Conventional gaming or play-to-win or pay-to-play gaming where gamers pay to play & the gamers reward was pleasure has evolved from the days of a Sony PlayStation gaming console where users would purchase games & then play, game creators & publicly traded gaming companies made the profits & the users or gamers were the consumers of gaming products, there was zero return on time investment & while gaming in the days of the first Sony PlayStation console was fun especially when you invited company over on a Friday night & you competed against your buddies until 3 AM, it was a leisure activity you enjoyed but a waste of time & effort. A smart investor never invests money into what does not yield financial returns which made the pay-to-play gaming concept an unwise investment but in comparison with today's gaming concepts such as the Playtime Rewards concept which I myself enjoy playing games on an Android device earning points credited into my user account in exchange for game time & putting in time & effort ultimately reaching the minimum points threshold to be able redeem those accumulated user account points for PayPal cash is a better incentive. With read-only web 1 game developers created games & the users were the consumers but with the emergence of web 2 came game developers developing gaming apps as free downloads & with this came benefits such as free play-to-win games where users play for free in exchange for pleasure but users were charged a fee to unlock other features & game developers & publicly traded gaming companies still made profits whilst the users could play free there was zero return on their huge time investment. One income generation method for users in the gaming industry before the emergence of free play-to-earn gaming powered by centralized web 2 technology was to purchase discounted games during New Year's sales season in addition to cashback on the purchase & purchasing the game for next to nothing & flipping games for profit & then came eBay but then with web 2 came free play-to-earn gaming where there was little value for gamers as a reward for their time investment & whilst I'm no gaming enthusiast & expert I still enjoy conventional web 2 free play-to-earn gaming where game creators create gaming apps which generate ad revenue, for instance the Money Rawr app which can be downloaded free on Google Playstore has a free registration process & game creators promote their free gaming app downloads & you get to enjoy playing Bingo for free & the more you play or the more time you invest then the more points (not money) you earn but with some apps such as Feature Points (which by the way I still use) gaming app developers promote their free games to download & launch from the Feature Points app but what Feature Points do is indicate to the users that for instance a free download of Space Shooters will give you up to 2000 Feature Points & as you begin approaching the 2000 Feature Points you can potentially earn from playing Space Shooters for free, a certain number of minutes of user gametime required to earn a specific number points become 9 hours of user gametime that is required to earn a specific number of points & as the number of points increase the user gametime increases and should you hit the 2000 Feature Points your gametime no longer earns you a single Feature Point & the free Space Shooters download is taken down. Another way game developers generate income from free play-to-earn web 2 games is web 2 gaming companies charge users a fee to unlock maybe a extra lives which provides a bit more earning potential but not to make the user rich or offer the user an upgrade to premium version at a monthly charge where the users benefit to a certain degree but if the costs outweigh the benefits it becomes a good side-hustle for users to earn extra money. But Playtime Rewards apps similar to Feature Points such as Mistplay which rewards users with gift cards in exchange for their gametime, during the sign up process users must agree to the terms & conditions to use their platform & a violation results in a user ban because with web 2 free Playtime Rewards or play-to-earn gaming is powered by centralized web 2 technology and user ownership of digital assets is non-existent.
GAME-FI PLAY-TO-EARN BLOCKCHAIN GAMING
Today the playtime rewards gaming concept or the conventional play-to-earn concept which is the play-to-earn fiat digital currency gaming concept powered by centralized web 2 technology I believe it still has its place but blockchain gaming play-to-earn digital assets gaming is gaining rapid, widespread popularity & the projected or estimated market cap for the blockchain gaming industry is $8 billion which is less than the market cap for publicly traded gaming companies & projected to hit $74.5 billion by 2031 & exceed the market cap of publicly traded gaming companies according to the analysis of ReportLinker a market research company in 2022. Game-Fi is the play to earn gaming concept, game creators use blockchain technology to develop games. It's great when I can enjoy playing a puzzle gaming genre for instance & get to ultimately withdraw points accumulated into my COINBASE wallet in the form of BTC. Whilst gaming (specifically puzzle genres such as Candy Crush) is addictive, gaming is an addiction if you're a gamer putting in hours of your time and receiving nothing in exchange for your time.
PLAY-TO-EARN IS NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME
Like the conventional online playtime rewards gaming concept where the user can redeem accumulated points from gametime for PayPal cash, the Game-Fi or play-to-earn gaming concept will not make you rich, this is no get rich quick scheme. Game-Fi developers create cryptocurrency for the in-game economy which hold real financial value, worth a few cents or worth a fraction of a cent (just think of Sweatcoin & the Sweat economy) which requires a lot of patience & requires willingness to put in a lot of time & effort. All that's required is setting up a user account & password but at times you might need to set up a cryptocurrency wallet & write down your login details & keep them in a safe place because unlike free play-to-earn games powered by web 2 centralized technology if you forget your password for instance you can recover access to your user account whereas with web 3 if you forget your login details you are shut out of your user account permanently & permanently lose access to digital assets you have acquired. There are good playtime rewards gaming apps that reward gametime with points that can be redeemed for giftcards, PayPal cash & Coinbase where users can redeem points for Bitcoin & Litecoin for instance Feature Points can be redeemed for Bitcoin sent to your Coinbase BTC wallet but keep in mind that as a user you're using Playtime Rewards powered by web 2 centralized digital technology.
In relation to free-play-to-earn games powered by blockchain technology if you cannot sell your tokens you are a victim of a Game-Fi scam & another red flag is lack of a user base. I don't aim to get into too much detail on this subject but just provide the readers with an example of what to look for & while the potential of generating online income appeals to countless people worldwide always think before you act & do your research.
HOW DO GAMING COMPANIES USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOP FREE PLAY-TO-EARN GAMES GENERATE
To know if anything is legit you must first begin by asking yourself: how does this company make money?
Gaming companies using blockchain technology to develop free play-to-earn games on web 3 generate revenue through NFTs by releasing NFTs to the general public where they are traded on OPENSEA for instance & earn a percentage in royalties when NFTs are bought & sold & keep in mind NFTs are listed on OpenSea & LooksRare for hundreds of thousands of dollars & a percentage of NFT sales accumulates but some Web 3 gaming companies take a small fee on every user transaction made in the game.
In the blockchain gaming space NFTs usually are avatars the users can use as their gaming characters or NFTs can be tools or items for use by users in the game environment.
CONCLUSION:PROS & CONS
Many blockchain games are free to play.
Blockchain games use web 3 which puts ownership of digital assets into the hands of the users.
Risk of being permanently shut out of your user account & permanently unable to access digital assets if the user forgets user account login details.
