As GPU prices skyrockets and their availability dwindle due to cryptocurrency miners, the gaming community's backlash grows louder than ever. Because their machine's performance affects gameplay, the effects of being cryptojacked adds more fuel to the fire of how these two technological communities are at odds against each other.
But herein lies the big question; are gamers absolutely powerless in an arms race against the wants of the magic internet money horde? Not really… and here's why.
In the old days, the integrated GPU's of most laptops and compact desktops have terrible graphics solutions. While the possible saving grace of having one or two expansion slots, most were designed to be the standard office terminal with their most intense graphical work rendering documents to be reviewed.
Because most if not all gaming laptops have integrated but discreet graphics card, high end laptops had always paid a premium. Hardware developers clearly know the plight of gamers and instead abandoning gamers for miners, they are attempting to shift the mindset of gamers by selling integrated systems from the laptop to the compact desktop arena. Combined with the economy of scale and the future possibility to upgrade, this may be the most affordable solution against the multi-gpu mining rigs.
In every technological leap, the graphics of gaming have grown better and better. From Doom, Quake, Farcry and back to the new Doom, these advancements go by leaps and bounds to a point where what is shown looks surreal. But something happened between the announcements of Team Fortress 2 to its release. Instead of going for realism, the comedic cel shading style as well as a retro revival pushed the feel for new games to look old. While some of these new and independent games really don't need newer hardware, the gameplay however are sharpened to a knife's edge ensuring much frustration and enjoyment as anyone who play Cuphead.
So does this mean developers need to make less graphic intensive games? No. But there are now more incentives than ever to. By having lower system requirements, the game can reach more users that would be normally locked out because they don't have the latest and greatest. This is particularly beneficial to those who develop multiplayer and MMO games as the social aspect is one of the major reasons why people play and when the requirements are low, the ability to have large player base increases.
While cryptocurrency mining appears to stay, the progress of technology ensures that this may no longer be viable or needed. Because mining becomes more difficult and costly, most miners only mine to a profit and then switch to the next easiest coin or more profitable coin. While this holds true to the first and second generations of cryptocurrencies, the third wave where we are heading means that the environmentally unfriendly practice of mining would be obsolete due to new methods of coin distribution.
Coins that use Proof of Stake would vouch another transaction shows that it not only lowered the transaction costs but also improved the transaction speed that solves some of the biggest issues currently with Bitcoin as their popularity rises. While most staking would need a large initial investment to start, others such as Digitalnote can accept small values to be locked into fixed deposits and earn upon maturity.
Other projects such as Steem helps encourage content developers as an earning platform rather than be at the mercy of advertisers and webhosts. Earning value is nothing new to the gaming community, but with so many legal and distribution minefields to weave around, the opportunity to be the one universally accepted currency is the dream of gamers and the feather to the hat of all developers.
As technology develops over time, miners and gamers will continue to adapt as the Meta shifts from brute hash rates to skilled gameplay. But for now, everyone is gaming the system, whatever that system it may be.