What is Web3 gaming?
The concept of Web 3.0 has been around for the last few years. What did this decentralized, blockchain-enabled, token-ruled platform bring to the gaming industry? What is Web3 gaming? Whimsy Games experts will answer these and other questions in this article.
As we can learn from the Gartner yearly Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech report, metaverse, Web3, and NFT are among promising technologies that have yet to reach a plateau of productivity. Web3 games contain all three.
If you jump into developing a Web3 game now and become an early player, you will benefit from your new game in less than ten years. Sounds interesting? You arrived in the right place. Whimsy Games experts will help you to kick off the concept of Web3 gaming and share their knowledge of the technology behind it.
What Are the Most Common Features of Web3 Gaming?
Web3 game is a digital game with a decentralized structure, using blockchain technology in its economy. Apart from cutting-edge gameplay, it offers good monetization features, such as in-game cryptocurrency and NFTs. If these terms are new to you, don’t worry, Whimsy games experts will explain them.
Before moving on to particular technologies, let us agree that no list of features can define what should be present in such a game. Web3 is still young and not fully defined yet, so in this article, let us agree that if a game utilizes one of these technologies, we call it Web3.
So here are the key features of Web3 gaming:
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are digital agreements between two and more parties documented as a program code. They consist of a set of predefined conditions for each participant. Once each agreement member meets the rules, goal action takes place.
In Web3 games, they help to ensure that all transactions are protected. Let’s look at an example. Players want to trade game assets with the help of smart contracts. In this case, the buyer’s money automatically goes to the seller only after full asset ownership goes to the buyer. If that does not happen, the buyer does not lose their money and gets them back without trouble.
Smart contracts make in-game transactions more secure, reliable, and error-free. Also, this technology ensures that trading is autonomous and more cost-effective. That is because such a deal does not require intermediaries to monitor the transaction.
To create smart contracts, developers use scripting languages like Ethereum’s Solidity language, Rust, and Python.
XR Technologies
XR stands for Extended Reality, a generalizing term for a group of technologies. These technologies: are AR, VR, and MR, which nowadays do not need an introduction.
XR experience often comes with RT3D (Real Time 3D) technology. It allows game apps to have high-quality environments rendered in real time. The surroundings are rendered as the player navigates around the game’s location. It happens faster than the human eye has time to notice.
The widely-known examples of XR hardware are VR glasses and helmets with controllers. Less common tools include wearable devices such as haptic gloves and positional trackers to be placed on any body part.
XR technologies intend to create immersive experiences with content, so they appear in modern games such as NFT All Stars. You can choose one of the game’s 3D characters in this AR game or bring your own NFT avatar.
https://geenee.ar/nft-all-stars/
Blockchain Game Currency
Nowadays, no one is surprised by earning money by trading cryptocurrencies. Lots of apps offer to buy and exchange coins. Crypto wallets have become more accessible than they were a few years ago, and today, you can easily pay for your online shopping with Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Previously the Whimsy Games team shared with you top trends of blockchain gaming explored by our experts. Info about them as well as key challenges in such kind of gaming you can find over here.
The game platforms have a marketplace where users may trade their items. The web game development company developed their own cryptocurrencies for the most games. Therefore the web 3.0 gaming industry does not stand aside from it and offers its customers custom crypto coins to earn simply by playing.
The examples of them are:
- ApeCoin (APE)
- Sandbox (SAND)
- Axie Infinity (AXE)
- Decentraland (MANA) and others.
Blockchain wallets enable converting earnings in-game currencies into real money. Here you can learn about the most popular gaming coins, their growth, and market capitalization rates.
NFT
Another thing that gamers enjoy in Web3 games is NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). These allow players to collect and truly own such assets as characters’ clothes and skins, digital game accessories, and artistic pieces associated with gameplay or characters.
With NFTs, players will retain their collectibles when they switch to other gaming platforms, unlike in traditional games.
The Sandbox is the most famous example of a Web3 platform utilizing this technology. It has an NFT marketplace where you can buy anything, starting from Mona Lisa Doge Art to the pieces of the 2D gaming land in The Sandbox metaverse.
Whimsy Games have a deep expertise in creating NFT games. Here we share some tips on how to set up a server and add a new player.
Node/Web3 Providers
Node provider, also known as Web3 provider, is a necessary part of any blockchain-enabled platform. They allow reading and accessing data stored in blockchain networks. For this, they provide an API key that makes reaching both the latest and historical data possible.
With Web3 providers, your gaming software can talk to Ethereum or Blockchain nodes, which will support smart contracts dealing with game cryptocurrency.
Decentralization
In traditional games, all the data is stored on servers owned by the game provider. In such a schema game administrator has control over all players’ data, and thus they become an easy entry point for the whole system. That means for stealing tons of game-related data, compromising the admin’s machine is enough to cause a vast amount of damage.
In the newer generation of games, players are integral parts of the game’s decentralized ecosystem. Such an approach allows for reducing downtimes due to server unavailability. Those systems are also extremely hard to corrupt, thanks to smart contracts.
What Risks Do Players Face in Web3 Gaming
Be careful of the following risks that may occur when you are too into the game.
Addiction Risk
Web 3 games feature a play-to-earn approach. To start earning money, you need to invest your money into it first. It may look like a kind of gambling.
The amount of money you can earn depends not only on how good you are at playing the game. The state of the game economy is a factor that contributes to your result way more.
Web3 gaming currencies may become a crypto investment bubble sucking in those who want to get instant wealth. Everyone wants these coins; the most desperate individuals may throw the last money into emerging gaming currencies.
How to Overcome the Risk of Addiction?
The best advice for players would be to remember that it is still a game. You came here to entertain yourself and spend some time with pleasure, not to get easy money. With such a mindset, handling gambling temptations would be much easier.
People prone to addictions should be careful with such games because abusing them might harm mental health.
Cyber Vulnerability
Web3 gaming is more secure and safe in comparison to the regular one. But that does not mean impossible to compromise. Breaches and hacker attacks still take place in the cyber world.
For example, one of the largest ever breaches by dollar value has happened this year. Hackers took over $620 billion from the Ronin Network. Ronin is a crypto wallet designed exclusively for the Axie Infinity game.
You may wonder how it could be hijacked since previously, we have told you that web 3 games are secure. However, hackers can still overtake blockchain networks by controlling over half of their computational power. This kind of breach is called a 51% attack.
How to Overcome Cyber Vulnerability?
As a player, you need to be careful with game currencies. We advise you to monitor the coins’ hash rate. The higher it is, the more protected your money invested in the game’s assets is.
What Web3 Games Development Services Does Whimsy Provide?
Interested in becoming an early player of the Web3 games world? Whimsy Games is happy to guide you in the game dev world no matter how much expertise you have. We offer an entire cycle of Web3 games development and provide professional developers and digital artists for hire.
Your immersive game could become a brick in a growing wall of Web3 metaverse. Contact Whimsy Games and let your game idea glow! With our help, you will make it.
