Gaming Hinders Social Interaction? Here’s a Solution

Research conducted by Brigham Young University in 2009 linked online games to poor relationships with friends and family. The researchers, Alex Jensen and Laura Walker, had expressed much disappointment in their findings, which revealed a gender imbalance in gamer statistics, leading to more failed relationships. They were not fully convinced though and hoped for future research to exonerate games in multiplayer formats, which they thought were a better alternative to single-player games.

A few years later, in 2014, a research titled “The Benefits of Playing Video Games” by Radboud University, took a more balanced perspective. According to them, almost 70% of gamers opted to play with one or more of their friends, either together or against each other, which encouraged social interactions among them. Modern online multiplayer games are helping players to rapidly learn social skills and are proving to be useful to people outside the spectrum, such as imparting social skills to children with autism, according to LevelSkip.

Could Online Multiplayer Games Be the Answer?

Multiplayer online games (MOGs) have attracted thousands of players from all across the world. According to figures released by Statista, the ‘freemium’ model, together with the multiplayer gaming segment, accounted for revenues of $19.9 billion in 2016. The size of the market is forecasted to grow from 216 petabytes in 2016 to 568 petabytes in 2020. Research by Delft University of Technology states that if we see MOGs in a broader perspective, they actually function as online social networks, where players socialise through their common interest in games. They also had rather interesting observations about friendships having a positive impact on user interactions with platforms and that good match recommendation algorithms could assist in forming new relationships between people with no prior connections at all.

A Blockchain-Based Solution

What if blockchain technology had the power to get rid of this negative stereotyping? The Sgame Pro™ platform is aiming to achieve just that.
We know that a majority of social games today are tied with iOS and Android devices, as social gaming inches more towards mobile gaming for the current generation. Leading mobile game aggregator, Sgame Pro™ transforms traditional single-player games into asynchronous multi-player format with PvP options ranging from 1vs1 to 1vs100.

Founder and CEO of the company, Gip Cutrino, points out that while single player games lack social interaction, the multiplayer format has the ability to increase player engagement metrics and reduce churn rates. Through the platform, players will not only be able to play their favourite mobile games with friends but will also be able to earn SGM tokens at the same time. These crypto tokens can then be used to buy physical and digital goods on the platform.
“Challenges” is one of the core features of the Sgame Pro™ platform, which enables players to challenge others on their favourite games. To ensure fairness, the platform uses an opponent matching algorithm that matches players with similar skill levels, based on their performance data. This encourages more interactions and new friendships emerge between members of the same fraternity.

To know more about Sgame Pro™ and its upcoming ICO, visit sgamepro.io and follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.