Steem Monsters tournaments around the corner and more exciting news for both players and collectors / investors!

Steem Monsters just announced that tournaments are successfully being tested on Steem Monsters test servers and will soon join the main website. That's cool, no more synchronizing using 3 different apps, it will all be on the same website!

They also announced 20,000 STEEM in prizes for the tournaments sponsored by Steem Monsters alone during the month of March, to which additional prizes of other tournament creators can add up! That's massive to most steemians!

But what captured my attention even more was their roadmap, after tournaments are rolled out.

After the first version of the tournament system goes live, we have a number of additional features and options that we plan to add.

I suppose the desired updates piled up, but there was no time to shift focus from the main objective, which was rolling out the tournaments.

Pack Tokens - We plan to allow both Alpha and Beta edition booster packs to be represented as tokens on the Steem Engine platform. This will allow pack HODLers to trade them for STEEM on the decentralized market that is expected to launch there shortly. It will also allow us to re-publish the algorithm for generating the cards in the packs.

Good stuff! Being a smart contract associated with the token, it will make it a safe market to transact these booster packs, and it adds liquidity to them.

Card Delegation - This long awaited feature will allow players to rent out their cards to other players, without any counterparty risk, so that active players and passive investors can work together to get the maximum possible value out of the available cards.

Now, that's a kick-ass option! Steem Monsters is an interesting mix of investors, collectors and players. Card delegation will allow investors and collectors to keep their cards, but delegate them to active players if they are not using them (or if they are not active players).

Anyone remembers RC delegation? Seems like card delegation will be here first.

Market/Collection Updates - We have a number of updates planned for the Market and Collection pages on the site that will make it easier to trade, view, and manage your collection of cards.

Oh yeah, I agree, they both need updates. For example, you can't filter in or out by reward cards in collection. Maybe add a STEEM price cost as well in market. Maybe a filter to only show the cards you can afford to buy with the STEEM you have liquid in your account. Just a few ideas at first hand.

In-Game Currency Token - We plan to release a token on the Steem Engine platform which will be the primary in-game currency for Steem Monsters. Players will be able to earn this token directly through gameplay, or by "burning" cards. We then plan to create an in-game store with some exciting items that can be purchased with these tokens, and they will also factor heavily into our planned "guilds" feature and our first expansion later this year.

So, what are we talking about here? An in-game token to be used in an in-game store. Some of the items you can buy can be useful in future "guilds" fights, also a feature that will be released during this year.

That sounds... intriguing. Right now I can't imagine how the guilds will work on Steem Monsters, but maybe it will be something completely different based on SM cards.

That's what the further explanation of what guilds will be made me thing about, that it might be a different type of game, not a card-based one:

in the medium term we have some pretty large new features planned, including a robust "guilds" system which will allow groups of players to work together and battle against other guilds, and a major expansion to the game which will include "empire building" game mechanics that tie into and enhance the core game play.

Will see...

Anyway, 2019 will be more than exciting for the Steem blockchain gaming development, judging by how it started and the plans laid out for us.

For other areas too, but this post is about Steem Monsters.