- Introduction
- GameFi and Play And Earn formats
- Free to play crypto games
- Play&Earn projects
- Betas, alphas and early access
- Where to look for Free To Earn projects?
- Conclusion and conclusions
Join our Telegram channel and chat to keep abreast of the main crypto gaming trends.
Introduction
The blockchain industry has taken a big step forward in 2022. Despite the market drop at the beginning of the summer, many promising projects have been born over the past year. Some of them have gained wide popularity, which is why a large number of new users and even more smart developers have come to the industry.
One of the areas that contributed to the growth in the popularity of blockchain projects is Web3 Gaming and Play To Earn, or, in simple words, crypto games. More recently, only enthusiasts or investors who want to earn income in the game shell were interested in crypto games. Now almost every gamer in the world has heard about games with earning opportunities.
In part, crypto games managed to gain fame thanks to projects that have an affordable price of assets or do not require investment from the player at all. Today we will talk about them, share our opinion and find out which free crypto games are the most promising at the moment.
GameFi and Play And Earn formats
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that, in the opinion of the author of crypto games, first of all, games, and only then a source for generating income. Yes, perhaps Web3 projects are still far from the masterpiece AAA products, but, anyway, there are already many games with exciting gameplay.
game fi
In the blockchain games market, most projects are still investment projects, where users buy assets only to make a profit. Often in such projects, the gameplay acts as a prerequisite for raising funds from investments. The player is only required to log into the game daily for a few minutes to complete a level or collect a carrot. The author refers such projects to the GameFi category and believes that this is not the format that will bring Web3 gaming wide popularity among the masses.
Play And Earn
There is another type of projects where the player does not need to purchase an expensive NFT or invest several thousand dollars to earn money. In Play And Earn projects, you will have to invest time, energy and have high playing skills in order to receive rewards. The mechanics of earning in such projects are usually based on the internal market of items, rating table or tournaments. In turn, assets play the role of a donation, which greatly simplifies the gameplay or provides a strong advantage.
Often, Play And Earn games do not require mandatory investments. But that doesn't mean that anyone can create a character in the metaverse and quit their job. There are pitfalls to consider.
Free to play crypto games
Shareware blockchain games are projects where the basic gameplay does not require investments from the player. At the same time, earning mechanics are available only to those who own assets or make a purchase. Often, in this way, projects lure players so that they get acquainted with the game and invest in the product.
A good example is the project EV.IO. This is a browser shooter on the Solana network. Players participate in competitive matches, earning income from kills and wins. Anyone can dive into exciting battles, but to earn money, alas, you will have to buy an expensive NFT.
There are many similar examples, but such projects usually do not hide the fact that the free format will not bring income to the player.
There is another example when a project creates the illusion of free earnings. Yes, the game still does not require investments, and players can even receive tokens. But as soon as it comes to withdrawing funds from the game, the nuances are revealed. It may turn out that the player needs to make a purchase in order to take his profit. Or at some point the game will simply not allow you to receive tokens. Not every user will check the information before spending hours on the game, because the main page says “Free To Earn”.
For example, you can take the once popular crypto farm - Wideland. To receive tokens, you need to complete daily tasks in the game. At the same time, when the player wants to withdraw funds to the wallet, it turns out that he needs to own several NFT characters. Moreover, over time, a user playing without investments will run into a barrier when his hangar cannot accommodate resources. Upgrading the hangar, of course, will cost the sum of all the tokens earned.
In order not to fall for the tricks of cunning developers, always thoroughly study the project. Read the documentation, check what people write on social networks. As a last resort, never be afraid to contact the project support with a question of interest.
Now let's move on to projects that are really ready to reward their players for their time, effort and high game skills.
Play&Earn projects
More and more projects are being born, the developers of which believe that their product should be accessible to everyone. Indeed, in this way they will be able to attract much more users, which will have a positive impact on the future of the project.
Some analysts say that games without investments are doomed to an eternal decline in the value of the token due to the influx of players who do not invest anything, but only take funds into their pockets. Undoubtedly, this is a problem of such projects, but it can be completely solved by a competent approach to economics and balance.
One way or another, there are enough examples of successful projects in the industry with the possibility of earning money without investments. One of the factors of a good model is a high threshold for earning income. In order for a player to earn money without investing in the game, he will have to spend many hours pumping a hero, obtaining treasured items, or having high game skills.
At the same time, if the player is not ready to waste his time, he can simply make a purchase, saving himself from the difficulties. In some way, assets in Play And Earn should be regarded as a donation with the possibility of sale, and not an investment. Of course, it also happens that the acquired asset can increase significantly in value.
Let's briefly analyze the most promising crypto games without investments for January 2023.
The Sandbox is one of the most popular metaverses at the moment. The project opens up great opportunities for players, because it is a full-fledged virtual world. Spend time with friends, create your own games and earn money by completing tasks in regular events.
Gods Unchained is the most popular collectible card game. Here you have to build your deck to fight in rating matches and tournaments. The cards in the game are NFTs and are divided by rarity. Players can create cards to sell on the marketplace. The open market is not the only earning mechanic. The project awards tokens for victories and a high position in the rating, and also regularly arranges events with prizes.
skyweaver is another collectible card game. Unlike Gods Unchained, not all cards here are NFTs. In addition, the presence of NFT cards in the deck will not give any advantages to the player and serve only as a cosmetic improvement. Players' earnings are based on receiving NFT cards for positions in the ranking and battles in the arena. They can be sold on the marketplace to other players.
GensoKishi Online is an Asian MMORPG on the Polygon network. The project is quite unique for our time, because it is made in the style of old-school JMMO without auto-battle and gacha roulettes. Players are waiting for quests, traveling through the open world, dungeons and raids. Earnings are based on mining and selling items for a game token.
Immortal Game – meet chess on the blockchain. Here, players compete for the Grandmaster title in weekly tournaments. The best of them receive large rewards in project tokens and ETH. To participate in a major tournament, a player must own at least one NFT piece. But you don't have to buy it. Anyone can win NFTs in small tournaments. The figures won by NFTs can also be freely traded on the marketplace.
These are just five projects that are currently the most promising, according to the author. But this does not mean that other projects are worse. Dozens of crypto games are launched every month, and more developers are sticking to the Play And Earn model. I am sure that very soon every gamer will be able to find a game for themselves without investments in their favorite genre.
There is another way to make money on crypto games for free. Have you ever heard of beta or alpha testing? Have you heard of testnets? I propose to analyze such a phenomenon as early access with rewards.
Betas, alphas and early access
If you are interested in crypto games without investments, then you should pay attention to early access to products. Often, developers allow players to test their game or court so that they can quickly find errors. For example, the project team is at the last stage before the official launch and wants to make sure that all the functionality works correctly. In this case, they launch an early version, alpha or beta test and open access for players. For the fact that players help in testing, developers can generously reward valuable assets, tokens or other privileges in the project.
Sometimes access to early versions of the game is open only to owners of assets. But it also often happens that the project does not set any requirements. Dozens of projects are launched every month, and if you wish, you can easily find one that will reward you for your time.
The only thing is that it is very important to study the information. If you come across a game that is in early access, check social networks and project news to be sure of the rewards. Not every project is ready to thank its testers financially.
Probably, you have a question, where to look for selected projects and in general, what search methods should be used to find a promising crypto game. Don't worry, we've got the answer.
Where to look for Free To Earn projects?
No matter how trite it may sound, but one of the first steps in the search for crypto games are the usual queries in search engines. A Google search will eventually lead you to various sites and aggregators that publish the latest news from the Web3 gaming industry.
To save you time, we can recommend resources playtoearn.net, playtoearn.online и gamefi.org. These are English-language sites that greatly facilitate the search for projects and news.
We recommend our site as Russian-language resources CryptoGamingPool и Telegram channel guild specializing in projects without investments - MetaGoats.
If you search for information using these methods, you will discover many other sources. Over time, Twitter and Medium will become your indispensable tool, because it is there that developers share their main news, and major influencers suggest which project is worth paying attention to.
Conclusion and conclusions
Thank you very much for reading our article to the end. We hope you found it useful. In our opinion, the crypto gaming industry is still only in its infancy. We are confident that in the future Web3 projects will be able to compete with traditional games, or at least stand on one pedestal. The more smart developers make products with an emphasis on the gameplay component, the more players will be able to get involved in the exciting world of blockchain.
It is worth remembering that youth is the engine of progress. Thanks to crypto games, many teenagers already at an early age understand the device and tools of the blockchain. As a result, we get a generation that will handle cryptocurrency for you. This, of course, has a positive effect on the development of not only crypto games, but the entire industry as a whole.
Subscribe to our telegram channel and go to our main chat to discuss the latest news.