was while ago and car reveal and mouse reveal (old)
A lot of the Heartstone pros that picked this up as ambassadors are actually super well respected and essentially veterans of the game.
I really didn’t think they were doing bad enough to need this type of bag. Shame to see :(
Looking at their twitch stats you can see their viewers absolutely fall off a cliff. But don’t think they need the viewers with the crypto bag
I understood all of the technical talk at 32:00 thanks to Power Wash Simulator. Thanks Jauwn
They got game devs from fuckin' Wizards of the Coast? Yeah, that's never a good sign.
congrats on becoming chief engineer of the whatever
The Balatro theme in 19:36 is absolute peak, love both the music and the subtle nod to one of the best card games out there. The theme music is just...calming, and a nice touch for the video! Great video as always, Jauwn!
Weirdly, I can't hear the music at all. All I get is Jauwn's voice, and nothing else.
The music is really really quiet because of a very specific nitpick I have. I love to listen to RUclips videos while falling asleep but I hate when they have loud music. Therefore my videos are mixed so that you can not hear the music at all on iPhone volumes 1 and 2 but on 3 and above you can hear it just enough to notice it
Pure Dragonmaid vs Snake-Eyes? Ouch. (Good video and good analysis of crypto stuff as always.)
I got BODIED
I would think that, as a general rule, if you actively call a thing by another name to hide what the thing truly is, then that thing isn't worth getting into, or the company responsible for the product that has the thing integrated into it MIGHT not have your best interests in mind.
I missed the Jauwn score man... Its back... She's finally back
I appreciate the attention to detail that goes into looking up the developers, the holding companies and so on.
Holy shit a near 50-minute Jauwn vid?? Dude, you’re spoiling us today.
(Jokes aside, this is one of my new all-time fave channels, alongside Shane McGillicudy. Keep up the good stuff!)
"You are having fun even if you don't realize it" That's not how fun works
Wow, I'm finally here for today's episode of Jauwn!
I love your content, it's really entertaining for someone who's just a Roblox player who plays too much Roblox and doesn't care for crypto.
Great background stuff!
Thanks! I'm glad it appeals to a wide audience even though you don't care about crypto
@@jauwn The man himself responded! I love when you roast games, man. Thank you! ❤
I'd say that inconsistent art style in TCG would get a pass. For example, Pokemon TCG is very inconsistent with art style and even had plenty of 3D renders too. Especially in early days.
However, making the characters stand out is definitely something that needs to be taken into consideration and Pokemon TCG did not fail there despite various styles.
Fantastic review as always, really appreciate the detail and giving it an honest chance. Also, thank you for putting song names right as they start playing on the screen, finding songs in a video is so often difficult because people neglect that
When has any series that declares itself a _____ killer ever killed _____?
You know it's a bad game when mid-review the reviewer just starts reviewing a completely different game on top of the game he's supposed to be reviewing
The only reason this video took so long to make was because i kept getting so bored i would get sidetracked and then start working on a completely different video
It's always a great day when there's a new Jauwn video, they're always so good and this is no exception.
I have an i5-13600k and a $35 air cooler. Using HWiNFO64, I'm shown to be idling at 37-40 degrees, and in Baldur's Gate 3, specifically in Baldur's Gate itself which is massive, on almost entirely High settings with the exception of fog and one other thing on medium, I'm pretty certain I peaked at 64 degrees. Obviously a bit harder of a game to run than what you're showing. That's pretty impressively unoptimized, but I don't know what kind of temps I'd personally get in Parallel and I don't really want to find out.
Dude, I already loved your channel, but when I recognized the Flaming Lips "Race for the Prize" as the backing track, I fell in love with your soul. Great job!
Your videos always have such a lovely presentation. It's been a fun ride watching your style develop over time, there's nobody else doing it in the same exact way.
I like to call the style “humorous PowerPoint presentation”
Fans of this game intensely deny that it's an NFT game.
of note, the "banking" mechanic is i'm pretty sure a concept from duel masters. I'm not certain as that game is ancient and my memory of it is faded but I remember pretty vividly having to discard a monster every turn to increase my mana cap. You also only raised the cap for that monsters attribute, so you can technically run every attribute of creature you'll be bottlenecked by needing different type of mana and having to discard specific cards to get it.
It's amazing how many parallels between crypto games and AAA games can be seen
- very big budget to create subpar products
- excessive monetisation
- sales and release before the product has reached a "finished" state
- preorders without any actual gameplay shown
- promises that it will be "the next big thing" that "changes gaming forever"
- game itself is rather generic
- promises that it will get good later
- dropping it if the game isn't immediately successful
when are we getting the much anticipated Jauwn x Josh Strife Hayes "Worst MMO NFT game ever?" collab
🤷♂️ he is a subscriber of Jauwn
because you brought this up I sent him a DM asking if he'd be interested in a collab. Only time will tell
@@jauwn yoo that is really neat! I hope that it goes well if you end up doing one
JAUWN PLAYS DRAGONMAIDS
The whiplash going from “you can actually make some decent change playing the game if you’re good” to “these assets cost $2k apiece” is insane
Thank you for another well researched, thoughtful, and frankly hilarious crypto game review! I will note, however, that it isn't accurate to say that there are no NFT games that let you to use assets from one game in another - you can use Splinterlands cards in the Splinterforge and Splinter Royale games on the HIVE blockchain, for example.
I'm sorry, I couldn't pay attention to anything you were saying cause I was too invested in the power wash simulator gameplay
0:30 i like how blackjack and roulette are listed as crypto games, and the funny thing is i can't even tell if that's an edit you made or if that's seriously just google's fault.
(i looked it up just before posting this and it's actually fucking real. thank you google.)
There's a company out there that made a crapton of crypto slot machine games, I can't recall which vid of Jauwn it was featured but it's there
I'm a cryptobro who has participated in all of Parallel's Pack Drops and played the game since Closed Alpha. I agree with most of the takes here (except for the art, I really like these Sci-fi cards).
It's kind of disappointing that with the amount of money they have raised it's taking them so long to fix some very basic things, and implement others (like Hearthstone's queueable actions) which we have been asking for since last year. But I still think the team actually cares about creating a good game and hopefully they will prove people wrong.
Maybe your investment makes you a little more receptive to slow development but I think the glacial pace at which changes are made is a huge red flag, that the development team is not as "looped in" as they might make it seem. After all, if they're outsourcing it all, it's going to be really tough to iterate constantly
Damn! Loved the video! The idea of a sci fi tcg is such a vibe for a tcg fan like me but damn is it ever ruined by crypto. All of your criticism was fair and i mostly agreed with it, makes me sad tot hink that without cripto and with a lot more effort on the development team this could be a good game that i would be interested in, but the way they are taking things just leaves me disillusioned.
"This is the second best NFT game of all time. In conclusion, I would never play this game for fun."
My my, Jauwn talking about another crypto game, truly a great addition to this day
Jauwn reading that card effect made remember duelingbook, an online Yu-Gi-Oh game that allows custom cards, and let's say that nonw of them are professional looking, especially their card texts.
What is actually really sad is that Electric Square consists of a lot of ex-Black Rock Studios developers, i.e. the people who made Split/Second. How the mighty have fallen…
I was laughing out loud at the AI game. Those awkward pauses between speaking the NPC and them giving the response are almost undoubtedly the AI generating the response (and very familiar to anyone who has used AI chats)
at least the AI knew that I was the engineer all along