Ethereum crypto-games: Mechanics, prevalence and gambling similarities

Oliver James Scholten; Nathan Gerard Jayy Hughes; Sebastian Deterding; Anders Drachen; James Alfred Walker; David Zendle

doi:10.1145/3311350.3347178

Ethereum crypto-games: Mechanics, prevalence and gambling similarities

Oliver James Scholten
, Nathan Gerard Jayy Hughes
, Sebastian Deterding
, Anders Drachen
, James Alfred Walker
, David Zendle

SDU Metaverse Lab

Publikation: Kapitel i bog/rapport/konference-proceeding › Konferencebidrag i proceedings › Forskning › peer review

359 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Ethereum crypto-games are a booming and relatively unexplored area of the games industry. While there is no consensus definition yet, ‘crypto-games’ commonly denotes games that store tokens, e.g. in-game items, on a distributed ledger atop a cryptocurrency network. This enables the trading of game items for cryptocurrency, which can then be exchanged for regular currency. Together with their chance-based mechanics, this makes crypto-games part of the recent convergence of digital gaming and gambling. In a first effort to scope the field, this paper surveys popular crypto-games, which use the Ethereum cryptocurrency, to tease out characteristic technical properties and gameplay. It then compares the games’ features with criteria found in current legal and psychological definitions of gambling. We find that the popular crypto-games selected meet a combined legal and psychological definition of gambling, and conclude with ramifications for future research.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Titel	CHI PLAY 2019 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
Forlag	Association for Computing Machinery
Publikationsdato	17. okt. 2019
Sider	379-389
ISBN (Elektronisk)	9781450366885
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347178
Status	Udgivet - 17. okt. 2019
Begivenhed	6th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019 - Barcelona, Spanien Varighed: 22. okt. 2019 → 25. okt. 2019

Konference

Konference	6th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019
Land/Område	Spanien
By	Barcelona
Periode	22/10/2019 → 25/10/2019

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games & Games Intelligence (IGGI) [EP/L015846/1] and the Digital Creativity Labs (digitalcre-ativity.ac.uk), jointly funded by EPSRC/AHRC/Innovate UK under grant no. EP/M023265/1.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games & Games Intelligence (IGGI) [EP/L015846/1] and the Digital Creativity Labs (digitalcreativity.ac.uk), jointly funded by EPSRC/AHRC/Innovate UK under grant no. EP/M023265/1.

Publisher Copyright:
©2019 is held by the owner/author(s).

Finansiering

This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games & Games Intelligence (IGGI) [EP/L015846/1] and the Digital Creativity Labs (digitalcre-ativity.ac.uk), jointly funded by EPSRC/AHRC/Innovate UK under grant no. EP/M023265/1. This work was supported by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games & Games Intelligence (IGGI) [EP/L015846/1] and the Digital Creativity Labs (digitalcreativity.ac.uk), jointly funded by EPSRC/AHRC/Innovate UK under grant no. EP/M023265/1.

Dokumenter og links

10.1145/3311350.3347178Licens: CC BY

Open Access VersionForlagets udgivne version, 881 KBLicens: CC BY

SDU link

Tjek adgangen til materialet i Syddansk Universitetsbiblioteks søgemaskine

Citationsformater

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abstract = "Ethereum crypto-games are a booming and relatively unexplored area of the games industry. While there is no consensus definition yet, {\textquoteleft}crypto-games{\textquoteright} commonly denotes games that store tokens, e.g. in-game items, on a distributed ledger atop a cryptocurrency network. This enables the trading of game items for cryptocurrency, which can then be exchanged for regular currency. Together with their chance-based mechanics, this makes crypto-games part of the recent convergence of digital gaming and gambling. In a first effort to scope the field, this paper surveys popular crypto-games, which use the Ethereum cryptocurrency, to tease out characteristic technical properties and gameplay. It then compares the games{\textquoteright} features with criteria found in current legal and psychological definitions of gambling. We find that the popular crypto-games selected meet a combined legal and psychological definition of gambling, and conclude with ramifications for future research.",

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Scholten, OJ, Hughes, NGJ, Deterding, S, Drachen, A, Walker, JA & Zendle, D 2019, Ethereum crypto-games: Mechanics, prevalence and gambling similarities. i CHI PLAY 2019 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. Association for Computing Machinery, s. 379-389, 6th ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2019, Barcelona, Spanien, 22/10/2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347178

Ethereum crypto-games: Mechanics, prevalence and gambling similarities. / Scholten, Oliver James; Hughes, Nathan Gerard Jayy; Deterding, Sebastian et al.
CHI PLAY 2019 - Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. Association for Computing Machinery, 2019. s. 379-389.

Publikation: Kapitel i bog/rapport/konference-proceeding › Konferencebidrag i proceedings › Forskning › peer review

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Ethereum crypto-games: Mechanics, prevalence and gambling similarities

Abstract

Konference

Bibliografisk note

Finansiering

Dokumenter og links

SDU link

Fingeraftryk

Citationsformater