How Blockchain Gaming Is Evolving The Way Games Are Played

How Blockchain Gaming Is Evolving The Way Games Are Played BLOCKCHAIN
With the gaming industry continuing to grow in size and value, some companies are looking into building games around Blockchain to take advantage of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and their benefits. Whether it might be a trading card game, MMO or RPG, the use of virtual currencies in games is getting popular.

Blockchain-backed assets
In recent years, games have entered the markets using Blockchain features such as wallets or tokens to secure and back in-game items. This way players have more ownership of the items or currency they loot and purchase. With a Blockchain record, players are guaranteed ownership which gives their items value to both the owner and other players.

Spells of Genesis and Force of Will, are both trading card games where all the cards are linked to the Bitcoin Blockchain. These are linked via Counter-Party tokens which have been linked to a trading card and players can exchange via Blockchain transactions.

“Spells of Genesis allows players to have true ownership of their digital assets through the Bitcoin Blockchain. SoG places some cards on the Blockchain and thus gives them some properties of physical items,” wrote EverdreamSoft, the creators of Spells of Genesis.

Cashing out
Another game, Beyond the Void, which offers their own token, Nexium, also used their token to fund development and allow anyone outside the game buy game items and currency. With the token in their wallets, those who bought Nexium can now trade it across the Ethereum Blockchain and send in-game items to any other ETH user with the supported wallet.

Being able to sell off your in-game assets before you leave a game has also introduced a new way to quit. A chance to “cash out” and sell your inventory keeps items and currency active but at the same time, allows players to recover some funds that they deposited.

Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, President of Virtual Reality, told Cointelegraph:

“As a platform, the Blockchain is best suited for games where there is real cash value involved. Whenever you are dealing with items with real cash value, you are connected to the real world. It is only when you are playing games where there is no intrinsic value at stake that you are disconnected from the real world.”

Linking virtual and real-world economies
Developers are also integrating the use of cryptocurrencies and connecting their games to the real-world economies through crypto exchanges and P2P transactions. Since cryptocurrencies can be traded on an exchange or between people, it opens an opportunity for crowdfunding using the in-game currency.

Lately, Planet Rocktropia has been reported getting ready to integrate their own Ethereum token into the Entropia Universe known as NEVERDIE Coin (NDC). Currently, in the ICO stage, the token will allow gamers to kill mobs and loot NDC which can be traded between players or sold on an exchange.

Breaking the barrier between the real and virtual world economies is a challenge but Blockchain applications are a good path to cryptocurrency adoption through gaming. With over 1.8 bln gamers worldwide, there is no limit to regional or continental servers as the Blockchain is universal and ready for a change which could potentially give people their start in cryptocurrencies.
Changing the game mechanics
Giving a player value to their in-game assets encourages them to put in more funds into games they enjoy playing without the risk that they will lose it and think smart. With all transfers and trades for the game dependant on the Blockchain, no reverse transactions, double charge or fake items will exist since it is all backed by a Blockchain record.

Having several options, gaming companies have built their games on either the Bitcoin or Ethereum Blockchains All these options have their special features such as the Ethereum smart contract system or Bitcoin’s mass popularity. The ability to create a token on top of a Blockchain unlocks more uses and demand for the coin for transactions.