NFTs and gaming

Mr Crispy

..

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167747#Comment_119167747

I'm not sure if that's meant to be read as a positive or a negative. To me that all sounds absolutely horrifying.

pixelburp

Man, this thread is funnier than the actual Gaming Humour one.

What a bunch of pathetic rubes.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167851#Comment_119167851

The emotional / mental buy-in on this grift is so complete with some you gotta wonder what else they have going on in their lives that they're so all in on this shíte.

Penn

The complete dissonance too that unless all those games are made by the same company there's not a chance publishers would allow you to earn upgrade material in a completely different publisher's game to give you an advantage in their game. Nor would they program the items to be ported over.

And it's also missing the bigger and more likely element, where the words "grind" or "mining" should be followed by "(or buy in our store with real money)".

Such utter scutter.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167880#Comment_119167880

There must be a vulnerability aspect to it. Seems common enough in the US of all places. They all want in on the next big thing. The problem is that for most people, by the time you've heard about it, investing does nothing but guarantee the assets for those who already own them.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167931#Comment_119167931

The tech industry is riven with a culture nowadays that demands you either have a "side hustle" idea that'll reinvent the wheel, or startups or companies with < 50 employees must have an infinite growth cycle, shill themselves into myth. LinkedIn has become borderline unreadable now, my feed full of supposed adults in IT writing up these faux-inspirational "think outside the box" platitudes.

NFTs are just part of his Hype Cycle, writ large and fooling people at the bottom that this - THIS - is where the future lies. But as you say, unless you're at the top of the pyramid, you're just a sucker, looking like a fool gushing about a random cowboy game that looks like a Unity Demo I myself might whip up in a weekend.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167981#Comment_119167981

That game almost makes me think I could do better. It's like something you might see on an N64 and that thing had Goldeneye at least.

I feel like the people who are falling for this see themselves as seeing things mere mortals don't and sometimes act smug accordingly. It's weird because they're speechless when you ask why they're slugging it out with said mere mortals.

Startup culture sounds appalling. I worked for a biotech startup which was nice but the constant corporate sh*te about innovation was draining. Maybe I'm just getting old and NFT's are brilliant. I'll probably stick with my map painting games.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119167993#Comment_119167993

I've got repos on github that I know for a fact have more gameplay than that NFT game demoed.

Lots of startups are fine to be fair, there's a big Signal to Noise ratio - especially with American startups emanating from various "tech hubs" that are just IT echo chambers. I work for a startup myself and they're very human sized, and have their collective heads at the right height.

I'm sure someone, eventually, will find a niche for NFTs but they're not the great panacea to replace ... *checks notes* all of society's infrastructure, or will lift African nations out of poverty, like some advocates claim. And they're DEFINITELY not suited to gaming, unless you're the one doing the "nickel and dime"ing.

They are, however, deeply funny to read about.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168028#Comment_119168028

Ah yeah, I'm sure some startups are fine. Much of the silliness seems to stem from the American desire to stand out and have that next big thing.

Funny to read about until you get to the equivalent of superfans who see it like a religion and then I get a bit depressed.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168032#Comment_119168032

Oh I read it differently: I see these zealots and don't get depressed; instead I go "huh, I guess I am doing something right with my life if I haven't fallen into that trap"

johnny_ultimate

A lot of the cultish nonsense these people talk makes a lot more sense when you realise they're almost all deeply financially invested in the market. They have no interest in art or even entertainment: they are, almost exclusively, in it for financial gain.

As an aside, this is very funny. A bunch of people attending an overpriced crypto conference were given a 'free' horse NFT for the shite battle royale game noted above. It appears to have been a lightly altered store-bought asset 😁

https://twitter.com/lizaledwards/status/1533852224064851968?s=20&t=NE4Mcuo9yrjvyqX_pHXZkA

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168153#Comment_119168153

I don't know. I've met a few who seem to want to roleplay savvy investors while having either nothing or very little to invest themselves. Either way, the common thread is that they're living the same lives as NFT-skeptics like myself.

Retr0gamer

This is some next level delusion.

If this is what videogames become I'll be sticking to emulators.

pixelburp

It's remarkable how all that apparent breathless vision of gaming's future just sounds like work.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168463#Comment_119168463

Yep.

My heart will break if Paradox or Creative Assembly ever go down this road. I hope not but....

Christy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168032#Comment_119168032

What is the line about American's being temporarily embarrassed millionaires? Anyone can see that hard work won't get you to being a millionaire but hoping onto the next big thing early enough will make you one. Picking the next big thing is pretty though so you pick one and hope it makes you look like a genius in hindsight.

That outlook for the future looks bleak. Essentially a job just so you can play a different game. Never played WoW as I didn't feel like I wanted to put in the time commitments but at least there you were grinding in the game you wanted to be playing.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168700#Comment_119168700

I prefer the analogy of a third world country in a Gucci belt.

The thing with the next big thing is when the influencers are pushing it hard, you're too late but too many want to RP as self-made millionaires so it takes off. And crashes often.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168498#Comment_119168498

Unfortunately Sega seem to be quite keen on NFTs. They'll try to sell you your own personalised standard under which you can march into TW battle. AnD yOu'Ll OwN iT!!!!

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168700#Comment_119168700

I especially chortle at that tweet 'cos it seems to think it operates in some glorious gaming utopia where gold farming, exploits, toxicity and so on just don't happen. Or indeed, children don't play video games anymore; let's introduce kiddos into a completely transactional based existence.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168783#Comment_119168783

Hoping that strategy games will be immune. If not, at least let them make Warhammer 3 somewhat playable.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119168463#Comment_119168463

It's because they're trying to describe it in such a way as to avoid adding "or buy the materials from our store" which will also definitely be an option. But if they added that in, the grift becomes even clearer.

Though the first two paragraphs where he essentially describes "You have to play Candy Crush to get upgrade materials for your weapon in Skyrim that your friend from school has had to train for two years to be able to upgrade for you" should be enough to put any reasonable person off the idea of blockchain gaming.

CastorTroy

How long did he have to play Candy Crush for, I wonder. Reading reminded me of Ready Player One, for some reason.

pixelburp

schadenfreude

/ˈʃɑːd(ə)nˌfrɔɪdə,German ˈʃɑːdənˌfrɔydə/

noun

pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

"a business that thrives on schadenfreude"

For reference, these are the valuations related to that NFT based "game" that's just a Pokémon clone, Axie Infinity.

Retr0gamer

JCDenton.jpg

pixelburp

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/02/nft-sales-hit-12-month-low-after-cryptocurrency-crash

..

McFly85

So, a new NFT console has been announced.

https://twitter.com/Polium__/status/1543288314433867777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1543288314433867777%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=

There are no details, the only thing they’ve confirmed that they “didn’t steal the GameCube logo”.

I fully expect this to quietly go away once they’ve grifted enough money from people desperate to hop on the crypto train.

johnny_ultimate

Some random crypto bros have claimed they're developing a 'Web 3' console.

If your guess is it's a load of vague promises and jargony nonsense... you'd be entirely correct.

Also, their logo is the Gamecube logo upside down.

This exchange illustrates it all quite nicely:

https://twitter.com/CoinersTakingLs/status/1543767354525396992?s=20&t=LotbMW4MUFK_rPEdVvEesg

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289188#Comment_119289188

I've read the announcement a few times and still don't understand what it is the thing does - and yet, and yet, there are those people still insisting this whole cottage industry of hype isn't a scam.

johnny_ultimate

What if the Ouya, but a pyramid scheme?

I'm also looking forward to seeing them offering up '8K HDR and ray-tracing' in a console a tad bigger than the controller.

marcbrophy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289188#Comment_119289188

The responses under are the worse part.

They make me want to put my fist through the damn wall!

Honestly, a lot of the crypto and NFT market is about convincing gullible fools that it's something that's needed beyond belief and there's trillions of people out there just waiting for it to happen. But the actuality of NFT gaming would be so fúcking boring, we'd all melt our own faces off 😣

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289303#Comment_119289303

Like this one!

https://twitter.com/cocodrile100/status/1543796180030820352?s=21&t=iS_8yTYFRQ8Kq2Rx7jGCmg

Utter nonsense. Games being involving have nothing to do with security, and security has nothing to do with the blockchain.

There is not a single use case for it across gaming.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289339#Comment_119289339

Seems like ripping off marks is a lucrative use. The thing is, the more people sink into this nonsense, the stronger the incentive they have to defend it to the hilt. It's going to get quite tedious.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289339#Comment_119289339

"In the future web3 could be used to host games that are much more involving than today, and so need for the security the blockchain gives"

Translation(?): in our heads everything should and can be monetised or commodified, and we want to be the ones píssing into that particular fantastical tent.

And if these idiots spent 30 seconds actually looking at the industry they think they're reinventing, AAA already has adequate, and simple, ways to monetise the medium and gouge customers for all their worth - they simply haven't needed blockchain to do it.

As a couple of comments under that tweet have said, Web3 is the 3DTV of gaming.

Retr0gamer

It will never see the light of day and the lads will just run away with l the venture capitalist money they shilled.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289495#Comment_119289495

And then people will realise... THEY WERE THE ONES WHO WERE PLAYED!

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119289439#Comment_119289439

Web3 is just an umbrella term for whatever emerges as the next iteration of the internet. In the same way web2 is the internet that emerged after the .com bubble. The stuff we all use everyday today.

There could be a million failures and only a few core ideas that are the stepping stones to what will be the next stage of the internet.

It's more like broadcast TV. When everyone laughed at the idea of streaming your TV, saying it was a dumb idea, it was slow and the quality was terrible. Back then it was only a few "techbros" that kept talking about the potential.

There were lots of attempts, and lots of failures but eventually Netflix made it main stream. And now streaming is killing off broadcast TV.

The question should be if crypto or nfts are the 3D TV of web 3.

Saying web3 won't happen is like the guys saying the web1 phase of Jenkins, MySpace and AOL won't be surpassed by the web 2's Google's and Amazon's.

Retr0gamer

I'm still looking for an actual use cash where Blockchain is actually useful and not significantly worse than solutions we already have.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119290467#Comment_119290467

This is a ridiculous extrapolation you could extend to any idea, daft or otherwise. For every idea that succeeds, there are plenty that don't.

NFT's and Cryptocurrencies are just ways to hoodwink people via artificial scarcity. They don't exist, they have no value beyond what those entranced by them afford to them and they'll be forgotten about the second the next big thing comes along.

I'm not sure what the desperate comparison to streaming is meant to fulfil. Streaming is a productive industry, NFTs and Cryptos benefit only those at the top. It's a pyramid scheme and a shoddy one at that.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119290507#Comment_119290507

Read what I said. I'm talking about web3 not being built on crypto. Web3 is just what ever comes next for the internet.

It could be neural implants and we all sit in our jocks getting force fed memes.

The streaming was in reply to 3DTVs reference.

We had a phase of TV where broadcast TV was ruled by a few stations (web1). Then we had the cable/satellite phase (web2). Now streaming is taking over (web3).

Same thing is happening with the internet. Whatever comes next is hard to judge. No one saw YouTube, Facebook, Google or Amazon coming but they did.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119290467#Comment_119290467

The below description of "web3 gaming" shows that it sure as sh*t ain't no Netflix.

Retr0gamer

Web 2.0 was enabled by the likes of json allowing complex data to be sent as the text data that the web runs on and stuff like javascript that allowed heavier processing to happen client side. I mean it was vert obvious that this was going to allow for more complex web content such as music, video and even games.

I really haven't seen anything being promoted as 'web3' that will have not only any impact on the web but also any actual use.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119290573#Comment_119290573

Again that's not what web 3.0 means.

johnny_ultimate

Every working definition of Web 3 I’ve seen has blockchain, decentralisation and token economies at its centre. It’s a phrase used precisely to describe blockchain and crypto-based visions of the web. It’s a buzzword, but that’s what it refers to.

There’s potentially the germ of a good idea in the concept of a decentralised web, less controlled by massive corporations. Alas, the current model and implementations have failed in quite spectacular fashion to fulfil that ideal, instead (quite ironically) centralising power and wealth in a tiny minority while introducing a host of scams, fraud, waste etc. and becoming a transparent Ponzi scheme that enriches the few while the vast majority of ‘investors’ suffer.

Grumpypants

Web3 is thrown around as a buzz word in the scamming side of Blockchain so a lot of people only hear about it when some Twitter or YouTube poster invades their space with the latest rugpull scam.

But web 3 is not built on the block chain. The Blockchain might be a part of it, as a online currency or some other application. But no one is running a website on the Blockchain.

And if you don't think gaming companies are consolidating content, switching their metrics to user engagement, and investing in live streaming technology. Then you haven't been paying attention.

RobertFoster

I've not finished Web 2.0 yet, if I skip straight to 3.0 will I miss any of the narrative content?

marcbrophy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119291045#Comment_119291045

You'll only miss the tutorial on how to grift a few rubes 😁

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119291045#Comment_119291045

Having worked in Web Development now for the last 10+ years, I can tell you nobody I worked with in the technical tier ever, seriously, used the term "Web 2.0". Sometimes I'd have heard the marketing heads use it to wow potential clients - but then that's kinda the point. It's a buzzword to wow folks, not a defined idea.

Whatever notion might explain how it's still a gestating idea, it's also quite clear the buzzword has been coopted by the Crypto Bros and charlatans trying to peddle their sham.

"Web 3.0" in the context we're speaking to, is the equivalent of 3D TVs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119290637#Comment_119290637

There’s potentially the germ of a good idea in the concept of a decentralised web, less controlled by massive corporations

Well there it is. There's the ideal of some of the web3 evangelists. Rather than the likes of Facebook providing a "free" service and in turn making the customer the product, the dream is for the user to take control of their own data and share the profits.

I get that you guys hate NFT's with a passion, and I agree to an extent because 99.9% of crypto projects are basically a casino, but there are some green shoots of that indicate upturning some industries. How about a browser based on Chromium that is trying to democratise online advertising https://brave.com/

I think this is very interesting space simply because some really, really smart people are claiming its all a scam whereas some other equally really, really smart people are saying its the future.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119292358#Comment_119292358

That just looks like a standard ad blocker. Why does if have to be based on a blockchain?

The only real advantage I see touted for blockchain is security and even that is a sham. Even if it's more secure than say 512 bit encryption no hacker has the hundreds of years and insane computational power to brute force even a basic 512-bit salting or encryption. All hacking is carried out by social engineering and blockchain is just as vulnerable to that as everything else as evident by all the cryptobros getting their NFTs and crypto stolen. Even worse, if there is a hack it's an unmitigated disaster to roll back from whereas a standard ledger or database can be easily edited without nullifying every other transaction since the hack and discovery.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119292358#Comment_119292358

The key there is some of the evangelists. Most of the evangelists simply see dollar signs. In gaming and art particular, the ideas being evangelised are predominantly a way to further monetise everything. It's such a grim vision of the future, a world away from the idealism of democratising the web.