7 Game Worlds and their Crypto Token Economies

Game worlds and their crypto tokens explained. Economy becomes an important part of a blockchain-powered game.

Game worlds and crypto token economies are merging. Video games have had virtual economies for decades, but these virtual economies hardly had any real-world impact. The rise of play-to-earn and blockchain gaming clearly changes that, as game worlds and crypto token economies collide in a playful sandbox with financial incentives.

In this article we will take a look at six of the top gaming projects and their crypto token economies. See this blog post as a quick introduction in play-to-earn game economies.

For a good grasp of the following game worlds and how they work you need to be familiar with the terms crypto token economy and metaverse. A crypto token economy is simply an economy where gamers or players earn various crypto tokens when they complete or achieve certain in-game tasks and challenges. This process is often described as play-to-earn. A metaverse is a virtual world or environment where individuals (gamers/players) get to interact with one another socially or economically through their avatars.

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Aavegotchi

Aavegotchi is a game that exists on the Polygon blockchain. It gets its name from the Aavegotchi ghost characters, which are the main game avatars. These pixelated ghost characters are NFTs, filled with an interest-generating token. In this case it would generate the native GHST token. The virtual world in which the game takes place, is known as the Gotchiverse Realm.

In Aavegotchi players can purchase land in the metaverse by using their GHST tokens. They then interact with other players in a bid to make their land more attractive. Players can do this by creating structures known as Installations, which also are NFTs. They can also sell them on the Aavegotchi marketplace for GHST tokens. Because GHST also functions as a governance token, users can use their token holdings to vote on community decisions. This would include details about rarity farming or adding certain mini-games.

Decentraland

Decentraland is a virtual world where players get to explore and interact with games and other creative installations. The virtual worlds is also home to concerts, art shows, and casinos. Decentraland originally launched on Ethereum, but is slowly moving its operations to for example the Polygon sidechain.

In this virtual world, players have the option of purchasing parcels of land, where they can build their marketplaces, environments, and applications. Prices for these land have increased tremendously.

An interesting fact about Decentraland is that it is user-owned through a community DAO, the Decentraland Foundation. This simply means that token holders have a big say in the development of the platform. The main token is the MANA token, which is Decentraland’s fungible currency. Owners can use their MANA to buy lands or estates, but also to fund development or vote on community-governed decisions.

The tokenomics of Decentraland are mainly reliant on the MANA token. A huge upside of using Decentraland is that it allows developers to be creative and innovative with virtual real estate. In addition Decentraland allows third-party currencies to be used within their ecosystem as well. Developers who make games within Decentraland, can for example add payment options for their own tokens.

The Sandbox

The Sandbox is a virtual world that launched on the Ethereum blockchain and expands to the Polygon blockchain. Players can create their own games, each with their own business model. This can be done by players independently; this means that the users have total ownership of the created in-game assets.

The token economy of the Sandbox is driven by the SAND token. The token is used to play games, purchase assets, and after maturity will be used as the governance token. LAND purchased is non-fungible and can be used as a platform for housing independent games and other assets.

The Sandbox is unique in that it allows players to monetize their games to earn more SAND. SAND can also be earned through the sale of game items, known as ASSETS, on the Sandbox marketplace.

MegaCryptoPolis

MegaCryptoPolis is gaming world where players get to build a unique city. Within this city players can be a landowner, but also an employee, crafter on one of many other roles. The game exists on the Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron blockchains. Every asset in the game is non-fungible and unique.

The token economy of MegaCryptoPolis is majorly driven by the MEGA token. The MEGA is an ERC20/TRC-20 token. To get the token players lock their virtual resources such as energy, wood, water and sand, in the in-game vault. They then generate rewards in form of MEGA tokens.

Every MEGA token is fundamentally backed by in-game resources. That means that players put time and money into generating these resources, and therefore these have value. MEGA provides an extra way for users to make their in-game resource liquid, as they can either sell them on the marketplace, use them to build, or mint MEGA tokens out of them.

Alien Worlds

Alien Worlds is a game with strong elements of DeFi that allows players to compete and collaborate to earn Trilium (TLM). Trilium is a resource needed to for example upgrade items, and it’s the resource that drives the whole economy of Alien Worlds.

Alien Worlds exists on the WAX blockchain, but is interoperable with the Ethereum and Binance Smart blockchains. Gamers can bridge their TLM tokens from the WAX blockchain to Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum.

Players earn the TLM tokens in several ways; The token can be earned by mining, which requires the use of NFTs. In addition players can earn TLM by staking. Furthermore TLM functions as a governance token on each of the virtual planets in the game world. The ease of access to the game, made Alien Worlds a popular play-to-earn game in the past few months.

VulcanVerse

VulcanVerse is a massively multiplayer online role playing game, or MMORPG. The game is part of the Vulcan Forged ecosystem, where several games and an NFT marketplace all exist. Within this ecosystem players can trade their in-game resources and assets.

In VulcanVerse players can buy virtual land and use in-game resources to build on it to make it more valuable. Players in the VulcanVerse can also own Vulcanites and other NFT assets. Gamers can purchase all of these using the native PYR token.

PYR tokens can be earned through winning in-game activities or through staking NFTs in VulcanForged. For example, players can stake PYR on a land parcel to increase the level of their land. This would make the land suitable for passive income, but also adds new building utilities.

Axie Infinity

The leading example of game worlds with a player-driven virtual economy, would be Axie Infinity. At the time of writing 300,000 daily players battle to earn SLP tokens. These Smooth Love Potions are a valuable resource for another type of players, those who breed new Axies. As new Axies enter the game, more players will be able to enter the game world.

Aside from these strong economics, Axie Infinity has another token up their sleeve. The AXS token is a governance token that still need to be deployed properly. These tokens will be the backbone of the Axie Infinity economy.

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