NFT makes the digital assets in the game truly belong to the player… and can be realized.

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Editor’s note: In recent years, cryptocurrency is no longer satisfied with the discovery and trading. People are eager to apply it to a wider range of economic life. As a non-homogeneous token, NFT has the function of helping to verify the authenticity of assets. Nowadays, more and more players are starting to buy and use NFT in the game market, and game publishers and digital capitalists also take a fancy to the market potential of NFT. This article comes from Medium, author Drew Cordell, the original title “NFTs Are Coming to Gaming, if the Current Trend is Any Indication”.

How does NFT promote the game economy

AAA developers may hire an economist who understands the concept of “digital scarcity” to help them build an NFT system.

Optimistically, cryptocurrency technology (especially NFT) can create and promote a game economy driven by players. Developers and publishers need to spend some time to understand the technical and legal requirements related to NFT, but this kind of economic development is very feasible.

Before developers can go all out, they need to understand some limitations. First, the process of mining and verifying transactions on the Ethereum blockchain requires a lot of fees. This expenditure is still very expensive, and theoretically there is no way to create an NFT for every item in the game. Therefore, when screening projects, it should be more targeted, unless developers can create their own blockchain to support this vast project.

The previous auction of “Dark Destroyer 3” with real world currency turned out to be a disaster. However, it illustrates from the side that the player-driven economy can have a certain impact on the real world. “Dark Destroyer 3” is the first video game I have ever played, and it will also have a financial impact on me, which is a cool thing.

When “Dark Destruction 3” was released, I was still in high school. In Blizzard’s auction house (trading in real-world currency), I made more than $200 by selling game items. I even discovered a dedicated game character that can magically increase the chances of finding items worth selling.

“Diablo 3” auction list｜Pictures are automatically viewed by Blizzard

So, why do you still say that this auction is a failure?

First of all, because the attraction of role-playing games is to run in with the characters. Players need to complete more and more difficult challenges in order to obtain better and better tools to complete more difficult challenges. Challenges and tools complement each other and circulate each other. Players can feel the achievements and fun throughout the game.

However, the quickest way to obtain the best equipment is through cash transactions. Blizzard has gained part of the profit in every transaction, and players have earned real money in the course of this transaction.

But players who buy equipment with money quickly ran into a problem: when they didn’t have any equipment they were looking for in the game, how would the appeal of the game change? When other players can’t buy the best equipment with money, how do they think about the ranking of the competition or the ladder competition?

Later, in view of the fact that most players’ game purpose has changed from upgrading monsters to buying more advanced equipment, and this behavior of money making the game currency depreciate too quickly, “Diablo 3” had to announce the closing of the auction field. But no matter what, the experiments of “Diablo 3” made it possible to realize game items.

Players can buy WoW tokens with real money, and then sell them to other players to get gold｜Image from Medium

The WoW of “World of Warcraft” is the perfect example for game companies to learn from Blizzard’s failures. Players can buy WoW tokens with real money, and then sell them to other players in the game at the current gold market (referring to the market price in the game).

The reason I complain about this system is that players who have accumulated a lot of gold in the game cannot turn it into real money, and can only be used in the game, or virtual transactions through the platform.

In “World of Warcraft: Legion”, I can earn three WoW tokens per hour through the game auction, but I cannot cash them. I believe that if one day players can withdraw cash through PayPal and other methods,Then the trading system will re-operate. This will be a good direction for the development of the system, but NFT has obviously gone further because it allows asset owners to truly control their digital assets.

Over the years, the Eve Online game has been more closely aligned with the real-life currency economy. I often read stories of costly battles in large alliances formed by players in Eve Online. Such wars often sacrifice spaceships worth more than $1 million in real life.

According to my research, Eve Online is well known by the player community because of its influence in the real currency economy. NFT will develop further, and as its role in promoting the economy strengthens, participating players will also have more control over their precious digital assets.

NFT: The future is here

So how will NFT develop next? We cannot make very accurate predictions. But for a long time, the giants of the game industry have not been afraid of taking risks or breaking the rules. NFT may be the next concept they will bring into the sandbox game.

We are looking forward to the development of NFT in the gaming and e-sports markets. The current signs indicate that it has been warmly welcomed in this market, and perhaps it is only a matter of time before it breaks the circle.

  • Recommended reading: New application of cryptocurrency: NFT is ready to “break the circle” in the game market (part 1)

Translator: Michiko