Today, many video games are created by large companies with the intent to make money, and many games can cost tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars (Investopia). Other than the parts of the sales that publishers (like Steam) claim, virtually all sales go towards the companies that produce video games; in other words, these games are "pay to play."
But, as I have only recently become aware of, a new type of video game is arising with about the opposite goal in mind; "play to earn" video games, involving cryptocurrency and/or NFTs. These video games are produced with the intent of allowing the players to invest and earn money back over time -- if they have the skill. Perhaps the best part about these games is that they are decentralized; the producers have little to no interest in taking a portion from the players' investments (perhaps just enough to keep the game in business).
Dan Hensley, co-founder of 3Speak, has envisioned a play-to-earn, complex chess/card game called Ragnarok, where players can invest in a limited number of characters, weapons, spells, and other items to try and advance.
But I must ask: is this new kind of video game really worth it?
Yes, the idea of being able to use one's video gaming skills to make a little bit of profit after making a small initial investment is pretty cool, but I'm skeptical that this ever be a more viable way of making money than getting a job at McDonalds. It seems that it's going to take a long time before playing these kinds of games will reimburse you more than one dollar per day (Hongkiat).
However, my previous concern isn't nearly as great as this concern: what about the quality of these job-like video games? _Can play-to-earn video games ever be as fun as highly funded pay-to-play video games? _I can't speak for others, but I don't play video games the same way I worked at a job or do homework; I play high quality video games because it's a fun way to pass the time, not to try and get more spending money. That's stressful, not fun.
I have one last critique of play-to-earn video games. Because the producers of these games don't expect to gain much, but desire for the players to be able to gain more money in the future, the value of these games are designed to come from the money that some of the best players put back into the game. _But will these top players, who will earn the majority of the games' value, really be interested in investing back into these games? A crypto-based play-to-earn game made in 2021 called Axie Infinity began to make diminishing returns when its top players simply cashed out their prizes instead of investing money back into the game _(Business Insider).
I conclude that play-to-earn video games are not only a poor way to make money for 99.99% of players, but also, they are not nearly as enjoyable to play as pay-to-play video games. The very name "play to earn" suggests a view of gaming as tedious or grueling, rather than what they were literally invented for: fun. However, if someone out there does really enjoy a play-to-earn game and gets good enough to make some money out of it, then cheers to good gaming. I, however, will continue to enjoy the wonderful world of Minecraft.