The Blockchain has proven to be one of the most versatile technologies in the world, being able to ADApt to almost any phase of daily life ranging from simple things like inventorying goods to such complex aspects as international transactions through the SWIFT system or the control of presidential elections. It was only a matter of ‘when’ that the gaming world would use blockchain.
Any industry that claims to be up to date is considering an ADAptation of its platform to blockchain technologies. A short time ago, a simple rebrand made the old “On-Line Plc” have a value increase of almost 200% in a week just by changing the name to “OnLine Blockchain PLC.”, But even less tech-savvy companies like Long Island Iced Tea Corp increased their value at a dizzying rate simply by adding the word “blockchain.” Now Long Blockchain Corp is a much more profitable company.
This being the world we live in, it was only a matter of time before the video game industry joined the blockchain industry using the best of each. The success of both speaks for itself. While the Hollywood industry reported a profit of 40B USD, during 2017, the video game industry made a profit in the order of 100B USD and is expected to continue to grow steadily over the next few years.
The “second generation” cryptocurrencies were created to solve some problems that “first generation” currencies could not solve. The possibility of creating Tokens and developing smart contracts, as well as the use of Turing complete programming languages made blockchain the versatile technology it is today. And the idea of using smart-contracts in gaming development has made the industry grow in adoption, quality, and profitability.
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Blockchain gaming was kicked off by perhaps the most famous game, the “granddaddy” of this trend: the famous “Cryptokitties” – collectible kittens based on ERC20 tokens that when first launched were so popular that they saturate the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) network with more than 15% of its capacity. The game allowed users to buy and raise kittens, as well as the possibility to breed with other users’. As the generations grew, their value decreased, but the rarity of some features and the passion it generated among users led to some kittens to become real jewels: some of them were quoted in several thousand dollars for sale. According to Quartz, one of them, Kitty 23, was quoted in 60k in less than a week. And why would somebody spend 10+ K on a kitty that doesn’t serve any other purposes than just to show off? For the same reason that people buy a beautiful (though useless) diamond ring.
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For those who are not of the tender type and prefer to be conquerors of the world, Crypto Countries has what they are looking for. This game offers “world domination on the blockchain,” and mainly consists of a real-time world map where players can purchase countries through a bidding system. However, if another user places a higher bid, he gains control over it, and the user that was outbid then receives the profit made on the higher bid.
If your expansionist vision is not that of a Roman emperor, you may prefer to discover and own a city that you can develop as a good mayor (if the mayors could sell their city). For this, the crypto cities platform is the most stable and user-friendly game that has been built.
“We’ve built a crypto asset for games on Ethereum (available on Coinbase) with a unique twist. The assets need to be discovered by you, and can then be sold to those who want to use them in games. Every town, village, and city on Earth needs to be discovered. You can collect them, use them, or trade them for a profit.”
Anyway, you can always buy “The World” for 118 ETHer. Whoever owns the world or a country, benefits from deals made within their domains:
For Example:
Owner of North America receives 1 ETH
Owner of The World receives 1 ETH
If your gaming desires include fighting and making your enemy suffer, you may prefer CryptoBots or ETHermons which are games pretty similar to CryptoKitties but with the possibility of being able to make your creatures fight each other for ETHer gains and new improvements. You can discover, train, enhance, sell and trade your creatures. Much more versatile plays for those who love card based games.
SomETHing interesting to note is that CryptoBots announced its first tournament for battle bot owners. The 5ETH prize will be awarded to the winner on March 20
If you are a Pokémon lover, don’t hesitate to check out ‘Chain Monsters’ – a game fully developed in Unity 3d running 100% on the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) Blockchain. It allows you to move freely around the world, buy monsters, train them and have them fight in random matches as you walk around. The game looks quite attractive, especially for the features it seeks to implement in the future: NPC encounters, Realtime Multiplayer, Game World full experience (Exploring, Quests, Catching), player customization, monster breeding, etc…