The Evolution of Gaming

Get paid to play! I'm not joking this is the future of Online Gaming. For a few gamers, this is their present as well. We will all get paid in the future to play games and some of us might even make this their daily job! The efforts of a few developers to create blockchain games that reward their players is really interesting. If they manage to built this correctly allowing their users to profit, the major video game coprorations will follow. Basically the gaming companies might proceed directly to this gaming model and partner with a few major cryptocurrencies to facilitate the trades and in game payments.

Computer and console games were originally coming into boxes along with discettes, cartridges, later CD's and DVDs. All these were items sold on a store and the boxes were haveing detailed covers. They also contained inside various items that added extra value to the player, as the whole procedure was something magical that was going to offer many hours of entertainment.

Of course, the gaming companies were targeting mostly kids and young adults but there were a few companies that were releasing really interesting titles and series that were suitable for any age. For example, most of the point 'n click adventure games by Sierra, Lucasarts, and other companies were suited for all ages. I don't know if you have never played games like Monkey Island, Sam 'n Max, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.

They are all incredible games and the pixelated graphics of the VGA era add even more to their classic value.

Now, I'm not going to make a timeline of games and explain different genres in this article, so to cut this sort everything changed with the arrival of the Internet.

Games were not anymore a solo adventure or just something you would do with a few of your friends. Games became massive when they switched to the internet. They became addictive and highly populated when they began allowing gamers to test their skills in PvP (Person versus Person) combat and work together for common goals in the games, with people around the world.

It was games like Ultima Online, Lineage II and the original Counterstrike that changed everything. At that moment you were able to log in your favorite game and participate in adventures or battlegrounds with players all over the world. It was a revolution and soon almost all genres shifted into this mode. This created additional profits for the gaming industry and they also figured out soon that they didn't need any boxes and materials for their games. The files were always the most important part of their game, so they begun selling their games through their websites. Soon gaming platforms appeared as Steam and the release of the MMORPG World of Warcraft and the League of Legends games added to the competition.

Games were always competitive sports. The high scores at the arcades were always awe-inspiring and people were trying their best to beat. There were gaming contests since the '80s and if you watch gamers on Twitch, I'm sure that you have heard of the "Two Time"!

Around 2010 companies began experimenting with a new model of marketing their product. This time some titles weren't going to be sold to the users, but they were offered for free instead! This model existed in various browser games that their production cost wasn't much and because of their simplicity in graphics and audio, they were just allowing anyone to play for free while offering some extra perks that would offer in-game advantages for a price.

So F2P (Free to Play) model was adopted by various games and managed to attract high numbers of players for the games. It was a success and League of Legends, and later Player Unknowns Battlegrounds (PUBG) reached millions of active users for many years. Some companies did exploit the F2P model by creating a fake free mode, where users could play but could not compete with others unless they paid. These games were justifiably named Pay to Win by the gamers.

Games became e-sports and League of Legends, Dota, and Counterstrike begun making live tournaments in stadiums and theaters, in front of a live audience, while offering contracts to the best players of each game, in order to produce more entertainment value for the e-sports. Many games offer various tournaments, where the best players test their skills (usually in PvP) and produce entertainment that other people pay tickets to watch live.

So e-sports were created and gave the chance to many players to professionally seek a career as a gamer and the top gamers of certain franchises became now professional gamers. 20 years ago everyone would laugh if you told them that you are a professional gamer.

Everyone might also laugh now if you tell them that your job will be playing games online. It is the only logical step though in the evolution of games. I don't actually know how the new model will be called and I also don't know how this will happen exactly. I don't expect companies to hire their gamers, but I am sure that along with skill the income of players will rise, reaching similar levels to an average wage of a Western country.

I've played MMORPG's a lot and I've also reached high enough skill in a few of them, to be able to have top-tier items and made gold that others were looking for black market options to sell. There are gold sellers and there are gold farmers in all MMO's. There are people that right now make a living out of playing games or offering services to trade in-game items, as websites and escrow. There are people that are spamming the chatbox of MMO's with bots advertising their gold prices. Although this is against the user's agreement and the publishers can ban accounts for these reasons. So it comes with a risk. Usually, people try to sell their items and gold/credits when they've decided to quit the game.

This is a huge market and the gaming companies are not handling it correctly. At some point they will figure out that the items and gold people produce in their games are not owned by them, but it is their gamers' possession. It is the gamers that worked hard to earn the items, the accounts, and their achievements and they managed to learn mechanics, skills and figure out how to act and counteract in every situation.

Here is where blockchains and some crypto projects are ready to help the video gaming companies like Blizzard, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, in the evolution of gaming. The black market of gold and items can only be defeated by adding open markets in-game, or through some other official platform for trading. This is part of the game as well and companies can profit from the introduction of a crypto marketplace with fees. Users would prefer to deal through an official marketplace. Both people that sell and buy items for real money can benefit from this and the company gets to keep the fees. The best gamers are the ones that will be rewarded more than others and they will be the ones profiting more. Various cryptocurrencies are ready for this and I hope that companies will negotiate and agree to use many of them for this purpose.

I think that in this case, if just one game with this model appears, it will get millions of users from day one.

I reposted this article on Publish0x .