by Ieva Baranova
Remember those days when you used to head over to a friend’s house who had a gaming console? Now, you have one in your pocket, granting you access to any number of games that you can play whenever and wherever you want.
The rise of smartphones has changed the way we play and altered our expectations towards gaming. But there’s yet another big change happening in front of our eyes right now – the blockchain revolution.
While blockchain has kindled hot topics like the disruption of finance and the demise of banking, it holds no potential danger for the mobile game industry. On the contrary, blockchain has already enhanced mobile gaming bringing new possibilities and a different kind of convenience into the gameplay.
We believe this is great news both for game developers and players. Read on to discover the 8 ways blockchain will change mobile gaming for the better – forever.
1. Safer data storage
If some people still aren’t sure about the benefits of blockchain within the financial sector, nobody can dispute the security advantages of this technology.
When it comes to gaming, the encrypted ledgers protect the gamer’s personal data or virtual items even better than any centralized institution.
The data in this open ledger is protected yet verifiable. Therefore, you can be sure that this encryption system is unhackable and that only people with a unique key will be able to access it.
In other words, your virtual property and your game history will stay safe in your pocket wherever you go, and for as long as you want.
2. 100% game fairness
Similarly, the security of blockchain helps to prevent fraud and cheating, making the gaming experience more fair and honest. This aspect alone has the potential to revolutionize the gaming scene. There’s really no way to circumvent the blockchain system apart from selling your whole asset wallet, giving away all that you have, or nothing at all.
Let’s take Monetizr tokens (MTZ) as an example: a cryptocurrency that game developers can use to reward gamers for their time and skill. Because blockchain creates a public digital ledger, the MTZ tokenization system can assign value to in-game money and items.
Every MTZ token that gamers earn or exchange is recorded, fostering transparency, trust, and fair game.
3. Multi-gaming experience
Just imagine that players could accumulate their potential and achievements using an ongoing character that develops through several games. Blockchain’s distributed ledger allows for just that, enabling players to use their characters and items across multiple interlinked games.
In a tokenized gamification system, the gamers will be able to earn rewards based on their skills, achievements, and time spent in the game; and then use those rewards or tokens across multiple games.
This system will increase in-game motivation, fuel competition and the desire to get to the next level. Such a level of engagement will ultimately create a better player experience and lead to more revenue for game developers. The more time players spend in a game, the more likely they are to make in-app purchases, see ads, buy merchandise, and share their achievements with friends.
And it doesn’t end there. Game developers would be able to release connected game series using blockchain data stored in digital assets such as virtual items, characters, or skins. We could even see the rise of parallel gaming universes jointly created by several game studios.
4. Teamwork and competition
Blockchain not only transcends the boundaries of a single game but also broadens each player’s individual experience. By facilitating interactions with other players, gaming is about to become more social and worthwhile.
These are just some of the possibilities blockchain technology opens to gamers:
- Collecting payments for a common goal
- Sending gifts to other players
- Giving out loans
- Sharing your spoils upon reaching a concrete goal
- Investing in becoming a master of that particular game
- Interacting and negotiating with other players directly without notifying the game’s developer, host, or your payment card provider
All this without leaving the game platform. The best news is, we can expect these changes very soon. Adding tokenization to this new gaming dimension, you’ll be able to send virtual items or assets to another player, and they’ll also hold value in the real world.
5. Simpler and cheaper transactions
Blockchain enables faster and cheaper micro-transactions that will result in even more affordable in-game merchandise and power boosts. It’s a flexible, less disruptive alternative to the intrusive pop-up that asks to enable an e-commerce transaction. Another win-win for developers and users alike.
Just as in many other areas and industries, blockchain is about to decentralize all game-related payments, enabling players to pay lower fees.
Soon buying physical and virtual goods with cryptocurrency will become a common choice in mobile gaming. We can already see new options emerging, like the integration of Coinbase Commerce for in-app cryptocurrency payments.
Meanwhile, developers will save significant amounts on payment gateways and intermediary fees. The ability to swiftly carry out micro-payments will present game developers with new opportunities to monetize their products.
6. Enhanced in-game rewards
Most game rewards only hold value within the digital universe of that particular game – not in the real world or any other game. This limitation makes any playing experience less rewarding, and users soon grow tired of games.
The Monetizr token is in the process of changing all this with the use of blockchain technology. As the gamers earn tokens for reaching different achievements, they can easily transfer their gains to another game thus seizing full control over the rewards they reap.
In fact, soon we’ll stop regarding game rewards as virtual items, but rather as digital assets that can be used within the game, in the e-store, and in the offline world.
Thanks to the blockchain, you can spend your earned rewards to boost your powers in the game, buy game merchandise, hold them as an investment, or transform them into cryptocurrency. It’s also likely that game developers and managers will use this technology to organize tournaments with prizes in cryptocurrency.
Creating networks that facilitate sharing, trading, and gifting of virtual items will increase the social value of each game. This tangible reward aspect also helps improve engagement and loyalty by better rewarding gamers for their time spent, which in turn helps extend the player lifecycle.
7. Personalization
We already established that the distributed ledger can enable gamers to use their items and characters across multiple games with connected environments. But this data usage could go even further and be used by in-game algorithms to determine a player’s preferences and offer a more tailored experience.
This personalization can help game developers:
- Better understand the behavior and preferences of their users and continue to improve their experience
- Quickly attain information about new players based on data from the games they’ve played previously
- Come up with highly targeted ads for in-game goods and services
Information like games played, time spent in each game, goods or services offered (and accepted) during the game, skill level, and more help create a personalized, engaging and long-lasting experience.
8. Tailoring your own gaming experience
With blockchain, you can set and pursue your own goals within a game designed by someone else. Using your creativity and skills, you can form new ideas, partnerships, and even new games within the world created by the developer.
Some examples of a tailored game experience:
- Organizing in-game bets where players chip in with a little cryptocurrency (winner takes all)
- Paying other players for help or collaboration in achieving certain milestones
- Exchanging goods to reach a particular goal
- Creating unique solutions to challenges faced in the game
- Creating custom adventures or special game levels for elite players
Evolution of gaming: from golden coins to digital tokens
Given all of these factors, it’s clear that blockchain is poised to bring another big wave of change to mobile gaming. In a market that’s already worth nearly $109 billion, the benefits that blockchain technology can deliver to gaming are enormous.
An in-game economy with an integrated real-world currency opens up all sorts of options that were never possible before. Options that will turn gamers from regular fans to contributors who are able to create new adventures for themselves as well as other gamers.
