We need games! Online gaming is an exciting area with a lot of potential. It can be people playing, watching streams or esports, they are all taking off. It is the future and one I am happy to be a part of. But where is steem in all this? With it's unique reward system it can be a major player in the industry. From rewarding streamers, to tournaments with actual prizes to making a game that uses steem as a currency. There are a lot of places steem can go but we need to start ASAP. The market is getting hot and steem can easily be left behind.
So I want to suggest two different paths we can go to get gaming started. One is short term and the other long
Path 1: Short Term Fun
We don't need to reinvent the wheel at first. There are TONS of completed games that we can buy or rent to bring onto the site. Think of all the games that are apps on the phone and on Facebook. Let's find a few that are popular and not too expensive and get them on the system. This will also require an update on the steem app center or a new section on the site where the games can run seamlessly. The app center, at this time, feels disconnected to the site and we need a way to run apps where you still feel like you are on the site. Game will bring in users, increase the time people spend on the site and if you throw on a leaderboard or tournaments, we can add an interaction element with prizes that other sites cannot do. If we can get the site set up to play games (javescript and such) then we can start filling a catalog tomorrow with games already made.
Path 2: Long Term Steem
Forget the steemit site for a second. Imagine playing a game, that has nothing to do with steemit where you can buy, trade and sell items for steem. Maybe it is a dungeon crawler where you can sell your kickass Giant-Killer sword for 140 steem on the market, or buy a new hat for your character that was created by another player. The currency can be used for a multitude of game aspects and would add value to the currency. To get this started we will need a team. There are a few independent studios and a lot of developers you can hire. I can do research and find us the right team if this is something we want to fund. And although I am not a developer, I am an experienced writer (gamer) who can help direct the project to be a unique experience for the player. We need to do is decide on what game we want, a puzzler, an RPG, a shooter and how we want to include the steem as a currency. Then we create something that will not only bring in players but could make the news as development gets underway.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: @whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account