Play to Earn (P2E) is a term used by parents to describe a game where children compete against each other for rewards. It is also known as “pay to win” because players pay money to gain an advantage over others.
Play to earn games is a term that many of us have read or heard about, especially in the past couple of years. The name itself is quite self-explanatory, but still, we need to understand this model of these games. What are “play to earn” or “play-to-earn” games, also referred to as “P2E” games? How is it different from other games? What is the basis behind the play-to-earn gaming model?
Imagine that you, as an avid gamer, play and grind a lot in one of your favorite games. Your game character/avatar builds and progresses. You achieve rare weapons, suits, skills, mana, in-game content, and more. And one day, the creators of the game decide to do an update that nerfs your character or takes out a key skill that you are a master at. To make matters worse, the update erases all of your progress, forcing you to restart your favorite game. What would you do? Most likely, you will cry or experience volcanic rage.
This is what happens when there is a centralized system in place in games. And this is exactly where decentralized games came in to fill the hole. You, as a gamer, will own in-game content that you worked hard on. GameFi, or game finance, gives players a chance to earn real money, own digital assets, and have fun through blockchain games.
Pay to Play games, Free to play games, and Play to earn games
Pay-to-Play Traditional Gaming Models and Games
The traditional model of gaming is more like a closed-end model. This means that this model ultimately benefits one party in terms of money. The gamers will pay for the game upfront to start playing it, but they get no reward that holds value even after grinding for hours and hours in a game. Moreover, players also do not have any ownership rights to the in-game rewards that they get after hard work. Players can’t transfer their in-game rewards, prizes, or assets to any other place. The power only resides with the developers of the game.
Play-to-Earn Games
Play-to-earn games, on the contrary, are gamer-centric, which brings value back to the players. The players can earn in-game rewards that have real-world value in them in the form of cryptocurrency, NFTs, tokens, virtual assets, virtual land, avatars, weapons, and more. Players can either rent their digital assets to other players or sell or buy them on the marketplaces outside the game. So, there is a lot of autonomy, decentralization, and ownership in blockchain games.
So, to put it simply, a play-to-earn game is a model that uses blockchain technology and allows players to have fun while earning real money. The earning potential in P2E games is massive, as players can earn cryptocurrency, trade NFTs, rent in-game content, own virtual assets, and more. There are two key elements in play-to-earn games. For starters, it grants players ownership of in-game digital assets that they can improve and increase in value by actively playing the game. Second, players are rewarded with digital assets like cryptocurrencies, tokens, NFTs, and more.
The Free to Play Model and P2E
Players need to purchase a high-end AAA-category game before playing it in a legal way. You can play the game by obtaining an online license or by purchasing a copy of the digital game for a significant fee. Traditional games do not necessarily follow this model. However, this model has seen a lot of success in recent years.
The free-to-play business model allows gamers to play the game for free. However, access is restricted or the experience is not perfect. For this, gamers need to make in-game purchases using the in-game currency. Moreover, in-game purchases also allow gamers to avoid unnecessary grinding. A prime example is Fortnite, which is free and is massively popular in the gaming community. The P2E games have more or less similar models, and those play-to-earn games that require heavy investments upfront need to make life easier for gamers.
Some of the top play to earn online games are Gods Unchained, Splinterlands, Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and more. Check out our other play to earn games and check out their reviews to see what game suits you better.
So you wonder what are NFT Games? or what are Blockchain Games? Just check out our explanations.
What are Crypto Games, or what is Crypto Gaming?
Curious about NFT gaming? This gaming guide helps you to start, learn how to monetize your game hobby, answer your questions about NFT games.
Want to know more about the company behind this gaming website, check out W3 Play.
Find our NFT, Crypto, Play To Earn, game lists: Play to Earn Games List, and Play to Earn game developers List.
