Play and Earn Cryptocurrency Gaming refers to a particular form of Gaming that rewards people in exchange for their time with money, fiat or otherwise, and is based on the blockchain and utilises cryptocurrencies to create an immersive, seamless experience for gamers. Cryptocurrency gaming has emerged as a mainstream force in the past couple of years, rapidly gaining popularity and gamers. It is also attracting investment because of its wide user base, with an estimated 128 crypto gaming companies attracting 1.2 billion dollars of investment in the first quarter of 2022. Axie Infinity, one of the most popular crypto gaming companies has also earned around 1.2 billion dollars of revenue, ensuring that crypto gaming is seen as having a viable business proposition.
So, how does something so popular work? The way that crypto gaming works is that these games are based on a blockchain platform, enabling the game to incorporate crypto currencies and itemise tokens and avatars as NFT’s on the blockchain. These tokens and avatars can then be traded just like traditional cryptocurrencies and NFT’s in the crypto marketplaces, helping people gain ownership of their own assets as well as enjoying the decentralisation and agency that the crypto games give to them.
There are a myriad number of reasons why P2E games are seen as the games of the future. In fact, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian said in the coming years more than 90% of the people won’t play a game unless their time is being properly valued. With that being said, let’s learn more about some of the reasons why P2E games are the future.
- Pays Gamers for Playing the Game
In crypto games, since gamers earn in-game tokens and avatars and skins by playing the game, it is essentially the same thing as being paid for playing the game. This is because some of these crypto games utilise cryptocurrencies as their in-game tokens, and these tokens can be traded to be turned into fiat currency.
- High Degree of Agency
Earlier, in the gaming industry, there existed a one-way relationship between gamers and developers and publishers. In this relationship, the developers and publishers were in control and the gamer paid for the privilege of being able to access the game. However, it also meant that the developers and publishers were the central authority and had final say over all decisions concerning the game. This meant that if a publisher or a developer was to stop updates to a particular game or release a new version, all of the gamer’s hard work and time and dedication went down the drain as they couldn’t transfer their in-game tokens and assets. However, with crypto games, gamers can trade their in-game tokens and assets as well as convert their cryptocurrency into fiat currency, giving them a high degree of control and flexibility and agency over their own assets, which is something that was only achievable because of the decentralisation that crypto games offer.
- Has created a digital creator’s economy
Crypto Games have become their own self sustained digital universe, or metaverse. This is because a crypto game brings with it additional opportunities needed for its survival and maintenance beyond just being a gamer. In a crypto game, you have a full-fledged economy where people pay each other for goods and services. You can become a designer and design game items and avatars and auction them off as NFT’s and then further invest the money into the game. This results in the propagation of the game by its own means and by individuals invested in the game, making the crypto game a self-containing, self-multiplying organism. Crypto games such as Decentraland which emulate the real estate market and in which you can buy and sell land in the Metaverse are also popular, and has seen a vast amount of investment, with plots of land in the Metaverse in Decentraland going for as much as 1.2 million dollars.
- Offers a novel, transcendental experience
The reason that Crypto Games will perhaps become the future is mainly because of the experience that they are able to offer. They are able to offer people an escape that is just as real as the world where they are escaping from, but one where they could be anything and can totally function just like they did in the normal world but with added benefits. This combination of reality and virtuality that crypto games offer in the metaverse means that they are here to stay and are definitely the future.