by Stormtrooper on Mar 07, 2022
Games have always existed as a form of therapy or relaxation. Right from childhood, the desire to improve one's mental prowess and awareness through playing games was paramount, though instinctive, but older generations shunned away from the idea because life in itself is strategic, and games only served as a distraction. They didn't pay bills.
From having games as a sideline, the world transitioned into having full-time gamers who compete to satisfy their viewers and earn money. This was a massive upgrade as people could pursue gaming as a career choice, But the demerit to it was that the field was skewed to those with better internet connectivity and skill set. Only a few people could make money from gaming, and it only moved the bar a little bit. Sites like p2e.game and others entered the market.
When you mention blockchain, the default image in people's minds is finance, and 'Crypto will replace the dollar,' but this is too far from the truth. We have seen blockchain disrupt the music space, sport, manufacturing, and even tourism, and there seems to be no stone left unturned in this wave of transparency, decentralization, and trust.
With the blockchain, gaming has been revolutionized. We now see Play-To-Earn games take center stage, and some even pay enough to take care of living wages in some countries. Scholarships and academies have sprung up to this effect also.
This move has been widely accepted by gamers worldwide as it helps them earn on tasks they would have done for free, and a few sects have called this disruptive entry of money and capitalists' mindsets into the gaming space previously used for relaxation.
The new games springing up are called play-to-earn games. They are a result of NFTs and blockchain coming into the world of gaming, and they are another use case of blockchain different from trading platforms like Redot.com and Binance.
NFT:
Play-to-earn games have strong non-fungible token backing. These non-fungible tokens can range from music to pictures and avatars. They are immutable and do allow players to have access to the trade part of their purchases. If you are a game freak (like some of us are), you would have spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars on in-app purchases. Gears, costumes, and even avatars.
These assets cannot be transferred from person to person, and once you leave the game, they become obsolete. With NFTs, every purchase you make on these platforms is recorded on the blockchain, and they can be traded, kept, and used on other interoperable gaming platforms.
The ownership of these assets is not in the hands of the company making the games; rather, they are in each player's crypto wallet. These assets have real-world value and can be exchanged for fiat, wherever and whenever the owner decides to.
Play-to-earn games started before 2018 but came into the limelight with the Axie Infinity. Inspired by the pokemon game, Axie Infinity allows players to collect, train, and nurture pets called Axies. These Axies can be traded on the ecosystem using Shards (AXS) and love portions (SLP). The former is the governance token of the ecosystem, while the latter is used for breeding the pets.
Axie Infinity has 100,000 visitors weekly and over 2.5 million users daily, and it has brought exposure to many people who had no prior knowledge of blockchains. The Axies are in nine different forms; six normal and three unique pets. Each pet has its strengths and weaknesses, and this makes the battles between the Axies more interesting.
Although getting into the Axie Infinity will require some $210 to $600, plans are being made to release a prototype of the game, hence bringing the look-alike of the game closer to the average user for close to nothing.
Axie Infinity is not the only play-to-earn game available. Other popular ones involve Sandbox, Binemon, Splinterland, and the first-ever P2E game, cryptokitties. While these games are prominent, their constraints have led many founders to work on several new projects to be launched.
The play to earn space is not dwindling soon. Millions of dollars are pumped into the space monthly. Of the upcoming games, the most popular is the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The NFT collection, which has seen interest from many celebrities, is making plans to launch its own game, as indicated in its roadmap.
Another upcoming Play-to-earn project is Treeverse. With simple NFTs which can be used in a metaverse, players can earn from trading the 11,111 art pieces and different game levels.
The role of the metaverse in play-to-earn games cannot be underestimated. GAmes need an environment from which they can operate from. These environments (metaverses) are mirrored just like physical worlds. With land, oceans, and developing and developed spaces. Lands are sold there, with investors running into it to secure a piece of the future, as it is called.
While pure metaverse platforms like Sandbox and decentraland have been the in-vogue thing, we have seen traditional companies declare their interest in this phase, with Meta, amazon, and google being front liners.
The fragmentation of these metaverses is one major issue plaguing the space, but ending the time we can have some synergy and interoperability, these metaverses will be the way forward for play-to-earn games.
It has been suggested that each metaverse will be likened to countries, and individuals will be able to migrate from one to another in an interoperable manner, but until we can see it with cryptocurrency exchanges, we are better off assuming it is just a myth.