Future of Web3 Gaming and How To Participate?
Web3. This phrase has recently gained attention due to the increased bandwagon-jumping of companies and tech executives.
The reason Web3 is so well-liked by investors and the IT world is because it gives people today what they want: more freedom and control over their online presence.
Even if the term “Web3” will spread, many people are still trying to understand what it means and how they may benefit from this cutting-edge technology.
What is Web3 exactly, first of all?
The key word in this sentence is decentralisation. Our online activities and data will be hosted on blockchain-based networks rather than corporate servers in the Web3 future, whereas the existing internet is mostly dependent on the systems and servers of huge organisations.
Web3, as its name suggests, comes after Web1 and Web2. Let’s examine the salient characteristics of each evolutionary stage:
Web1: The first version of the World Wide Web, which utilised open standards and open source software. Some of the biggest internet businesses ever, including Google and Amazon, grew as a result.
Web2: With a stronger emphasis on user-generated content, Web2 helped pave the way for blogs, wikis, and social networking sites. Although some of the same Web1 technology was used in its construction, it also supported social interaction and content production.
Web3: The new Web3 promotes self-sovereignty, significant Internet decentralisation, and a value-exchange model as opposed to the straightforward flow of information.
Without the requirement for a centralised organisation to serve as a gatekeeper, anyone can participate in the Web3 world by using an anonymous single-sign-on. In other words, users would not be required to disclose personal information in order to complete specific tasks, such as carrying out transactions, and they would be able to use a public, transparent blockchain to authenticate their ownership.
Why should Internet users be interested in Web3?
Think about the following example: you submit a post on your social media channels, it becomes popular, and you receive full payment for taking part in the activity. For the creators out there, in particular, this sounds amazing.
Such an arrangement is made possible through tokenization, whether it takes the form of fungible tokens (cryptocurrency) or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Using our previous example, you can use an NFT to claim ownership of this article and then trade it with others to make money without having to split the revenue with the platform that hosts the post.
What state is Web3 gaming in?
Although Web3 is still in its infancy, more and more Web3 decentralised applications (dapps) and games are being created every day, bringing us closer to this reality.
Modern Web3-based games in the gaming business offer new revenue opportunities for both developers and players. Players can make money by investing in and trading in these digital assets, while producers benefit by building valuable digital assets and monetizing them through the transfer of ownership. Although it might seem like a pipe dream, there are problems with current Web3 gaming that the industry needs to address.
To begin with, current Web3-based games rely on basic gameplay concepts, which limits the fun factors for players and may lead to low retention and a brief lifespan.
The digital assets (i.e., NFTs) in these games are frequently designed as lavish collectibles with artificial scarcity, which serves niche communities but has the unintended consequence of discouraging a wider audience from playing these games. Due to the dependence of these games on new players, the high barriers to entry raise concerns about the long-term stability of this economic model.
Are Web3-based games really necessary?
The emergence of Web3 is completely altering the gaming scene by providing novel and ground-breaking game mechanics involving blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). But what is Web3’s largest impact on the new gaming industry? It is democratising the numerous facets of gaming and giving gamers entirely new avenues for success! We’ve never seen a model that gives players so much control, and instead of concentrating that control in just one game, they may spread it across a variety of games throughout the entire ecosystem.
The reality is that player expectations will rise along with technology. Do you still play the old Snake video games you used to play as a kid? It used to be plenty to keep you occupied for hours, but the feeling might no longer be there. Because you have access to games with better visuals, more compelling plots, or vibrant communities, you will inevitably choose the “better” option and consider these qualities to be desirable in a game. In this case, Web3 Game Development serves as an alluring alternative that both developers and players are increasingly embracing. These games give players more ownership and financial potential.
The freedom to customise the gaming experience and play-to-earn features will eventually become the norms that players anticipate from a game.
Reverting to our original query, do we actually require Web3-based games? If not right now, it will eventually be the preferred choice. To stay current, the industry must adopt this technology and actively watch its development.
Using the Web3 for gaming
To fully understand how Web3-based gaming will revolutionise the sector, there is still much work to be done. In order to remedy this, industry players must collaborate to create a world in which players may buy digital assets at fair prices and watch them increase through their own active engagement in the games.
- Ownership and compatibility
In the Web3 metaverse, the potential of blockchains and NFTs to offer true ownership and interoperability in gaming offers players the most opportunity.
You’ve probably noticed that NFTs are the new face of Web3 gaming, and their popularity has recently increased dramatically. This is due to the fact that they enable players to truly own almost any type of unique in-game asset or object, which was not possible with older gaming models.
- Including Our Past
Each and every gamer has their own favourite series. They may be their favourite games or ones they played the most as children, among many other possibilities. It would be awful to throw away all of the current games that have given generations so much enjoyment since gaming is personal.
Fortunately, the Web3 gaming industry is taking players’ feedback into account and facilitating the transfer of these current games by updating them to the new in-game buying and selling model.
- Gaming That Is Player-Centered
With these new possibilities provided by Web3, gamers will discover a personalised ecology, not just for big tech. There are a lot of new opportunities to make money and succeed, especially with the ecosystem’s promise of interoperability and ownership of digital assets. Additionally, it preserves our past rather than erasing it, striking the ideal balance between the known and the unknown.
The function of gaming in the Web3 environment will be to restore real decentralisation and player power!
Web3 Games: A Look Toward the Future
It goes without saying that decentralised gaming has benefits. Information is secure and anonymous, and neither data tracking nor data selling to third parties are practised. Due to the fact that double-spending is eliminated by blockchain technology, there are no fraudulent payments, as there are in the conventional credit and debit payment systems.
Additionally, centralised firms like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Steam, and others charge upwards of 30% for the “luxury” of selling games on their platforms. Most developers believe that this percentage is unreasonable.
This finally addresses the core issue. Large actors who controlled the market and received a disproportionate share of the benefits characterised Web2 gaming earnings. While end users were charged more and given less control, game developers were not adequately compensated for their labour. This is altering as Web3 games have low production costs and end players are provided with tokens or NFTs to build their holdings and participate in the game’s governance.
Given all of this, it should come as no surprise that Web3 is attracting an influx of developers. Instead of creating gaming monopolies, it’s a place to foster gaming communities. The cornerstone of decentralised gaming development is cooperation.
Participating in Web3 Gaming
Even though learning to code for Web3 could appear difficult, it’s much simpler than you might imagine and specialised knowledge is not necessary; patience and interest are the only requirements. For instance, anyone, whether they are a developer, engineer, or simply a student, can use BuildSpace to create an NFT-based browser game. You will become more familiar with dApps and the bigger NFT and cryptocurrency ecosystem as a result.
The finest feature is that you may collaborate with developers through a set channel of communication. The creation of video games is always a collaborative effort. Additionally, you may connect conventional engines like Unreal or Unity to Web3 using the existing SDKs (which are currently very limited in number).
A different option would be Ethereum Game Development. You may accomplish this using the Web3.js application, which enables Javascript-based smart contract interaction. Because dApps rely on smart contracts, you must learn how to program them (usually using Solidity) in order to begin working on Web 3 development. The three essential parts of every dApp will be a front end, a wallet, and smart contracts.
Getting Past Obstacles
Despite the many benefits, there are always challenges to face. The tokenization incentives mechanism must be flawless to prevent a small group of users from becoming overly powerful. All parties, including developers, players, investors, and media sources, must also be balanced. It’s critical to understand that the problem arises when certain parties wield too much power, not only investors or marketers. They are still necessary for games that are quite popular.
Finding a good balance between rewards and a fun gaming experience is challenging. Games like Axie Infinity ultimately focus more on investment than gameplay, which is a direction that producers will not want to take. In an engaging game, rewards should come as a result of play, not as the main motivation for engaging in the activity. Although it can seem insignificant, it should be play-and-earn rather than play-to-earn.
In addition, there are technical difficulties to deal with. Games like Crypto Kitties had astronomical gas costs because of Ethereum network congestion. Perhaps Solana and Polygon are faster, less expensive, and more scalable blockchains to consider. Despite all the rhetoric about efficiency and scalability, smart contract restrictions are the main cause of the slowness of many blockchain games.
Summing Up
Additionally, it’s critical to remember that while Ethereum continues to rule the NFT and gaming markets today, this might not always be the case. Even while it’s still a good place to start, its scalability and pricing inefficiencies have been demonstrated. Solana might be a chain that is more rapid, effective, and scalable. In the field of Web3 gaming, Polygon is also well recognised for having entered into a number of partnerships and acquisitions.
There is nothing wrong with the current gaming industry. Play-to-earn games, however, make a significant contribution by integrating blockchain gaming functionality. Games that allow you to make money solely by playing them might exist. Additionally, participants have the option to trade their earnings in cryptocurrency or NFTs.
Regardless, interoperability across blockchains and subchains will be a key component of Web3 gaming in the future, enabling developers to create very customised and tailored games for their intended audiences. Through the use of distributed ledger technology, gamers and game producers will experience more equitable rewards and better-quality published games.
It’s understandable to ask how well-liked “play-to-earn” games like Axie Infinity will do in the future given the positive buzz surrounding them. The engagement of NFTs and the creation of sizable communities, along with the strong support of blockchain to assure security and transparency, would be the standout features of new blockchain-based games. Let’s wait and see how the blockchain in web 3.0 affects this new generation of gaming.
