NFT Games and Earn to Play
In my previous article, I asked if we could earn tokens by playing games. In this article, I focused on NFT Games, which earn tokens by playing games.
Blockchain technology in NFT games is driven by NFTs, which are digital assets that represent in-game content. These tokens are unique, rare and indivisible. Blockchain networks that support NFTs, on the other hand, facilitate player ownership, provable scarcity, interoperability, and immutability. This unlocks the potential for NFT games to drive a much fairer value model while facilitating mainstream adoption.
Key Features of NFTs
Nonfungible tokens are not exclusive to the blockchain gaming industry. These tokens can represent digital and real-world assets such as artwork, real estate, collectibles, and even personal identity. They act as a kind of capital transfer. As a result, NFTs have a wide range of practical applications that address multiple industries and use cases, and their adoption is accelerating. Unlike most other digital tokens, NFTs exhibit three distinct characteristics:
Non-fungibilty: Each NFT is a cryptographic token that represents something unique or immutable. In other words, it cannot be replaced by another NFT. The metadata inside each NFT resides on the blockchain as a permanent and unalterable record. Similar to a certificate of authenticity, this record describes what the token represents and describes the token’s ownership history and transaction record. In contrast, many cryptocurrencies are exchangeable, such as bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and other service tokens. In this context, it can be said that BTC and ETH cannot be used as NFT.
Rarity: The rarity of each NFT is a crucial component of what makes them desirable. For example, in CryptoKitties, users collect and breed digital cats, each shaped by a designated NFT. Some of these CryptoKitties are considered rare collectibles and, as a result, raise their price among collectors who value their demonstrable rarity. For example, in 2018, a CryptoKitty named Dragon was sold for 600 ETH, which was equivalent to $170k at the time.
Indivisibility: Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can be broken down into smaller units given their exchangeability and intended use as a medium of exchange. By contrast, most NFTs must be bought, sold, and stored as a whole and are therefore indivisible — just as you cannot buy 10% of a concert ticket or 60% of a plane ticket.
What Are Popular NFT Games?
Certain platforms have positioned themselves as pioneers and catalysts for the NFT gaming world. These games continue to be at the forefront of the current NFT craze as they successfully integrate NFTs with popular game themes. Therefore, players enter the world of NFT by winning while playing some of their favourite game genres.
Axie Infinity
Ethereum-based Axie Infinity is heavily inspired by the Pokemon game series. It has added its own blockchain twist to give its finished product an even more exciting feel. Players, the main purpose of fighting other players is to feed and collect NFT-based digital pets called Axies. Each Axis has its own genetic imprint. Therefore, Axies’ weaknesses and strengths are passed on to their offspring. The evolutionary process is at work here as well. Darwin, you are so great! As expected, these digital pets can be traded on Ethereum NFT marketplaces, and the price of each depends on their rarity and unique characteristics. To start playing the game, you must purchase 3 Axies. For every mission, player vs player (PVP) battle, and adventure mode you scale up, you get the platform’s native Smooth Love Potion (SLP). Axie Infinity has been extremely popular in the Philippines, where players can earn a substantial income by playing the game. For an attempt to produce a new Axie, you have to pay a certain amount of SLP, which you can also buy from exchanges. Another ERC20 token unique to Axie Infinity is the Axis Infinity Shard (AXS), which acts as the platform’s governance token.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is a free-to-play game designed to incorporate NFT elements into a familiar card trading game genre. Players accumulate cards by purchasing cards from other players or by winning PVP matches where the quality of the cards and the playing skills of the players often determine the winner. In particular, more emphasis is placed on skills and strategy. This is because the game uses a ranked game mode where players with the same rating are matched.
You win matches when the game you’re playing causes your opponent’s life to drop to zero before yours. For every win you get experience points. When the experience bar is full, it will move to the next rating or level and you must get a new pack of cards to add to your collection.
Note that each card is backed by an ERC-721 token. Therefore, you can trade them on the local market or open market of the platform. Those who choose to sell cards in the gaming ecosystem will receive GODS, the native token of the platform, as payment. It is worth noting that at the time of writing this guide, the GODS token has not been officially released. Before proceeding with buying or acquiring any tokens marketed as GODS tokens, be sure to verify that the development team has released the GODS tokens to the crypto market.
Splinterlands
Similar to Gods Unchained, Splinterlands is a free-to-play, tradeable card game that allows users to earn as they play. You earn rewards when you win card matches. To start playing Splinterlands, you must first purchase a starter card pack, open a Steem account, and unlock your purchased cards in Splinterlands. In some cases, you may be lucky enough to find rare cards among your first purchases. You can also find multiple cards of the same suit. In this case, you can combine the same cards to increase their strength or sell one of them in exchange for cryptocurrencies.
After you get used to the cards, you can continue to fight with other players or participate in quests. The outcome of these activities will determine whether you win more cards.
Sandbox 3D
Sandbox is a voxel-based game metaverse. Sandbox 3D is one of the most active NFT gaming platforms where players can create and trade virtual assets. In this game, players can manipulate voxel assets and monetize them. You can think of it as a blockchain iteration of popular game titles like Minecraft and Roblox. Platforms provide tools to create and animate objects and then sell them on marketplaces. Additionally, users can create and play custom games on the platform. Sandbox 3D introduced SAND, an ERC-20 token, as the native token for the metastore. With this, players can purchase in-game items from the platform’s market. There is also LAND, which has NFT tokens and are some of the most valuable and sought-after assets in the Sandbox game. In April alone, the LAND sales record of 8.5 million dollars was broken.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is an NFT Defi metaverse that simulates economic competition and cooperation between players to explore other planets. This is achieved by encouraging players to compete for Trilium (TLM), which is necessary to control rival decentralized autonomous organizations (Planet DAOs) and gain access to additional gameplay.
In the Alien Worlds metaverse, players can get NFTs to mine TLM, participate in battles, and complete in-game missions. Depending on their strategy, players can buy and assemble the NFTs that best suit their game. Additionally, players can choose the Council Members of the six Planet DAOs to participate in the management, thereby influencing the direction of the game.
Battle Racers
As the name suggests, it is inspired by popular games like Battle Racers, Super Mario Kart and F-Zero. The whole idea is to combine different weapons and parts to create the most powerful cars. Players can mix different parts and weapons on arcade-sized tracks that will give them some sort of advantage. You can register your winning or prize-winning cars as NFTs on the blockchain and then sell them for crypto on OpenSea.
Each player tries to create the ultimate car, preferring different skills and stats. You can choose handling over speed or defense over firepower in hopes of winning in tournaments. This game is currently playable in Decentraland, which is a blockchain-based virtual world in itself.
Sorare — Global Fantasy Football
Sorare is a fantasy football trading card game on the Ethereum blockchain. Players collect or buy trading cards to compete in weekly competitions and have a chance to unlock rare cards or earn Eth. As of the end of October 2021, Sorare is officially licensed on the platform of more than 200 clubs, with new ones added every week, including famous names such as Real Madrid, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. In addition, the Belgian Jupiler Pro League has licensed Sorare.
In Sorare, cards are divided into four categories: common, rare, super rare, and unique. The game is free and players are given a random deck of community cards when they complete certain practice tasks. However, in order to advance through the leagues and earn rewards, players will at least need to purchase rare cards from the Ether market.
Players assemble a team of five from their decks of cards, choose your captain, and put their teams in weekly competitions. It determines the points the team will get according to the performances of the players in real-life football matches. Players own the NFT cards they collect and can sell them to other players on the NFT marketplaces.
According to the data of CoinMarketCap, the games that earn the most tokens include ApeCoin, Decentraland, The Sandbox and Axie Infinity. The popular NFT Games, of course, not as much as I tried to explain above. Apart from the above NFT Games, Star Atlas, Illuvium, NFT Champions, Dogami, Spider Tanks, The Walking Dead: Empires, MAD Metascientists, Gold Fever, Sidus Heroes and Cosmic Champs should also be counted. You can get summary information about these games from CoinMarketCap.
Conclusion
NFT collectibles and NFT Games continue to push all the moulds of the digital world without borders. According to some although there is a possibility of collapse, NFT seems to continue to wreak havoc on the digital world for a long time. So, let’s play and earn tokens!
References:
- https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/top-nft-games
- https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/nft-blockchain-gaming-industry
- https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-gamefi-and-how-does-it-work
Contents distributed by Learn.Block6.tech
👉 Telegram — Fresh ideas
👉 Twitter — Latest articles
