I now have a better article on Ethereum games, which exemplifies the future of gaming. Consider reading this first.

Video games are one of the biggest industries in the world. In 2018 alone, video games will generate $137 billion, a 13% increase year-over-year.

The future of this industry is not augmented reality, or virtual reality, or faster online gameplay, or better graphics… The future of gaming is crypto and blockchain.

Crypto (this could be blockchain or a directed acyclic graph) allows for players to make money in game.

Gamers right now are paying to play video games, they’re paying to buy the games, and they’re paying for in game items like skins and dances. Gamers don’t yet realize they want to profit off these in game items, because there has yet to be a mainstream game that shows them another way.

Once gamers experience a game as fun as Fortnite, for example, in which players can make money, all these gamers will be converts. The market for skill based games where players can make money will be as hot as the ICO market in 2017. Except this one won’t go away.

Artificial Intelligence

Here’s the reality. AI is taking away jobs. A lot of jobs.

It’s been thought that with any new technology that takes away jobs, new ones will emerge. However, AI looks to end the series of technologies which create more jobs.

Artificial intelligence and automation take away jobs, plain and simple.

There’s nothing wrong with this, however, humans will need alternative income strategies and alternative sources of philosophical value.

What do I mean by this?

Humans will stop being able to generate value. Until a global universal basic income emerges, humans will need new forms of income. More people will turn to video games. Video games in which people can make money will attract wide groups of people with no workplace experience. These people will turn to these games for income. These people will represent a large majority of society. Making money in games will add to the human desire to feel and be productive. Ready Player One becomes a reality.

Making Money in Games is Superior

Aside from this becoming a necessity in the future, making money from games is plain superior to not (assuming skill based money games are of equal fun to current games).

Making money in games is way more addictive and rewards feel more substantive. I’m not saying this will entirely replace games where you don’t make money, but I will say that the global games market is going to blossom because of this, and a large percentage of this market will be games in which players earn money.

Crypto?

Now back to crypto.

Tokenizing in game assets allows them to be traded between games. Cryptocurrencies can be used in game for players to make money. Game assets can be sold for cryptocurrencies. Immutability and unhackability are important too (though the mainstream gamer won’t care about actually owning assets as long as he/she is making money and having fun).

Fun Facts

Some fun facts:

Part of what inspired the legendary developer, Vitalik Buterin, to create Ethereum was Blizzard nerfing some of his in game items in World of Warcraft.

This year alone, half a billion dollars has been generated in crypto games.

This is the first real year of blockchain based games. The industry was started by the historic release of CryptoKitties, a tongue-in-cheek game which allowed players to breed digital cats and sell them for Ethereum. The cats are ERC721 tokens and can be traded for cryptocurrency, between wallets, or for in game assets from other games.

There are several marketplaces that allow trading of in game assets for other in game assets. Open Sea is a notable example of this and has received funding and guidance from the famous Silicon Valley Venture firm, Y Combinator.

To stress that the future of gaming is crypto, the fact that Ethereum was created in part because of World of Warcraft is huge! Everybody talks about Ethereum being the solution to everything serious and worrying in the world, but it was literally created in part because of the not-real-world; because of World of Warcraft and Blizzard.

Combining Crypto With Other Emerging Technologies

Imagine a virtual world that used real money (if you believe in simulation theory, this isn’t hard at all).

Imagine this world being universal and connecting, and being very fun.

You could fly, have super powers, fight the craziest villains, do the most daring stunts, go places you’ve never been or could never go to, live impossible stories, travel through time, visit other worlds and dimensions… I could go on.

This already sounds super fun. But what if there was treasure in these worlds which you could find and sell to other players for currency in the real world? It would be even more fun and addicting.

What if there was real supply and demand dynamics programmed into a game in unbelievably imaginative and creative ways?

You will be able to go on the types of adventures only possible in your imagination, and tie these creative journeys back to the real world with assets that have real world value.

VR/AR will be big in the future, definitely, especially if a Neural Link is involved, but the real game changer will be to tie gaming journeys to making income.

It’s everyone’s dream to make money and have fun. Few can find their dream jobs, but with emerging technologies, people will still be able to make money and live their dreams… their actual dreams.

How Close Are We To This?

So how close are we to these realities?

Well…

Elon Musk said in an interview that progress is being made on the Neural Link, and we do already have Pokémon Go… but the truth is we’re still a decade away.

A decade away from a Ready Player One type existence with haptic feedback suits and immersive virtual worlds.

But we are already at the age where gamers can make money playing games.

New blockchain based gaming companies are being funded left and right and there’s a ton of great games out there that players can begin having fun with and earning money with today.

Literally right now.

In the future I’m going to make many lists about these games, though I can name some now.

Jump In

Some good games.

Here are some good blockchain based games to play which are all live right now.

CryptoKitties (Ethereum Blockchain).

EOS Knights (EOS Blockchain).

Hongbao (EOS Blockchain).

World of Ether (Ethereum Blockchain).

MegaCryptoPolis (Ethereum Blockchain).

Dragonereum (Ethereum Blockchain).

Everdragons (POA Network).

Again, these are all live games which you can play right now.

They all have thriving in game economies and real game mechanics (some are far more advanced than others (more details on which in upcoming posts)).

What’s important though is that gamers are playing these games, having fun, and earning money.

This is the way of the future, and we’re already here.

The Future of Gaming

Crypto is the future of many industries, especially gaming.

This is why I’ve created this blog. I’m dedicating this to the future of gaming. In a few years games with crypto will be preferred to games without crypto (maybe until fiat begins being used in-game, which is unlikely).

By starting this blog now, I’m participating in what’s going to be the biggest revolution in one of the biggest industries.

I’m proud to be here and excited to see how this develops.

Are you excited for the future? Do you disagree with what I’ve said? Agree? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!