GameFi, ‘the financialization of video gaming’ that came into mainstream adoption during the NFT boom last year, is changing both the gaming industry and traditional finance. GameFi improves on the play-to-win model that some games employ by integrating a play-to-earn model, where players can play games and generate value.
For eons, traditional games have isolated players from other games and, in some cases, other players. Currently, most traditional games are entities of their own and aren’t interoperable - verses where players can jump from one universe to another without losing their progress.
Factors such as the lack of interoperability between platforms, studio greed, lack of stable technology, and more, play into why that isn’t possible at a large scale. Games like Spider-Man and God of War, which were previously only available on consoles, have only lately made their way to PC.
If you’re a gamer, you probably know what I am talking about. There are so many console games that, as a PC gamer, I want to play. However, for some reason, those games aren’t available. Moreover, for the longest time, players from different platforms couldn’t play the same game with one another, providing siloed experiences for many gamers.
However, we’re seeing some progress in the interoperability of games. It was only two years ago that Apex Legends and Call-of-Duty: Warzone introduced cross-play. The Gaming universe, as a whole, is still very disconnected.
Most players can’t hop from one game to another. The idea of losing the progress that players have put time and effort into accumulating is difficult to swallow. I had made a lot of progress in League of Legends; however, the idea of starting anew, without the achievements and items I gained over the years, was difficult to process.
This is where GameFi comes in.
Making Games Interoperable
GameFi introduces interoperability to games by creating value for experience, progress, achievements, and items collected in games. It then preserves that value in an infinitely large virtual world that some call the metaverse.
What GameFi achieves is wonderful on its own. It generates value for your gaming experience. All of the hours you put in, the items you collect, and the achievements you make have value. How does it do that? It does so by using decentralized finance and blockchain technology.
By having a shared space, in this case, a distributed ledger, where everyone can track their items, achievements, and progress, GameFi makes gaming more interoperable. By going one step further and giving it a relative value in the shared space, in this case, the blockchain, gamers can hop with their progress from one game to another without losing value on their progress.
GameFi is undoubtedly revolutionizing the gaming industry by introducing what traditional gaming could be once it creates value for its players, game, and developers. What’s more, GameFi encourages players to detach from one game to another without hesitations; it removes borders and promotes a healthier ecosystem rather than one run by greed.
Ever since the NFT boom, GameFi has seen a lot of success. Over the years, we've seen a number of exciting projects with millions of players; popular titles include The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, and Crypto Blades. However, today, the market is oversaturated with games that look the same and have the same storylines.
One factor could be that the crypto space promotes that. Why fix something that’s not broken? After Bitcoin’s conception, the crypto market saw many Bitcoin copies, and for some time they were successful. GameFi projects are copying what popularly works, and for some time, it works. However, this approach is tarnishing the space’s reputation, and everyone looks at it as more off a get-rich-quick scheme than something viable.
This makes it difficult to find actual good games to play, but don’t worry, I am here!
As a gamer, I love hyper-realism, storylines, lore, and mechanics in-game. I'll keep playing for hours if a game has great graphics or a great story. To each their own.
I’ve been following the GameFi space since its conception and have played a plethora of games. If you’re joining the GameFi space or on the look for new games, here are some that I have been enjoying as of late.
Illuvium
Dota Auto Chess and League of Legends Teamfight Tactics are some of the most played auto battler games. At their release, they were some of the most played games on every streaming platform, bringing in millions of viewers, as people’s favorite streamers thought hard and long to beat their opponents with strategy and grit.
With an abundance of Play-to-earn games copying Pokemon, games like Illuvium are taking their own route by developing a narrative-driven quest game where players can battle it out in the proving grounds.
Illuvium is an upcoming, decentralized, hyper-realistic, and hyper-scalable role-playing auto battler game that has been on my radar for quite a while now. What I love about Illuvium is that it’s just another AAA game that has its own storyline, its own lore, and characters. It doesn’t knock off already successful games and instead focuses on providing an immersive story to its players.
Filled with interesting, visually appealing characters that players can own, breed, and battle, the Illuvium metaverse is a beautiful world filled with quests, adventures, battles, and beasts that hook players onto their seats for hours.
I am a big League of Legends fan, mainly because of its lore, its music, and the theme that it consistently promotes. Whether it’s Ionia’s demise, Noxus’ battles, or Piltover’s success, Runeterra’s (League of Legends World) story is consistent throughout it all, which is why their Netflix series, Arcane, was such a hit.
Illuvium has studied good games and employs a unique lore-heavy approach, which is why they deserve a spot on my radar.
The Sandbox
Games like Minecraft and Roblox could be the closest thing to the metaverse right now, mainly because it’s an infinitely large open world, people can do whatever they want, and it has a huge player base. For example, over 170 million have reported playing Minecraft, while a staggering 43.2 million people play Roblox every day.
Millions of people sharing cyberspace, hanging out with their friends, and sharing progress, is what the metaverse aims to achieve. A lot of Minecraft and Roblox’s success can be attributed to the freedom of creativity that it provides. Realistic block art, crazy hacks, and recreation of games like Hunger games, these games thrive off of player creativity.
Millions of players create in this game, which puts into perspective the millions that aren’t rewarded for their creations except for a couple of clicks and watch time. The Sandbox, interestingly, is one game that has targeted that.
The Sandbox is rapidly becoming one of the most popular GameFi projects because of the many ways it encourages and rewards players' creativity and gaming experiences. It was created to empower artists, creators, and players, and it is an excellent choice for Minecraft and Roblox users who want to play and feel rewarded.
I’ve said this once, and I’ll repeat it again, the VoxEdit tool is undoubtedly my favorite tool of all metaverse games that exist, especially because it’s a powerful and amazing tool that players can download for free, build amazing 3D voxels, and deploy them as NFTs into The Sandbox marketplace.
I love it when platforms encourage creativity, and The Sandbox is definitely one that does.
Metablaze
Most Blockchain games are vehicles for investor funding, which is why they lack that ‘AAA touch’ that most games have. They’re too focused on fundraising than creating a loyal player base that is hooked to playing your game.
Axie Infinity was a great project; however, after scholarships were introduced, I was quite disappointed. It failed to make gaming fun.
With a loyal player base, even indie games like Unturned and Jumpking with 2D graphics were able to rake in millions of sales on different platforms and rank up with high-budget-AAA games such as Cyberpunk and GTA-V. The success of those indie games can be attributed to their great storytelling and amazing mechanics.
In case you haven't guessed already, I am incredibly biased toward games that have great storylines. Every game I’ve played and finished is because they had a great story or were consistent in their experience, which is why I appreciate MetaBlaze so much.
MetaBlaze takes the story-first approach to the game instead of flashy graphics and mechanics. While it does have some really good-looking playable characters, an immersive metaverse, and an adventure-filled role-playing game, it truly feels like an interstellar journey when playing its role-playing game.
By prioritizing gamer loyalty instead of investor funding, MetaBlaze hooks its players and stays consistent through its metaverse by blending elements from science fiction, action, role-playing, strategy, lore, and more.
What’s more is that it’s constantly expanding and evolving with immersive, sci-fi-inspired games and characters, making the metaverse even more fun to be in.
What I love about MetaBlaze is that it’s consistent in its sci-fi metaverse experience. I play games to de-stress, kick back from a long work day, and teleport from one reality to another. And MetaBlaze helps me do that.
Closing Remarks
The metaverse is an equal ground for both big and small institutions. Whether you’re a high-budget game studio or an indie game developer, there’s equal opportunity for both. The metaverse will inadvertently be the evolution of our reality, from work to entertainment, and everyone must be ready to embrace it.