Why do players hate NFTs and things that can change their minds

While working on Web3, I hear a lot of hostility from traditional game enthusiasts against NFTs and blockchain-based games. Just to note An experiment by a game studio with NFTs could cause social media feeds to be flooded with a 140-character reaction.

Game enthusiasts are known for their passions and occasional emotional reactions to change, but the source of this anxiety is worth exploring more deeply.

(For the purposes of this article, let’s define NFT as a digital asset that uses its association with a cryptocurrency to track its origin and is also listed in conjunction with a virtual ecosystem that can be marketed or played.)

History

Back in 2012, Electronic Arts (EA) received the most votes hated company around the world. They continued to win this award over and over again over the last 10 years, it has only recently lost to companies like Comcast and The Trump Organization. The main reason for EA’s low public opinion was also the key to EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s meteoric rise: loot boxes. Loot boxes are virtual slot machines that provide random game advantages and virtual items. To get in-game bonuses, the player must withdraw in-game tokens. (These are known in Japan as Gacha mechanics.)

First, players receive compositions and lots of loot boxes. However, as players become more deeply involved in the game, it becomes incredibly difficult to win rewards without a serious commitment. That is, when a player does not follow the process quickly using real money to get credit (and a digitally induced dopamine stroke with them). Similar companies like King and Zynga have structured all their product lines around this psychology Skinner box.

The community consensus is that the game was previously a system in which the player had all the experience of a particular game at the time of purchase. With downloadable content, loot boxes, and microtransactions, the game landscape has changed irreversibly. The game can be provided for free, but the developers will keep the vast majority of game content behind payment walls. There have been a number of iterations of loot boxes and microtransactions over the last 10 years, and some players have reluctantly agreed to the practice, but only then. skillfully executed and does not affect the player experience.

Several undisclosed player community rules emerged:

• The content available at the time of initial purchase should cover most of the experience.
• Key items should not be behind microtransactions.
• You don’t need any boring and repetitive game mechanics to avoid microtransactions.

Depending on the money

Before the gaming market began to create virtual slot machines, players were always entertaining wallets in virtual worlds such as status and identity. In World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s purchases of gold from third-party vendors were so extensive WoW Token This allowed players to convert real money into in-game currency. Similarly, there is Eve Online Plex As an in-game currency since 2008. Plex can be purchased to subscribe to the game. This has led to Online Online not only being fully staffed economist headlines that capture news for virtual worlds as well as those around them $ 150K in-game robbery.

This is not the first time that companies have tried to include hard currency in Mass Multiplayer Online Role Play Games (MMORPGs). Games such as Entropia Universe and Habbo Hotel incorporated money into their models and became popular as they evolved into neo-capitalism. fraud views of hell. Roblox is the most successful inspiration for the existing NFT game landscape numerous scandals is related to the widespread abuse of third-party game development on the platform.

Hope is not a strategy

How does this backstory relate to NFTs? The message is that NFTs are inevitable in games. NFTs are the culmination of a trade-off of digital commodities built on an economic foundation built over the past decade.

The real question is not so Why NFTs are available in gamesBut How NFTs can add value to the game (as opposed to holding extra money)? Most NFT gaming companies do not have actual gaming mechanics, and instead serve speculators who ride on cryptocurrency prices and market value waves connected to platforms. The basic rule for adding value to a game with NFTs is that the main game should be a truly engaging and collaborative experience where people can freely join, challenge, and create a community.

With the exception of early indie open source games, gaming has never been a “pure” experience outside of the economy. For example, World of Warcraft used many psychological tactics attracts players get used to playing your own game. When the players finally came out, World of Warcraft players were trying to do so they sell their accounts for real currency. When it is possible to link the fruits of a player’s labor to real currency, it adds an element to it instead of reducing the gaming experience.

How NFTs can be used to increase game and player status

NFTs are a tool for verifiable ownership, often fulfilling a basic need (and joy) for collection and status, but like all tools, NFTs can be used for both good and bad purposes. While the market offers attractive opportunities for players to earn NFT that enhances and enhances the gaming experience, it should develop games that provide original experiences for players. Emerging technologies such as AR + VR open up opportunities for players to wear NFT items in the physical or digital world. The interaction between NFTs and metaverse avatars is evolving rapidly, allowing users the freedom to experience the gaming experience across platforms.

The art of storytelling in the game becomes a more interactive and all-encompassing experience.

Currently, the metaverse platform Sandbox Creating an NFT ecosystem that will make it easier for people to build games and immersive worlds by converting game components (art, game mechanics, and animations) into NFTs. Blockchain based Sandbox The game provides a decentralized gaming ecosystem that enriches the extraordinary creators of assets and worlds through a tokenized economy. (Like non-NFT games Hytale have a similar mission, but they have no way to make money from the creative market.)

It is quite possible to try to combine games and NFTs. I remember playing the first iteration of DOTA on Battlenet, which has now become a multi-billion dollar industry. How long will it take to produce the first popular AAA blockbuster NFT game? When such a title and community arrives, will the company remain within the ecosystem that helps it exist, or something like that? Resurrectionwill be branched?

Like the entire NFT industry, the next chapter of the NFT-based game is currently being written, and the possibilities for creative distortion and responsible value creation are endless.

Beaugart Gerber is vice president of sales GeeneeDisney, Redbull and Warner Bros. An augmented reality company working with and most recently implementing a project with The Sandbox.