Brainstorming Gamification
TL;DR - Games will drive crypto adoption. I’m a believer that it will be a blend of gamifcation and social media that will ultimately push cryptocurrency into the mainstream. Our culture is already dominated by game-like content creation and communication. Likes, shares, comments are all metrics we use and practically budget time for on a daily basis.
Today, these likes, shares and comments are like digital point rubrics that big centralized companies (facebook, google) harness to learn more about us. We all now know that these archives of data can be incredibly valuable when aggregated and packaged to another company that wants to learn more about us. Ultimately, engagement has tremendous value. We all know this, because we’re content creators and curators within the Steem blockchain. We’re here because we believe that this is a far more democratized and decentralized environment that rewards those who contribute to it. With Steem, we’re entering a new era of gamified social media.
Likes, comments and shares are all like points. You can visualize them in different ways and gamify them beyond a simple back and forth conversation. Blockchains provide an exciting and unifying infrastructure for gaming, because you can have a connected constellation of gamers around the globe who can be rewarded with tokens (cryptocurrency) for performing actions within the game - all without any central owner or authority. Even further, the concept of mining (or problem solving) can be integrated within a blockchain game. By appearances - you might be slicing fruit, crushing candy or tending to your digital crops but in reality - you could be processing all kinds of data as it migrates from one place to another. We love our games. It’s only a matter of time before we start to mine digital currencies through them.
More native “Gaming” than any other Blockchain
It’s already happening with Steem.
Across the cryptocurrency universe we've seen a burst of new projects on the scene over the last few months. Digital cats and digital real estate among many others. But aside from the visually polished apps, Steem has probably offered the most diversity and worldwide opportunity for gamification out of any other blockchain ecosystem. There are pixels, puzzles, challenges, bets and collaborative open-calls going on every single day.
Here is a sampling of the crypto-art challenges hosted by @sndbox each week, below. While they aren't games in the traditional sense they do tap into the creative / collaborative mindset of the community here. Steem is alike a global exquisite corpse. One that demands daily participation, improvisation, critique and growth.
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What other examples of “games” have you come across within the world of Steem?
Image Sources: Minecraft Wallpaper Image / @steempixels, public canvas of pixel art.