The Telegram-based crypto game is preparing for its token launch on Thursday, but the announcement of airdrop allocations has left some players feeling pretty frustrated.
How many tokens, and why?
Players will only be able to claim 88.75% of their HMSTR token allocation on the first day, this is the first red flag.
The remaining 11.25% will be locked and won’t be available for claiming until July 2025, after a vesting period of 10 months.
This information hadn’t been shared with players before, leading to anger among many in the community, understandably. Next to this, allocated numbers are also weird, and seems unfair for the vast majority.
The price of the HMSTR token, which will be minted on The Open Network, won’t be known until it starts trading on September 26, but players have already expressed their huge disappointment on social media.
Blacklisting for cheating?
This situation mirrors what happened with Catizen’s airdrop last week, where players also faced unexpected, unknown conditions.
In addition to the vesting issue, players are unhappy about how various factors were weighted in determining their airdrop allocations.
There seems to have been significant emphasis placed on friend referrals and earning the so-called ’keys’, which was added late in the game.
The Hamster Kombat team also revealed that out of 300 million players who have engaged with the game so far, only about 129 million are eligible for the airdrop.
Initially, 131 million players qualified, but then around 2.3 million were banned for cheating. This raises concerns about fairness and transparency in the distribution process. And not a big surprise players are annoyed.
They act like there’s no competition for users
Catizen faced similar challenges leading up to its token launch on last week. Players have voiced complaints about previous delays and other issues related to the airdrop criteria that weren’t disclosed in advance.
Out of a total of 100 billion HMSTR tokens, 60 billion will be distributed in this airdrop, with an additional 15 billion set aside for Season 2 of the game. Until that full season begins, Hamster Kombat also introduced a simplified interlude season.
The main problem is these issues surrounding airdrop allocations could affect player trust and engagement in long term with both Hamster Kombat and similar games in the future. If developers don’t communicate clearly, they can lost users for good.
