The crypto games turn the OWNERSHIP OF IN-GAME ASSETS scenario upside down
Due to the conventional gaming paradigm, the possession of all assets in a game belongs to the game studios. This puts the players in a very unfair situation in which they waste time, energy, emotional feelings, efforts and most importantly money to make their progress in the game and then when one day they decide to quit, there is no chance to somehow return all they have invested in the game for all this time. It’s completely lost.
So what happens if the ownership of all in-game assets could be verified and secured by the blockchain?
Now crypto-enabled gaming becomes a tailored solution to the problem of item ownership. Giving players unprecedented control of their in-game inventory, the items or currency they acquire in the gameplay are completely theirs. Players can even decide to sell them for cryptocurrency worthing real money.
So on one hand, crypto gaming walks the extra mile to fully shift the ownership in the gaming world. The gamers boast the opportunity to actually posses all in-game items . As such they are able to be a part of a fully free of charge virtual goods market.
On the other hand, crypto games enable developers to generate real money by giving users a level playing field while gamers get the opportunity to make the most out of their gaming experience. It’s evident that crypto-enabled gaming seems to be a win-win situation for both parties. Developers think of crypto games as a brand new market, while players look at crypto games with an investor mindset and consider them an engaging and innovative way to make money apart from the cryptocurrency trading itself.
In fact the current crypto games are based mostly on the Ethereum blockchain due to its technology that enables a larger amount of data to be put into blockchain, appropriate for game objects. Still, Tron decentralized network is pacing with high gear and increasing number of game developers admit its benefits, basing their cryptogames on this innovative technology. Tron is a “blockchain based entertainment system” that is full of original content. Based in Singapore, it allows excellent one-on-one interaction between providers of digital entertainment content and ordinary users. Considering the potential of this powerful software, Aftermath Islands also relies on Tron, to achieve higher throughput, scalability and reliability.
We can outline two types of crypto games handling with cryptocurrency
- Crypto games where the cryptocurrency exchange is actually a foundational mechanism for how to play.
- Crypto games where players earn in-game currency through selling virtual items, completing quests, defeating enemies or spending real money.
We will briefly point out two crypto games from the first type:
CryptoKitties – one of the best known examples of a blockchain collectible game, launched in November 2017. CryptoKitties is simple yet multi-layered collectible game. The gameplay of CryptoKitties in a nutshell: players are breeding virtual cats to buy and sell at a profit. This act of breeding 100% reminds of the concept of mining Bitcoin.
In Parsec Frontiers the players looking for financial profit, are exploring the outer space negotiating and selling trade goods between galaxies.
The conclusion
Gamers are yet very familiar with digital assets trading so they are more than ready to take the big dive into the world of crypto gaming.
There are a lot of cryptogames already published. Most of them are collectible games. Some of them are boasting a minimal gameplay though.There are also a number of games still under development with a more complex gameplay to come out. CropBytes for example, is a very promising blockchain breeding game which will soon become accessible. The players will be given to purchase a pet, feed it daily, collect extracts from it and sell those in the market to get daily profits. The extracts can be also exchanged to get permanent game assets like houses, generators, motors etc. CropBytes is not yet on the Tron blockchain. Developers are currently working to add the game on to the decentralized Tron platform.
Predominantly, they are card games such as Age of Rust or RPG games such as CryptoSaga.
Currently, crypto gaming is still an emerging and promising market which makes the competition expectedly fierce. A number of big fish or small startup game studios are constantly struggling to be the “best” or “first in genre”. The crypto gaming landscape is changing fast and its revolutionary nature makes it hard to predict the dimensions of its impact and general growth. One thing is sure – it’s definitely an unpreceded phenomenon because the specifics of its design enable extraordinary flexibility.