Is Blockchain Gaming Slowly Turning Into Blockchain Staking?

Two of the biggest new releases in terms of blockchain gaming this year have probably been Alien Worlds and R-Planet so far. I've did several articles on both and while I attested great potential to Alien Worlds and still stand by it, I've been severely underwhelmed with what R-Planet is showing so far. Incidentally, I'm a bit dissatisfied with the route a lot of the blockchain games I follow have been taking recently, but so far, I wasn't able to put my finger on it exactly. On my last Play2Earn Report I've gotten a small and pointed comment by @moon32walker:

Blockchain gaming feels like blockchain staking lately.

The more I think about it, the more spot on this comment is. A lot of current and upcoming blockchain games seem to rely heavily on staking mechanics, up to the point where you have to ask yourself whether they should still be considered a game in the first place. That's not to say that staking in games is a bad concept in general, but I feel like there needs to be more to any game than just some gamified staking mechanics. Let's start by taking a look at the current main offender: R-Planet!

The above image is taken directly from their front page and it perfectly sums up what the "game" is all about. You stake NFTs, which then pay out Aether every hour. You buy elements with that Aether which you then use to create new elements by combining them. These elements come with a new NFT and, if you are the first to discover them, some Wax. What the image above is missing is another arrow from "Get an NFT-card" back to "Stake NFTs" because essentially, that's what the whole gameplay cycle is looking like. Essentially, the purpose of staking NFTs is so that you can mint even more NFTs. The concept itself isn't really bad, but the question should more be "is this really a game?" and the more I think about it I'd say no, it's not!

A bit further down the front page there's also a roadmap for R-Planet and while it does have some tidbits of hints about future content, a lot of it just sounds like more staking options. Owning land, building constructions... I somehow got the feeling that all of this is just going to be more of the same, IE more staking. Only in phase 3 - Conquest - there are at least hints about actual PvP combat, but that's potentially years away from now and who knows what the market will be looking like by then.

Annoyingly, it's a growing trend in blockchain gaming - throw out very vague information, do a lot of presales, and care about the actual gameplay later. Don't get me wrong here, I don't oppose presales in general, I'm heavily invested in several games that are still in early development. But I really don't like the focus many of these developers are taking. A staking mechanic can be a fun and interesting addition to your game, but you need a game for that first! R-Planet is just one of many examples for that, as there are many more offenders out there doing the same.

Ever heard of Robonomica? Some months ago I would have called that a really interesting project that's super early in development. But honestly, I'm fed up with the same old stuff. If you look at their site, you'll find almost nothing about the actual game, but they sure like to detail what to expect from the economy. Own land, earn crypto. There's one quote right from their front page that really caught my attention:

Our main goal is to give everyone the opportunity to earn crypto. Secondly - interesting and simple gameplay.

Honestly, that's just wow to me! Why would you advertise a game like that? Earning crypto is more important than providing an interesting gameplay? Come on now, if that's your focus than just don't try making a game in the first place. I really like their art style, these robots look really cute, but I won't touch that game simply because of the statement above. Nevertheless, there's a lot of hype going on around these projects and people are throwing large amounts of money at them.

I'm a great fan of blockchain gaming, I truly believe this to be the logical next step, the future of gaming even. But as long as blockchain gaming developers care more about creating gamified staking mechanics than actual games, we simply won't get there. These so called games are never going to get to the mainstream markets because mainstream gamers don't care for a game's economy, they don't buy game items so they can stake them. They want to play the damn game, they want to enjoy themselves!

I know it must sound crazy to many to bring up Splinterlands as a positive example in that regard. The game certainly has its share of issues with Pay2Win and everything. I'm not going to argue that. Yet, I agree with the way they are introducing their own staking mechanic. And that's for two major reasons:

1. They already have a running game set up
2. Staking will be done with a purpose that makes sense within the game

How staking in Splinterlands is going to work is that you need to acquire plots of land from the game (or later from other players). You stake monsters and a summoner to that land and then start to earn different resources. These can then be used to craft new items and spells which will be used in the actual game later on. To me, that's making a huge difference. Contrary to R-Planet, the NFTs you create are used for something outside the creation cycle. You just don't stake and create NFTs for the sake of it.

This is still nothing that mainstream gamers are going to get excited about, but in this case, it's nothing they have to interact with if they don't want to. With Splinterlands, there's an actual game for them. They'll just have to buy their cards from other players instead of the game. If they dig deeper, they might find this to actually be a huge boon. If they don't, it simply won't make any difference to them. Splinterlands sure has a long way to go to get to the mainstream market, but its decisions on that matter are spot on in my opinion. They are using a staking mechanic that's actually helping the game, which will be interesting to some, but won't bother those not interested in it.

So is blockchain gaming slowly turning into blockchain staking? Short term, I fear it actually is. With the bull market growing stronger and stronger at the moment, there will be many more so called games coming up with all kinds of staking nonsense, hoping to grab some stupid money. Some of them might even go off, there's an audience for it after all. But none of them are going to make it to the mainstream market. Ever. If this is what blockchain gaming is going to look like, than it's not for me. It's going to stay niche for ever.

There is hope on the horizon, though. All it takes is one or two blockchain titles daring to be different and actually making it to the mainstream market. Once that happens, once blockchain developers understand mainstream gamers want games not money printing machines, we might see a paradigm shift in future development. Maybe it really is going to be Splinterlands, maybe it's upcoming titles like eXode or Doctor Who, and maybe it's a title I haven't even heard of yet or that hasn't even started to be developed.

To tell the truth, I don't think we'll see it happen during the current bull run, people are just too greedy during that phase to care for an actual game. My hope is the next bear market quite frankly. Once things have cooled down again and many people lost a lot of money once more, we might actually see a shift towards blockchain gaming instead of blockchain staking.

And that's all from me for today! Thank you all for reading and see you next time!

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