Guy Beahm, renowned in the gaming world as Dr Disrespect, has a distinguished history as a former professional Esports player, celebrated Twitch streamer, and now a prominent YouTube personality. His studio, Midnight Society, has recently launched his inaugural game, Deadrop, which employs Polygon-based NFTs, known as Founders Passes.

Founders Passes were available for minting at $50 USD during their initial release. While these passes have been created to ensure that the in-game experience remains unaffected and that a pay-to-win scenario does not arise, they do provide an array of benefits. For instance, they offer early access to the first-person shooter, as well as limited edition cosmetic items for both profiles and in-game characters.

Although some members of the gaming community remain skeptical about NFTs, the pre-alpha release of Deadrop has garnered a lot of attention. Some of the biggest names in esports, including Dr. Lupo, Scump, and Zlaner, recently play-tested the game publicly during a three-hour event held at the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Hundreds of in-person viewers from across the U.S. attended the event, while Dr Disrespect’s live stream of the event garnered approximately 22,000 concurrent viewers, and Scump’s stream drew over 10,000 concurrent viewers. These numbers are noteworthy, especially considering that most traditional gamers tend to be indifferent to on-chain mechanics, indicating that they may be warming up to the idea.

Gamers’ primary concern regarding NFT integrations is play-to-win exploits, which are a possibility that Deadrop’s Founders Passes have intentionally designed out. The 10,000 passes function more as a membership card, providing access to exclusive in-game assets, priority access to merchandise, voting rights on game elements, and early access to the game itself.

At the time of writing, Founders Passes are available at a secondary floor price of .54 Ether or roughly $970 USD. While this may seem expensive for the average gamer, early access can also be purchased for $25 USD on the game studio’s website. For those who do not wish to spend any money, all early access offerings and NFTs are entirely optional, as Deadrop is designed to be a free-to-play game once its final version is released.