Blockchain games suck.
With the broader crypto market slowly bouncing back in the last few weeks, CryptoBlades has been an outlier, mooning 200x in just 20 days (then crashing down 5x, but still not bad!) It has exploded to be the most popular app on Binance Smart Chain, using over 50% of network capacity and even outpacing PancakeSwap.
Despite DeFi being the rage these days, games have been the most popular apps on blockchain networks. We all remember CryptoKitties where you collected kitties like Pokemon. It might’ve been short lived, but it was the most popular dapp in its day, bringing Ethereum to a standstill and pushing gas fees to heights never seen before.
Traditional game developers have been rushing to jump on the bandwagon. Taito, known for classics like Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble, revived its Puzzle Bobble on the Celer blockchain network. Atari, the original pioneer of home console video gaming, announced an entire division dedicated to blockchain and released NFTs of their most popular games. But they have not reached the eyewatering valuations of Beeple or even CryptoKitties.
These blockchain games enable players to face off for real money — or real cryptocurrency, which is better than money! Is this just a passing fad or the beginning of the future?
Let’s be honest. Blockchain games suck.
The blockchain games of today are repetitive and boring. User experience just sucks — complicated wallet login, frustratingly slow loading times, no customer support. These games are dominated by those focused on riches by mining for gold and speculating on virtual land, while the few players who are truly interested in the gameplay are priced out due to high gas fees. Blockchain enables everyone to play for money, but that is precisely the problem.
Blockchain games are only about making money.
“Blockchain games allow [gamers] to earn money. The average gamer is not a gamer at all. [He’s] more of a trader, usually a male of age 25–40 who buys an asset and tries sell it at a higher price.”
— Vladimir Tomko, Co-Founder of Blockchain Cuties
The typical blockchain template includes NFTs for in-game goods, a DEX for those goods, and an in-game currency to exchange those goods. The in-game currency could be something major like ETH or it could be the platform’s native utility token, like SKILL on CryptoBlades.
This template naturally leads to trading and speculation. Every blockchain game is based on the play-to-earn model. (Or am I wrong? Let me know in the comments!)
Just take a look at the home page for Alien World. There’s no hiding the fact that the goal is only to earn money.
Gas price is too damn high!
If you’re already a crypto whale, you might not worry about gas prices as much. The rest of us — especially new gamers — need to start by setting aside a trust fund.
CryptoBlades fighters pay an average of 0.142 BNB per week on gas fees — that’s $50 per week before even buying characters and weapons. Thankfully this runs on Binance Smart Chain — imagine how much it would cost on Ethereum!
CryptoKitties — while the hype has died down, it has not become any cheaper to play. The cheapest Cryptokitty costs 0.0043 ETH, breeding costs 0.008 ETH, and gas fees can set you back up to a whopping 0.2 ETH during congested times.
In contrast, World of Warcraft only costs $15 per month.
But don’t get confused. CryptoBlades fights are not like the action-packed quests on Warcraft. There are no fancy graphics or gameplay. It’s more akin to an overpriced version of Magic the Gathering — you pick a card, pay gas fees, wait for confirmation, and you’re told if you won or not.
Without a blockchain-based game engine, it isn’t yet possible to build a blockchain-only game. There is very little game logic built into smart contracts (nor is there any network capacity for such complex logic), resulting in these glorified trading cards rather than fun-to-play games.
Gamers have always been first movers.
Gamers are some of the most familiar with virtual in-game currency and running local nodes, a natural synergy with cryptocurrency and blockchain networks. While Average Joes attempt to wrap their heads around the definition of “virtual” cryptocurrency, gamers have already become comfortable using it every day to buy virtual swords. It isn’t too much of a stretch for gamers to embrace crypto.
Video game developers rely on early adopters to drive profits. Developers take advantage of new features to attract eager, high-spenders and drive success early in the game’s lifecycle.
Much like cryptocurrency mining, there has long been an industry of entrepreneurs who mine in-game tokens. Sometimes it’s more profitable to mine FIFA coins than bitcoin, as these Ukrainians found out.
Blockchain can enable more user control.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of blockchain is the verifiability and transparency. In the same way that these characteristics set bitcoin apart from traditional finance, gamers find value in the immutable ownership of in-game items, solving item theft due to hacking, and the sale of fake in-game assets. We can definitively determine the scarcity of the Dragonclaw Hook in Dota.
Fans have long been active in developing mods to improve gameplay. Half-Life spawned the modern modder community who are largely credited with the success of the game. They continue to be more active than the publishers themselves. Yet for all their work and skill, the publisher Valve reaped all the financial rewards.
Other publishers have not welcomed modders with open arms. Take Two just shut down Ozark, a popular mod for Grand Theft Auto.
Open source code on the blockchain can encourage users to develop their own content by forking the game, extending game longevity, and get paid for their success. Alternatively, players could reject unpopular moves. Don’t want Blizzard to forced Reforged on you? Blockchain-based players could simply fork it and continue playing their old classic versions.
Blockchain can enable true interoperability.
Earlier games were restricted to your personal environment. Those gold coins on Super Mario were yours in your world only, confined to your cartridge on your console. Modern games are connected by the internet allowing use of those coins across different platforms and with different players. Even so, these coins are the property of the game developer and are restricted to the gaming environment.
Blockchain technology will allow interoperability to happen between different worlds. Currencies that previously remained within a virtual realm now have a real world value the owner can decide to sell, lend, destroy, use, or just hodl.
We need to transition from play-to-earn to play-to-win.
“Blockchain games are all about making money. If the average gamer is not actually a gamer but more of a trader, can we really call it a game?”
— Cointelegraph
To me, blockchain games feel like glorified, overpriced card games. We are a long ways from building a true game with logic, hosting, rendering on the blockchain.
I would like to see a shift in gaming away from developer revenue and toward player value creation. Game developers historically derive revenue from the sale of the game itself and in-game addons. We have seen this shift perhaps too far in one direction with the current generation of play-to-earn games. Tokenomics should be designed to benefit players and developers alike — although hopefully in a model that doesn’t incentivize too much play-to-earn and casino-like behavior.
Blockchain games are only in their infancy. Games have inspired new generations of pilots, city planners, and now crypto enthusiasts. Games are the door to crypto for millions of newcomers. We believe it is the perfect place to test new concepts and gear up for mass adoption.
