I love to have some good recreation, who doesn't? That's why when I listened that there exist crypto games that pay you crypto to play. I immediately thought that it was a great idea, provided the game is neutral on its content. After all, a lot of people like to play games, so it just seems reasonable or even inevitable, that crypto games who give money away to their users could be the killer app that will make the blockchain an instant viral success.
However, regrettably, this is far from being the case.
In this article, I am going to explain why the current games (at least several I have used so far) are very lame. IMO.
They Have An Excessive Amount Of Ads
I get the point that, in order to distribute wealth, you have to get revenue. However, the number of ads I have witnessed on the apps I have used was way over the line.
For instance, if I was using the app 1 minute, I would get one ad, minimum. That would be 30 ads per hour. As a reference, a much more reputable and professional project (Brave Rewards) gives you 5 ads per hour maximum.
Greedy Owners
Okay, so, you get hit by 30 ads, (per hour) and some revenue is for sure being generated. However, unfortunately, and most strangely, you don't get rewarded in proportion to your investment in time. For the 3 games I played, (owned by two different companies) after playing approximately 12 hours (in the span of three days) I got approximately 0.05 USD. For 12 hours! I was basically making 0.00416 USD per hour,... not cool.
Once I got the confirmation of such tiny first payment I uninstall the applications, never to return again.
Some people might say:
"Okay, is just a couple of cents, but, if you play in your spare time, isn't it that better than just playing games that don't even give you anything and who also have ads?"
Well, not really, because the expectation of getting money basically changes the whole context (at least in my case) from a purely entertaining endeavor, to a more transactional and economically motivated setup. In which a decent payout is part of the implicit agreement.
Also, I usually don't play games. I prefer to recreate watching YouTube videos, or reading crypto news, or reading books, I just give these apps one chance to see if it was some form of recreation that I could add to my schedule, and also to promote it with my audience, since those apps also give out referral links, but it didn't turn out well.
Not so great games
The games were okay, but they are not great. I mean, you could spend some time there, but it is not as if you are getting a lot of value in terms of entertainment and brain stimulation. So, not really worth it.
What Crypto Games Should Be. IMO
Here is a brief list of ideas for a great crypto game.
Crypto Agnostic
Some crypto games have their own obscure cryptocurrency, which only adds a layer of complexity and inconvenience to the whole process. Which look like this:
- You need to get the coin
- Then you need to investigate how much it's worth
- Then you need to know what exchange has listed that coin if any
- Then you need to investigate how you will get that coin converted into another crypto that has more potential.
A lot of steps to something that is so simple. Getting paid. This is especially annoying when considering that the app maker gets paid directly in fiat when displaying the ads, meaning, that is not that they have to pay you in their obscure coin, but that they want to make the process that way to prop up their token.
If instead, the app developers would be crypto agnostic, giving out payouts in different cryptos, they might get some coins for free as a partnership deal, and thus benefit their users more.
Make The Source Of Revenue Not Being Ads (some suggestions)
Besides the fact that ads are annoying, they are also disruptive to the gaming experience, which might destroy your chance at making a good crypto game. However, it is true that you need revenue, so here are some suggestions:
- Have several crypto-related referral links for products that are truly useful, such as hardware wallets, or some reputable exchange.
- Sell a Premium version of that game
- Have in-game purchases (that make sense).
Give Away (At Least) 70% Of Your Profits
Your users are your source of revenue, without them, you only have a piece of software that will die off once sufficient bad reviews make your app unsustainable, reward them accordingly, and you will get rewarded as well, one quote that is relevant regarding this topic is the following:
“I’d rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.”
J. Paul Getty
The Game Has To Be Great
If you have a great game, a game that people would be willing to play for free, and add on top of that a rewarding system that is good, you got a good shot at a viral app. This is rather self-explanatory, so let's move on.
Have in Place a Good Referral System
If you model your referral system in a way that entices people to share your app with their friends, you got an even greater chance to become a multi-million user app.
Multiplatform
Your crypto game should be available in iOS and Android, but also on a website, at a minimum. It also should be able to synchronize sessions.
Neutral Content
If your game has blasphemies or anything else that is awful, I am not playing it, there is a sizable number of persons who would not play your game if it has this or similar issues. Remember, if you are in the crypto space, the main idea should be cryptocurrencies, which is, most of the time, neutral concepts regarding economic systems. If you keep your app neutral, your chances of onboarding more people of different ages and backgrounds, increases.
Translate Your Game
If you are giving away money in a noticeable amount, and your game is rather simple and neutral, having it translated into various languages could give the chance to people outside of developed countries to be benefited from your game. Which I think is a noble pursuit. That could also be beneficial to your app's success.
Conclusion
Crypto games who give payouts could be so much better, unfortunately, so far they are just clones of their fiat counterparts, and it seems that (at least the ones I played) solely exist to milk their users for the benefit of the owners of the app.
But if you take into consideration this article, you might create something better. A crypto game worthy of a global userbase.
Who knows, you might become the crypto version of Flappy Bird.
Also, if you have a good suggestion for a great cryptogame that gives away payouts to their users, and in which the game itself is neutral on it's content and design, please leave a comment with that info.
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