The growing popularity of the game “Hamster Kombat” has drawn sharp criticism from Iranian government officials and hardliners, who say the simple click-for-profit game is an instrument of soft power projected by the Western countries.
Habibollah Sayyari, deputy commander of the Iranian army, claimed that the game was aimed at distracting the Iranian people from the upcoming elections. Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a religious authority, echoed Sayyari’s comments, describing the entire cryptocurrency space as rife with fraud.
Blockchain Games: An Economic Lifeline for Developing Countries?
These comments from Iranian officials fail to recognize the dire financial situation many Iranians find themselves in as the country suffers from Western sanctions and rising inflation. To put Iran’s economic problems into perspective, the current exchange rate is 1 US dollar to 580,000 Iranian rials.
about: Iran Launches Public Beta of Central Bank Digital Currency in June.
Such poor economic conditions have been a catalyst for the emergence of blockchain gaming in developing countries. The NFT game Axie Infinity is a case study of this new phenomenon. At its peak, Axie players reported earning up to $1,300 per month playing the game, a significant source of income in developing countries.
Although the cost of entry for playing Axie has been relatively high, organized gaming guilds have provided ways for players in developing countries to offset the costs of playing Axie and other blockchain games while providing significant benefits to guild members.
Blockchain gaming is still far from mainstream
Despite the growing appeal of Web3 games in developing countries, blockchain games still lag behind traditional games and are far from mainstream adoption.
A recent survey conducted by OnePoll found that 52% of participants were completely unaware of blockchain games, and an additional 32% indicated that they were aware of blockchain games but had never played them.
These numbers indicate a huge untapped market, but they also reflect broader issues with for-profit gaming, such as the utility of real tokens and the lack of high-quality gameplay mechanics to compete with console and PC gaming .
review: Why join a blockchain gaming guild? Have fun, enjoy and create better games.
