Some popular online games use real-world constructs to keep the gameplay logical and intuitive. It extends to how the player navigates and communicates with the game world. Although this is most evident in online simulation games like The Sims and other virtual worlds, it has also become an integral part of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, where the avatars need tools, equipment, and supplies and have to generate a form of currency or barter system for exchanging goods. You can also see popular games being played on lucky7bonus casino.
The Growth of Virtual Currency in Games
Initially, the game’s economy was in-system only. The money was designed to be inside the game system alone. This later changed to points systems and virtual currencies within the game but with the sales of game tokens and bonuses with real money. This allowed game developers to monetize their products and earn from in-game purchases. The popularity of Facebook games stemmed in part from the introduction of in-game purchases. Users could now buy additional items for their game avatars. This was a closed environment where money for in-game purchases was coursed through the developers. Also, the players could not monetize their in-game property by selling these to other users.
Additionally, the use of real-world money in life simulation games had a similar effect. For instance, Second Life, a popular life simulation game, allowed users to create products for avatars and sell them outside of the game. A secondary market has been a thriving community providing goods and services for the game’s avatars. The resulting money and digital purchases were sent between the buyers via electronic means and have created a thriving gray economy for the players.
How is Virtual Currency Used in Games
Typically, a player has to create wealth in the game in order to develop characters and communities. In a strategy game, the player accumulates points or some form of credit for tasks done within the game. These are used in buying new equipment, researching new methods, or hiring new personnel. The most common form of currency is gold or coins. Each game has its own gold or coins, and in some instances, you would need to acquire other resources to buy other things. Games may have wood collecting, ore mining, gas collecting, or some other activity to accumulate these things. There are even some MMORPGs that have new players running around collecting animals, rocks, flowers, or plants. Some other games have the players fighting monsters for credits. These monsters increase in strength and power, resulting in increasing credit yields.
After collecting and amassing these resources, the player can use them in game to develop his status or his avatar. The gold is used to buy better equipment like weapons, armor, potions, magic objects, and others.
Game Gold to Real Money and Vice Versa
In real terms, there is a conversion between the amount of game time and the development of the avatar. The more time the player spends in game, the more improvement he can do with his avatar, or farm, or whatever the game’s goal appears to be.
This is crucial to understanding the use of currency in the game. Players spend without their knowledge. Some games look free, but the ads shown during the game serve as the payment for play. With difficult games, where there is a need for a large amount of time, there are farmers for hire. These are people who are paid to play games for other people. These miners and farmers are tasked to play the games in order to collect gold, wood, minerals, and other things. This saves the account owner time that would otherwise have been spent idly walking around in the game world.
The gathered resources serve as in-game currency of one form or another. The gold becomes more real when valuable game items are sold between players in the real world. These items may even include the avatar itself or some form of wallet or pouch where the avatar’s items are stored.
This exchange is literal proof that time is gold and vice versa.
Earning Real Money
The use of money in games has become crucial to developers. Trade and barter are no longer left to the gamers. The developers have taken the lead in making sure that gamers have the facility to monetize their avatars and equipment. In the same manner, some games have included cryptocurrency in their game. However, to keep control over the cryptocurrency, these are made specifically for the game, and the conversion in and out of the game to real-world money takes some steps.
Developers can have an ecosystem where there is in-game purchases. Typically, only the gamer can benefit from these microtransactions, and there is no way for them to reverse the process and earn money. With a cryptocurrency backend, developers can entice gamers with the promise of earning while playing the game.
Using Blockchains for In-Game Currency
The key is not just funny money in the form of game specific cryptocurrency, but the promise of secure transactions using blockchain. Blockchain is the core of cryptocurrency. It is a string of transactions that detail the amount transacted, and by whom. A main feature of the blockchain is that the latest data is encoded using the previous data for the hash. This results in a method where faking a blockchain is not possible because the whole string is no longer valid.
Blockchains are not just for cryptocurrency. They are also finding use in inventory and logistics because the transaction record is kept safe by the blockchain. Additionally, blockchains use a decentralized model of computing and data storage. To come up with the latest data encoded for a blockchain requires the use of several anonymous computers computing for the value. Each valid computation rewards the computer owner with a fraction of the cryptocurrency.
With the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency, the player can be mining for crypto while playing. Microtransactions are kept secure making sure that games are free from theft and fraud.
Conclusion
There is no denying that games would do well to have their own self-controlled currency that is limited for use only within the game. Gamers also benefit from virtual currency in microtransactions within the game. Their tools and resources earned during the game are secure from theft or fraud. The use of microcurrency will also ensure that gamers can earn from the games that they love playing.