Watch: What Is Blockchain?
The gaming industry continues to thrive with consumers ready to engage with new, exciting products. It is ideally placed to take advantage of technological change that will enable new ways of working, and will increase the number of new games coming into the market.
We’ve seen pioneering innovations created through vibrant, dynamic online communities. Now we have Blockchain, which has huge potential to impact how talent is accessed, people are paid, and their work organized. But what does this mean for the games industry?
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Rewards For Co-Creators
In the early days of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies there was no feasible way to financially reward gamers en masse for co-creating games. Now that these technologies are established, a model where co-creators are guaranteed financial rewards has become possible.
Giving people incentives with real economic benefit to do the work they want to do — co-creating games — will put an end to this form of unpaid work. Real rewards will also increase both the quantity and the quality of the work dramatically.
By allowing developers and publishers to recognize this work and give it the scale of awareness it needs, community creators will quickly become third-party developers and gain financial rewards for their work.
Gamers will be rewarded with cryptocurrency for playing and reviewing games, giving feedback to developers, and sharing social content to help in the promotion of games they love.
Developers will in turn have access to millions of gamers throughout the entire creation process, and will even be able to license user-generated content and sell and market these games through the platform.
This new model comes ahead of a key transition in the global labor market: while technologies such as AI will make some jobs obsolete, there will also be new careers emerging.
Globalization Of Talent
By using Blockchain-facilitated peer-to-peer cryptocurrency payments and transactions, employers are now able to pay anyone, anywhere in the world, while also making it possible to hire anyone anywhere, to tap into a global talent pool.
See: Examining Blockchain’s Potential Beyond CE
In the U.K., to take one example, this raises concerns in relation to Brexit, with Dr. Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA (the network for U.K. games developers and digital publishers) stating: “In order to grow and thrive, the U.K. video games industry will need to continue to recruit talent on a global level.”
Blockchain-facilitated collaboration across Europe and beyond could help to reverse the stalling of the U.K.’s video game industry, while helping the global industry to thrive.
Revolution Of Work
By incorporating Blockchain into the world of work, the whole work process can become far more productive, efficient and democratic, from initial hiring and collaborative working practices, to the financial and contractual agreements between employer and worker.
In its 2017 Human Capital trends survey Deloitte suggests that employers must adapt to meet the challenges of global mobility. With “a global workforce infused with ‘digital DNA’,” companies will need a working environment that can support the best use of innovative technologies. It will require “engaging communication tools to promote engagement, enhance collaboration, wellness, and a sense of purpose.”
Sam Fletcher, from international executive search firm 6 Group, predicts that by providing “a database of people with experience and skills codified to accurately record their abilities,” the Blockchain would limit the time-intensive, manual H.R. recruitment process.
“The unbeatable advantages of blockchains” can be used to create “a truly global, truly open and truly democratic workforce and employment solution,” according to autonomous decentralized contact center network, PodOne.
Blockchain can also facilitate a system of temporary employment that ensures fairness between workers and employers, Foresight and technology trends researcher Aida Ponce Del Castillo believes.
Overall, Blockchain will be a way of responding to an increasingly globalized workforce that will blossom alongside the evolution of global mobility.
The use of Blockchain will impact the global video gaming industry massively and for the better. The way people work in this industry will be revolutionized. Gaming retailers and hardware manufacturers need to be ready for the increase in high-quality output from game creators and developers. Perhaps they should also be looking closely at how these changes may affect their own organizations.
Dean Anderson is a co-founder of Gamestatix, a new social platform for the co-creation of PC games that recognizes, encourages and rewards user contribution, while giving game developers access to a global talent pool to efficiently generate, curate and promote their content.
