Change is indeed a constant in the gaming world, and that characteristic has been accelerated by the move online. From the early days of online gaming, when everything was run by big firms, to today’s decentralized Web3 world, it’s been quite a ride.
The Web2 era: the limit of centralization
Think back to when you first started playing online, whether it was a classic console game with a multiplayer mode or a PC MMO run through servers owned by the game company. That was Web2 gaming in full swing. It was run by a few big developers and publishers. They made the rules, set up payment systems and handled all the user data.
For years, that worked fine, but then cracks began to show. Gamers realized they didn’t really own anything. Your in-game progress, items or currency? Locked in that company’s database. Want to move them elsewhere? You can’t. Cash out real money for virtual goods? Sorry, that was against the rules. And forget about privacy. The platform kept your data, and that was that.
That model started to feel stale. People began to crave more openness, more control and more fairness. Enter Web3.
What Web3’s bringing to gaming
So, what’s the first thing to know about Web3? It’s decentralization. Instead of one company owning the whole game and making all the calls, things get spread out. Players, devs, the system; it’s all connected. Items like skins, cards and coins actually belong to you. They’re in your wallet, not stuck on some server you don’t control. You can swap them, keep them or sometimes use them in other games. Games effectively become part of a bigger digital world.
Then there’s the transparency. With Web3 games, you can check how the odds work. It’s all on-chain, meaning the code is public, so you can literally look at it. No smoke and mirrors here.
In some Web3 games, players can actually help shape the game. That includes voting on updates, rules, even designs. This isn’t common, but it’s happening. It feels more like building something together than just playing what you’re given.
Why people are into it
For some gamers, Web3 games feel more equitable. You grind, you earn, and those things actually matter. They’re yours. You’re not just tossing time into a black hole. You can trade stuff, take it with you or just know that your time meant something.
Not surprisingly, some platforms are paying attention and recommending more Web3 games and platforms. The range of games selected by AskGamblers and other review sites reflects this. Even in places like West Virginia where regular iGaming follows strict rules, regulators are keeping tabs, and assessing whether there is a way to fit these concepts into real-world systems.
How things are shifting
Nobody’s throwing out Fortnite or GTA tomorrow. But things are changing. You’re starting to see regular games add Web3 features – wallets, crypto bits, maybe an NFT or two. Some games do it quietly. Others get help from the community.
It isn’t always easy for newcomers, and the learning curve can be steep. Wallets are a strange concept, as are gas fees, while crypto can be unpredictable. But it’s getting easier. New tech is flattening that learning curve and removing some of the barriers.
Indie developers are also trying out new ideas. Some are building full Web3 games, with everything on-chain. Others mix it up, with maybe just the items on-chain, and the rest staying traditional. Big publishers are also testing the water.
Risks, rules and legality
Now, here’s where things get tricky. When games involve real assets, it’s not just fun and pixels any more. Lawmakers worry about who’s playing, and about real money moving around.
As with the rise of online, cross-state gambling, the old rules were not designed with Web3 in mind. In regulated states, there’s a whole structure of age checks, payment controls and limits. But Web3 games bend those rules or skip them altogether. That’s why some governments are starting to explore pilot zones, where they can test Web3 without opening the floodgates.
At the same time, Web3 is global. You could play in Nigeria, earn in dollars, spend in yen, then cash out somewhere else. That makes regulating this space incredibly complicated. Who’s in charge? Who helps if something goes wrong? Nobody really knows yet.
What might be coming
So, assuming that Web3 keeps growing, what will gaming look like in the future?
Well, one big change could be cross-game interaction. You earn something in Game A? Use it in Game B. Even if it’s made by a totally different studio. That could revolutionize gaming. At the same time, we can expect more player control. Not just in playing the game, but helping decide how the game works. Players are already voting on things like how tokens are used or how the game stays balanced, and we are inching toward a form of co-op, rather than a developer-run show.
Also, governments might get involved in smarter ways. Instead of saying no to everything, they might test it out in safe zones, such as a state like West Virginia, which has built up a lot of experience in online gambling and how to regulate it.
We can also hope that a lot of this becomes easier to navigate, and that wallets won’t feel like rocket science, and crypto talk won’t sound like a foreign language. More regular cash options, smoother menus and fewer counterintuitive steps will help to pull in more casual players.
One last thing is money. There’s a lot of it in the Web3 space, and if that keeps flowing, we might get better games faster, as well as more creativity and more risk-taking. That will cause a shake-up in the industry, but some of the smaller studios, which are potential innovators in Web3, might fall by the wayside.
Why any of this matters
This isn’t just tech for tech’s sake. It’s about what games mean to us and how we approach them. Do we just play and walk away, or are we part of something bigger? Do our items live and die inside one game, or do they follow us? Can games be fun and give us something real?
The future of Web3 gaming will be about answering these questions.
