GameFi Meets Opposition and is Deemed a Lacklustre Innovation by Gamers
There are quite differing opinions about the gaming industry’s idea of incorporating blockchain technology for a “better entertainment experience.”
Technological advancements have been nothing short of bags of signs and wonders over the last decade. We do not have flying cars, nor do we run automobiles on simple H2O just yet, but my oh my, the gem of the century is here, and it’ll change the way we see the world and possibly upset conventional systems in finance and technology that is being deployed by capitalists to keep us down and constantly exploited. The hero is here and doesn’t wear his underpants outside his clothes. Rather, he is just a chain of irrefutable blocks of code adorned with transparency, community, and a cape that preaches decentralization. Here comes the Blockchain.
The blockchain is true, and the blockchain is one. The blockchain is this or that…what exactly is it? Why does it sound so complicated that even beady-eyed extraterrestrials would find a hard time comprehending all of this cobwebby tech, and what does it have to do with me — a gamer?
The ring of the notification bell that greets you once you get connected to the Wifi and ultimately get lost doom-scrolling on your favorite social plug, you might find your TL littered with news and updates on cryptocurrencies, e-tokens, blockchain applications, and perhaps get swooped into the NFT craze.
Blockchain technology has quickly risen and developed multiple use-cases across various sectors, finding its way into a large part of the entertainment industry; it has appeared to catch the attention of the gaming community, presenting itself as “play-to-earn” which is now dubbed the future of gaming by proponents of the blockchain. As the term implies, you simply make money from sitting with an arched back, bent over a screen, and tapping away at your keyboard to guide your favorite virtual character to victory. This gaming model is largely based on a system built on the blockchain that is now identified as GameFi.
What was once thought of as nothing more than a way to kill time by immersing oneself in the world of imagination, fantasy, and adventure have now mushroomed and grown into a “newly improved system” known as GameFi. This development was made possible by the gaming industry’s implementation of blockchain technology in a manner that is applicable to the sector.
The idea of the GameFi model is to provide gamers maximum utility and introduce new elements by creating a perfect blend of gaming and finance aimed at revolutionizing the gaming space by adding commercialization and giving rewards for players that are said to have real-world benefits that recompense players for their dedication to spending countless hours in playing time and difficult labor in accomplishing in-game tasks and objectives.
These games have turned our virtual avatars and other in-game assets like skins, weapons, power points, experience points (XP), and other in-game items into tradable commodities in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Another complex acronym in the vat of blockchain tech jargon. Surprisingly seeing a lot of success in the digital space since the picture of a thousand faces by Beeple sold for ungodly amounts, raking in revenue of $69 million on sale, NFTs have received a lot of attention, and the need to own one has increasingly grown and now, you can win one by playing a game.
Turn a hobby into work, get paid to conquer virtual lands with your now overpowered avatar wielding a sword twice his height and thrice his body weight. While the play-to-earn model sounds like an amazing prospect and has met an open-armed welcome by profit-seeking companies, a good part of the gaming community has expressed their displeasure with the development.
A literature review report that was published by Crypto.com revealed that the blockchain-based gaming entertainment industry had been guesstimated to grow substantially at a compound annual rate of 100 percent. This finding is evidenced by the fact that the play-to-earn model has received a lot of positive reactions, which is apparent in the research report. Compared to the business’s total sales of $1.5 billion in 2021, the sector would be valued at over $50 billion in 2025.
Of course, it is all about statistics, percentages, and capital valuations. All about money. This is where the problem lies. Hardcore gamers are said to favor the traditional method of gaming, which is based on skill and is free of any “money-seeking” ploys, which the play-to-earn gaming model introduces with the integration of gaming tokens, cryptocurrency marketplaces, and NFTs. Even though the GameFi market has already bagged accomplishments since its commencement and has the prospects to be a juggernaut industry in the coming years, the market has also been reported to receive pushback from conventional gamers.
To some extent, the inclusion of these elements is indeed ruining the fun that we get out of video games. Still, perhaps the GameFi innovation could be a great idea if it wasn’t already a space for a free-for-all scam that has been running wild in the digital space.
Some scrupulous parties in the cryptocurrency sector are utilizing the Gamefi space to earn extra money quickly. There is a widespread problem with worthless tokens and NFT ventures that never really release an actual game. that works. just claims, hype, and whitepapers that are poorly written.
Companies that focus on developing their infrastructure rather than marketing untested items have the greatest potential to perform at a high level in the digital space. Now, it is true that cryptocurrency is linked to substantial amounts of funds, which, for better or for worse, attracts nefarious actors who are trying to take advantage of the situation. Scam projects have littered the sea and are now out for not just strictly financial investors but gamerheads too.
There’s also an issue with these NFT rewards on blockchain games, as players have no control over how to utilize their tokens in auxiliary markets. This is one of the most basic issues that arise with the efforts of modern gaming companies to implement NFTs in their games. This reeks of corporate boards and “advisory executives” that are seeking to make a profit off of a trend without fully comprehending what it is about the trend that is so exceptional. As a direct result of this, NFTs are nothing more than renamed and repackaged downloaded content products.
The user, not the game creator, may own and transmit NFTs, which are basic keys that denote in-game assets. These assets can be acquired and transferred by the user. In the event that the assets in question were genuine NFTs, the purchasers of such assets would be at liberty to transport them outside the boundaries of the developer’s playground. Sounds very complex for a simple video game, right?
Well, technological advancements are always welcome, and if they make life better and easier, then they should be accepted wholly. Still, they should not compromise passion and elevate incentives over contentment from simply being entertained.
A future that will praise and turn crypto-based gaming into mainstream and not just some weak bubble that might or might not pop would be definitely one to see and be part of. But, at the moment, according to a report by Fandomspot, a survey of 2000 gamers registered 69% of them voted against NFTs and claimed to “hate” them, and 12% of the lot admitted they did not know what exactly NFTs were. And apparently, I do not think they would care for a boring lecture on how fungibility works.
Granted, this is a small assay of sample distribution but still, the numbers do not look good as regards mass adoption. A deeper look into these numbers prompted questions as to the possible reason that might have made them despise NFTs, and it was observed that 86% picked the option that the reason for their detest because of the changes that the gaming sector was undergoing as a result of the amalgamation of gaming, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs. More than half expressed their displeasure owing to the fact that these digital assets are not sustainable in themselves as regards value fluctuations as well as the inclusion of finance-oriented moves in gameplay that would be unfair to a good number of people who prefer to spend time building than cutting corners with digital assets.
The animosity between crypto and gamers keeps on giving. The quality of one blockchain-based game, for one, is very poor in graphics as opposed to the graphic-hungry pixel-ravenous gaming community.
We’ll treat this as another piece for another article: “I Don’t Like Crypto — Hardcore Gamer.”
