Gaming and earning have always been considered to be oxymorons. It would have been unbelievable if anyone were to say that you could earn a living or at least some money just by playing games.

No… We are not talking about how you could participate in game tournaments, emerge as the winner, and get some money outside the gaming ecosystem. We are talking about a system where your earning money is inherent to the game itself.

This realm of gaming is fittingly called play-to-earn, shortened as P2E. P2E has become the latest fad or trend in the world of gaming.

The Blurring Line

When electronic/computer gaming first came into existence, it was conceptualized to give a little electronically enabled entertainment. Slowly, people started to develop expertise in specific games and those pockets of expertise started to get recognized. As time went by, the recognition translated into rewards and revenue.

The introduction of the digital distributed ledger called the Blockchain has been instrumental in transforming the perspective and positioning of multiple things… And gaming is not an exception. By ensuring minimal human intervention and by automating processes, the likelihood of rewards being manipulated has been brought down to almost 0.

While this may look like a small step in the path of the evolution of gaming, P2E has a lot of implications and the “small step” is bound to be a major point of inflection in the curve of gaming adoption and globalization.

The Implications

• Gaming will become serious

While the entertainment quotient of gaming will still remain intact and will not suffer a lot of changes in either direction, the magnitude of seriousness will see a manifold increase with respect to gaming. It would not be surprising for people to focus on honing their gaming skills and become professionals on this front.

• Gaming will be a profession

It is a classic example but it still holds true. A decade ago, it might not have been acceptable for anyone to say that they are professional contact creators. Today, however, it is a lucrative profession. Congruently, gaming will also transform itself to be a serious profession. You can expect to see a new breed of gamers whose only means of earning their bread and butter is to play games.

• Game ecosystems will become interdependent

P2E gaming heavily relies on using NFTs as giving assets. NFTs, as you may have known, resides on the blockchain and they are inherently immortal… At least theoretically. Therefore, to capitalize on this longevity, you can expect games to become more independent, so they can make the fullest use of the digital gaming assets presented as NFTs.

• Non-P2E games will become obsolete

Games that do not give earning opportunities might not entirely disappear… Just like how games like Flappy Birds (which look a lot like your television console games from the 1980s) still make flickers of appearances. the transition of the web from Web 2.0 to Web3 will be one of the major catalysts in this transformation. For all you know, P2E gaming could be one of the accelerators for moving people from Web 2.0 to Web3!

• Vital economic parameters like GDP per capita will be impacted

We have already seen the likelihood of people being positively impacted by P2E games in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. The impact was for just one game and that too, in an isolated territory both culturally and geographically. When P2E games start to become more prominent and when people start to increase their earnings without any dependencies on factors like education and experience, it can positively impact the standard of living of a lot of people across the planet. 

• Holistic gaming metaverses will be created

Metaverses have already started to exert their dominance, thanks to the endorsement they have received from a lot of brands like Bulgari and governing bodies like FIFA. Gaming metaverses will not only make the gaming experience more immersive and lucrative, but it will also pave way for many more collaborations which might include but will not be limited to metaverse tournament sponsorships, metaverse stadium ownership, creation of virtual teams and players, auctions and bidding, and even full-fledged leagues that happen completely within the metaverse.

Closing Words 

The heralding of this new dimension of gaming will redefine the future of games and earning. However, it takes a garnish of empathy… like maybe a P2E cricket game… to ensure that the transition happens smoother and faster. Jump.trade and GuardianLink are proud to have been the harbingers of this change.