Introduction to NFT Games

As NFTs are becoming more popular, there are more people who are looking into them, especially gamers who would like to earn some money while they are enjoying their favorite hobby, gaming. If you are one of those who would like to wrap their mind around the concept of NFTs and games that involve them, you have come to the right place.

What are NFTs?

While we do have a whole section dedicated to NFT explained, let us quickly go over what they are before we jump into the gaming portion of the article. NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, which is a digital cryptographic token on a blockchain. Each NFT represents a unique item, and they are usually portrayed in some way of art, the most popular example being monkeys with all kinds of accessories.

Since every NFT is unique, trading them is a bit tricky, as they each have their individual value. That value is decided by various factors, and in NFT games, it is decided by rarity and the power of an NFT if it is usable as a part of the game and not just a collectible. It is important to state, that each blockchain has a limited number of NFT prints, so the rarity increases the less space on the blockchain remains.

What are NFTs and how do they work?

While having a piece of NFT in your collection is something that you can easily brag about and show off to people, NFT games take that to another level, as you use those NFTs in the game. Each NFT game uses NFTs according to its own rules or mechanics. One game could represent it as your avatar, the other one could represent it as a lamp in your virtual living room, while a third one could represent it as a card with certain effects.

The first NFT game that started off the whole play-to-earn mode was Crypto Kitties, it is a game that is still alive, but its popularity is not nearly as high as there are more entertaining options out there, like esports crypto games for example. What play-to-earn games essentially allow you to do, is to find some items within the game that are actually NFTs, and you can store them on your wallet and then eventually trade them for fiat currency.

So how does a game include NFTs inside of it? Game developers create smart contracts, which are self-executing parts of code on the blockchain, and that makeup rules for the NFTs used in their games. In Cryptokitties, they used the gene science contract, which was creating new cats with random mechanics.

Play-to-Earn NFT Games

By far the most popular genre of NFT games are those who are P2E, aka. play-to-earn. Unlike traditional games where players usually have to invest their income into the game in order to unlock certain rewards, play-to-earn games switch that around and actually reward players who invest their time into them.

Depending on the game, a player can earn some NFT drops while they are leveling their account, buying certain upgrades within the game, passing certain sections of the game, or defeating other players. Every game has its own different set of rules when it comes to rewards, but essentially, they will all reward you for your time and make sure that it is not wasted.

One of the most popular play-to-earn games is Axie Infinity, and it is usually the best example no matter the kind of NFT topic we decide to discuss. In order to start playing Axie Infinity, you will have to make a small investment by purchasing certain Axies that have been generated on the blockchain. You can do so on the Axie Infinity marketplace. You could also earn a Scholarship from another player to start playing too.

After you assemble a team of 3 Axies, you can start off your adventure in the game. As you complete tasks and challenges, you can earn various tradable tokens, such as the SLP(Smooth Love Potion) which is an ERC-20 token. Those SLP tokens can be used by breeders in the game, who can create new Axies.

What exactly is an in-game NFT?

An in-game NFT is an item that a player can use to generate income in the game. Unlike earning SLP in Axie Infinity, you can earn a collectible item which you can then trade to another player who would like to have it in their collection. The closest thing to compare to in-game NFTs are basically Steam’s Trading Cards, but much bigger in value.

Making money in NFT games

Since there are quite a lot of NFT games out there, the discussion of how one can make an income playing these games is a bit complicated. But generally, if you are playing a play-to-earn game, as long as you keep completing tasks and leveling your account or character, you will eventually make some income.

But beware, in certain games, you can actually lose money too. For example, if you decide to play Axie Infinity, you will have to make a purchase before you can play. While you can definitely make your money back by playing the game and then get a positive income, if you decide to quit the game before you get to that point, or if the value of your purchased Axies drops or becomes weak in the game, you are technically losing money.

Is it possible to lose NFTs?

There are a couple of ways one can lose their NFTs, but it is extremely unlikely for that to happen. If you are being careful who you are trading with and if you are keeping your wallet safe, then the odds of you losing your NFTs are very unlikely.

However, there are certain situations where it could happen. For instance, if you attempt to transfer your NFT to a wallet that does not support your NFT’s token standard, if you are a victim of a scam or fraud, or if the game you are playing has some kind of rules which can make you lose your NFT.

What are the top NFT games?

There are quite a lot of NFT games out there already, and more are being developed every day, as this genre of gaming became quite popular. However, these are some of the top NFT games, that we definitely recommend playing.

Axie Infinity

We already talked about this game in the text. It is a game where you have a team of 3 monsters (Axies) which you can use to battle other teams. It is very close to the Pokemon games, as every Axie has its own stats and abilities.

Sorare

If you have played fantasy football manager in any form, then you already know what Sorare is. It is a football collectable game where you can collect various players from all kinds of teams as cards and then form a team of five to play games for you.

Gods Unchained

This is a one of the best crypto card games on the Ethereum blockchain, and it is very similar to the two most popular esport card games, Hearthstone and Magic The Gathering. You can build your own deck from cards and then duel other players.