Open world games or titles that offer vast maps and roaming capabilities have been around for a minute now. While many will say that Grand Theft Auto III set the standard used by most entries in this genre today, others will claim that Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series predates GTA and qualifies as an open-world title itself. If one wants to go super historically accurate, technically, Jet Rocket, a first-person flight shooting arcade machine released by SEGA in 1970, pioneered expansive 3D environments in video gaming, even though it is now long forgotten.
For years, open-world games have featured similar gameplay concepts and mechanics, boasting a reputation as the most immersive 3D video gaming experience one can have. Yet, the invention of blockchain technology has dug its claws into this video game category, turning it into something novel by adding a cryptocurrency-based economy to the mix. Thus, birthing metaverse, virtual worlds where players can explore substantial maps, interact and transact with each other wearing virtual reality headsets like ones from the Oculus series, Steam VR, or the PlayStation VR device.
Right now, metaverse seems to be all the rage, mainly due to the NFTs (non-fungible-tokens) catching fire in early-2021 and becoming the latest global craze. Below, we rattle the hottest virtual worlds going today, starting with the most popular one.
1) Axie Infinity
Developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity is an NFT-fueled, Pokémon-inspired game that implements the pay-to-earn model. That means after users pay a starting cost, they can earn in-game tokens that use the ERC-20 standard through their in-game actions. Axie Infinity gained massive global traction in 2021 after multiple North American media outlets, such as CNBC, ran stories that detailed how many people in the Philippines have picked up this game as a source of income. That forced the Philippine Department of Finance to clarify that even though players earn monthly funds below the country’s minimum wage, all Axie Infinity profits are taxable. The gameplay of this unique game revolves around players breeding, trading, and battling creatures called Axies, which are NFTs.
2) Decentraland
The Facebook Metaverse is likely one of the most talked-about things online in the past few months. But, what many people do not realize is that a version of it already exists. Decentraland is a browser-based platform created by Argentinians Esteban Ordano and Ari Meliich, who began developing it in 2015, but officially launched it in February 2020. Though it often catches flack for its various bugs, Decentraland is the broadest and most option-heavy 3D environment on the internet. People have opened up nightclubs, museums, taverns, and even virtual casinos in this digital world, where everyone can enjoy a game of blackjack or unique gambling picks unavailable at brick-and-mortar locales. There is no limitation on the kind of business one can open in Decentraland and service the current user pool of half a million players.
3) The Sandbox
The Sandbox was initially a mobile open-world game that hit Google Play and the Apple store in 2012, created by the studio Pixowl. In 2018, Hong Kong-based venture capital and software company Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl and decided to use the foundation laid out by the Sandbox mobile game to construct a blockchain-powered virtual world. The alpha version of this metaverse got released in November of 2021, and it is competitive with what Decentraland has to offer. Recently, Gucci bought an undisclosed amount of land in the Sandbox to grow its Web3 presence, and the Warner Music Group announced plans to launch a Concert Theme Park in this world.
4) Alien Worlds
According to DappRadar’s ranking, Alien Worlds is the most installed decentralized app out there, featuring over eleven million daily transactions. It is another play-to-earn blockchain game. Yet, unlike the metaverses discussed above, it lives across three digital ledgers, WAX, Ethereum, and BSC. Alien Worlds’ players compete using NFTs to earn this metaverse’s in-game currency – Trillium (TLM). The plot of the game’s story is that in 2055, Earth’s inhabitants looked for ways to escape the pandemics that ravaged our planets. In doing so, they accidentally found an Alien race sending messages through Bitcoin’s mining algorithms, which helped them discover a wormhole that led to the far-flung exoPlanets.
5) Somnium Space
Somnium Space is a slightly more visually impressive metaverse than the others listed in this article, and it has a first/third-person shooter vibe. Although the team behind it seems to be developing their headset, this world can currently get enjoyed on pretty much all major VR devices. That includes the Oculus Quest 2, Sony’s PlayStation VR, Valve’s Index VR, HTC’s Vive Pro 2, and more. Know that Somnium Space is a direct competitor to the Sandbox and Decentraland and that it may be en route to overtake them relatively soon.
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