A new play-to-earn trend has been emerging ever since the booming trend of non-fungible tokens (NFT). This NFT gaming trend has been picked up and implemented by numerous mainstream NFT game developers that have been delivering an exciting and sensational experience with crypto collectibles.
This play-to-earn trend has been met with a lot of mixed reactions from both players and developers alike. While this feature is giving players the opportunity to own and enhance the value of in-game assets just by actively playing the game, it opens up several more problems such as those seen with loot boxes.
According to EA, NFT and blockchain games are the future. https://t.co/98vTRC7rXJ
— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) November 6, 2021
Through the engagement of players in the in-game economy, players add value to other players and the developers as well. For their participation, players are awarded various in-game assets like skins, weapons, tools, or cryptocurrency, which can either be sold as an NFT or tokenized on the blockchain to be converted into cash.
Now the question arises why this NFT Gaming trend is emerging now of all times. The simplest answer to this question could be due to the recent rise in the usage of NFT technology, but the actual cause for the sudden rise in the NFT Gaming trend could be credited to two main reasons which are true ownership over your assets and the usage of NFT technology as leverage for play-to-earn games.
Talking Point: What Could NFTs Mean For Gaming, And Why Are They So Divisive? https://t.co/Nc1Oe3n3CZ #Repost #Features #NFT #TalkingPoint pic.twitter.com/xK8jknguYe
— Nintendo Life (@nintendolife) January 15, 2022
Here are some of the top trends in NFT gaming:
Metaverse
Metaverse is a combination of virtual and physical reality with a digitally shared space to join them. If you think of the metaverse like the real world, in which you could go shopping, interact with others, complete challenges, and explore, NFTs in the metaverse will start to make a lot more sense.
There are various companies working in this space but the phrase itself was popularized by Facebook that recently changed its name to Meta. Decentraland and Sandbox are the leading metaverse companies that are using NFTs to tokenize everything in the metaverse, including usernames, in-game items, and virtual real-estate.
NFT Farming
The previously mentioned NFTs also provide players with the opportunity to earn exotic and exciting NFTs with tokens that can be farmed. Farming in games means gaining something through the completion of simple tasks. These NFT objects could be of two categories, which are game-play rarity items and visual rarity items.
Seeing your #NFT in the #metaverse is the best, very cool for land owners to feature other artists! https://t.co/tvnEinmi8c
— Decentraland (@decentraland) August 29, 2021
The Play-to-Earn Model
The play-to-earn concept is not a new one when it comes to gaming in general, although the blockchain industry has made it that much more equitable by increasing the profitability of the items earned by playing. Playing such blockchain-powered games could allow players to earn NFTs that can be utilized throughout the game, and also allow them to participate in various game development decisions.
Photo credit: The feature image has been taken by Glenn Carstens-Peters.
