The modern gaming industry reached significant heights in terms of innovative technology, amazing graphics, and complex storylines. However, the development standards might’ve dropped due to corporate greed, which has led to AAA games with big budgets backed by major publishers being disappointing. Sacrificing the gaming experience for the “wow factor” is having a huge effect on the industry. This is why indie games (deployed by independent companies) are rising, as they offer unique experiences, even without the cutting-edge graphics.
However, in the midst of fighting for the player’s approval, a new sector emerged ― decentralized gaming. The trend started a few years after people learnt how to buy cryptocurrency, with the CryptoKitties game based on the Ethereum blockchain. Compared to modern games, these ones offer permanent ownership of in-game items, ensuring players of security and transparency, while also giving them freedom through decentralization.
Overall, decentralized gaming appears to address many issues commonly found in traditional games. Let’s explore them more in-depth.
Modern games and asset ownership
The process of winning in-game assets is a rewarding one, encouraging players to engage for longer and interact with the community. However, modern games have failed gamers by controlling their assets and not being transparent about their policies, leading to the waste of users’ assets.
For example, here are some incidents in which players were emptied of their rewards:
- When Epic Games banned some people’s accounts questionably, they lost access to their assets.
- When Blizzard Entertainment failed to maintain its licensing agreement in China, millions of Chinese gamers lost access to both their accounts and in-game assets in World of Warcraft (WoW).
- When Ubisoft blocked players from accessing the DLC content they paid for in Might & Magic X: Legacy;
Blockchain gaming can address this issue by offering non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as in-game assets. They are cryptographically secure and unique, ensuring verified authenticity. There are no concerns of counterfeit or duplicated assets, and their value comes from certified ownership. Once gamers own the in-game NFTs, no one can block their access to them.
Traditional gaming and centralization
The limits of player autonomy come from the centralized nature of these games. While large gaming corporations have the resources to curate the gaming experience and elevate their marketing strategies, they may be prone to censorship in various forms.
Payment processors may choose not to service certain games due to their content policies, while different global markets may demand that specific parts of a game be removed due to strict regulations concerning historical references. This has happened to Genshin Impact players in China, who noticed auto-censorship functions banning certain words in the chat section.
Luckily, decentralized gaming offers more autonomy in rules and community governance, as decisions are made through technologies like smart contracts. They enable transparent and democratic processes to occur, allowing users to decide on the future of their games. In addition, decentralization reduces the risk of censorship, as there’s no central authority ruling over a game.
Modern gaming and cybersecurity risks
The rapid expansion of the global gaming market has triggered growing cyber threats that will primarily affect players. Attracting factors for cybercriminals include the massive volume of personal data games collect, the in-game currencies, as well as the vulnerable young players. Hence, common attacks in modern games include the following:
- DDoS Attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) overwhelm servers with increased traffic to settle a ransom.
- ATO attacks (Account takeover) use phishing tactics to steal personal information or digital currencies.
- Web application attacks exploit vulnerabilities in APIs to compromise systems or gain unauthorized access.
Digital rights management (DRM) in traditional gaming lacks proper regulations to protect users and enforce company investments in security. That’s why decentralized games are superior, as the nature of the blockchain itself makes it almost impossible to get hacked. This would be possible only through 31% attacks, in which miners control more than half of the network capabilities, but this requires considerable hardware and knowledge of smart contract vulnerabilities.
Regulation around blockchain safety is also emerging. Nils Andersen-Röed. Global Head of FIU at Binance.com stated that “Despite advanced privacy tools, every crypto transaction leaves a trace – a crucial asset for modern law enforcement. As crypto crime grows more complex, global cooperation and strong public-private partnerships are not optional, but essential.”
Traditional games and asset interoperability
Besides not being able to fully control their in-game assets, players are also restricted in how they can use these rewards. While companies don’t allow these in-game assets to be leveraged on different games or platforms, their value might be pointless in the original game.
In decentralized gaming, assets are represented by standardized tokens or virtual assets that are available across multiple platforms, based on fundamental blockchain standards. Therefore, interoperability across decentralized ecosystems promotes an immersive gaming experience, as users can effectively utilize their virtual possessions.
In addition, this factor contributes to a thriving secondary market, where trading in-game assets can create more economic opportunities for players and enhance games’ usability and importance.
Modern games and monetization opportunities
Monetization in modern games is often hidden behind loot boxes, battle pass systems, and random number generation (RNG), in a way that supports pay-to-win mechanics. More gaming companies introduced these features, which negatively impacted the gaming experience and angered players over corporate greed.
On the other hand, decentralized games employ the play-to-earn (P2E) mechanism, through which gamers can earn in-game assets and exchange them for cryptocurrencies, allowing for a withdrawal of funds. Games like Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and Pudgy Penguins are available for P2E through various game challenges or championships, which allow gamers to generate valuable coins or NFTs while enjoying a well-designed game.
What do you think of decentralized games?
Decentralized games are on the rise due to modern gaming companies flopping. Microtransactions, high pricing, and massive companies are running people’s love for games, which is why blockchain-based games are becoming proper alternatives. Decentralized games are safe, support fair gaming, and offer users the freedom to use their in-game assets as they see fit. Therefore, the sector is now thriving, with developers coming up with innovative ideas on graphics and storylines, preserving the love for gaming while approaching newer technologies.
