What is Metaverse Gaming: Enchanting and Complex Virtual Worlds Explained
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Metaverse gaming is gaining traction as more players show interest in games made by this growing industry. This virtual domain scales well and is seen by experts as the next giant leap after significant advances like the Internet and smartphone. However, it’s a market with so many opportunities that it is hard to predict how far it can go. In this article, we will take a deep dive into metaverse gaming.
What Are Metaverse Games?
Metaverse games are a method that players use to interact with others in real-time, using avatars, whether via online apps or games. Metaverse games are a mix of open-world games, cryptoassets, virtual reality, live streaming, and social media. Unlike today’s digital games, they happen in real-time, meaning there are no game overs, pauses, or resets.
Today, in the era of play-to-earn games on blockchain-based platforms, metaverse games allow gamers to earn from their skills, giving some of them a real regular income.
This can be achieved by earning, trading, buying, selling, creating, or finding virtual items. Avatars are also a big part of the Metaverse gaming ecosystem, with many startups entering the market focused on creating avatars solely for metaverse games.
Players should have fast internet connections and virtual gear to play a metaverse game to get an immersed experience successfully.
What Does Gaming in the Metaverse Look Like?
The Metaverse can be defined as a unified and interoperable virtual reality space where players can interact with each other and the digital world around them using advanced human-computer interaction hardware and software.
Since VR gameplay is available as a standalone app, you can install it on the desktop, VR gear, or mobile phones to immerse yourself in traditional video games.
The main difference is that the in-game universe now looks like a 3D virtual reality world that you can view in 360 degrees and almost touch thanks to the realistic sense of perception.
The Metaverse expands on this concept even further. It claims that you can connect multiple VR games and any VR apps or space to create a single interoperable environment for users.
They could log in and out of gaming apps, cooperate with the same players in multiple spaces, and even transfer their wins without removing their VR headsets.
The recent VR revolution in the gaming industry has given rise to Metaverse games. Players are immersed in the reality of the Metaverse to experience the next level of gameplay.
Metaverse games are based on the play-to-earn concept, allowing players to win virtual game items and sell them to earn real money. Players can invite their friends from social networks, interact with other players in the Metaverse, and even collaborate to enjoy the game together.
Metaverse gaming can include mixed reality, where users move from augmented reality group text to mixed reality board games. Games are the most dynamic and exciting entertainment category on all platforms today, and they will play a significant role in the evolution of metaverse platforms. The entertainment industry in the Metaverse will range from immersive experiences and fantasy worlds to the introduction of simple games into our daily lives.
How Can You Access Metaverse Games?
Since Metaverse games use multiple technologies, there are several ways to access a Metaverse game. However, even at a basic level, there will be things you should play the simplest of these games. Let’s look at the list below and bear the following points in mind:
An Internet Connection
One of the essential aspects of the Metaverse is that it’s always online. Even if you log out and go with your everyday life, the Metaverse and its games will still be there. Thus, it makes sense to have a reliable and fast Internet connection to access the Metaverse from anywhere.
A Virtual Reality Headset
The best way you can experience Metaverse games is through a VR headset. It may support different VR sets depending on the game. However, it is recommended to pick an Oculus Quest 2 for a unique Metaverse experience.
PC or a Mobile Device
If you don’t want to get a VR headset, you will be glad to know there are other ways. You will need a mid-tier PC, a mobile, or a tablet device to play select Metaverse games. Make sure that you have one of these before continuing.
A Blockchain Wallet
You need a wallet if you are interested in playing a Metaverse game based on blockchain. Essentially, the BlockChain wallet will let you manage your cryptocurrencies. This wallet will also allow you to exchange items with other players for cryptocurrency. Your preferred wallet may differ, depending on the game you choose. You should check out the play-to-earn games to know more.
Key Features of Metaverse Gaming
Metaverse gaming can transform various aspects of activities in a virtual environment. Metaverse doesn’t require special gadgets like headspace and can touch more verticals in games than AR and VR.
Here are the key features and aspects touched by Metaverse use cases in games:
Social Gaming
The Metaverse is inherently social, which provides players with a socialistic environment in which they can build relationships with the surrounding elements. Multiplayer games will take on an extra dimension as players can invite friends from the real world, interact with other players, build relationships, and more.
Play to Earn
This is one of the most fundamental concepts of gaming in the Metaverse. In addition to the linear storytelling and rules, players can engage in profitable activities. They can also involve trading activities such as selling the assets they have won in the game to other players for metaverse-based crypto gaming.
Flexible Gaming Experience
It provides a much more flexible and immersive gaming experience. You can add players to the virtual world, create their content, build sub-games, and treat the gaming environment as a platform-like space for other activities.
Play to Earn
This is one of the most fundamental concepts of gaming in the Metaverse. In addition to the linear storytelling and rules, players can engage in profitable activities. They can also involve trading activities such as selling the assets they have won in the game to other players for metaverse-based crypto gaming.
Portable Game Assets
The interoperable architecture of the Metaverse allows for asset portability. Avatar or weapons enhancements acquired in one game can be portable to different environments, and NFT rules would govern persistent ownership.
Mixed Reality Experience
The Metaverse uses AR and MR to provide a more organic experience. Games in the Metaverse can include mixed reality, where users move from group text in AR to an MR board game to the whole Metaverse Virtual Reality world in a seamless workflow.
Why Should You Try Metaverse Games
Just imagine putting on a VR headset and traveling through various worlds with the help of an avatar that may look like you. You can play with thousands of other people in virtual worlds, buy and sell assets in a functioning digital economy enabled by NFTs, and interact with your friends in a way that resembles social interaction in the real world.
It may sound like sci-fi, but some argue that the Metaverse is the next generation of the Internet. There is no universal definition of the Metaverse, and there are various visions of what it is or could be. The best way to enter the Metaverse and understands its advantages and disadvantages is through gaming, its most well-developed sector.
Games are expected to account for over half of the Metaverse’s market value by 2024. Gamers were the first to master the “metaverse.” For example, Fortnite players already know the massive multiplayer experiences as millions roam different islands, create their worlds, and compete to be the last player.
Gamers on both traditional and Metaverse platforms are disproportionately biased toward children and youth. This trend looks to continue as 56% of gamers aged 13-17 expect their time spent playing metaverse games to increase.
Types of Metaverse Games
Battle Metaverse Games
Fighting is a popular mechanic that attracts fans of battle games. By winning a battle against an enemy or an entire group, players can receive in-game NFT assets like weapons, armor, tokens, and resources to upgrade a character’s skills.
Metaverse Card Games
Playing and exchanging card games has now taken on a whole new form because they are the perfect combination of different genres and the nostalgic element, as most of us have played them as children. Card games are based on the play-to-earn principle, which means that this activity can be fun and very profitable.
Action Metaverse Games
Action games are always on sale, and everyone loves them. Fights generally unite these games against enemies. They can include a shooter, a platformer, or a PvP battle, and the main aim is to beat opponents and passing levels.
Adventure Metaverse Games
Adventure games provide gamers with a virtual environment and real-life experiences. NFTs can take the form of exclusive costumes, upgrades, powers, and maps in a dedicated online marketplace.
Metaverse RPG Games
The essence of RPG games is that the player interacts with the game world through an avatar – a gaming character with a story and motives. For instance, Nomadland is an NFT RPG where the player can purchase land, build farms, and fight and catch monsters to sell or use them in battles.
Metaverse Casino Games
Another ideal type is casino games. Here, players can use tokens instead of playing with fiat currencies. In addition, NFT allows you to display the value of assets for existing casinos.
Metaverse Racing Games
Racing games are considered to be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the gaming industry. Players can compete against each other in speed races. The fastest player wins resources or tokens. NFTs here can represent bikes, cars, accessories, and upgrades that create a unique experience for players. It can be car competition, as in Need for Speed, and horse racing.
Metaverse Breeding Creatures Games
Games like CryptoKitties and Axie Infinity are viral due to the mechanics that allow you to create new characters. To breed a creature with a desired set of skills or abilities, breeders choose particular species, invest in them, and then sell the newborns in the markets.
Metaverse Farming Games
In some games, players buy a piece of digital land, which can be an NFT. Then, they can monetize the land. Gamers create new materials that can be sold or used for various tasks using resources that can be earned or bought in the game.
Metaverse Games to Play
Let’s move to the list of the famous Metaverse games that you can play right now.
Battle Infinity
Battle Infinity is a new crypto gaming platform already getting massive attention from players due to its focus on fantasy sports bringing together different parts of virtual reality and the crypto space: NFTs, blockchain, and the Metaverse. The game is fully verified with security guarantees from CoinSniper, one of the crypto market’s leading audit and compliance services.
Minecraft
Minecraft has been the most famous online universe for several years already. In Minecraft, players can compete against each other or the game engine. They can participate in the game or collaborate to build structures.
But the most notable feature of Minecraft is its Creative Mode, where gamers can build their games or virtual worlds and invite others to join.
Fortnite
Epic Games’ flagship, Fortnite, started as an open-world Battle Royal-style RPG and has gained enthusiastic users over the years, adding more and more virtual experiences to its universe. At the moment, Fortnite can be considered a blueprint for what games in the Metaverse will look like.
The primary purpose of the multiplayer gameplay in the digital world of Fortnite is to be the last man standing while fighting against other players and in-game obstacles. Players can collect unique items, explore the world, and build different structures to gain the upper hand in combat.
Roblox
Roblox has evolved into something more than just a gaming platform. This Metaverse is particularly appealing due to its abundance of exploration possibilities.
The ROBUX platform token is available to all players. They can exchange it for real money, buy avatars, and gain experience. The community-driven platform provides a metaverse universe where players can create and share games in their virtual world.
PolkaCity
Roblox has evolved into something more than just a gaming platform. This Metaverse is particularly appealing due to its abundance of exploration possibilities.
The ROBUX platform token is available to all players. They can exchange it for real money, buy avatars, and gain experience. The community-driven platform provides a metaverse universe where players can create and share games in their virtual world.
Revomon
Revomon is a metaverse game with immersive 3D graphics that can be accessed from mobile devices and VR headsets. The gameplay of Revomon is inspired by Pokemon. Players can hunt and collect monsters and then use them to fight other players’ monsters.
But unlike Pokemon, Revomon comes with multiple blockchains and DeFi capabilities. Thus, the game allows players to purchase and trade assets, including monsters, weapons, and skins.
Metaverse Games to Play to Earn Money
The popularity of Metaverse games is skyrocketing all over the world. The new virtual world supported by blockchain-based cryptography is set to change the gaming industry faster than expected.
The Metaverse gaming ecosystem is recording remarkable sales of digital lands and in-game collectibles, attracting the attention of many investors and gamers.
Now, let’s discover the best Metaverse play-to-earn games.
The Sandbox
It is a complete gaming experience built on the Ethereum blockchain, which allows you to create your own experience and monetize it in this immersive digital ecosystem. With The Sandbox, you can trade land or assets, create NFTs from scratch or import some of your favorites into The Sandbox and create an entirely new gaming experience.
Players can view a virtual map, pick a piece of land they think they should get, and purchase it through their crypto wallet. Also, there is a virtual market where players can browse and buy digital items in exchange for Sand, the game’s native currency.
Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity is a blockchain Metaverse game where you acquire Axis, cute axolotl-like digital creatures that are NFTs. You can take care of Axis, train them to battle other players’ Axis, and use them for hunting for treasure.
Axie Infinity’s main currency is Axie Infinity Shards – AXS. You can earn them by playing, building your lands, and even “starting your kingdom.”
Decentraland
Decentraland is another well-known gaming platform in the Metaverse gaming market. It is a browser-based platform with a 3D virtual world and the first fully decentralized world.
The decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, controls Decentraland and owns the most important smart contracts and assets. Players can decide and vote on how the world works through the DAO.
Illuvium
One of the most popular Metaverse games is Illuvium, built on the Ethereum blockchain. It is available on PC and Mac, where gamers can explore sci-fi lands, battle, and earn NFTs based on in-game creatures known as Illuvials. Players can also earn ILV tokens by completing quests and reaching in-game achievements.
My Neighbour Alice
My Neighbour Alice is a multiplayer builder game in which players can create their avatars, build their virtual lands, interact with neighbors, and earn rewards.
The game combines the best of the two worlds – fun storytelling for players who want to enjoy the gameplay experience and an ecosystem for players interested in collecting and trading NFTs, even if they have no idea what NFTs are.
The game’s ecosystem is based on the ALICE token, allowing players to conduct transactions from virtual land to NFTs.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is an NFT Metaverse where gamers can play with unique NFTs called Trilium. They stake Trilium to planets to vote in the upcoming Planetary electronics and to increase the reward pool of the Planet.
Other features include the ability of players to participate in weekly elections for council candidates, make suggestions on how to allocate the planetary treasury, or run for planetary council themselves.
Players may pick NFT game cards for their strategy in BSC (Binance Smart Chain) and WAX for fighting, mining, and missions.
Chain of Alliance
Chain of Alliance is another fantasy RPG that involves personalized monsters with NFT value.
You should field up to 8 characters in your team per round. You must choose the best players and arm them with the best weapons to win.
Farmers World
Farmers Worlds is the first metaverse game powered by the NFT platform. It has one of the largest communities of players, with over 150,000 people worldwide.
Gamers can choose the right tools, exploit various resources, purchase land to build giant farms, and enjoy the exciting experience of a farmer’s life working in the Farmers World’s Ecosystem.
Krystopia
Krystopia is a 3D Metaverse game set in four stages, in which players can play one after the other or as a standalone game. Numbering the items that players collect tracks their progress and increase their completion percentage. To successfully finish the game, players can solve and complete all the puzzles in the game.
Bloktopia
Bloktopia is a virtual reality metaverse game with a first-class user interface and mind-blogging graphics still in its developmental stages.
A Skyscraper consisting of 21 levels to pay recognition for 21 million Bitcoin, holders of Bloktopia Token will be known as Bloktopians.
It is planned that Bloktopians will be able to earn money through advertising revenue, real estate ownership, playing metaverse games, building networks, and more.
Exchanging In-Game Currency for Real Money
The gaming industry is changing rapidly, and games today look different from their predecessors a decade ago and monetize differently. Game stores throughout the city have begun to close, and games can now be bought online.
You must have already heard terms like “V-bucks” or “Star Coins.” It is the in-game currency, money that is connected to a particular game. You can exchange real money for in-game currency, like markers at a casino. However, it’s not possible to exchange in-game currency for real money.
Real money trading in-game currency involves third parties that act as a broker to sell the rare items that you own to other players for real money outside the game. People will do this to buy large chinks of fictitious in-game currency with real money through RMT websites. As soon as the payment goes through, the player will find the money in the game account in any way the RMT site operates.
However, some games allow you to eliminate the middleman and directly exchange in-game currency for real money. Most MMOs and free-to-play games have some mechanisms for exchanging real currency for digital coins or credit. Still, in the decades-old life simulator Second Life, players can turn “Linden Dollars” earned in the game back into real money by bank transfer or via PayPal.
A space-themed MMO, Entropia Universe, allows players to purchase in-game items for real money at an exchange rate of USD 1 to 10 PED. This currency can be transferred back at a stable exchange rate at any time you want. The developer is so protective and security-focused on its “Real Cash economy” that players use physical One Time PIN systems to log in.
Some other smaller games have tried to create a Real Cash Economy system with verifying degrees of success. Many quickly shut down or never made it out of development. This is an interesting aspect of the evolving game world and can be expected to grow unpredictably.
Is the Metaverse the Future of Gaming?
The foundation for the Metaverse gaming industry is complete. The masses have adopted multiplayer games; blockchain technology has been adopted, and there are many developments in virtual reality.
Although we have yet to see a well-known multiplayer game that incorporates blockchain technology and virtual reality technology, the stage is ready to adopt such games.
With so much talent and capital invested in metaverse games, there will undoubtedly be significant improvements in this area. However, with so many variables, the result of the future of gaming in the Metaverse is still unclear, but exciting!
eCommerce Opportunities in Metaverse Gaming
It was the game world that first embraced the Metaverse. It has absorbed the best of technology, so now gamers worldwide enjoy a wide range of experiences and opportunities in the space of the Metaverse.
Generally, metaverse games are based on the play-to-earn (P2E) concept, which allows players to win game items and exchange them for real rewards. Additionally, in metaverse games, players can collaborate with other players in an organic environment, feeling like they are interacting with each other in the real world.
It is important to note that metaverse-based gamification techniques can also be successfully implemented in the eCommerce industry. For example, fashion retailers are enthusiastic about introducing metaverse games to their customers. In August 2021, Louis Vuitton launched Louis the Game, an adventure-based mobile game, to celebrate its 200th anniversary and honor its founder. The game boasted impressive performance: it reached half a million in a week!
There are also thirty NFTs in the LV game, ten of which were created by Beeple. Through these inventive approaches, the brand has laid the foundation for further expansion of its Metaverse and managed to attract a new segment of young buyers.
Similarly, you can come up with other metaverse-based entertainment and games that consumers can engage in while shopping for groceries or clothing, earning themselves tokens or NFTs that can be exchanged for loyalty rewards. Integrating the Metaverse with your retail brand will contribute to a more immersive experience that your customer base will definitely enjoy.
Conclusion
Having an engaging gameplay mechanic and ending up being underrated is one thing; promising something, spending tons of money on the development, and not meeting fans’ expectations is quite another. That’s a failure, and for some reason, it has happened a lot in gaming history.
On average, the video game development process doesn’t take longer than five years. However, Duke Nukem Forever, a first-person shooter game, spent 15 years developing. Gamers all around the globe were expecting some kind of a never-seen-before video game that would blow their minds. Finally, the game arrived in 2011 and was named “the most disappointing video game” by several sites, as it didn’t live up to expectations.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a 1982 adventure video game, was expected to sell well because it was based on the film of the same name. Still, it got so many negative reviews and became one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history.
Although there’s no guarantee that a video game will not become a commercial disappointment, many studios continue making the same mistakes that lead to significant financial losses. Risking everything and forgetting small details is never a good idea in this massive industry.
