You WILL make history, whether you like it or not

Building on the blockchain means building for eternity

By Ricardo Liberato — All Gizah Pyramids

While most video games represent a straightforward product, like a series of missions or actions you have to perform in order to reach goal X, a subset of games exists that provides its players with the tools necessary to build things. These games act as sandboxes: interactive environments that provide the foundation for artwork, communities, and creations not found anywhere else. From Halo 3 to Minecraft, gamers have taken control of their gameplay to collaborate and build.

Remaining creations

Unfortunately, as intricate as these communities may be, and as grand as their creations stand, the lifespan of their contributions exists only so long as the general gaming population shows interest in the game. Beyond this, most of these artifacts are created on private servers, which, once the owners of the servers decides to stop running them, erase everything that has taken place, forever.

Here is a showcase of one such Minecraft server that has long since stopped running. Each block in the video was collected, crafted, and placed by players. The montage represents hundreds of thousands of hours gameplay spanning over a couple of years. This is just one of a number of servers that were interacted with by thousands of unique players over multiple years that has ultimately shut down permanently.

With XAYA, however, virtual history can never be lost. In the XAYA ecosystem, games and servers are hosted directly upon XAYA’s custom blockchain. These games can be kept online on top of the blockchain indefinitely. In this system, the future of any game or private server does not rely on a central authority, whether that be an individual admin or the game’s developer team.

When games are hosted on top of XAYA, they do not disappear. Intricate and zany games created on Garry’s Mod will run indefinitely, Minecraft metropolises will not wither, and Terraria skyscrapers will not topple. While players may inevitably move on to other pursuits, the creations they leave behind shall remain.

Virtual history

This longevity also paves the way for greater implications. Outstanding contributions throughout games can be memorialized as pieces of virtual history. Virtual museums can be constructed, where gamers can be admitted for free, or for a fee, to browse certain creations. There may even emerge a new type of virtual jobs: curators and historians, who explore abandoned games and servers or host virtual tours of the most brilliant or obscure creations of a past era.

Lastly, in conjunction with XAYA’s Decentralised Realities, players can adopt a new style of gameplay: repopulating and revitalizing abandoned areas or worlds. Somewhat like a virtual squatter, individuals or subcommunities could potentially construct new societies on top of or alongside previous ones deserted.

In the United States alone, museums receives over 850 million visits annually. Individuals worldwide are interested in viewing and learning about different pieces of art, culture, and history. The emerging virtual world is no different. There will be countless incredible creations made by the player. In the XAYA ecosystem, these creations are not lost, and millions of individuals will similarly have the opportunity to take in the manifestations of the trials and progresses of virtual societies.

Visit xaya.io for more information on XAYA and blockchain gaming.