Everyone in crypto is asking what it’ll take to bring blockchain technology to the masses. While porn is usually responsible for this (and it very well may be) it turns out that video games will engulf the technology in a revolutionary way. Imagine porting characters and items from one game to another, or at least being able to extract value from them in a different game. It will also allow people to familiarize themselves with the technology in an interactive and intuitive environment.
Isn’t it frustrating to invest tens, or even hundreds of hours into a character in a video game and then start from the ground up when you move on to the next game? Imagine being able to take objects from one game and move them into another as items you actually own.
“Through the use of decentralized networks and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, players can create characters, vehicles, weapons, and other digital manifestations that they own for life, not just the shelf life of a game.”
Today’s Blockchain Games
There are dozens of games that you can play today that use blockchains. The most well-known blockchain-based game is called Cryptokitties, a game where you breed, sell and collect your Tamagotchi felines. One of the kitties recently sold for $170,000. At its peak, the amount of transactions on the platform completely clogged up the Ethereum network which forced transaction costs and times to skyrocket. This was a valuable learning experience for the community. Alternatives have been proposed, like Enjin Coin, which can reduce the gas fee and data stored within the token code. Enjin Coin has seen a nearly 10x jump in value within the past few weeks.
Two other playable games (they still need a lot of work) are Gods Unchained and Etherbots. With Etherbots, you can create robots that battle each other. You gain experience and items as you battle, like most games. The interesting part is when you go over to Gods Unchained, you can use your ‘parts’ from Etherbots to claim special decks within Gods Unchained. I spent a couple hundred hours leveling up some of my WoW characters. It wouldn’t have felt like a complete waste of time if I could somehow use the character or items in another game, or at least extract value out of these items. This is what blockchain is going to do to gaming.
Get Ready
Game rules could also evolve by implementing a voting system in a decentralized platform. Players could hop into a sandbox game, vote on how they want to play it and then battle or build in whatever way they want. Changing the game’s logic, or even the game itself, can take an average game and morph it into exactly what the community wants out of it.
“This lends itself to some really interesting new possibilities — imagine a World of Warcraft type game, where players play in towns and worlds created by players of totally different MineCraft or Sim-City-like game(s).….Or two sets of players playing entirely different games — but they could be playing in the same game-world where their actions have real effects on the other game through decentralized shared data.” Let this piece sink in for a minute.
MegaCryptoPolis (MCP) is a decentralized city-builder DApp built on the Ethereum network. Each plot of land in MCP is a token which you can buy and sell to other users on the network. After you buy a piece of land, you can build various structures on it, upgrade them and cooperate with neighboring structures to generate influence points. For example, a residential building that is next to an office will generate more influence points than one that’s next to a mining facility. People generally like to live close to where they work, and usually do not enjoy choking on particulates from a nearby mining facility.
The concept is definitely interesting. I finally bought a little piece of land that’s right on the beach in MCP! While I might not be able to afford an actual beach house after I flip my virtual one, there is money to be made in virtual real estate so be sure to keep an eye on this space in general.