4 Reasons Why Some P2E Games Become Gain Viral Adoption While Others Cannot

Nowadays, the global gaming community is witnessing a huge spike in the popularity of blockchain-based games, with hundreds of new projects entering the market every month. You may be wondering what the major drivers are for the mass adoption of play-to-earn games. In today’s article, I will do my best to identify them. 

Abnormal level of popularity

Image credit: Time

Bearing in mind that the GameFi sector managed to attract $1 billion in funding in January 2022, it is hard to argue the fact that GameFi is hot right now. Just for comparison, the total amount of investments last year barely reached $4 billion. 

Based on the relevant information, the collective market capitalization of the most popular play-to-earn games is around $14 billion. Huge influencers and corporations are convinced that this is just the beginning of the story for the GameFi sector. 

Aside from that, according to analytical reports, blockchain-based games have recently become the most dominant dApp category in terms of usage. Back in the third quarter of 2021, they accounted for 45% of the activity in the entire industry and now, this number has risen to 52%.

The fledgling P2E concept has a number of advantages over existing online games. Undoubtedly, GameFi can be easily considered a passport to broader crypto adoption, as blockchain and NFT games herald the future of the industry.

Speaking of blockchain, at the early stages of the GameFi market, development teams were mainly using the Bitcoin blockchain, which was not particularly welcomed by the users. Now, we frequently see developers switching to modern solutions like Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, Polygon, Wax, and BSC, further contributing to the increase in popularity of P2E projects. 

However, what else is provoking this spike in awareness? Let’s take a look together.

The primary drivers of mass adoption

Image credit: STEX

A good and obvious place to start is to acknowledge that a huge number of international crypto enthusiasts are attracted to the idea of P2E itself. Making a living by playing exciting games from your laptop or even your smartphone sounds appealing, right? However, it actually goes a lot deeper than it might first seem. 

For starters, the opportunity to freely trade and the pricing of game currencies play a major role in the stunning success of GameFi. Theoretically, in conventional games, you can make real money from in-game currencies by selling in-game items or props for cash through clandestine black markets, although in-game currencies are not directly convertible through official channels. However, there are high transaction costs associated with this process. GameFi projects, on the other hand, allow their users to do just that by default. 

Next is the free trading of game materials, the freedom to exchange items, and favorable transaction prices. Transactions in this model can be compared to those in a planned economy. 

For example, transaction items can only be exchanged using official channels for a fixed price that is determined by the authorities. As is customary in economics, when making production decisions, the wider the range of technologies and methods available, the lower the transaction costs. The GameFi sector is particularly focused on reducing transaction costs and enhancing the user experience, thereby providing more freedom of trade.

Additionally, GameFi’s success is not possible without ensuring property rights for all users around the world. For the most part, when it comes to traditional games, virtual assets like characters, weapons, etc. do not actually belong to the user unless three conditions are met:

• Right to transfer: in other words, the right to either sell or transfer in-game assets to any other user out there.

• Right to use: the owner must be able to decide how to use their in-game assets and have the right to prevent other gamers from using them.

• Right to earn the right to utilize assets for generating income.

What’s more, the majority of GameFi games are free to download and play, which makes them available to a wider audience than that of conventional games. However, it depends on the project. Some blockchain-based games feature NFT characters that must be purchased upfront to access the gameplay. Some other games may require users to buy their in-game tokens or some other item(s) to get started.

Last but not least, GameFi projects tend to incorporate uncomplicated gameplay mechanisms. This is done to allow crypto lovers or regular internet users to get into the gameplay process and navigate within it without any obstacles. This elementary step lowers the barrier to entry, provoking a substantial influx of potential new players.  

Speaking of easy entry, it is hard not to mention SIDUS HEROES – a project with super fascinating gameplay that I and my team have been working on tirelessly for months. It is rightfully said to be the first-ever WebGL, AAA-level, Play-to-Earn, NFT, and RPG game in the entire GameFi space.

Disclaimer: The author is the CEO of sidusheroes.com

Image credit: SIDUS HEROES

The integration of tokens is a big deal. And so we created two — the SIDUS and the SENATE, with SIDUS being the in-game currency while SENATE acts as a DAO or governance token.

They are also the only two tokens that participants can use to buy and sell the different NFTs associated with the project. Our players can also buy and sell land and modular parts, though that is only possible through the SENATE token.

The game boasts well-developed economic and political systems, both of which are based on the SIDUS, the SENATE, and the DAO of the project. The internal game currency gives players the opportunity to purchase various consumables, space shuttles, land plots, and other in-game stuff. These features will enable you to tap into the gameplay more productively and efficiently. 

Every SIDUS Hero is able to realize its social potential by enabling its owners to take part in the development of the project. To be precise, the game’s community has voting power and thus contributes to the decision-making process concerning crucial matters. The weight of an individual’s voting power is determined by the amount of SENATE tokens they own since that is the game’s governance token.

It goes without saying that the most important tokens in P2E projects are NFTs. Basically, everything in a metaverse can be inserted and taken out, bought, or sold and take the form of non-fungible tokens.

I have no doubts that SIDUS HEROES is indeed an extremely comprehensive project created by professional developers from different fields over a long period of time. We have put our heart and soul into this play-to-earn project in order to deliver to the community the best product available on the market.

Given its well-thought-out economic framework, down to the smallest detail, and its unique gaming process, I’m confident that we will become a very well-known GameFi project and will motivate other blockchain-based games to evolve with us.

Conclusion 

In light of all the points we have discussed, I'm able to conclude that GameFi has managed to significantly reduce transaction fees while enabling players to generate huge profits at lower costs, making P2E projects more appealing than other games.

Moreover, the factors driving the popularity of blockchain games will increase every year. That is why it’s well worth snapping up the opportunities on offer today and getting on board this trend as soon as possible!

Disclaimer: The author is the CEO of sidusheroes.com