The video game world has ceased to be a one-sided gain.Thousands of young people in developing countries make a living from video games.Billion-dollar companies have also taught how to make money from video games.Play-win video games have become the pioneers of the new economy by transferring digital earnings to the real world.So, does this have a cost?
If you have an adolescent child, he can't get his head around from video games and you are doing your best to discourage him from it.After reading this article, "I was playing with my child's future!" you can say.Because, in an article written by technology investor Moritz Baier-Lentz.Who is also an award-winning video game player, with Stefan Brambilla of the World Economic Forum (WEF), professional video gaming has become a real profession, in the nascent play-win genre.He states that video games offer “more than they can dig from real life” to thousands of young people, especially in developing countries.
According to the two authors, play-and-win games bring the real world and the digital world closer together.While deeply shaking the property and value relations.We are quoting parts from the article.
Long before video game competitions (E-sports) were accepted as a profession, trendy video games like “Diablo II” (2000) or “Runescape” (2001) were the first “play-to-win” games that top gamers could afford for a living.They were examples and created a serious economy.Moritz Baier-Lentz, one of the authors of this article, left behind 13 million active players from around the world in the games in question and was able to sell the prizes he won and cover his undergraduate and graduate education.
However, in the early 2000s, it was still in the “wild west” order in terms of digital assets.The video game market and transactions were not legitimate and safe.This makes stories like the success of Baier-Lentz not a sustainable professional pursuit, but a case of individual entrepreneurship.
The gaming industry has seen tremendous growth
Today, around 3 billion people worldwide play video games and there is a complete infrastructure of professional gamers.This infrastructure offers players significant opportunities and wealth.The best of them are considered athletes .Athletes are recruited to the teams on a salary basis, receive a share of the cash prizes won in tournaments and sign lucrative sponsorship deals.Other video game professionals make money by filming themselves playing games and broadcasting them live on Twitch or YouTube Gaming platforms.
According to BITKRAFT Ventures, video games, combined with software, hardware and intellectual property rights, have become a $336 billion industry today.As video games become the world's largest media category ahead of classic television broadcasts, streaming entertainment services, film and music.They are also beginning to gain some specialties.Most importantly, almost all game-based economic activities have been centralized.They've given developers and publishers the rights to everything that happens in their games.
They've generated billions of dollars from subscriptions, as well as sales of in-game content and digital items.This means that the vast majority of players cannot get a share of the value created unless they become professional.This protective ownership and profit-sharing model continued to exist as the industry grew.But with the advent of so-called "play to win" games, a transformation may be beginning.This type of video game allows players to “really” earn and own digital assets that they can voluntarily sell outside of the game.
Players are now active actors of the game economy
Confidence in the robustness and economic viability of their digital assets and products is essential if individuals are to devote significant time, attention and personal investment to digital environments.Early applications show that such trust can be achieved with blockchain.Blockchain technology using crypto ensures digital trust by keeping digital values in multiple centers.
Blockchain is already used in a wide variety of industries, from finance to the arts, and video games are no exception.“Play to win” video games create value, powered by blockchain technology, including “immutable tokens” (or NFTs).NFT is a digitally secured property right to a unique, immutable digital asset.In practice, NFTs can take many forms in virtual worlds such as characters (avatars), items, terrain, digital outfits.By playing the game well, people 'win' the most valuable items and can sell them for real-world money on their own terms.
The real innovation here is that the ownership of digital assets is anthropocentric and for the first time overcomes the traditional protective ownership and discretion of a company or even government.
For example, it is possible to freely sell the resources in the content of “play to win” games on in-game and non-game markets, without the need for the permission of the game producers or their publishers and without the need to act within the framework of the rules determined by them.
It's hard to earn that much from real economy
Recently, numerous communities have emerged that showcase the potential of “play-win” games in building a new economy.The most notable among these is a video game called 'Axie Infinity'.The popular play-to-win environment, whose daily active users rose from 4,000 to 2 million in a few months, has become especially popular in the Philippines and Venezuela.For players in such developing countries, the income they will generate from such digital environments is much more important than what their physical economies in their countries can offer.
Also, 'scholarship platforms' like Yield Guild Games.Which train players in emerging economies to engage in play-and-win games, have attracted massive investment and have become billion-dollar companies in a matter of months themselves.Some of these are now even more valuable than video game manufacturers.Play-to-win games and surrounding platforms are globalizing the game-based NFT market.Examples of economic opportunity and merit-based participation across geographies.It's 2021 and the world has never been so flat.
For now, it's worth noting that play-to-win games do not permanently remove centralization from games.Ultimately, it's still up to the publisher to define, publish and restrict the asset traded as an NFT.Still, play-to-win games show that the places where digital assets are created, owned and exchanged can become anthropocentric.Owning and participating in essential parts of these new worlds brings huge financial returns to people who believe and are mostly in developing countries.
For gamers, the play-to-win model could represent a new and flexible way of making money.But beyond questions of financial reporting and taxation, there are other problems.Providing people as a service in the digital economy is a problem in itself.In addition, limited job security, insecure relations between firms and employers, lack of social security are other problems.Considering that "freelancers" constitute an excessive place in the creative economy.It becomes clear that political decision makers need to make a regulation in this regard.
Play-win sector will grow even more with Metaverse
Play-to-win video games are still an emerging field. But in the future It could have an impact on and change much more than the video game industry.In fact, we argue it has the potential to change the way people interact with and perceive traditional socioeconomic structures such as;- Financial institutions
- Markets
- Governments
Indeed.Play-and-win games are driving the increasing convergence of the physical and digital worlds.While this development was taking place, the “metaverse” has been at the center of recent academic debates.Discussions about the Metaverse revolve around technical details and functional features, lured by visual impressions drawn from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel "Snow Crash" or movies like "Ready Player One."
But beyond all that, the metaverse may be a point where digital identity and assets are more meaningful than their physical counterparts.From this perspective, our transition to the metaverse is becoming a socioeconomic shift as a result of technology and communication.
As humans, we value objects and experiences, and we live in a world and time where society values these objects.The Metaverse marks a time when digital assets, experiences and relationships are valued even greater than our physical environment.And that change is just beginning everywhere, from the United States to Venezuela to the Philippines.”
Sources: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/what-play-to-earn-games-mean-for-the-economy-and-metaverse/
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