Recent events have got me thinking about the financial aspects of gaming. Back in the 'olden days' video games were just about fun. We would pump our coins into arcade machines for a few minutes of blasting things and maybe a chance to get on the high-score table. Later home computers and consoles let us do the same at home, but you would generally have to pay up front. Of course there were free games and piracy was rife in the home computer world. You would still not generally make money. At some point we got on-line games where you could buy extra items as you went along to improve your progress and there were markets where you might sell those you could find in the game.
Most of my gaming was in the earlier eras with a late bloom when we got our Wii. In the last few years I have discovered various blockchain games and got into some on Hive. They put a different twist on things as you can be earning things with serious value and that may be more of a reason for people to play than the actual gameplay.
@splinterlands recently introduced their SPS token that is being airdropped to players in amounts depending on the assets you hold. I have played the game for years, but did not anticipate this sort of return. You can stake what you get for a nice income, but it looks like only about 11% is being staked for now. I suspect a lot of people are selling it for a quick profit. I have found the game to be quite money-driven with a big push to get people to buy card packs and then land that could be pretty expensive. You would expect that the largest land parcels are being bought primarily as investments.
Splinterlands can also be profitable if you win good cards and sell them. I just tend to do the daily challenges and sell spare cards to get DEC to spend on others. My deck is worth some $1000s according to Peakmonsters, but I am not desperate to cash out as some of the valuable cards help a lot in my battles. The prices for some are just crazy and I cannot afford to level up certain cards I would like to improve. I wonder how many people are willing to pay those prices and what they expect to make from them.
Splinterlands has tolerated accounts that appear to be bots for some time and those are obviously purely for profit. The rules were changed to reduce what they could make if they were selling off their cards, but it still goes on. I expect they cost little to run, so can still be profitable.
The game seems to be bringing in a lot of new players recently judging by the number of accounts they are creating. I hope some will look deeper into what Hive can do.
The other main game I play is Rising Star, which is a more passive experience. You do need to find a strategy to optimise your progress, but for me it is largely about collecting all the cards and I love that it is themed around music. However I was able to sell some for good money recently and I used most of that to power up my Hive account. It seems some of the newer players are desperate to make quicker progress and I wonder if that is driven more by money. It could take them a while to earn back what they paid me. I have had some sending me DMs asking for special deals. I may do that in some cases, but if they are trying to get much cheaper prices than the general market then I do not see why I should. The market should fnd its own level based on demand. I know the devoper does not want to make it purely about money, but it is inevitable that will be the motivation for many. Making a few extra dollars can be significant for some.
I have played some of the other Hive games, but the gameplay is not that interesting to me and they just seem like faucets. I get a small drip of passive income from one, but am not investing more in it as it is just not interesting enough to me.
I really do get that I may not be a typical player of these games. Some will be desperate for money and others who are already be well off will treat them as additional investments. Those who develop them may be concentrating on playability, but that may not be the main draw. Not everyone is a blogger or even interested in the social side, but Hive has lots of opportunities to earn. I just hope it can be about more than money.