Challenges in building games on Ethereum
I personally have no big hatred of Ethereum but I have some concerns and that's why I chose this topic to write about. Before I start writing this article, I would like to clarify that I'm sharing my own perspectives about the Ethereum chain and when I interact with others, I understand that a few of my friends also share the same thoughts. We all know some commendable things about Ethereum but at the same time, there are also things that make us loath. This article is not going to be a lengthy one but I will try to cover as much as possible based on whatever comes to my mind.
The gaming industry on the blockchain is growing day by day. There are several games going live in the blockchain world every month and some games start as non-blockchain games but after understanding the potential of this technology, they gradually transform into blockchain-based games. The capabilities we have on top of chains like Ethereum are one of the biggest reasons for the same. But there are quite a few challenges as well.
Transaction fees
When it comes to Ethereum, not only games but whatever we build on the Ethereum chain will have to go through this problem. Sometimes if we have to withdraw a 10$ worth of ETH or a token, we have to spend like 50$ for the gas fees. For someone who is coming from a blockchain that has free transaction fees, this is totally unacceptable and that's why I try to stay away from anything to do with ETH.
People say that if they make about 1000$, they don't mind giving 100 dollars as gas fees. They think that they made only 900 dollars and be happy with it. But still, it is not acceptable to me. I prefer to skip such things and choose a different opportunity that is not taking a huge cut from my earnings. That's why I prefer to invest in chains like Hive blockchain which is absolutely free for transactions.
Maybe after ETH 2.0, things can get better and the transaction fees can become very low or vanish. That's when it would be worthwhile to do transactions on the ETH chain. This is my humble opinion.
Scalability issues
Scalability issue is not something that is confined only to the ETH chain. Many blockchains have these scalability issues. If we are building a game, we cannot keep the entire game on blockchains. Only the transactions happening inside the game can be stored and retrieved on a blockchain. Otherwise, data manipulation can get challenging if we don't keep things in a static non-blockchain backend database. This is where the gaming industry is still struggling to innovate. People use blockchains only for transactions.
Knowledge is limited
People who know how to code something on the ETH chain are very limited these days. Even if people find someone, it is one of the highly paid jobs we currently have and people demand so much to code. People are just new to this technology and are slowly learning. There are already games with NFT capabilities that are on the ETH chain. These games are also becoming costlier to play because of the transaction fees. Another biggest reason for less popular is because we now have so many ETH clones with other advantages and community support. That also makes game launch an easier task.
The surprising thing is that in spite of all these challenges we have, there are still people building applications on top of the ETH chain and they still manage to survive.
If you like what I'm doing on Hive, you can vote me as a witness with the links below.
Vote @balaz as a Hive Witness
Vote @kanibot as a Hive Engine Witness
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
