The Future of NFT Gaming in the Metaverse

ROBERT STONE

Vitalik Buterin created Ethereum after his warlock was nerfed, according to legend According to Vitalik, he played World of Warcraft from 2007 to 2010. "At some point, Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock's Siphon Life spell I cried myself to sleep and realized the danger of centralized services," young Vitalik purportedly said

In the story, we see the power of decentralization A game skill or item could not be nerfed or weakened, even if a company like Blizzard Entertainment wanted to if it were an immutable blockchain token The software of any game can read nonfungible tokens since they are based on public blockchains If Siphon Life lived on a public blockchain, it could be used in World of Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, and possibly Tetris

A winking joke ("I cried myself to sleep"?) rather than a serious design proposal; Vitalik was 16 when this happened Nevertheless, some have taken it literally as a call for games that use immutable tokens to represent skills or equipment� World of Warcraft-like games proposed to do exactly that during the 2017-2018 initial coin offering bubble, selling virtual swords and armor before even starting development

Non-fungible items are facing increasing challenges

New blockchain gaming projects, such as Ember Hearts and Mirandus, have abandoned the concept� Leaders of blockchain gaming are generally unenthusiastic about the concept, and traditional game studios need more incentive to support interoperability

Counterstrike is looking less likely to feature bow and arrows from Horizon: Zero Dawn any time soon

New possibilities have emerged with the rise of the "metaverse" concept Instead of NFT interoperability across games, innovators are increasingly expecting games to emerge from NFT ecosystems, like races between CryptoKitties or platform-jumping Bored Apes Therefore, while Vitalik's warlock may not be safe from the nerf bat, NFTbased game assets may become even stranger

But why blockchainbased games?

"I began getting YouTube ads for rune marketplaces a week or two after Elden Ring came out," said Carlos Perierra, an investor at Bitkraft Ventures The currency of Elden Ring is the rune, a popular video game whose multiplayer features make it possible to trade or sell items However, these are risky markets

Perierra explains the complex process for buying Elden Ring runes: "You have to enter PVP [player versus player], and the seller drops them for you." The seller says, "These behaviors have been around for a long time, but they have to be done on the gray market, which can be scammy."

"What's the point of not extending it to become more efficient and scalable?"

Using blockchains to track virtual items makes sense from that perspective: Items are already being bought and sold at a furious pace, leaving players exposed There is already a multibillion-dollar industry (yes, seriously) dedicated to transferring cosmetics between players involving a lot of trading and speculation Many companies, such as Valve, moved to legitimize and shape the market without the support of game developers

The introduction of NFTs would make it easier and safer for players to buy and sell cosmetics or other items while at the same time helping developers capture a larger share of revenues Games like Counterstrike: Global Offensive, which has skin trading enabled, generate tens of millions of dollars for Valve and independent skin designers

NFTs would simplify and improve the buying and selling process while allowing developers to capture more of the value of their products Skin trading generates tens of millions of dollars for Valve and independent designers alike in games like Counterstrike: Global Offensive�

Nonetheless, Valve controls a significant portion of that market through Steam, the world's most popular digital games marketplace� Items for other games, such as Elden Ring and World of Warcraft, are also sold through Steam, but Valve takes a 30% cut Such fees are why item sellers for games like Elden Ring or World of Warcraft frequently use awkward, unofficial workarounds that leave players vulnerable to scams

'Pay to win' is an Issue

In the meantime, there's a good reason these markets aren't official: While many players love them, others strongly oppose them. Specifically, in multiplayer games, players often see buying in-game achievements as cheating that devalues their achievements

Items that make characters more powerful or competitive are especially prone to be derided as "pay to win." Changing powerful game items into NFTs isn't a foregone conclusion Such a model would make any game "pay to win."

It's probably impossible to make items or skills immutable within a single game for related design reasons Many games now have multiplayer components, and character abilities must be adjusted so that the competition is even While a teenage Vitalik was frustrated by losing power, nerfing Siphon Life made the game more fun for others - and World of Warcraft's success after Vitalik quit suggests that Blizzard actually got this and related tweaks right (Sorry, Vitalik )

In addition, cross-platform transferability would cause balancing and player experience issues � An NFT is little more than a marker of ownership, and it would not consistently indicate the utility of game items

A moderately powerful weapon in one game could be made completely overpowering in another "Even if we agree that interoperability is a good idea, it's still very complicated if we open the walled garden," states Pereira. "It gets a lot harder, a lot faster."

There is also a challenge at the level of the graphical interface 3D visual assets for games can be designed with various tools, such as Unreal Emgine or Unity "The problem is that these proprietary formats are linked to specific rendering engines," Joel Dietz, CEO, and Founder of MetaMetaverse, told me "It's not easy to integrate them." The goal of MetaMetaverse, Dietz said, is to enable interoperability across engines for assets

By developing standards for interoperability, for instance, much of this complexity could be moderated. "That is the Holy Grail That is the dream," said Ahmed AlBalaghi, co-founder and CEO of Biconomy, which builds blockchain games infrastructure. "But who will create these standards?"

The company with the highest potential to lead that effort has squandered its position: "Meta cannot lead on standards," Al-Balaghi says of the company formerly known as Facebook, "given all the blowback they've gotten."

Game publishers will have to figure out how to make money from NFT items, which is the biggest challenge. "From a business perspective, [traditional developers] sell in-game items that people are happy to buy Still, they do not demand any reward for doing so." That may be a disincentive to tokenizing items, which is why AlBalaghi says widespread interoperability of game items is "very far away."

Despite this, the incentives are not clear for some current Web 3-centric projects Many have pursued branded partnerships with celebrities and deals with designers A major goal of those deals is attracting users to a platform, so making assets interoperable might be challenging

"The Sandbox team is paying many people to develop on Sandbox, so even if the item works elsewhere, I'm sure they would have defensive licensing in place to prevent it If you're pushing interoperability, that's a hard thing to deal with."

Build Back Backwards

The most popular NFT implementation relating to in-game items has been Loot, a video app launched by Dom Hoffman in August 2021, who founded Vine before TikTok Loot's NFTs are incredibly minimalistic: Each is just a list of adventuring gear like wands and cloaks

A few thousand dollars for these black-and-white text blocks was greeted with disbelief by the general public, not least because the NFT market was in the midst of an irrational boom� As the market has dropped, loot prices have also dropped Conceptually, however, Loot is one of the most interesting projects to date The NFTs for Loot don't include any images or stats because they're "intentionally left out for interpretation by others." The idea was that items would be created by one entity, then the game would be built over top of the items

The Loot experiment hasn't produced a notable game, and it might end up serving more as a platform for games than a game itself Even before the current NFT or metaverse craze, the general idea proved compelling and practical CryptoKitties gave us 60 apps a few months ago, "Kitty hats, kitty races," says Mik Naayem, Dapper Labs' chief business officer. Naayem refers to KittyRace, a simple racing game where owners race their Kitties According to Naayem, it is a better model for NFTs in gaming than simply tokenizing in-game items

He said that "taking something from World of Warcraft and adding it to Need for Speed will probably not happen." But the moment developers see an audience for an asset; they'll start working on it."

In general, that's what has happened with NFTs over the past few years Yuga Labs, the makers of Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced a virtual environment called Otherside in April Yuga will reportedly be able to import not just BAYCs, but CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other collections as playable avatars Since CryptoKitties was built by the same company that made NFTs, it differs from what happened with CryptoKitties However, it demonstrates the basic premise that NFT "items" can be used as the basis for a game rather than being created just for one

In addition to being an entire "metaverse," Otherside differs from the early, smallscale CryptoKitties add-ons Such virtual worlds have grown in popularity over the last four or five years, and blockchain gaming has taken on an entirely new meaning Metaverses might provide a more streamlined, if less revolutionary, vision of NFT-based gaming, just as Otherside is more vertically integrated than KittyRaces

The most important model for Charles Smith, CEO of Nifty Island, is the children's game Roblox, where a large world is filled with minigames, most created by users Smith says Roblox is Roblox's first attempt at being the YouTube of gaming A Roblox game can have more DAUs [daily active users] than most [big-budget game] titles at any time� There are still studios that act like old Hollywood, but the future is small developers who build narrow experiences in shared environments

One controlling entity can determine how items behave in the real world and transfer between games, thus enabling a limited degree of interoperability Games are being developed across various blockchain ecosystems, and technical interoperability on the back end is still somewhat hazy, so keeping things confined to one chain is likely more practical for now

Al-Balaghi argues that having different experiences within one ecosystem will lead to more success in the short term He said self-contained worlds are easier to make and easier to market, but if users push for them, they could become a platform for greater openness The code must be changed for it to be interoperable Can these semi-open systems be fully opened by their guardians?"

I heard the most precise roadmap to the future of interoperable gaming while reporting for this story But it echoes an increasingly evident sentiment: making good games is the key As of now, there are no blockchain games that have caught on with users, except for "play-to-earn" games that emphasize financial elements rather than gameplay

A bear market may be a better environment for focusing on substance, exploring new NFT-based models, and attracting investors interested in more than simply watching numbers go up

Project 1

1

Shade Protocol (SHD) SILK

Flasko ($FLSK)

shadeprotocol

Flasko is a new platform

Developed on Secret Network, Shade Protocol consists of a network of privacypreserving Dapps to the high speed of the Secret Network, Shade has not only created a product that is privacy-friendly, scalable, and interoperable, but is also very easy to use

ShadeProtocol

“bringing the alternative investment industry to your fingertips.” The platform makes it easier than ever to invest in the constantly growing luxury beverage industry, including vintage whiskey, wine, and champagne Each investment is minted and “represented by a fractionalized NFT ” Flasko has centered their new platform around this industry due to “unprecedented growth in whiskey, wine, and champagne investments over the past five years,” meaning investors in Flasko will be earning an average of at least 28% per year returns

Despite their inherent security, traditional stablecoins, such as those pegged to gold or fiat, have a major weakness; they lack privacy Using a stablecoin means that the merchant knows far more about you than with a credit card or debit card, allowing them to discriminate against you

Shade_Protocol

Flasko is essentially aiming to become the first NFT whiskey, wine and champagne investment platform According to the whitepaper, “Users have the ability to purchase either a fraction, or 100% of an NFT and have the whiskey, wine or champagne delivered to their designated address free of charge ” A Flasko NFT represents each individual investment of whiskey, wine or champagne, and each NFT or fraction of NFT

Based on the Secret Network and SNIP20 private and fungible token standard, SILK gives

Project 2

Dogeliens (DOGET)

Arbitrum is a DAO that have created two protocols making ETH transactions faster and cheaper, Arbitrum

Rollup and Arbitrum

Dogeliens

DogeliensOfficial

Dogeliens are coming The new king of meme coins has come from Puptopia to save the earth from mediocre cryptocurrencies

The meme coin newcomer that could overthrow Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, Dogeliens Token (DOGET), is also one of the newly introduced ideas and has raised a huge amount in a heartbeat

AnyTrust It’s an interesting project that still has lots of potential to catch on Both protocols use Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova which are blockhains developed exclusively for use within the Arbitrum ecosystem, with the intended purpose of building user-friendly dApps

Dogeliens (DOGET) is an upcoming meme coin that aims to offer individuals an enjoyable cryptocurrency that both maintains the meme coin pleasure whilst including utility value These combine to make it a token you’ll want to consider Dogeliens is predicated on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which supplies the community with faster transaction processing and easy scalability

Arbitrum utilizes the native token ARB which decentalizes government of these protocols and chains, as well as any other future chains that the Arbitrum DAO develops or authorizes Arbitrum differs to many projects featured in our hidden gems section as it is a fully functioning DAO, meaning ARB tokens are used to vote on Arbitrum DAO governance proposals If you’re a holder of ARB then you have a say in the future of Arbitrum overall

Dogeliens

The coin supplies video games and academic info to newbies, aiming to assist the

The team at Arbitrum state that “Decentralization of Arbitrum's technology governance represents an important step towards community governance holders the option to make their transactions private or public. With advanced flexibility and auditable privacy, SILK is a 4th generation stablecoin will be tradeable on the Flasko Protocol platform – users can buy and sell their Flasko investments

The native token, FLSK, weaves tightly into the Flask ecosystem as token stakers cast governance votes which help to decide “whether Flasko sells the investments back to the global market, auction or sell independently and share this revenue with token investors ” There has been unprecedented growth in alternative investments such as whiskey, wine or champagne over the last few years, with each increasing by 65, 57 and 93% respectively

Since inflation remains a growing concern globally, Shade Protocol offers a stablecoin that doesn't adhere to a single fiat currency or asset, but can react to global trends as they change With Shade Protocol, everything will be under one umbrella, including a decentralized exchange

As governments consider how to interact and use cryptocurrencies, and more nations adopt cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation, at the same time the world's population becomes more familiar with cryptocurrency, stablecoins will remain a major topic of discussion The answer to the question of what a stablecoin should be, can be found in SILK

Flasko aims to merge the gap between vintage alcohol beverages and cryptocurrency investors, offering an opportunity for crypto fans to get involved in a passionate project, and to bring new investors into the crypto fold There will be opportunities for investors to receive exclusive new alcohol brands as well as membership rewards, more of which is detailed in the project’s whitepaper FLSK is currently in its presale stage, where you can join through their website uninitiated and those wishing to learn about cryptocurrencies Their purpose is to create one of the best blockchain-based training platforms to attract extra individuals to the Dogeliens completed this by establishing the ‘College of Barkington,’ which provides customers with a broad assortment of content material of Ethereum's scaling technologies, and further aligns the Arbitrum community's incentives with those of the Ethereum community at large This is a big deal because it means that the Arbitrum DAO will be able to democratically make decisions that are in the best interest of the Arbitrum and Ethereum communities, rather than having faith in the good will of a small group of people ”

Dogeliens Academy, a new educational platform, will be launched by Dogeliens This platform will provide a virtual class with video content so that everyone may learn more about blockchain technology Dogeliens will also provide DeFi services like staking and trading, which will be supported by the platform’s DOGET tokens The token is also required for users to mint NFTs to engage in the platform’s play-to-earn (P2E) games and obtain DOGET token prizes� While Dogeliens aspires to imitate Dogecoin, it will not remain in its shadow Instead, Dogeliens will grow and recruit additional next-generation utilities within its ecosystem

In other words, Arbitrum could have a big effect on the future of Ethereum and trading and it’s a good time to get involved with the project at the moment An exciting airdrop has recently been announced so if you’re a holder already then you can get involved and start earning some ARB for free If you haven’t bought any ARB yet, which I assume will be the case for most readers, then it’s still a fantastic time to check the project out as future airdrops and other events will be occurring in the near future You never want to miss the jump, so check out ARB when you next have some free time and experience the future of decentralized ETH scaling bigeyes.space cookiesale

Bigeyesofficial

Bigeyes is a huge project, also currently in its presale stage Their community is one of the biggest out of new and upcoming tokens, with a telegram group of over 27,000 members It’s one of the most hyped and safest projects currently out there with mounds of potential Their main goal is to “shift wealth into the defi ecosystem and to protect an important part of the world’s ecosystem ” The Big Eyes team are building a blockchain ecosystem that “self-propagates for hyper growth using NFTs to offer access to more content and events that make the blockchain hype ship well worth boarding ”

CookieSale will be bought back into Kodi and then airdropped to holders, holding 10 million or more Kodi tokens tokens in total and there are no buy or sell taxes 70% of tokens are being sold in the current presale and 20% is kept for future use on exchanges The initial liquidity pool has been locked for 2 years, ensuring stable growth and prosperity There are many future plans for Big Eyes NFTs, which one can read further information about in the project’s whitepaper

Backed by powerful auditing companies such as Certik, SpyWolf, Brewlabs, Dessert Finance, Contract Checker, and HashEx developers will be able to choose between three pre-audited contracts or create their own and have it audited separately Other key features include liquidity locking, anti-bot features, custom airdrops, visual cues to aid in identifying safer investments, and more cookiesaleio

Cookie Sale Kodi (KODI)

Cookie Sale launched in February 2022, and aims to become one of the biggest launchpads for tokens on the BSC sleek design and easy-to-use interface, CookieSale looks to be adaptable and adoptable for developers and a safe environment for investors CookieSale works side by side with Kodi’s marketing & advertising agency Pitch. This benefits developers and holders of Kodi as well As a developer, you will be able to use CookieSale as an “A to Z” platform

Big Eyes is owned by the community, with 90% being available at launch A visible wallet holds 5% of the tokens, saved exclusively for philanthropic charity causes, with the remaining 5% being held in a marketing wallet There are 200,000,000,000

From advertising to zhooshing up your “cookie” there will be something that satisfies almost anyone’s tastes As a Kodi holder, a percentage of the revenue generated through

Project 4

voltinu VoltInuOfficial PROJECT 4 Volt Inu (VOLT) VoltInu_Portal

Cookiesale Kodicoinofficial

Kodi’s mission is to create a one-stop-shop IDO platform and provide investors with an interactive Entertainment Network that will keep users engaged, informed, and entertained while investing in the crypto space

Out of all current crypto projects, Big Eyes really does seem like it’s one of the most promising It has a huge and active community who are committed to giving back and expanding the project’s offering A keen emphasis is being placed on benefitting the real worlds, from saving the oceans to creating a unique stable ecosystem Big Eyes has been fully audited by Solidity Finance and CoinSniper to ensure the token and team are 100% safe and secure The roadmap is fully planned out and the project is sailing along smoothly Join the presale now and don’t miss out

One notable feature that stands out amongst other launchpads is that CookieSale will only charge a flat fee for listing Developers will be able to launch the right way, without the fear of a large sell from the launchpad taking profit.

Volt Inu is a popular token right now and it’s a great time to get involved in the project as V2 has only recently launched In the team’s own words, Volt Inu is a whole ecosystem “aimed at becoming a one-stop shop offering DeFi products while bringing profits back to the native token to support its deflationary purpose ” In other words, it’s not just a token, it’s got lots of uses beyond trading

Clear Vision

Beyond the VOLT token, and tying intrinsically into it, lies a whole DEX platform, VoltiChange, an NFT collection titled VDSC (Volted Dragons Sailor’s Club), an entire gaming platform in VoltiGames and an upcoming project called VoltiFlex, with further details arriving shortly

The VDSC NFT collection gives NFT owners access to gaming integrations and exclusive rights and revenues Voltigames already includes a P2E racing game which includes further rewards for players, and VoltiChange makes any Pancakeswap or Uniswap project deflationary for free That’s a lot of content available for owners of VOLT already, and the team have so much more planned

Kodi`s vision is to create an ecosystem that will be a driver in promoting a safer economic environment for crypto investors to participate in and for developers to grow their projects. Kodi is creating an industry-first Entertainment Network that will become THE place for crypto investors to socialize, have fun, win prizes, and learn about everything crypto Is there anything more about Kodi? How do you, as an investor benefit? Kodi by itself, is an entertainment project Kodi plays games post podcasts, do AMAs, have tournaments, live streams, and play plenty of music� At Kodi there are two subsidiaries� "Pitch" being the in-house advertising agency, which is a one-stop shop, all things content creation, both in crypto and fiat. Branding, websites, commercials, you name it Kodi does it The Pitch Advertising Agency and

CookieSale launchpad Cookie Sale will work in unison to become the go-to destinations for developers to build their brands and launch their projects With Cookie Sale, you can launch your project from A to Z Gone are the days of taking your token supply Kodi simply charges a flat fee, no strings attached.

VoltiChange alone is a revolutionary platform and something you should check out right away Projects get listed on the DEX platform in a free and permissionless way and enables them in becoming deflationary by burning their supply There is no liquidity to add and only a 0 25% fee for burning your supply when trading It’s a platform that could prove pretty important in the future, however if DEX’s aren’t your thing then VOLT is also listed on 79 centralized exchanges, including Gate io, HotBit, DigiFinex and XT com

As for tokenomics, VOLT is available on the Ethereum blockchain, BSC as well as Polygon The percentages vary depending on the blockchain but for BSC, 4% of the tokens are kept for marketing purposes, a further 4% for Treasury, 4% are burnt and 1% is kept for reflections. These are trustworthy statistics and a solid tokenomics setup