Racing Games

Riot Racers Update Brings New Features

Riot Racers banner

It’s been four months since Riot Racers introduced renting and breeding to their play and earn racing game. And, as seems to happen with many play to earn games, the value of the RIOT token has steadily declined as players began cashing out their earnings. But this latest update introduces car upgrades and staking as additional use cases for their game token, as well as a few other game improvements.

In a stop-gap measure to try and control the bleed-out of the RIOT token value, Riot Racers added a daily token withdrawal limit a while back. And though they now have more in-game uses for RIOT, they’ve chosen to keep the withdrawal limit but tie limit increases to a new Achievement System. Also including Car upgrades, token staking, billboard implementation, and new rental splits, this is a significant update for the play to earn racing game.

What’s in this update?

Riot Racers upgrades
upgrade options in Riot Racers

This update adds one of the biggest features, and an important usage for the RIOT token, Car Upgrades. Players can visit Mechanic Shops to upgrade various car parts. Upgrading costs RIOT tokens, and at the higher levels USDC as well. And though there are seven different car parts to upgrade, it seems that which part is upgraded doesn’t really matter. All that affects the race results is the overall Car Rating, which increases with each upgrade and maxes out at 24,000.

Riot Racers introduced an Achievements section for players as well, though it’s pretty basic. Achievements are divided into two sections, Owners and Renters. Owners move up the Achievement ladder by owning more cars, staking RIOT tokens, and entering paid races. Renters gain Achievement levels by staking RIOT and entering paid races. Each level increases the maximum daily withdrawal of RIOT tokens for the player. It also provides a bonus income from the free races. That last bit seems a little counter-intuitive to me. Wouldn’t you rather encourage players to enter more paid races?

Owners can now specify two different rental rates for their assets. One for Training School races, which are free, and another percentage for paid races. This is a nice feature and makes a huge difference in the rental market. We now see percentages as high as 95% for paid races on some rentals!

The first iteration of billboards is in place. Billboard owners can now specify a banner that displays at the top Riot Racers app.

Riot Racers Achievements
first three Achievement levels

Riot Racers added a basic staking program for RIOT tokens on their website. Unfortunately, there is no return for doing so. In fact, the only purpose staking RIOT serves, is to reach the Achievement levels of 2 and higher. But since reaching level 2 also requires owning 10 cars, with a total car rating of 50,000 (for a reference point, my seven cars currently provide a total rating of 5,000), the number of players who have a reason to stake is low. The team promises to add lockup periods and rewards for staking in a later update.

Extra Thoughts

This release did give a nice 8% boost to the value of RIOT tokens, though I don’t know if it will hold. Riot Racers has been in need of an update since they released their rental system. And while this does bring some important features, it does very little to make the game any more interesting.

As one of the few blockchain games around with an active, working rental system, Riot Racers has a position of strength. But whether they can take advantage of that position remains to be seen.

Phil Hall has been a gaming enthusiast since birth and a crypto enthusiast since 2017. He enjoys new discoveries and sharing those with others via blogging and photography. You can follow him on Twitter or read his other articles on Medium.