Play, Collect, and Earn: How NFTs Are Changing the Game

One of the main appeals of gaming lies in immersion. Whether you’re collecting rare items or customizing your avatar, the ability to transform your own experiences

One of the main appeals of gaming lies in immersion. Whether you’re collecting rare items or customizing your avatar, the ability to transform your own experiences into those of your character’s has always been a major selling point for many players. But what if these virtual assets weren’t just appealing in and of themselves but were also valuable in real life?

Enter NFTs – non-fungible tokens that allow virtual spaces to have real assets as well. NFTs are unique units of data that are recorded on a blockchain, a public and immutable ledger. This means that they cannot be forged or destroyed, and they can be used to track the ownership of any asset, be it physical or digital.

In the gaming world, NFTs can be used to represent in-game items, such as weapons, armor, and skins. These items can then be bought, sold, and traded by players on third-party marketplaces. This is in contrast to traditional in-game items, which can only be traded in the ways the developer intends.

This lack of control over in-game items has always been a point of frustration for players. Many feel that they should be able to dispose of the items they acquire in the game as they see fit. However, since these items have no value outside of the game, it’s difficult to sell them for fiat currency.

NFTs solve this problem by bringing the value of in-game items into the real world. This isn’t just useful for common items; it also allows for unique or limited-edition items to be sold as valuable collectibles.

The Concept Is Gaining Ground

S&P Global Market Intelligence reports that NFTs bring in a yearly round figure of over 3.6 billion US dollars to game developers and estimates put the 2027 figure at 15 billion US dollars (FinTech Magazine). This new way of gaming isn’t just a matter of who owns what: it is changing the landscape for gamers.

Play, Collect, and Earn: How NFTs Are Changing the Game

With NFTs, new lands are being explored in games. Players can collect, trade, and use the assets across the entire panoply of gaming pieces. Think of owning a powerful weapon in an RPG — one that you can carry into a futuristic shooter, for example. But it doesn’t stop with traditional games: NFTs are also appearing in the casino landscape, and they’re adding to the dynamics of many of the classics.

Imagine, for example, that you are playing crypto pokies. At present, this tends to be an exciting and enjoyable activity, although you know that it’s really just about potentially winning some money if the symbols line up. The fun lies in the cool themes, the bonus rounds, the extra features, and the tantalizing hope that luck will be on your side. Certainly, crypto pokies already have tons to offer, and there’s no doubt that they excite players… but what comes next?

Well, add in NFTs and your prize options are vastly expanded! It’s no longer just about whether you win money: now, valuable and one-of-a-kind digital art pieces could be on the line. That’s quite an exciting prospect for many casino-goers, and it gives game developers so much more to work with, especially when creating themed games.

Gamers love unique items, wherever and however they find them. Who doesn’t want to be the only person on the planet who has a particular thing? And with crypto pokies adopting NFTs, that could become a reality. There’s no question it would inject new life into an already engaging segment of online gaming.

Why Players Are Embracing NFT Gaming

It’s not just the collectibility of NFTs in gaming that players are going after; it’s their flexibility. Traditional in-game purchases are linked to a single ecosystem. When you stop playing, all of your work has vanished. In contrast, NFTs introduce scarcity and value that continue beyond the life cycle of a game. For example, a report at ScienceDirect shows that people’s perceptions about whether something is in short supply and convenient to obtain has a very significant influence on their willingness to purchase it. When players feel their items are truly theirs and are in short supply, they become more attached to them and, thus, more engaged with the game as a whole.

Furthermore, this rise is fuelled by the adoption of cryptocurrencies. A survey on crypto ownership reveals that as Bitcoin passed $100,000, over 70% of Americans owned their own store of crypto, possibly comprising 183 million people (NFT Evening). As players increasingly engage with digital finance, the integration of NFTs into gaming seems like a natural evolution.

The Future of Virtual Economies

NFTs can go further than individual assets to redefine entire game economies. Design ecosystems where developers play host to both consumers and participants are on the rise. Some games have begun to experiment with player-driven marketplaces in which NFTs are the