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• X Empire, a Telegram tap-to-earn game, faces player backlash over its airdrop allocations, with many excluded citing unclear eligibility criteria.
• The game’s creator, Alex Falcon, defended the process, explaining that “active friends” and other engagement metrics determined players’ airdrop rewards.

X Empire, a tap-to-earn game on Telegram, is set to launch its X token on The Open Network (TON) this Thursday. However, the game’s recent reveal of airdrop allocations has sparked widespread dissatisfaction among players who found themselves ineligible for a share of the rewards. Some of these disgruntled players have even reached out to Elon Musk, although he has no affiliation with the game.

On Friday, X Empire disclosed the number of X tokens that players would receive and begin trading from October 24. Players were also given the option to choose between withdrawing their tokens through a self-custody TON wallet or centralized exchanges like OKX or Bybit. Despite this, numerous players took to social media to express their frustration about being excluded from the airdrop for reasons they claim were unclear.

In response, Alex Falcon, the creator of X Empire, addressed the complaints in a Telegram post on Saturday, explaining that “active friends” was a crucial factor in determining airdrop eligibility, alongside players’ profit-per-hour rate and quest completion. Falcon stressed that the airdrop was reserved for those who had invested significant time into the game.

Falcon noted that 6 million players would receive the airdrop, out of the 50 million players X Empire had previously claimed to attract. According to Telegram data, nearly 34 million players were active last month. Despite this, players have argued that the “active friends” metric should not have had such a substantial impact on the allocations.

Some players even took their grievances to Twitter, directing their complaints at Musk, who is prominently featured in the game’s avatars.

The game was originally launched under the name “Musk Empire” before rebranding, possibly to avoid legal issues.

Although X Empire has faced similar backlash to other Telegram games over its airdrop calculations, the developers have assured players that the X token will have future utility in upcoming apps and that they will receive tokens from additional games soon to be released.

But again, for now, many players remain unsatisfied with the current allocations.