Leveraging play to earn games to change the business of gaming
The concept of play to earn games in exchange for real money is not new, but it has gotten increasingly widespread as online communities have grown in size and become huge business. A large number of Venezuelans went to gold farming as their principal source of income after discovering that it provided them with more financial security than traditional types of work. The country garnered worldwide headlines when this occurred. The practice has gotten so prevalent that it now has its own page on Wikipedia as well as an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Most game companies prohibit Gold Farming and other kinds of monetary exchange of in-game goods or account transfers in their Terms of Service (ToS) agreements, which are quite restricted in nature. Learn more about Gold farming by clicking here.
The intention of these techniques is to safeguard the community; yet, they are more likely to be applied in order to establish control over in-game economy, restrict exposure to KYC/AML regulations, and maximize revenues than anything else. Individual gamers are unable to derive value from assets that they have acquired or earned via play to earn games as a result of these prohibitions.
Players will be unable to resell items they have previously acquired as a result of the prohibition on exchange, demonstrating that they do not really own the goods they purchase. Some players have been pushed into the grey markets as a result of these tactics, where they are vulnerable to counterparty risks and account suspensions, which may result in the assets being stripped away if they are detected.
A lawful and open exchange of products makes it almost hard for users to recoup part of their expenditures from previous purchases, much alone make a profit on their accounts and virtual items they have acquired while gaming. As a result, these closed systems may be restricting the economic potential of these gaming communities, especially given that the game publishers retain the rights to involvement in their development.
However, as blockchain technology becomes more widely used throughout the globe, new game economic models are beginning to develop. As a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns, a large number of non-traditional gamers in the Philippines migrated to crypto-based video play to earn games in 2020 as a means of supplementing their income. Grandparents, single moms, and taxi drivers were all seen in the nation resorting to video play to earn games to supplement their income – playing, producing, and exchanging digital assets that they could then sell on public blockchain exchanges in order to convert their earnings into cash.
What distinguishes these play to earn games from massively multiplayer online play to earn games Gold Farming games are based on open economies, the removal of restrictive Terms of Service, and the use of cutting-edge technology like as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that operate on the blockchain. Using these new models, people regain control of their lives by enabling ownership of goods that they have purchased or earned.
Gaming The System is a set of rules that govern how things work.
As early video games progressed from being boxed items to becoming continuous-play online services, several features of game design altered in tandem with the transition. Online play-to-earn games provided clients with long-term experiences, necessitating the evolution of business structures to keep up with the times. Subscriptions and, subsequently, micro-transactions were added, allowing for incremental on-demand purchases to be made in small increments. Unfortunately, several sections of game design included components that were incompatible with the new models that were still there. Randomized “Loot Boxes” offered motivation and reward in early video play to earn games, although they were not related to monetization in single-purchase, packaged-goods game cartridges at the time of its introduction. Learn more about play to earn games at https://bltzr.gg/play-to-earn/
Some publishers may be able to monetize these randomized game assets if they are offered as microtransactions in their play to earn games. When taken to its logical conclusion, this activity might be considered a sort of gambling. Successful “Free to Play” play to earn games, on the other hand, tend to concentrate on retaining their most loyal players by giving them the ability to speed their game progress. Unfortunately, this might generate irritation for some players, resulting in a lack of willingness to pay and placing the weight of supporting the game on a small proportion of the player population, which can be detrimental to the game’s income sources. Gameplay that benefits high-spending players might exacerbate and stratify the player base even more.
So, what do gamers find appealing?
As it turns out, the virtual world is a reflection of the actual world. Players like collecting limited-edition digital goods and expressing their social standing via the customization of their virtual identities and virtual environments. The cosmetics industry alone is projected to be worth $40 billion each year, and it is increasing at a rate of 5% per year. The application of blockchain technology to paid cosmetics and virtual goods has the potential to spur the development of new economic models for the gaming industry – a model that is likely to be dominated by non-financial institutions (NFTs), which give players ownership over their purchases while sharing resale revenue with developers and adding economic value to the game community.
What Does This Mean for Investors and How Can They Benefit?
However, although many investors will be looking to major, publicly listed corporations to provide market direction, the savvy industry participants will be watching and waiting to see how younger, more agile companies perform before making any decisions about adopting these new market practices. They are likely to adopt a wait-and-see attitude, allowing the independents to take risks and verify proof of ideas while they monitor the situation. Their goal is to enter the market later, usually by purchasing and implementing innovative concepts after they have been proved and lucrative.
This is an exceptional chance for entrepreneurs, independent developers, and investors to join in on the first floor of a new venture. The concept of creator-based economies is not new, but blockchain technology has the ability to broaden the scope of these economic models and propel development to previously unimaginable heights. Gamer communities have the opportunity to participate in the success of the play to earn games they like via the use of cryptoeconomics.
People all across the globe are keeping an eye on the present cryptocurrency and NFT craze and wondering what will happen in the next 12 months. However, wise investors and developers will be looking forward 3-5 years, which will be the “make or break” moment for this technology and the new business models that will emerge as a result of it. If high-quality play to earn games are introduced to the market, blockchain-enabled open economies have the potential to become the fastest-growing section of a market that is nearing $200 billion in value.