The gaming industry has quickly grown into an entertainment behemoth. Far from being just simplistic ways to occupy the brain for a few minutes at a time, video games have proven to be extremely versatile in their range of applications. Sure, video games — especially mobile games — can be a quick, colorful distraction or a fun way to fill the time. But video games have also become powerful tools for storytelling and artistic creation that engages a player’s senses more thoroughly than any movie or book.

How did we get here and what is the future of video games? Well, in order to begin at the beginning, we need to go back much further than you might imagine.

1940 — That’s when the first recognized example of a game machine was put on display at the New York World’s Fair in 1940. The game was simple, based on the ancient mathematical game of Nim, but it paved the way for the introduction of the first game system prototype designed for commercial home use in 1967, known as the Brown Box.

At the time, it was quite a breakthrough, allowing gamers to indulge in virtual games of ping pong, checkers and more. The Brown Box beat Atari to the market by just a few months in 1972. While Brown Box slowly slid downhill, however, Atari took off, popularizing the gaming arcade while at home consoles became more and more common.

Atari’s eventual success with titles like Space Invaders finally convinced other entrepreneurs that there was room for growth in the budding gaming market. In fact, interest was so high that the market quickly became oversaturated by poor quality consoles and games, leading to the 1983 North American video games crash.

It was the success of more advanced at-home computers that brought video games back from the dead. These machines paved the way for more complex games and even the beginnings of multiplayer matches across multiple devices — a trend that has never been stronger than it is today.

The rest of the story is probably more familiar to most of us. The advent of the internet in the mid-90s in particular made gaming accessible to millions while smaller, more powerful computers allowed developers to stretch the limits of what a video game could achieve. Mobile gaming has been the next big development over the past decade and shows no sign of slowing down.

In terms of technology, it’s likely that virtual reality will soon become more accessible to more people and take up a large portion of the market. But in order for gaming in general to continue growing as a market, some entry barriers should be removed and incentives added to create a new experience in the virtual world. Blockchain technology can offer that solution, and that’s why BUFF has an important role to play in the future of gaming.

BUFF rewards gamers for the time they spend playing with cryptocurrency tokens that can be exchanged for cash or spent on virtual goods. It’s a simple loyalty system for gamers that creates a lucrative new revenue stream for game publishers while adding an incentive for gamers to gamer more, or at the very least removes the entry barrier for people who don’t want to spend their own money on in-game purchases. Where do you think gaming is headed?