How can you earn money from playing games?

Earning money from gaming has been an opportunity for top players for a while now. E-sports is already a known concept and talented individuals can earn their living by gaming. Also, live streaming while gaming on different social platforms like YouTube or TikTok can also bring money to gamers. But only if the gamers are well known and have their fan phase. But becoming a top player and recognized player can be as hard as becoming an NHL player. It is a highly competitive industry to earn a living in.

It requires hours of investment in gaming and earning different assets inside the game to support the development. In many games, players invest real money into the game to reach better scores or advantages. In the end, the assets and the scores you have inside the game are owned by the company that owns the game. Meaning if the server goes down or the game is distributed you lose all your process and assets. In traditional games, you pay to play and own the game on your PC or gaming station. Even if the game is free to download there are inside game purchases you might need to purchase to boost your performance in the game.

For example, in my teenage years, I and my friends used to play GoSupermodel. An online game where you would dress your model and socialize in different ways with other players. Playing the game was free, but inside the game, you would have the opportunity to buy VIP passes or assets that granted you better accessories or other things inside the game. I remember some of my friends would buy the VIP passes on their parent’s credit cards. It was fun but in 2015 the game changed its ways and started billing players to play it. In 2016 the game shut down but in 2022 it re-launched again. But the problem came, once I and my friends tried to log into our old accounts they did not exist anymore. Meaning all the time and money we had put into creating those models and boosting their accounts were wasted. Since the accounts even though they were owned by us were still the assets of the game and not ours.

By this example, we can see the problem of online games. You spend your time and actual money on it, while you’re not even owning the assets inside the game. Therefore in 2021 new way of gaming arose in Web 3. Games like CryptoKitties arose to change the gaming industry. In these new games, players don’t just create accounts and play the game they own the assets inside the game. The game is not only controlled by the gaming company but by the people and the community playing the game.

How does it work then?

It works with crypto, NFTs, and blockchain. These new games are built inside/with blockchain. Meaning the transactions of goods are traceable and they have owners.

In CryptoKitties the players buy an NFT from the game to access the game. Inside gamers buy, trade, and breed the “kitties”. They can also solve different tasks with other players to access rarer NFTs. But since the asset you have inside the game is an NFT you own it legally. It is your property that you can sell or exchange at any given time. CryptoKitties operates on Ethereum blockchain and you can buy and sell the NFTs with Ethereum. In this way, players can spend money on the game but also gain money while playing.

The whole game-and-earn model is made to promote the idea of earning from gaming. While before it used to be that only the top players were able to earn money from it, now with the game-and-earn model anybody willing to put hours and some money into gaming can earn money out of it. “Typical working day” would contain the player maintaining their assets in the game. Depending on the game but in all its simplicity gamer collects rewards, makes minions work on tasks, overviews the markets in the game, goes into heists, and interacts with other players via exchanges of goods. The more interactive and on top of their game the player is the more profitable gamer can be. Since many of the market prices are determined by the players. It’s therefore a market that is not too bothered by governments or other institutions, it’s in the hands of people. Gamers have their communities on different platforms like Telegram where they share the latest updates on the game and create hype about things.

In the past years, the games have taken more further and new games arise monthly. The popularity of the game depends on the communities in the game-and-earn community and how well the game has been designed. For example, Gods of Fire, Axie Infinity, and The Sandbox, each of them running on their platform and supporting blockchain are at the moment known and are popular games.

Conclusion

Once started as a hobby for many has turned into a bigger-scale industry where everyone can earn their fair share of bread. Gaming is not only for pro players anymore when the industry has changed and made it possible for anybody to earn from it. Creating games that support blockchain enables games to grant players crypto and NFTs as assets in the game, that they can exchange into actual currency or things that have value outside of the game. This change helps players to own the assets in the game and allows them to have ownership of the assets and exchange them how they please. Meaning they can earn by just playing games.

Sources:

Play to Earn Blockchain Gamelist. Website.  PlayToEarn – Best Blockchain Games List – Crypto Games

10 Free Games That Pay Real Money for Playing by Vasile I. 2022. BeIncrypto.   10 Free Games That Pay Real Money for Playing (beincrypto.com)

Play-to-Earn Games Let Users… Play to Earn by Glover E. 2022. BuiltIn. What Are Play-To-Earn Games? | Built In 

What Are Play-to-Earn Games and Why Play Them? by GameFi. 2024. GateLearn  What Are Play-to-Earn Games and Why Play Them? (gate.io)

Gonzo Capitalism: How to Make Money in an Economy that Hates You by Guillebeau C. 2023. Macmillan Business.