Stranger wrote: ↑Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:34 am
Right, it works in the same exact way that crypto works.
So its value is completely arbitrary and fake. Granted just about everything's value is arbitrary and fake, but at least most everything is a physical entity that you can touch and feel. NFTs and the garbage they're trying to promote in these blockchain games aren't. They're as fake as their value.
Personally i think its pretty cool and i do think its the future of games, like it or not.
I read the article. What do you see that is cool about it? What does it do that doesn't already exist? This is not snark. I'm genuinely asking because maybe I am missing something.
I also completely disagree with you about it being the future of gaming "like it or not", because it's already here, it's been here, and it's failing. Give me a minute to explain...
Full disclosure, being in IT and having blockchain circling my radar for 4-5 years now, here's what I have learned or been led to know about blockchain:
Blockchain is the Common Core of logistics. Logistics is what it was created for and where it failed because it's a lot of overhead to do basically nothing that doesn't already exist and get done. Shockingly, corporations didn't want to spend additional millions to dump processes that have worked since the dawn of time, make all of their business far more public, AND lose control over those same processes. I attended a Blockchain class at Dell Technology World in 2019 and the Blockchain expert teaching the class was telling us that it's overhyped, not perfect, and ultimately most people will never need or use it.
It was literally just created around the concept of more secure transactions by sending them into the cloud where they're "approved" by tons of other computers that have nothing to do with the transaction or the company involved.
Note they say "virtually impossible" to cheat in the article you link because it is not as perfect as originally advertised. It does have flaws and the more popular it gets, the more those flaws will grow and be exploited. And that qualifier of "virtually" or "almost" is in every bit of marketing or article I've ever seen on blockchain.
Anyway, after it failed to gain traction in logistics, the creators and investors of blockchain have been looking for new ways to utilize it and make their profit. They already tried moving blockchain into IT operations, which was rejected, so now gaming is apparently the latest target.
Now I will again point out that the three scumiest and greediest companies are all for it, while the smartest minds in gaming have totally rejected it. Additionally, Tim Sweeney also rejected it, but changed Epic's stance just because Steam rejected it. (Seriously.)
So, how does it exist today? Get on your phone. The vast, vast majority are "Play-to-earn" games already. "Play-to-earn" games are just games with long fucking grinds where you can spend real money to progress a bit faster. If that's the future of gaming, then the gaming industry is doomed. Imagine going to see a movie and having to pay extra to see the last 30 minutes or to hear the audio or to have faces not be blurred. This is EXACTLY how the P2E model works. That or you're watching ads to get the additional content. Who wants this? Who wants this type of gaming on their consoles and PCs?
Fucking nobody.
This is why some of the most popular mobile games that use this model are constantly running fake game play ads to trick new customers into downloading their games, offering bullshit discounts on in game purchases, offering huge perks to new and returning users, emailing past users, running surveys asking why they left, etc. Games with grinds don't keep people around forever and they're typically run by greedy motherfuckers. A new character in Archero can cost $30. That's, literally, just a skin. FOR A FREE GAME!!!! Only the ultra-rich and the ultra-stupid are paying for this shit. The best part is that most people never see what you put all that money into. I've been playing Archero for 2 years or so because the core game is fun, and because I'm a completionist who takes his time on the shitter. I've spent ZERO dollars and have received half the game's content. I have visited the game's FB page and seen that there are people WAY ahead of me because they spend money, a lot of money, to get there. However, I'm spending nothing and getting there. Also, you know how many of those people and their purchases I see in game or that have any affect on my game at all? Exactly ZERO. There is no bigger waste of money on the planet right now. Seriously, the U.S. government spends money more responsibly than people who spend their money on P2E games. And my wife is one of those people. She spends $1/month on Gardenscapes, hates herself for it, but figures it's just a buck.
The most damning thing? Nobody gets laid because they have a sword in Fortnite that nobody else does and it's unique because it has a purple hilt. Nobody cares. You can't brag about it outside of the game, and even in game you are constantly mocked like we did when people had the crazy expensive skins in LoL. Do you guys remember the asshats paying $500 for gold skins on their mechs in MWO? We brutally mocked them for being stupid, yet here we are discussing how some scumbag executives want to make the entire gaming industry P2E. (And let's be honest, P2E is P2W, which everyone hates.)
The gaming industry overtook music and movies in annual revenue without resorting to this garbage. However, it's apparently not enough money for the greedy assholes as EA and their ilk. The lie about how "companies will be giving up some of their control" is just that, a complete lie. Sure, they're giving up the opportunity to sell 1,000 people the sword with the purple hilt, but they're replacing it with the ability to sell that sword for $1,000 and sell 1,000 more with slight variations at the same price. It's a fucking scam.
The best part for them is that this will be the same for every game they make, and luckily for consumers new games never come out and old ones never lose their popularity...
You're incentivizing companies to create "fake companies" to constantly release new games to sell more shit in a new fake market so they can then abandon underperforming games which effectively pulls the rug out from the value in that market.
And again, there is nothing, no ownership or power, given out in P2E games that Steam doesn't already give you via trading cards, collectibles, and their marketplace. People who go the P2E route are just going to pay for what Steam already gives us for free.
Am I wrong? Am I completely off base? Am I seeing the whole thing incorrectly? Let me know. I'm ranting, but I want to learn.
P.S. When I say "failing" for the current grind games, I mean they are falling out of favor and lose popularity rapidly.
P.S.S. Steam already has these games, but might not realize it. Shakes and Fidget, Firestone, etc. are essentially P2E (or P2W), as they are grind games, but because
everything is also free, perhaps they avoid the distinction?