Blockchain Gaming – Shifting power to the player

One of the biggest problems within the games industry is that players feel voiceless and disenfranchised. Game studios are notorious for ignoring the wishes of their fan bases and focuses more on profit margins. As a result, this makes society disillusioned.

These problems gave birth to decentralized video games. Blockchains allow players to gain control over both the digital items they use, as well as voice their concerns and propose changes via governance tools. While the first blockchain-powered games mainly focused on the economic aspect of blockchain and NFT, the latest trend aims to empower players by merging the best aspects of traditional gaming and blockchain.

A good example of this is Life beyond – a AAA MMORPG game created by former Ubisoft developers and powered by blockchain technology. This game uses some of the most revolutionary aspects of the blockchain space to provide an experience that gives users more control and overall autonomy. Let’s take a look at how Life Beyond does this.

Real governance

One of the most important elements of the blockchain gaming movement is that users can now be involved in making crucial choices about the media they play. By decentralizing the decision-making process, players are empowered to vote on how the games they love work and function at a fundamental level.

For example, with Life Beyond, the developers will set up a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) that will provide real management controls to active community members. Here, users will be able to make important changes to the game and take responsibility for how it is developed and programmed. In the near future, players will be able to vote on how the in-game economy works, how the social structures and politics of the game work, how certain elements work, the game mechanics, and even the aesthetics of the game.

DAOs are an instrumental part of many web3 projects, but they are particularly powerful in the context of gaming projects as they allow the user base to take the helm and democratically enforce ideas that the community wants. This is in stark contrast to simply waiting for developers to listen to fan requests, which can often feel like shouting into the void.**

DAOs in games like Life Beyond give players a seat at the table. By holding digital tokens, users can make their voices heard and collectively create the gaming experience they really want.

True ownership

Another big difference between web3 games and traditional games is how ownership of digital goods works. In Life Beyond, in-game items can be turned into NFTs, meaning users can take full ownership of them, place them in their crypto wallets, and sell or trade them across blockchains.

This is in contrast to most traditional games, where items are owned and controlled by the game studios. In Life Beyond, items belong entirely to players, giving them full autonomy over what they do with their possessions and how they store them. This is particularly exciting as it allows a separate economy to exist alongside the game itself, where some NFTs can fluctuate in market value depending on their rarity and usefulness in the game itself.

In the words of : “allowing players to have ownership of the assets they buy and earn in-game allows them to participate in the potential growth of a game. It allows players to retain some financial value when they switch to playing something new”.

Best of all, NFTs can also be used in conjunction with DAO management tools, where players can change the importance of certain tool-based NFTs by voting to make changes to the way the game itself works, thus making some NFTs more useful than others. Not only this, but by changing the importance of specific NFTs, players can have a dramatic effect on the economy of the game, as NFTs are sold and traded.

Move the needle in the game world

By taking advantage of blockchain technology, Life Beyond is actively changing the nature of the gaming industry by putting the player’s wishes at the forefront. Instead of just forcing certain elements of a game onto the fanbase, they give fans the ability to radically adjust the way the game works, tailoring it to the community. Not only this, but with NFT ownership, players can take full control of their digital assets – sell and trade them however they wish. The Life Beyond team are trendsetters in this industry, working hard to ensure their fanbase is heard and empowered, which is a breath of fresh air in an industry where studios have a reputation for focusing on profits over player experiences.