Unlocking In-Game Values
Video games play an essential role in many people’s lives, but they don’t get much in return besides the pleasure of playing games. It’s not something we should ignore, but new technologies offer new ways to rethink how the gaming industry works. You can trade items with others in some games, but not for monetary value. This is no longer the case if game developers are using NFTs. With NFTs and cryptocurrencies, it’s easy to make a peer-to-peer transaction with another player by exchanging realizable value for a tokenized game item.
Let’s say you’re a fan of a popular MMORPG and have been playing it for years and have leveled up along the way. There are millions of players like this worldwide, and each spends countless hours acquiring skills and items, completing quests, and reaching the top of the game.
Theoretically, if you spend 50 hours completing a quest that earns you a rare sword and you have to spend an additional 100 hours on qualifying for the level to start the quest, you’ve worked 150 hours to earn that item. If they buy the item in NFT format, someone can pay to bypass it.
If a user decides to get the NFT sword without spending the 150 hours required to reach the goal, they can exchange it with someone who has already completed the quest and buy or trade the item. As an NFT, both buyer and seller can verify the product’s legitimacy, ensuring that they make a fair and transparent exchange.
If the buyer rates the sword after $1500, the original player’s rate of $10 per hour to receive the item, they can start negotiating from there. Regardless of the deal the two parties agree on, the NFT dealer will go home with a tangible value previously inaccessible and forbidden in most games. NFTs encourage the behavior of rewarding players for acquiring them by placing a high price tag on rare or hard-to-find items. Some games even went so far as to ban the sale of in-game items, frustrating players who have no control over their gameplay to take advantage of it naturally.