Game on: Why Web 3 Gaming is Leveling Up the Ownership Game
In the world of gaming, Steam is undoubtedly the largest player, with millions of users buying their favorite games, CSGO skins, and game items through its platform.
However, while it may seem cool to have a centralized platform that can store your gaming assets, the downside is that Steam operates a one-way banking system.
Once your money goes into Steam, there is no legal way to withdraw it, making it a "gamer bank" that never lets you access your money.
Many gamers have tried to sell their game items on Steam's marketplace, only to realize that they cannot send the money back to their bank or PayPal accounts.
This means that for every dollar you deposit, Steam gets to store your money and assets without giving you the option to withdraw. It's like putting your money into a bank that never lets you take it out.
This is common among many popular web 2 gaming platforms. Fortnite has over 400 million registered users across all platforms. It is one of the most popular games in the world, with a large and dedicated player base.
Fortnite has consistently been one of the top-grossing games in recent years, with revenues surpassing $5 billion in 2020 alone.
But players are not allowed to take money out of their Fortnite account. Fortnite uses V-Bucks, a virtual currency that can be purchased using real money, to buy in-game items such as skins, emotes, and other cosmetic items.
Once players buy V-Bucks, they can only be used within the game to buy items from the in-game store.
Unlike real money, V-Bucks cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another player's account. The V-Bucks currency exists solely within the Fortnite ecosystem, and its sole purpose is to be used to purchase items within the game.
So, while players can spend real money to buy V-Bucks, they cannot withdraw the V-Bucks back to their bank account or any other payment method. The V-Bucks remain within the Fortnite game and can only be used to purchase in-game items.
This is where web 3 gaming comes in. Unlike Web 2 gaming, web 3 gaming allows you to have full control over your assets and money.
If a web 3 game's server gets compromised, your in-game items will not be lost forever because they are stored on the blockchain, a decentralized and immutable ledger.
Splinterlandsis an epitome of web 3 game, it’s built on Hive which is a perfectly suited chain for web 3 applications in terms of true decentralization leading to true ownership of items, players can buy and sell cards on the marketplace, which is powered by the blockchain.
This means that players have full control over their assets, and they can withdraw their earnings at any time.
The legacy gaming corporations are opposed to building on the blockchain because it threatens their centralized control over the gaming industry.
By using the blockchain, gamers can operate outside of the control of these corporations, creating a more democratic and fair gaming ecosystem.
It is interesting how there are gamers who claim to not see the benefits of web 3 gaming or see it as an advancement of the former ways of doing things.
Web 3 games allow players to own their items, self custody is the future of our financial world and even when it comes to gaming. While Splinterlands can only boast of a few million players, the strife for better ways of doing this gaming thing is quite obvious and it might not take long anymore for the world to realize this fact.
I look forward to the future of gaming where many legacy games transition to the next evolution of true ownership and autonomy of ingame assets.
Thanks for reading. Are you playing web3 games? If not why not?
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
