Gaming, as a practice and activity, is going through a major transformation right now. Until recently, gaming was looked at as a pure means of entertainment and nothing more. Spending money on gaming would be considered throwing it down the drain… Without any possible returns on investment.

Thanks to the entry of the blockchain, NFTs, Web3, and a host of other technical advancements, a new realm of gaming has started to exert its dominance. This type of gaming not only allows you to get entertained but at the same time, also facilitates earning money. Fittingly called P2E gaming (short for play to earn), this gaming paradigm transforms your time, effort, and involvement into real money.

Some games have become the poster children for such kinds of gaming. While this transformation is much needed to strengthen the stance of gaming as a serious activity, it might not have progressed in the ideal direction everyone would have intended to.

A lot of gaming companies have started to focus on the “earning“ part more than the “play“ part. It is to be understood that earning from playing games is auxiliary to the experience of playing the game itself. There should never be a compromise on the gameplay experience… And that is what every game theorist believes in.

This has led to an unwanted schism in the world of blockchain gaming. This has urged people to look at things from two different perspectives… Play-to-earn gaming… And play-and-earn gaming.

A simple change of preposition/conjunction might not seem like a lot… But there is a massive sea of difference between the two. While P2E looks at earning as an essential and forced outcome of gaming, the P&E looks at gaming and earning as two things that are running parallel to each other where gaming takes dominance and earning is passive.

What Has Led To This Transformation? Why Is It Needed Now?

Remember that time when games were steadily improving in their gameplay experience, story, and graphics? This is what is being lost now. While it can be agreed that there can be a little bit of compromise on the graphics, the story cannot be compromised on.

Gaming needs to be immersive and enjoyable for the gamer. Another reason why this aspect needs to be retained is that the gaming community will stop being a community of gamers and become a community of earners. This might be detrimental to the game, the feedback, and everything about the game itself.

Let us look at things in terms of simple English. When you are into a P2E game, you are, in essence, playing the game with desperation to earn. In other words, the purpose of playing the game is to earn.

In P&E, however, you are just playing the game, and earning comes as a parallel passive outcome. You are just playing the game and earning is happening just like that.

It cannot be denied that some people will step into this gaming arena only because it promises reports. This does not, however, mean that people who are into gaming will not enter Play-to-earn games.

What matters finally is that the gaming community that has its focus on the core aspect of the game like the gameplay, the story, and the auxiliary elements of the game like skins and power-ups will need to embrace this new arena of gaming… With the added benefit of earning money.

Today, it might seem as if P2E and P&E are pitted against each other. This is, however just a very organic progression that is expected to happen. While Play-to-earn might push towards making earning a core part of gaming, P&E tries to push it in the other direction by focusing more on the gaming aspect but without compromising on the earning aspect.

In all of this, it is a thing to rejoice that the schools of thought… Be it P&E or P2E… Aspire to make gaming lucrative and not just a place where people spend money without any returns.

Blockchain and NFTs have been doing a commendable job in uniting gaming and earning. A lot of games have come up in recent times that carry with them, a layer of empathy and knowledge when it comes to Play-to-earn gaming. When people start to come out of that zone of desperation that they enter into any game with the prospect of earning and doing their due research before choosing their choicest game, the line demarcating P2E and P&E may be completely blurred. Gaming and earning will become essential elements of a seamless experience powered by blockchain and NFTs, making Web3 gaming immersive and lucrative.