The metaverse has taken the world by storm, with its new perspective on reality.
The world is changing as we advance on our path to Web3 - a futuristic internet that was influenced by science fiction ideas.
As the metaverse slowly comes to fruition, people will soon become accustomed to an interactive and immersive virtual reality world, complete with apps, games, adventures, shopping, and otherworldly offerings.
Idealistically, the metaverse will be a massive, collaborative, and open cyberspace, connecting augmented reality and virtual reality together, empowering its users to portal out from one environment to another without any hassles or barriers. While we live in a world with barriers and borders in abundance, the metaverse aims to break those barriers and help us connect through virtual space.
Today, the closest thing to the metaverse can be seen in Games, especially those with digital economies.
GameFi: A New Class of Games
If you ever felt like games should reward their players for their loyalty and the time they put into that game, then you’d probably like to hear about a new set of games quickly emerging into mainstream media: GameFi.
GameFi, short for Game Finance, derived from Gaming and Defi, is the gamification of financial mechanisms where players can finally make a living by playing games and get rewarded for the hours they put into a game. By utilizing a ‘play-to-earn’ model instead of the traditional ‘pay-to-win’ model, GameFi is all the rage nowadays.
Interestingly, with the emergence of GameFi, we can now experience the rise and development of the sought-after metaverse through our beloved games. Yes, you heard that right, Games.
If you’ve played games, you must have felt games tend to offer siloed experiences. Nowadays, you can’t even play with your buddies online unless you pay for a monthly or yearly subscription to play online. You’re stuck playing that game solo, or you’re stuck playing one game for the rest of your life. Your achievements, hard work, and trophies are only limited to one game.
Unfortunately, your accolades are worth nothing outside of your game, despite you spending a significant amount of your time collecting. People have come out with amazing creations, spending hours creating block art within the Minecraft realm; however, it doesn’t pay to be creative or great at a game. That’s the sad part of it all.
Now imagine if you could monetize all of those hours, all of that knowledge, and all of that creativity. Picture your accolades being worth something in another game you log in to. You have the complete freedom to be whoever you want, sell whatever you want, and be wherever you want.
No border, no barriers, complete and utter freedom. Create games, avatars, or whatever you want; you have an infinitely large virtual space. That’s what GameFi and the metaverse are striving to achieve. GameFi introduces an endless virtual world with endless opportunities for shared progressions, characters, adventures, questlines, creations, events, and an ecosystem that promotes a healthier, rewarding, and friendly ecosystem for its player base.
And to sum up some of my favorite metaverse projects, Sandbox and MetaBlaze are some of the best representations of an endless space of opportunities GameFi can provide where users have the complete freedom to do whatever they want.
Sandbox: Revolutionizing the World With The Metaverse
Sandbox is one of the fastest-growing metaverses that enables players to play, build, own, and monetize their virtual gaming experience. It shares a lot of elements with games like Minecraft and Roblox.
The success of games like Minecraft and Roblox can be attributed to their ability to empower users’ creativity by allowing them to build practically anything in an almost infinitely large world. Whether it’s block art, concerts, or recreations of games like Squid-Games, these games thrived off of creativity.
Give games like Minecraft and Roblox a play-to-earn model, make creativity rewarding, and you have Sandbox. Sandbox was established to empower artists, creators, and players. The Sandbox metaverse could be one of the few closest examples of the idealistic metaverse right now. And there’s no doubt that Sandbox is paving the way for GameFi by enabling users with the freedom to create, share, or use other user-generated content.
VoxEdit is undoubtedly my favorite part about Sandbox. VoxEdit is an amazing and powerful tool that allows players to model 3D voxels and transform them into NFTs. This tool is basically every Minecraft artist’s dream. If you’re familiar with Minecraft art and the hours it takes to create something beautiful, you will love the VoxEdit tool. With Vox Edit, you can monetize your artistic creations by turning them into NFTs and selling them on the Sandbox Marketplace. Create and animate 3D objects such as humans, animals, mosaics, portraits, or whatever you like, and put them on the Sandbox Marketplace under one platform.
The Sandbox is undoubtedly a promising implementation and example of what the metaverse will be like. The Sandbox gaming platform is making waves as it establishes the metaverse ecosystem and transforms the gaming industry.
Let it be noted that I am not invested in either project, and this article is opinion-based about Metaverse Projects I really like. Please do your own research and read more about the project before investing. I hope you enjoyed reading this article.
MetaBlaze: An Interstellar Journey
If you’re looking for a journey out of this world, then the MetaBlaze metaverse is something you’d like. Very few metaverse projects get the metaverse right. They take the value-first approach, create a digital virtual land for advertisers, and gain a lot of hype from institutional adoption.
But what’s the point of creating a game-centric metaverse with virtual billboards and adverts bombarding you everywhere you go? If you’ve seen the TV-Show Silicon Valley, you’ll know exactly what happens when you give institutions too much power over your metaverse.
The metaverse was created to break barriers, decentralize games, and make them more rewarding. Play-to-earn games are the next best thing for the gaming space; however, some games are too focused on creating value for institutions instead of gamers.
This is where MetaBlaze comes in.
The MetaBlaze metaverse takes a story-first approach. It truly feels like an out-of-this-world journey as gamers teleport to outer space into Galaxia Blue, MetaBlaze’s intergalactic metaverse. MetaBlaze combines elements of science fiction, action, role-playing, strategy, lore, and more to its metaverse, captivating players with a narrative that is consistent all across the board.
If you’re someone that loves games with a constantly expanding, immersive, and sci-fi-inspired metaverse with an experience fuelled by growth and innovation, then MetaBlaze is the perfect metaverse for you.
My favorite part about the MetaBlaze metaverse is their Role Playing Game. Most play-to-earn games aren’t focused on creating a hyper-realistic game with a playable story. This is why it’s a breath of fresh air to see MetaBlaze do exactly that. Players can hop into the MetaBlaze metaverse through Blaziverse, their Web3 interface, explore the darkest corners of Galaxia Blue, complete quests, and progress by collecting resources, making alliances, fighting wars, and building empires.
MetaBlaze is set to infinity and beyond as it continues to expand its metaverse and narrate its story. Games like MetaBlaze will eventually pave the way for other metaverses.
Closing Remarks
Whether it is through $LAND, $SAND, VoxEdit, MetaRoyals, MetaGoblins, Blaziverse, the $MBLZ token, or MetaMinez, Gamers are first at MetaBlaze and Sandbox. I believe it’s crucial for metaverses to accomplish that so players can stay invested.
The metaverse will be the evolution of relationships, games, brands, and products. While still in its nascency, it’s shaking things up. Before big studios like Ubisoft, EA, and Nintendo enter the space, MetaBlaze and Sandbox are creating a valuable experience for gamers.