Evolution Of Gaming Communities

The Rise Of Multiplayer Games

The introduction of the public internet paved the way for multiplayer gaming accessibility. Multiplayer games were no longer confined to physical distance as the in-game events on one gamer’s device could be synced across any device connected to the gaming network. With technological advancement resulting in dropping costs for networking infrastructure and hardware, more gamers were logging into new gaming worlds as the barriers to entry were erased.

Nevertheless, rapid computing improvements were equally matched by increasing gamer demands in the form of improved graphics and increasingly complex multi-player gaming mechanics. To balance these demands, game studios settled on a tech stack whereby the majority of the gameplay would be processed locally by the gamer’s device with critical gaming information and player-to-player interactive elements being stored on the gaming studio’s servers.

As a consequence of this client-server architecture, gaming studios (or related third-party infra providers) became the custodians of critical gaming data. The recording of all the time and resources that a gamer spent in-game was dependent on the continuous operations of the gaming studio. There were also no incentives for gaming studios to ensure interoperability of in-game resources across other games created by alternative gaming studios.

Development Of Gaming Communities

Multiplayer games naturally resulted in the emergence of gaming communities due to the shared experience which gamers went through. Critically, such social aspects were limited to in-game interactions meaning that only players get to participate in this shared community.

Where in-game interactions were insufficient for passionate players, players took it upon themselves to create forums (e.g. Reddit, Facebook, etc.), chat groups (e.g. Discord, Messenger), or even wikis covering all of a game’s lore. This resulted in significantly more social interactions between gamers outside of the gaming platform.

As video-streaming tech improved in parallel, the next generation of live streamers were perfectly positioned to extend the social influence of games even further. Gamers who live-streamed not only attracted existing players but also non-players who watched such content prioritizing the social aspects instead of the gameplay itself. Gaming communities were becoming an increasingly important aspect of online gaming culture.

Esports: Forging Of Fandoms

Fandoms were the natural next step as competitive elements were fused with gaming’s increasingly social nature. Multiple sub-cultures organically formed as more varied character, item, and environment designs resulted in personal playstyles being put to the test. Leading this charge were professional gamers who had established themselves in their own sub-communities through hours of competitive play.

For games with team play elements, professionals with complementing attributes collaborated to defeat an opposing team. This not only combined the team’s skill sets but also united the fandoms of each team member further boosting the social and competitive elements. The rise of esports was therefore as much a social one as it is a monetary one.

Esports tournaments enabled the best teams to compete and earn a portion of the prize pool. This intense competition is then streamed for fans around the world therefore opening alternative modes of revenue: event tickets, specialized in-game items, physical merchandise, etc. Critically, none of these monetization elements enabled non-players to directly participate in the financial success of their team outside of esports gambling platforms.

Web3 And Digital Ownership

The emergence of the Web3 technology stack enabled games to be financialized in completely novel ways leading to the creation of the GameFi (short for Game Finance) vertical. Key to GameFi was the concept of digital ownership whereby critical in-game data was no longer stored on a company’s servers but publicly on a shared peer-to-peer network. This largely took the form of NFTs.

A Non-Fungible Token, NFT, is a tokenized representation of a unique digital asset on the blockchain. In a digital world where information could be easily replicated, NFTs ensured provable ownership of unique digital assets. By representing in-game items as NFTs, gaming studios could create real scarcity for their in-game economies. Put simply, players who obtained NFTs in-game can be assured that no other party can just duplicate or confiscate their hard-earned items or credentials (not even game studios).

This idea of digital ownership also extended to fungible tokens representing in-game currency or some other form value in the gaming economy. Critically, the portability of these standards on a public blockchain also enabled the creation of alternate interfaces where the tokens could be utilized. For example, the same token can be traded in the game interface or via an exchange accessible through a web browser as the information is ultimately stored on a public ledger. This could also be extended to other games which choose to integrate the original in-game assets.

Gaming studios leverage the security of the public network to store critical in-game data while gamers are given full ownership over their digital assets. Execution of trades and transfers are automatically executed by the network and immediately synchronized across various interfaces referencing the same digital asset. Consequently, the market for in-game items was no longer limited to just players.

Future Of Gaming

The future of gaming will continue to become increasingly social as the boundaries between gaming and the real world gets progressively blurred. Games are no longer just for gamers but also the non-players who are there for the community, competitive, and monetary aspects. As such, non-players will exert increasingly more influence on the future of gaming ecosystems with demands to be included as part of the shared gaming experience.

The Shards Platform was created as we believe the next stage of gaming will be driven by demands from non-players to directly participate in the growth (socially and monetarily) of their favorite games and teams. The creation of Shards enables non-players to own a piece of their favorite teams while gaining access to specialized team perks and socials. Non-players can also contribute to their teams outside of the game and be rewarded for the team’s overall growth.

By connecting players to non-players, Shards promotes a thriving gaming community which serves as a strong foundation for more immersive and varied gaming experiences