In a short period of time, when the technology has not really been widely used in various scenarios, the industry has been increasing investment efforts, and even some cities have begun to support the blockchain industry, for fear of missing this opportunity. Blockchain technology can be applied to a wide range of scenarios, including the Internet of Things, supply chains, digital asset transactions and games.
Based on the current online articles around the principle of block chain analysis and evaluation of its value, today we will analyze one of the specific application scenarios of block chain, namely the game industry.
Big bets on capital have led to a flood of people, but blockchain games imply risk
While blockchain has yet to be used in real life on a large scale, it is beginning to be used in games. We can analyze the cases of blockchain games in the market to see the current characteristics of these blockchain games.
The famous foreign blockchain game Crypto Kitties was born on Ethereum. The virtual pet cat in this game is generated by blockchain technology. Every 15 minutes, a new pet cat will be released officially, and the buyer can match with other pet cats to generate a new pet cat. The newly created cats can be publicly traded.
Each pet cat has a unique genetic code, which means that the more unique the gene is, the more expensive the cat tends to be, and a pet cat can cost more than 700,000 yuan. The game became popular after its launch in November 2017. In just three months, 280,000 virtual cats were sold, with an average price of $69.47.
However, the popularity of the game once caused the congestion of the Ethereum network, accounting for more than 16% of the transaction traffic of the Ethereum network. As a result, the transaction process was unreasonably prolonged, resulting in the delay of transactions, such as the arrival of accounts, and transaction fees also rose.
There is no shortage of faithful followers behind great interests. Following the popularity of Crypto Kitties, many domestic and foreign companies soon launched similar games. These games play a similar way to CryptoKitties, where pets are traded for digital currency. Examples of these games include Dongle and Litzdog.
Dongle was developed on the Achain public chain by Chinese company Blue Harbor Interactive in cooperation with an American game studio. The essence is the same as Crypto Kitties on Ethereum, and the gameplay is the same pet breeding cycle of raising and selling dogs. Dongle was also an instant hit, grossing over $5 million in less than a week after its launch.
But high-revenue blockchain-based games also carry huge risks. Take the ethereum traded in Crypto Kitties, for example. Ethereum, a digital currency, can rise and fall unpredictably and uncontrollably. This creates a high degree of uncertainty about the player’s earnings, and can be extremely risky. For players, entering a blockchain game may be more of a gamble, as pets with scarce genes are hard to develop and their value is hard to predict.
In this respect, pets in blockchain games are more like representatives of virtual property than simple game images in ordinary games. It can be said that if these pets have nothing to do with blockchain, if they are not linked to the interests, I’m afraid no one will take them for free.
Blockchain and the game have the commonality of data, profit attribute is the only reason to enter the game
The emergence of blockchain games has caused a stir in the chain circle and the game industry. But at the same time, there is another puzzling place, the current online game industry is already thriving, and there are already giants such as Tencent and netease almost form a monopoly situation in the industry, why blockchain games will be so popular among players?
It starts with the connection between blockchain and gaming.
First of all, blockchain is a technology with distributed data transmission functions and encryption algorithms, as well as a consensus mechanism. These characteristics also determine the range of scenarios where blockchain is suitable for use in industries where large amounts of data are interacted with and where trust mechanisms, or contractual relationships, are required.
The game happens to have this characteristic, which is highly data-oriented, and the transaction behaviors generated during the game also have a high demand for contractual relations. This is not difficult to understand, because the behavior of game players during the game is recorded in the form of data, and virtual assets in the game are the existence of data.
Second, since assets will be traded during the game, there will be higher requirements for security and transparency in the transaction. The main feature of blockchain technology is decentralization, which can protect the whole transaction process of game players, and protect and improve the security of game transaction to the greatest extent. With the decentralized security of the blockchain, players feel safe to participate.
Finally, there are the profitable properties of blockchain games. As is known to all, game companies are qualified to legally issue virtual currencies, which are mostly linked to RMB, which is a unique advantage of game companies from other Internet companies. With this advantage, it’s no surprise that a game will be targeted by blockchain, and with the legal channel of virtual currency in the game, it will naturally attract players to the game.
However, the acquisition of money from games is not exclusive to blockchain games. Virtual currency in many online games can also be cashed, but the property of money in blockchain games is dozens of times stronger than those in ordinary online games. In order to attract a large number of players in a short time, some blockchain games even advertise themselves as “making money while playing”. And this has become the only reason many players enter the game.
But is the money in blockchain games really that easy? What are the shortcomings of its companion game?
Blockchain game technology is not mature and lacks the entertainment properties of games
Let’s take a look at the current state of blockchain technology to see if blockchain games really live up to their claims.
A very realistic problem is that the idea of blockchain games is not immature, but due to the limitation of the current technological level, the mature stage of “blockchain + games” is far from being reached. Like many blockchain games that copy Crypto Kitties in China, the gameplay is similar, but the underlying system is not supported. Besides, even Ethereum, which underpins Crypto Kitties, has not escaped the network’s gridlock.
It can also be concluded that blockchain game, like blockchain, is a market that is forced to mature, and the technology is not really landed before it is touted as attractive prospects and considerable benefits, with a large deception nature. But at the same time, it also led to a strange phenomenon, even though a small number of people profit from it, but in the face of the huge profit temptation, there are still many people who follow the trend and end up disappointed. Do not exclude this kind of crowd holding a gambling mentality into the bureau, after all, accidentally can also be “small rich”.
Finally, let’s talk about how the so-called blockchain games are related to games.
Perhaps to the disappointment of many, this “game” disguised as a game is not really much of an entertainment. Just think, as an online game, its basic routine should be to provide uninterrupted entertainment for players, let players stay longer for it.
However, as a newcomer to the game industry, blockchain games are different. Their current form obviously cannot provide continuous entertainment, and the gameplay content is too single, lacking the so-called playability. With fewer and fewer players entering the game, the number of pets is increasing, which may eventually become such that the first player to enter the game cashed out and left the game, and the later players continue to wait and see, which may eventually face the outcome of the pet “falling out of favor” and the value of the transaction.
Another aspect of this type of blockchain game is its speculative nature. Just think, the game content is so monotonous and boring, coupled with the lack of money, continue to stay really just to play the game, is not also holding the mentality of opportunism, to achieve the dream of “overnight wealth”. From this point of view, blockchain games and games are more not linked, it is more like a financial product, deeply pulling the heart of players.
Industry opportunities, the future of blockchain games is still a lot of variables
In general, blockchain games are born because of blockchain, and they will naturally follow the main steps of blockchain whatever the future development will face.
However, it is worth recognizing that since online games have opacity and security risks in asset transactions, the participation of blockchain can help solve these user pain points. With the powerful recording ability of blockchain, the virtual property owned by players is guaranteed by authoritative technology. This is what blockchain can do, and this is the opportunity blockchain brings to the gaming industry. However, such opportunities also have a great deal of uncertainty, the right pace can be profitable, the wrong pace is easy to spend more.
But in front of the analysis also is important to note that the combination of block chain and game is still in its early exploration stage, many incoming people are feeling the stones across the river, to improve these deficiencies, in addition to the nature of the block chain has a mature grasp, also need to know about the game industry development model thoroughly, to mature technology and ideas, This is where blockchain gaming really comes in.
Taken together, blockchain games, just like blockchain, have spawned two common phenomena in the industry. Good prospect is good, hard preach it action proved hard for it is not good, but in the end block chain game will go what kind of situation, is the real game with high integration for the life of people bring wealth and happiness, or quietly leave after the tuyere, believes that the verification process will be long, but whatever the outcome, is the market can give the best answer.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110