Diablo I & II, Blockchain, and the Future Gaming Ecosystem
Digital Games and Blockchain
So much is being innovated across industries through blockchain. When I first heard about blockchain being the next revolution to change the world as much as steam engines and the internet did, I pulled up reports in Pitchbook to get a better understanding of what the world would look like when blockchain as a technology becomes more mature. A lot was written about blockchain’s potential use in industries such as finance and law — with a decentralized and transparent way of verifying authenticity the cost savings achievable by eliminating the middleman was obviously attractive.
Then came games like CryptoKitties that put in the forefront blockchain to gain the public’s attention. To me, being able to breed you’re a kitten that is purely unique wasn’t didn’t really get my attention. But what got my attention was the fact that in one case, an individual cryptokitty was sold for more than $300,000. Now that’s something that worth looking into — how is blockchain changing the digital gaming landscape?
Diablo — a Living History of the Need for Transparency and Authenticity
When I first played Diablo I on single player, the game was notoriously difficult for me. Even though my memory is foggy, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t go farther than 5 levels down the catacombs. I turned my eyes on multiplayer and things were much easier. For two totally different reasons.
The obvious reason first, just having another person exploring the underworld with me made things easier. We had to take care of less demons each.
The less obvious reason was the fact that these players would copy valuable items and at times even create a non-existent item (or at least non-existent when Blizzard first developed the game) from thin air, placing it I my inventory without me knowing. There was a moment of awe, a moment of joy, and then a moment of pure goosebumps. How did this person on the other side of the computer screen forge this item and place it in my digital bag? What else could this person do to me? I didn’t like the feeling and stopped playing.
Then Diablo II came out. The game became so popular that it created a marketplace within the game — the very best equipment would be traded with currencies known as ‘Jordan(s)’. Short for ‘The Stone of Jordan’, I speculate that this became the currency because of the item’s value and for the fact that it took little inventory space (the game roughly had 40 inventory slots and large items would take 6 inventory slots while a Jordan being a ring, only took 1). Then came the problems. Players found ways to make fraudulent Jordans and traded them for priceless items. Blizzard would then come in periodically to delete all the fraudulent Jordans. I’m pretty sure the compromised game economy made players untrusting of each other and ultimately stop playing — as did I.
Blockchain’s Role in a New Digital Gaming Ecosystem
Blockchain’s has amazing potential to change the gaming ecosystem for the better. The technology will allow the formation of a much more stable gaming economy by allowing i) verification, ii) security, and iii) real-time exchanges at low cost.
Games with the most fanatic players are based on a ‘collectibles’ model. Having a superior item that is extremely scarce in quantity not only had functional in-game benefits but had actual monetary value — just as a rare Pokemon card was worth thousands of dollars. The thought of building up currencies in-game or hunting directly for the rare digital assets was what drove many people to video games. Game developers knew this and having a strict control on the quantity of such items was important — a breakdown of this balance would cause the game economy to go bust and gamers would leave the platform. Blockchain can stop this catastrophe — digital assets that are created are verified through a decentralized system and there would be perfect transparency of the creation, deletion, and current count of all digital assets. The game economy would stay intact.
What if you did build up a large base of assets in-game? What would be your next fear? Hacking. This occurs very frequently even today — you try logging in to your account one day and all your items are gone. Or your password changed, and you can’t get in. You sometimes find your log-in location a few thousand kilometers away. Blockchain technology is designed to be unhackable and the digital ledger will prove to be a way to trace back any lost digital items to the right owner.
Finally, blockchain’s ability to allow easy transactions across the globe will facilitate transactions even more. Because transaction of digital assets was so uncommon in the early 2000’s, there was a lack of surveillance and transactions were thus prone to scams. Blockchain will provide a much more secure place for digital transactions through tokenization.
Not Necessarily a Waste of Time Anymore
The biggest argument my parents and friends (that were not into gaming) had was that gaming was a total waste of time. What could you get out of it?
I always believed otherwise — even before the notion of blockchain. I felt that video games were greatest form of art. It combined state-of-the-art technology, great story telling, music, art, and even economics to create a single medium that could take people back to the past or probable future. You could learn and feel so much from such a product.
But blockchain can allow games to do more. Even if I leave a gaming platform, someone else might want my account and digital assets. With blockchain, I can get compensated for the time I invested into gaming — all the whilst enjoying my time I spent. Furthermore, I can even save time in a new game that I start playing. I could buy digital assets and progress further and more easily to enhance my gaming experience.
Not necessarily a waste of time anymore — at least the time I spent will be of some value.
Sources:
https://www.investopedia.com/news/cryptokitties-are-still-thing-heres-why/
