Your Introduction to the World of Play-to-Earn Crypto Games
The gaming landscape as we know it is changing and shifting everyday. This undulating pattern cannot be understated when we examine it from the point of view of blockchain gaming. The blockchain technology has drastically shifted the playing field further into the new era of gaming — Play-to-Earn crypto games!
These games have climbed the ranks of popularity amongst even traditional gaming genres due to these games filling a necessary niche within the wider community. Monetization of one’s time spent on doing the thing they love (that is to say gaming) is the main goal of crypto games.
Crypto games are revolutionizing the landscape of gaming day by day yet still a lot of people aren’t fully aware of the goldmine of opportunities this genre entails.
So let us dive right into the world of crypto games and tell you how you can start making money by participating in your hobbies!
What are play-to-earn games?
Play-to-earn is a game model and a concept where players are rewarded in the form of cryptocurrency or another digital asset for participating in the experience. Such games are often built on and rely heavily on the blockchain infrastructure to handle in-game transactions, decentralize the playing field, and keep their users safe.
The main appeal of these games is the monetization aspect. In many of these games, simple actions such as completing missions or partaking in tournaments are rewarded with digital currency. A complete 180 when compared to the traditional genre, where the main focus is entertainment and entertainment alone.
Main factors that set apart play-to-earn games
Decentralization and transparency.
Most if not all crypto games are built upon blockchain and its wider technology, which accomplishes the decentralization of the experience. With such infrastructure in place, the experience is turned transparent as all actions, interactions, and transactions are now recorded on the publicly available blockchain system.
Monetization Opportunities.
Crypto games allow players to monetize their time playing video games while not requiring extraordinary skill or entertainment ability like other, more traditional ways of monetization available to players. This opens up a gateway for many players, especially those in places with unstable economies, to rise above their current situation by doing the thing they love.
Ownership.
In complete contrast to traditional games, where players do not truly own anything and all game assets are completely in the hands of the developers, play-to-earn games often allow for full ownership of in-game assets as they are most often represented as NFTs. Ownership of this kind allows players to freely do what they want with acquired in-game assets. Be it trade, sell, or buy — anything is possible with the power of blockchain.
Innovation and creativity.
Play-to-earn games come in all shapes and sizes. From strategy games to card games, any and all traditional gaming genres have been transformed and revolutionized by the play-to-earn gaming model. Now more than ever, the gaming industry is defined by the saying “different strokes for different folks”.
The game economy, monetization, and how you can make money playing play-to-earn games
Most of the games within the play-to-earn crypto industry are focused on monetization through NFTs. Although, this doesn’t mean you should overlook any given game utility tokens. Most often, a play-to-earn game will sport two types of tokens: one for trading and one for leveraging. The former is utilized to complete game tasks, progress your character or other object within your ownership, and so on, while the latter is utilized to leverage any given person’s presence within the voting mechanism. Such voting mechanisms often determine the course of the game’s further developments and are used to gauge the player’s opinions on upcoming changes and other development decisions.
With that in mind, the play-to-earn crypto gaming industry poses an interesting economic landscape where nearly anyone can make a profit. Let’s quickly run down the possible ways these games can be monetized by both creators and players.
Game Asset and NFT Trading. Players can make a sizable amount of money by simply trading and selling the in-game assets they accumulate throughout the gaming process.
Transaction fees. More often than not, the game’s specific marketplaces come with specific fees which serve to fund the project. Every token manipulation done on the game blockchain directly benefits the developers and allows them to create more experiences that gamers love and look forward to playing.
Partnerships and other Advertisements. This aspect is usually represented in two ways: cross-blockchain features and product placement. In the former, the game developer ensures that their game assets can be used in other, similar play-to-earn crypto gaming projects which can create an intricate feedback loop between the two games. In the latter, the game developers partner with real world brands or creators to create completely unique events, products and assets.
Challenges of the play-to-earn genre
While we’ve discussed extensively the benefits of this genre, it is by no means perfect. Crypto games, like any other industry, have a set of faults and challenges that players are faced with.
Regulations and worldwide acceptance. The inherent way crypto games interact with cryptocurrency makes them hard to access in certain parts of the world where regulation for digital assets is stricter than usual.
Cryptocurrency volatility. Cryptocurrency is widely known as a very volatile market, and this infamy doesn’t evade the experience.
High point of entry. Like with any other cryptocurrency project, any given person has to know a sizable amount of information about the technology behind the project to enter the experience. This might prove to be insurmountable for some players.