Russian Expert Issues Hamster Kombat Warning After Players Voice Season-End Discontent
Hamster kombat
Russia
Players “hostages of their own expectations,” expert claims
Last updated:
September 23, 2024 19:30 EDT
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September 23, 2024 19:30 EDT
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A Russian expert has issued a Hamster Kombat warning after many players in the nation expressed their unhappiness at the end of
the game
’s first season.
Per
RTVI
, Viktor Pershikov, an independent specialist in combating financial crimes in the crypto sector, said people who “wanted to get rich by playing
Hamster Kombat
” have “found themselves hostages of their own expectations.”
Hamster Kombat Warning: Developers Never Promised to Make Anyone Rich
The popularity of Hamster Kombat has soared in Russia, where Telegram remains the chat app of choice for most citizens.
The media outlet noted that many people have been disappointed to learn that “after several months of Hamster tapping” they “would only receive $5 to $15” for their efforts.
Hamster Kombat players can mine HMSTR coins in the game by tapping on a Hamster icon until their energy bars are empty.
Listing Nears
Many have been buoyed by news that major
crypto exchanges
like OKX have recently
decided to list
HMSTR.
This has seen some players
buy massage guns in order to turbo-charge their tapping efforts
, driving sales of these devices on Russian e-commerce platforms.
Many massage gun vendors on Russian e-commerce sites like Wildberries still advertise their machines’ effectiveness for “hamster tapping.” (Source: Wildberries/Screenshot)
However, Pershikov noted that further discontent surfaced after game developers told some 2.3 million players they would be excluded from the
airdrop
. The developers said these players had used “dishonest” efforts to “earn more coins.”
The game’s developers have also revealed that players will only be able to claim 88.75% of their token allotments.
They will be obliged to vest the remaining 11.25% of their tokens for at least 10 months, the developers said.
2.3 Million Players Excluded from Airdrop
Pershikov added that the game and its team “never promised to make anyone rich.” He explained that when players eventually start trading their HMSTR coins for fiat, the token price “will come under pressure.”
We Did Not Cheat, Say Disgruntled Players
Multiple Russian media outlets, including
Sport-Express
, claimed that it was “unclear” why many players had been excluded from the airdrop.
While some players appear to have used bots to “generate keys,” the outlets claimed that some very active players who did not “cheat” had also been excluded. One wrote:
Fontantka Ru
reported that the “eight-year-old son” of one of its employees “mined” coins for “a total of 120 days.”
The boy’s “earnings amounted to the approximate equivalent of 4.3 rubles [$0.046],” the media outlet wrote.
Some exasperated Russian players called the project a “scam,” while others created sarcastic, self-mocking memes. Others still took a more stoic view, with one writing:
Russian Developers?
The HMSTR token listing event is scheduled for September 26. The game launched on Telegram at the end of March 2024.
Media outlets think the tech entrepreneurs Alexander Zelenshchikov and Alexander Pasechnik masterminded the game.
They also think that Saint Petersburg-based Carmoney co-founder Eduard Gurinovich helped develop the game.
Some commenters expressed their disapproval in the comments section of the Fontantka Ru article. One highly upvoted commenter wrote:
Another Russian social media user lamented:
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