Are Gamers The Future of Crypto and Forex Trading

Online (cryptocurrency) trading seen as an MMORPG

A bit of backstory

Cryptocurrencies and mainly Bitcoin has been the craze of 2017. With Bitcoin’s price rocketing up from around ~$1000 in the beginning of 2017 and reaching nearly $20,000 in December. It picked up quite a lot of steam on the way up due to the high mainstream media coverage.

We’ve seen cases of people taking out mortgages on their properties and in some cases even selling their homes in order to buy Bitcoins in expectation of high profitability.

Photo by Andre Francois on Unsplash

Everyone these days has heard about cryptocurrencies and has an opinion about them but one particular group seems to be especially captivated by this (fairly) new technology and phenomenon — the millenials and even more — the gamers amongst the millenials.

Being a millenial and a gamer myself I have to admit that I’ve been bitten by the blockchain and cryptocurrency bug as well. OK, OK. That’s nothing especially outstanding as everytime there is a new profitable niche or market a lot of people will try to get on board to make a quick buck. We’ve seen it with the hoverboard, the fidget spinners, Flappy bird, lifestyle coaches and gurus. Nothing new so far…

Getting to the gist of it

But why is the cryptocurrency so appealing to the gamers? Especially the ones like me that grew up playing games like Diablo, Diablo 2,Everquest, Guild Wars, Mu Online, Tibia, Runescape, Lineage 2 and World of Warcraft. Why would that be, I hear you ask.

“A blurry shot of a computer workspace with a backlit keyboard, a laptop and a smartphone” by Caspar Rubin on Unsplash

Well, I, for one, have been having a great deal of a problems finding the next big and good MMORPG that will replace the old classics. And from what I am seeing within the gaming communities — I am not alone. The simple answer is that no good MMORPGs have come out since around 2007. To add insult to injury the MMOs that have came out in the recent years seem to be littered with DLCs, loot boxes, pay-to-win options and all sorts of microtransactions. Just as an example I’ll point out the recent debacle around Star Wars Battlefront 2. Don`t get me wrong — I have no issue with ingame payments, as long as they do not affect the game directly! I`m all for buying a skin/costume or any other visual for your character if you want and can afford it but as long as it doesn`t grant you any other ingame advantage (it’s purely cosmetic).

Sorry, got sidetracked again. It’s a bit of a sore subject.

To put it like the user enzlf said in his reddit thread — “Crypto market is the next big MMORPG”.

“We’ve had Tibia, Ragnarok, Runescape, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars going from 1990 until 2010. Since then, not a single MMORPG was good enough. Now think of when Bitcoin was created — coincidence? I don’t think so. Think about it. We have clans (different cryptos), raids (PnD), server events (20k walls), we have servers going offline (exchanges), we have scammers (BCC — gibe money first then i give u item), grinding (bots), leveling up skills (TA much?), rage quitters, leaderboards and people selling their accounts when they’re done with the game (cashing out). Old people don’t get it and millennials are the youtube generation. The MMORPG crew is what is left. That’s why we’re so fucking addicted, it’s all about farming. You can connect every single point. It all makes sense now. Satoshi is the ultimate GM of the world.”

I’d also add that the trading itself can be somehow compared to farming or PvP.

If you’ve ever had a game addiction and have wasted countless hours in to grind your levels and farm for materials, resources and items his words will definitely strike a chord. I know it did for me.

When you think about it — the gamers of the early-day MMOs with their shady gamblings and endless grinds are UNIQUELY equipped to handle the stress of the crypto world.

The gamers are the next successful traders because:

We’re used to long gaming sessions — watching the markets.

— watching the markets. We’re used to stress — volatility and losses will not phase us.

We are devoted — a gamer will spend hours on end trying out new stuff and learning how to do it right.

— a gamer will spend hours on end trying out new stuff and learning how to do it right. We are good at grinding — what’s 10–12 hours of scalping compared to 64+ hours killing the same 3 mobs (and waiting for them to respawn) in expectation to get an item with 0.0000013% drop chance.

— what’s 10–12 hours of scalping compared to 64+ hours killing the same 3 mobs (and waiting for them to respawn) in expectation to get an item with 0.0000013% drop chance. We’re tech savvy (i.e. Computer-literate, for the most part) and are Internet-intelligent — meaning we know how weed out the scams, shills, trolls and dishonest players.

(i.e. Computer-literate, for the most part) and are Internet-intelligent — meaning we know how weed out the scams, shills, trolls and dishonest players. We’re good testers and exploit finders. — I can say this from experience. Where other people see constraints and play by the rules, a gamer will test the boundaries — try to find loopholes and find a way to get outside of the box.

Online Trading (FOREX) Companies and the Gamers

Being employed, at the moment, by JFD Brokers (a brokerage company providing direct market access to traders with more than 800 instruments in 8 asset classes and portfolio management services for investors) I think they can attest to the points I’ve listed above to be true.

So, what’s my point?

It’s simple. If you have a company that is providing brokerage and/or investment management services you might want to start hiring the gamers. Being a gamer is not a bad thing. Look at it from your business’ perspective and evaluate where a gamer’s skills will be of use to you and your company. #hireagamer

The future of gaming?

In fact some smart game developers have started to figure out that they can monetize their games via cryptocurrencies. In other words a kind of gamification for the cryptocurrency world. One such example is the Ethereum based game called CryptoKitties.

Granted it’s a pain to actually understand how it works and how to start using it but it’s a start.

We’ve also seen game development studios starting to create mobile and desktop MMOs which reward their players with a cryptocurrency developed by the developers and intended to be used ingame but can also be traded on exchanges.

Just to name a few such games:

Lordmancer II

TurboCharged

BitQuest

Island Forge

8bitMMO

MineThings

The user vegeta has made a great proposal for such type of game on the blockchain based social platform — SteemIt (kinda like reddit).

Read his full post here.

Conclusions

I guess it’s just a matter of time for the game developers and blockchain tech pros to come together and start creating more and more amazingly addictive games that will be rewarding to all parties involved. Not to mention that it will allow gamers like me to get paid for playing (without the hassle of having to stream or edit videos for YouTube).

In the mean time — is there a possition in your company where a gamer will fit in?

Disclosure:

The author of the article hodls minor amounts of cryptocurrencies and is involved into crypto trading.