Blockchain Games: The Future of Gaming!

Cover Image: Photo in the background: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/ocean-wave-mare-acqua-marea-918999/ - edit by @libertycrypto27 - font used is Open Source

With this post I have participated in a contest by Blockchain Gaming community (a new community on Hive blockchain) and I am very happy that on Hive there is a community entirely dedicated to blockchain based games.

In fact on Hive there is the beautiful Hive Gaming community but it is focused on all kinds of games and there are the communities of the various blockchain based games such as the Splinterlands community (https://peakd.com/c/hive-13323/created) and the Rising Star community (https://peakd.com/c/hive-195370/created)... but a virtual place to write and share impressions and experiences related exclusively to blockchain based games was not there and so the Blockchain Gaming community has filled a void.

I love decentralisation and therefore I love blockchain games and I firmly believe that they will be the future of the gaming industry.

That's why I play a lot of blockchain-based games and I'm always trying new ones in my spare time.

It will take a long time to reach a mass adoption of blockchain-based games but the number of games is growing as the number of players is growing.

The value and the advantages that blockchain-based games offer to players are still little known concepts and for this reason in this post I wanted to compare two games that are very similar in terms of game play but structured very differently because one is a traditional and centralized game while the other is a blockchain-based game: Hearthstone and Splinterlands.

Hearthstone and Splinterlands

Both Splinterlands and Hearthstone are two collectible card games.

The cards are an important part of both games because they are indispensable elements for battles with other players and, in case of victory, they allow you to receive rewards.

Golden Coins (Heartstone) VS Dark Energy Crystals (Splintelands)

In Hearthstone, players receive an amount of gold coins (this is, of course, in-game gold) as a reward for completing quests in the game or for achieving victories in game mode matches against other players.

Splinterlands players for every battle they win against another player receive tokens called Dark Energy Cristal (DEC).

What can a Hearthstone player do with gold coins?

1. He can buy packs of cards to improve his card collection.

2. Access certain sections of the game to challenge other players (Arena).

What can a Splinterlands player do with DEC tokens?

1. He can buy packs of cards and other game elements (potions, skins, plots).

2. He can buy single cards that are sold by other players on the in-game market.

3. He can buy a tournament entry which can have different types of prizes (DEC tokens, cards...).

4. Can create his own custom tournament.

5. Can transfer them to 5 different wallets and sell them to other people (not necessarily players) in exchange for other cryptocurrencies (HIVE, BNB, BTC...)

6. Can put them to work on two different farms (DeFi) to get passive income (tokens):

- https://cubdefi.com/ (Binance Smart Chain)

- https://uniswap.org/ (Ethereum blockchain)

7. He can use them to borrow playing cards from the https://peakmonsters.com/ marketplace.

8. Can use them to create a guild (group of players)

9. Can use them to buy items from other games (e.g. in the Rising Star market and the Dcity market you can use DECs to buy some cards).

Hearthstone gold coins only have value within the game.

DEC tokens have value within the game of Splinterlands but also outside the game and can be converted via exchanges to other cryptocurrencies and tokens and also to fiat currencies (Euro, dollar...)

Cards of Hearthstone VS Cards of Splinterlands

First two card images are screenshots from the site: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/cards?set=forged-in-the-barrens - third and fourth images owned by @splinterlands</sub></center>

The Hearthstone cards

Hearthstone cards can only be used within the game and only have value within the game.

Players can also buy packs of cards with real money but cannot transfer packs or individual cards to other players.

The Splinterlands Cards

Splinterlands cards can be used within the game, but can also be:

- sold to other players on the internal Splinterlands marketplace

- transferred and sold on various exchanges outside the Splinterlands game (Hive Engine, Atomic Hub,...)

- transferred to other players instantaneously and without transaction costs (thanks to the Hive blockchain which does not have transaction costs)

- Lend to other players for free

- lent for a set period of time in exchange for a payment on https://peakmonsters.com/

- burned and converted into a certain amount of DEC tokens

Splinterlands card packs can be bought with real money but also with various cryptocurrencies and can be tokenized, transferred and sold on exchanges outside the game such as Hive Engine or Atomich Hub.

Hearthstone cards are simple game elements.

Cards in Splinterlands are Non Fungible Tokens (NFT) and digital ownership is completely up to the player who owns them who can decide what to do with their cards from a variety of options.

Mode of Access and Transparency

A centralised game like Hearthstone requires a registration before you can start playing, which is set by the producer of the game, which in the case of Heartstone is the famous Blizzard.

A game from another company requires a new and different registration process

Screenshot from the site: https://account.battle.net/creation/flow/creation-full

A blockchain-based game like Splinterlands requires the same login credentials as the blockchain on which it was developed and on which the game's transactions are made: Hive.

With the same credentials you can access any other game that runs on Hive such as Rising Star, Dcity and Dcrops.

What differentiates a blockchain-based game from a centralized game is in particular transaction transparency.

On Hearthstone I can't see all the transactions made by each player, for example I can't know how many packs of cards another player has bought or the contents of the pack of cards any other player has opened.

On Splinterlands I can see every other player's game activity, I can see every player's card collection and I can also know the value of any card collection. I can reconstruct the purchase and transfer activity of every single card in the game.

A blockchain-based game therefore also offers advantages in terms of ease of access and transparency over a centralised game.

The blockchain-based games I play

The blockchain-based games I play, subscribe to or have tried are:

Splintelands (my favourite game)

Link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=libertycrypto27 (Ref.)

Rising Star

Link:https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=libertycrypto27 (Ref.)

dCrops

Link:https://www.dcrops.com/

dCity

Link: https://dcity.io/

Upland

Link: https://r.upland.me/BvJs (Ref.)

Alien Worlds

Link: https://play.alienworlds.io/

Cryptobrewmasters

Link: https://www.cryptobrewmaster.io/game/invite?ref=e877b826db7c483e8865bfc43ae31fdb&code=AlphaBonus (Ref.)

There are other games I'd like to check out and try out like Lost Relics, Prospectors, Hashkings but I haven't had the time to do so yet.

Other blockchain based games I hope to learn about through reading the posts published within the Blockchain Gaming community and through interaction with other users.

The creators of the Blockchain Gaming community on Hive have also created a [website](https://blockchaingaming.com/) that I have viewed and enjoyed because it explains very well all the aspects and advantages of a blockchain game.

Screenshot from the site: https://blockchaingaming.com/

Conclusion

The intent of my post is in no way to speak ill of a game like Hearthstone but only to point out the differences between a centralized game and a blockchain-based game.

Blizzard has created a really good and fun game.

Hearthstone is also a very graphically beautiful game and has a lot more animations than Splinterlands.

I tried both games and I enjoyed playing both of them but I chose to play only Splinterlands because in addition to being a fun game is a game in which I am not just a player but I am also a small investor because I have cards and tokens that belong to me and that have a concrete value and not just play.

As a small investor I feel part of a project as well as being a happy player.

I've been playing Splinterlands for about 20 months and I still enjoy it as much as I did the first day.

Every month I write a report where I evaluate Splinterlands only from a financial point of view.

In the following image you can see the profit and Roi that I have made after 19 months of playing and an investment of 313$.

Link to my last monthly report: https://read.cash/@libertycrypto27/is-splinterlands-a-good-investment-19-months-later-d4f5b98a

Blockchain-based games are still little known, and more importantly, the many benefits they offer and can prospectively offer their players are still little known.

A game like Heartstone has millions of active players (more than 23 million in 2020) while a game like Splinterlands has about 7000 active players.

Screenshot from the site: https://hivedata.space/statistics/splinterlands

The distance between blockchain games and traditional games is still considerable but it is only a matter of time...

I chose as cover image a wave of the sea because I believe that in the future blockchain based games will overtake traditional and centralized games and the overcoming will happen with the shock force of a high and beneficial wave.

When this wave arrives I hope to be riding the wave on a surfboard with the logo of Splinterlands or some other decentralized game on it instead of being surprised and overwhelmed while sitting on a couch playing Hearthstone or Fortnite :)

What is your favourite blockchain-based game?

Do you have a game I haven't considered to recommend?

Tell me in the comments and I'll read your recommendation very carefully!

I hope you liked this post and I thank you for taking the time to read it :)

Unless otherwise indicated the images in this post are screenshots taken from my gaming activity.

The font used in my images or images edited by me is Open Source

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