Pros and Cons of Blockchain Games

NFT and blockchain games have been the trend since last year and a lot of people are hyping it inside crypto. People are buying and spending huge amounts of money to buy NFTs and some are investing a lot to play a game.

It all started when Axie Infinity was hyped and became popular all over the world. Since then, more games have appeared in the industry. Some are legit, rug pulled and scams.

I, myself, believe that blockchain games have pros and cons if we will look deeper into it. 

What are the pros?

Mass Adoption 

Based on my observation, a lot of people get exposed to cryptocurrency when more games are released in the blockchain. Since some people are curious because they can earn by playing, they do research, some are invested, and others start looking for scholarships.

In my case, when Axie Infinity became a trend, I often heard the word crypto from my friends which some of them did not mention before. They don't even know what it is. But because of blockchain gaming, they were exposed and learned about crypto.

I have some friends who approached me asking what crypto is, how to trade, how to start, etc. For me, it is a good sign that we are having adoption from the community.

People are having extra income

Deny it or not but some blockchain games really give extra income to the people. Some treated it as a business like investing and finding a person that wants to be a scholar for passive income.

It can also help students who want an income because blockchain gaming is not choosing an age where everyone can play without any age restriction, you just need to know its concept and you are ready to go.

NFTs are having use case

It is sad that some NFT has no use case and is just being sold because of the hype. People are buying and investing in NFT despite having no utility. It is just more on ownership and arts, it will be more cool if you can stake those NFT and other cases.

Good thing is, blockchain gaming solved this problem. By having a game, NFTs are having more exposure where the arts and collectibles can be played and used in the game.

In fact, each Axie in Axie Infinity is an NFT and all of them are unique to each other.

What are the cons?

Earnings Over Entertainment

For me, this is one of the biggest mistakes of players in blockchain gaming. They treat it as a normal job and forget the real essence of the word game. This is why people are becoming stressed when they are playing instead of having fun.

However, I do understand why people are reacting like this with blockchain games. Since you invested in it and spent a huge amount of money, it is natural to react negatively while you are playing. This is why you should not treat it as a job because it is only a game.

Pay-to-play-to-earn

I always read the term play2earn games but for me it is not like play-to-earn, it is pay-to-play-to-earn game. Why? because people paid and bought first before playing. It is not free and most of the blockchain games are not free to play. There are games where you can play for free but you will not earn.

Nevertheless there are still blockchain games where you can play and earn, it is the first MOBA game in the blockchain and was hyped for a short time, it is Thetan Arena where you can play and earn without investment. The only requirement is to reach the Bronze 1 rank to process your withdrawal.

There is no concrete plan

When the game is introduced and becomes popular, more people will obviously play and invest in it. Of course, there are people who have a mindset to earn and not for the long term. Hence, they kept selling and ended up with a decrease in the price of the in-game currency.

Selling pressure makes the price drop and lose the trust of the investors until the project becomes dead. Also, there are developers who do not care about its investors, they will change the in-game currency of the game and migrate so the old token will be abandoned. It will end up in losing the price of the token and its players or investors.

Conclusion

For me, blockchain games are effective when it comes to mass adoption. People are having more exposure to crypto and becoming interested in it.

On the other hand, most of the games lose their players when the developers are careless in making updates and have no concrete plan to maintain its ecosystem.

In my case, I will avoid investing in any other blockchain games as I see them as short-medium term investment. Some are good for the long term but lose their momentum after the hype (possible to rug pull). I will just look for offered scholarships and try to apply for them.

Lastly, I would like to remind you that this is not financial advice. Everything written on this is based on the author's opinion and observation.

Published: January 26, 2022