In the current gaming ecosystem, players spend massive amounts of time to win games. They may even spend thousands of dollars purchasing in-game assets, which they don’t even have ownership rights to.
This is where blockchain gaming comes into play. The natural synergy between video games and Web3 is pretty apparent as both are digital, leverage different forms of digital items and currencies, and have various aspects of gamification built into them.
However, Web3 is not a game but a platform onto which games can be built. Most modern in-game items and currencies have the same specifics as cryptocurrencies, but they are not them.
Today we will discuss what blockchain games are and how they are becoming an integral part of the technology.
What Are Blockchain Games?
Blockchain games offer real value, ownership, and incentives to gamers. These games aim to establish a fairer and more transparent relationship between players and the games they play, no matter their genre.
To put things into perspective, blockchain games allow users to recover value from in-game items and coins through marketplaces and exchanges. This could be revolutionary for the gaming industry.
Typically, blockchain-based games use fungible or non-fungible tokens in their ecosystem. Most games are deployed on the Ethereum ecosystem due to its widespread use case in the industry. These games often use Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard to power in-game tokens and ERC-721 or ERC-1155 tokens for in-game items or characters that are most likely to be NFTs.
This allows for real ownership and even reselling of the game’s assets, including the tokens, in-game items, and characters. Since these tokens are deployed on a blockchain, they aren’t limited to one specific game. The blockchain itself provides the infrastructure for both ownership and trade of in-game items via marketplaces.
How Do Blockchain Games Work?
One way to understand the underworking of blockchain games is by looking at the tools at the disposal of game developers like digital wallets, smart contracts, and tokens.
- Crypto Wallets
Every gaming ecosystem has a login system and gamers have unique identities that they use for each closed gaming ecosystem. However, crypto wallets provide gamers with the unique opportunity to universally log in to games. Gamers only need one wallet to access all games deployed on a certain blockchain.
- Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are the backbone of blockchain applications. These automatically executed, pre-determined programs give gamers a guarantee that parts of the game outlined on these contracts run as determined every single time.
- Digital Currency
Digital currencies are an integral part of online video games. Players can earn them by defeating bosses, completing quests, being rewarded for playing the game, or even purchasing them from marketplaces. Tokens of blockchain games also serve the same purpose but enable gamers to profit from them beyond the game.
Types Of Blockchain Games
- NFT Games
Every blockchain game can be called an NFT game. If a game presented its characters or other in-game items as NFTs, then that game would be an NFT game. Instead of using in-game assets only within the ecosystem, blockchain gamers can own their in-game assets as NFTs and transfer, sell, or exchange them for other game items or even cash.
- Metaverse
Metaverse aims to bring a whole new level of reality to gaming, socializing, and events. NFTs play an integral role in these virtual reality environments. Compared to regular games where players have little to no control over their environment, metaverse offers an “always on” environment where players can own, curate, and build out parts of the gaming ecosystem using NFTs. They can also monetize their creations.
- Play-to-Earn Games
Play-to-earn (P2E) is a gaming mechanic on the blockchain where players can earn crypto tokens as a reward for completing tasks, winning battles against enemies, or progressing through levels within a game. The principle behind P2E games is that the more time you spend on the game, the higher your chances of winning rewards with real value, such as NFTs or other cryptocurrencies.
What Are Some Popular Blockchain Games?
Here is a list of some of the most popular blockchain games that you could try out:
- Axie Infinity
- Splinterlands
- Ember Sword
- The Sandbox
- CryptoKitties
- Star Atlas
- Sorare
- Blankos Block Party
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