UGC and the freedom to express oneself has always been loved by video gamers. Although UGC has been around in video games for decades, it hasn’t always been as welcomed as it is in today’s market. Some of the early forms of UGC were ‘Mods,’ which were in-game changes of an existing video game created by players and typically disseminated through more under-the-radar channels like third-party forums.
Currently, UGC-based games and platforms have evolved into being the world’s most popular digital products, ranging from games like Fortnite and Minecraft (both of which have implemented UGC-based techniques) to platforms like Minecraft which is one of the largest industry leaders with a UGC-centric business model with over 200 million copies sold to date.
All of this phenomenal growth demonstrates that people want to purchase, trade, and exchange game items aggressively, as seen by Fortnite and Call of Duty’s billion-dollar sales. Due to companies’ centralized approach, developers are not able serve customers efficiently. New technologies such as blockchain can help decentralize, fairly monetize and profit both gamers and developers.
Game Economy Operation Redefined
Traditional games essentially license digital assets to players and its free-to-play game economies are unidirectional where players buy virtual goods that can only be used within the game, according to the developer’s rules, which in all but a few cases places restrictions on how they can be held, used, and transferred. The developer can only allow digital assets to be purchased, transferred, owned, traded, and used as flexiblely as they permit. Games that allow marketplace trading to trade digital assets can only be done through platform credits. This limits the game’s potential.
Blockchain game economies allow for true ownership of digital goods because they are assets whose relationships to their owners are inscribed on the blockchain. Developers and gamers can confer property rights when they have real ownership. One of the unique properties of blockchain technology is that it can grant property rights and enforce them, while also creating trustless systems.
In fact, many play to earn & play and earn economies are already providing true ownership of in-game assets. Cradles, for example, provides true ownership and IP rights to creators in the ecosystem. Developers and players now have full ownership over digital assets. They also have complete freedom to monetize assets outside of the game ecosystem.
The Core Design Problem in Gaming
The presence of “whales” in traditional gaming has been a long-standing aspect of the industry. A lot of times, these “whales” end up contributing towards purchases of all digital assets. New Swrve research shows that 0.15% mobile gamers account for 50% of all mobile gaming revenue. This has forced developers to keep creating new content, as a result of which, “free-to-play” has become “play to win”. And, people or players who can manage to spend money on in-game assets are doing so while others don’t, which is causing the design problem.
This problem is being solved by blockchain gaming projects that use a play-to-earn model. Planet Mojo and other games are contributing significantly to the solution of design problems within the traditional gaming industry. Planet Mojo’s NFTs, which can be used inside-game instead of buying player upgrades or PVP, are enabling digital property rights. These NFTs can be resold by players, which will allow them to generate more revenue. A DAO system is also available that allows developers and members to see what they want. It allows them to better align their development with community needs.
It’s a win-win situation for both players and developers
Blockchain-based gaming offers a new way to make things better in an industry that has largely favored gaming companies and developers. The ecosystem is more equal for everyone involved, including developers as well as game users.
Developers can also empower their players by allowing them to own in-game items through blockchain. This will allow them to incentivize game growth and provide a platform for developers to retain control of game operations. Developers must be able to comprehend the various ways digital assets can create and how they interact with other players.