TL:DR; Video games are being updated at the speed of light and the interest of video game creators in Blockchain technology is increasing. This technology will change the way people play, making hacks impossible or giving the opportunity to move between different games. In addition, the pioneers (Decentraland, Age of Rust…) are sweeping this market. I advise game developers to keep playing and if you are very interested I recommend you to take a look at other services that use Blockchain.
Lately I am reading a lot of news related to Blockchain and videogames and some wonderful memories of whole afternoons playing Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bross, Doom… Playing these mythical games has made videogames a really important part in my life that even today makes me excited with every new and different game that comes out to the market.
Seeing that video games are more and more innovative about the technology they are based on is really exciting, that’s why I invite you to read my post if you are interested in the world of gaming and Blockchain technology.
You may have heard about the Blockchain in the financial field, but there are not few companies from other sectors (education, journalism, health, logistics and even as a measure to improve corporate social responsibility of companies…) that are seeing the advantages of this new technology.
There is practically no industry that has not considered entering this encrypted world, the gaming sector which generates more and more income each year, 120.100 billion dollars in 2019 to be precise, is not going to be left behind.
At every edition of e-sports events such as BlizzCon, DreamHack or E3 we see video game creators racing to be at the cutting edge. That’s why Blockchain Gaming, the group of video games that are partially or entirely based in Blockchain, has landed to increase the value of video games in three different ways.
On the one hand, the Blockchain will give the players the possibility to become their own protagonists by increasing their functions such as exchanging tools or services within the video game.
On the other hand, it will help to ensure that no video game is manipulated by any user so no one will be able to use hacks in their favour thus increasing the game-player transparency.
And finally, the Blockchain will be able to connect games that have the same Blockchain base to maintain, link and transfer all the experience and assets gained from one game to another.
But why is it still not being implemented massively in the gaming sector? There are only a few brave people who have entered the Blockchain world.
Although there are millions of game developers today, many of them are still sceptical about entering the Blockchain arena. The developer profile has to have clear from the beginning that it will not be a path of roses (giving up part of the control, taking care of the user interface…) but all this will lead you to be one of the first to get a bigger piece of the cake.
Putting all of this into practice, there have been brave video game developers who have really jumped at the chance and created wonders.
We can highlight video games like CryptoKitties (2017) which has its foundations in Blockchain technology. Players have the option to buy, collect, breed and sell various types of virtual cats with Ethereum tokens. In this online cat world, there are types of cats of which stand out the Founders that can be sold for up to 30 ETH or the Exclusives that have been given to the players as a reward, coming to be sold to other users for more than $143,000. Perfect for crypto enthusiasts who are allergic to cats, right?
Age of Rust is another first-person game designed and fully integrated into the Blockchain that tries to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. It aims to find a treasure that instead of having gold coins, has 20 Bitcoin coins. Juicy reward.
Another example that should be highlighted is the virtual reality platform called Decentraland that is 100% supported by Ethereum. In this video game, players can move through an open world with the option to buy with their token MANA plots of land, then they can build on them and monetize them. Like Minecraft but more real because it leaves real profits for the sellers. For example, there was a virtual plot that was sold for 2M of MANA, equivalent to $180k at the time of the transaction. My house is worth less.
Taking into account that the Blockchain will reinvent and improve the way users play, I have the following doubts:
- Will the Blockchain technology give us the opportunity in the future to customize a character and move with him between different video games?Can you imagine a soldier playing in a Minecraft universe?
- Will it reinvent the physical form of consoles?
- Will we spend more on virtual goods than real goods?
Finally, and as an advice after years of playing videogames, or in case some developer reads me, I want to emphasize that the added value of the Blockchain does not have to diminish the playability and fun that a conventional game offers since these factors are the ones that make the player get hooked because they are about fun experiences. So, if a videogame developer wants to be successful he must find the balance between these two fundamental points.
Other services that use Blockchain that may interest you are
-Decentralized cloud storage: Internxt Drive
-Global payments: Ripple.
-Social network of crypto-currency exchanges: Fleta (Wallet Street)
-A platform for digitising financial assets and optimising business processes: Codefi.
Thank you for reading my post! Let’s Rock, baby! 👾
