Decentralized virtual worlds have the potential to host trillions in assets and provide millions of job opportunities, as suggested by the cryptocurrency-centric investment firm, Paradigm. However, the pertinent question to ask is: why do games necessitate the use of blockchains?
Role of Blockchain in Gaming
Games that engage players for long durations enable them to generate fresh content, primarily through mods and open economies, as per Paradigm’s insights. Mods allow third-party developers to enhance the original game’s vision, leading to legendary games such as Defense of the Ancients and PUBG. Conversely, open economies, like the one in EVE, empower players to construct complex social and economic systems.
However, there are certain constraints. In games like Minecraft, players cannot introduce new mods to existing servers without initiating from scratch, and this fragmentation restricts the game’s potential for expansion. There are also limited in-game primitives and regulatory barriers for open economies, preventing players from off-ramping in-game assets or exchanging them for fiat.
The Appeal of Onchain Gaming
Fully onchain games, where both the state and logic exist on open smart contract platforms, present two convincing arguments for why games should be put on a blockchain, according to Paradigm. The first is composable modding, which enables players to integrate mods without fragmenting the game state or seeking permission. The second is permissionless open economies, which allow players to craft a game’s economy using smart contracts, eliminating the need for informal agreements or reliance on in-game primitives.
Paradigm acknowledges that onchain games continue to face obstacles around technical limitations that hinder game design. The current infrastructure, like the Ethereum Virtual Machine, is not optimized for intricate game development. Additionally, onchain games also have to deal with real-money markets, frontrunning incentives, and economic exploits.
The Future of Onchain Gaming
However, Paradigm believes that improvements in rollup scalability and cost reductions, coupled with the development of game-specific blockchain infrastructure, will help mitigate these issues. Fully onchain games, leveraging permissionless composability, have the potential to flourish with open economic incentives and exist indefinitely on secure blockchains. Yet, given the challenges encountered, a hybrid approach incorporating offchain game infrastructure, NFT assets, and DeFi interoperability might be more feasible, as per Paradigm.
Regardless of the path chosen, composable modding and permissionless open economies in onchain games could inspire innovations in traditional game design, encouraging major studios to adapt and evolve. As we move forward, platforms like cryptoview.io could play a crucial role in monitoring and analyzing these decentralized virtual worlds.
