Play to earn games is a term that many of us have read or heard about, especially in the past couple of years. The name itself is quite self-explanatory but still, we need to understand this model of games. What is play to earn games, or a play-to-earn game, also known as P2E Games? How is it different from other games? What is the basis behind the play-to-earn gaming model?
Imagine, you as an avid gamer play and grind a lot in one of your favorite games. Your game character/avatar builds and progresses. You achieve rare weapons, suits, skills, mana, in-game content, and more. And one day, the creators of the game decide to do an update that NFT Games nerfs your character or takes out a key skill that you are master at. Or to make it worse, the update vanishes all your progress and you now will have to play your favorite game all over again. What would you do? Most probably you will cry or experience volcanic rage.
This is what happens when there is a centralized system in place in games. And this is where exactly decentralized games came in to fill the hole. You as a gamer will own in-game content that you worked hard on. GameFi, game finance, gives players a chance to earn real money, own digital assets, and have fun through blockchain games.
Pay to Play games, Free to play games, and Play to earn games
Pay-to-Play Traditional Gaming Models and Games
The traditional model of gaming is more like a closed-end model. This means that this model ultimately benefits one end in terms of money. The gamers will pay for the game upfront to start playing it and gets no reward that holds value even after grinding hours and hours in a game. Moreover, players also do not have any ownership of the in-game rewards that they get after hard work. Players can’t transfer their in-game rewards, prizes, or assets to any other place. The power only resides with the developers of the game.
Play-to-Earn Games
Play-to-earn games, on the contrary, is gamer-centric which brings value back to the players. The players can earn in-game rewards that hold real-world value in them in the shape of cryptocurrency, NFTs, tokens, virtual assets, virtual land, avatars, weapons, and more. Players can either rent their digital assets to other players or even sell or buy on the marketplaces outside the game. So, there is a lot of autonomy, decentralization, and ownership in blockchain games.
So, to put it simply, a play-to-earn game is a model that uses blockchain technology where players can have fun whilst earning real money. The earning potential in P2E games is massive as players can earn cryptocurrency, trade NFTs, rent in-game content, own virtual assets, and more. There are two key elements in play-to-earn games. One, it gives players ownership over in-game digital assets which players can improve and increase their value via actively playing the game. Second, players are rewarded with digital assets like cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, and more.
The Free to Play Model and P2E
Players need to purchase a high-end AAA category game before playing it in a legal way. You can either play the game by obtaining an online license or by buying a copy of the digital game by paying hefty bucks. Traditional games do not necessarily follow this model. However, this model has seen a lot of success in recent years.
The free-to-play business model allows gamers to play the game for free. However, the access is limited or the experience is not 100%. For this, gamers need to make in-game purchases using the in-game currency. Moreover, in-game purchases also allow gamers to avoid unnecessary grinding. A prime example is Fortnite which is free and is massively popular in the gaming community. The P2E games have more or less similar models, and those play to earn games that need heavy investments upfront, need to make life easier for gamers.