Can NFTs become a good idea for videogames?

  • Thread starter MIE1992
  • 17 comments
  • 1,326 views

Are NFTs in videogames a good or bad idea?

  • Good

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • Bad

    Votes: 31 96.9%
  • Total voters
    32
MIE1992

MIE1992

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Ridley-X4
I vaguely recall hearing about a racing game that did this. Personally, I think NFTs are completely daft, but I think the tech has potential applications in videogames. Here were some examples I had in mind:

-In a racing game with licensed vehicles, cars could be represented by their real-world quantity. So there'd only be 77 Aston Martin One-77s running around, only five Pagani Zonda Cinques (plus five Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadsters), only a single Nissan R390 Road Car, and so on.

-In an FPS with licensed guns, something similar could apply, with licensed guns representing their real-world produced quantity, especially for rare arms like the WA2000 or the Mateba 2006M.

-Even beyond licensed cars/guns/etc., this could apply to cosmetics or other made-for-game items, and all of the above could be obtained as prizes for major tournaments - effectively being a cash prize that happens to be an in-game item, such as the aforementioned car/gun.

-On the subject of racing games, cars could be modified and also sold on a marketplace, just like one would at SEMA, Barrett-Jackson, or the Tokyo Auto Salon. However, exceptionally rare cars could be locked from modification.
 
This is pay to win with extra steps.

When the rarest stuff happens to be the best stuff, it means that only a few players can get the best stuff. Naturally, this means the players who grind the most (or spend the most money) get the best stuff, which means that anyone who doesn’t get the game at launch and grinds for hours on end or spends lots of real money (you know, people who have lives outside games) are pretty much screwed.

Then there are the completionists who want to get everything but can’t because supply is limited (and very much so in your examples) rather than virtually infinite like every game ever.

I’m aware that many mobile games are already kind of like this, but at the very least items aren’t limited to just a few examples; you just have to commit lots of time and/or money on the game. Which might be a problem depending on your life situation.
 
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The games industry has already picked apart and bludgeoned games enough as it is with predatory gambling mechanics and manipulative microtransactions.

We don't want any more ways for an already rotten industry to treat customers like walking bank machines by introducing NFTs.
 
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Bad, bad, bad idea. Some cars in Forza Horizon 4 already have limited supply because players can only ever unlock one and some of those are super rare because they're hard to unlock, but the fact is you can unlock them with enough time - making it so you literally couldn't unlock them because the limited supply has already been snatched up won't add anything to the experience except FOMO, which is a bad way to make people want to play your game. Make the game good and people will play it because they like it, rather than because they feel like they have to.

I remember reading about the game @MIE1992 mentions at the beginning, I remember thinking it might appeal to people who occupy the overlap between "people who like games" and "people who manage hedge funds" but I think the fact that neither of us remember what the game is called (hopefully) means it won't become a thing. It's interesting tech, don't get me wrong, but it has no place in games.
 
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Famine
It's been done, and I'm still not totally sure why.
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There are a lot of people who are still kicking themselves for not getting in on the ground floor of Bitcoin and looking to make sure they don't miss out on the next big crypto-thing, just in case it happens to take off too. And as my grandfather would say, if you want to get rich during a gold rush you should be the person selling picks and shovels.
 
Part of the appeal of something like Gran Turismo is that we get to experience driving/racing cars that are otherwise unobtainable. The addition of NFTs would be counter active to that appeal. Microtransactions and the need to grind are already detracting from it.
 
This is basically how the Magic The Gathering Online economy already works (sans unnecessary blockchain nonsense), and ehhh. Being able to cash out is nice consequence of its cards being treated the same as their paper equivalents... I put a few hundred dollars into MTGO, then when I got bored with it, I was able to recoup more-or-less all of it.

But needing to put a few hundred dollars into the game in the first place is asinine and is a direct consequence of the cards being treated as collectible. So unless we're talking strictly cosmetic items, making game items artificially scarce will just make it frustrating and/or pay-to-win. It's why I don't really play Magic anymore these days, including paper.

And even if it were limited to cosmetics, it'd still suck. Just slightly less so.
 
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I have a complicated question...

What is an NFT? Nowhere in this thread is it written out in words... :dunce:
 
sirjim73
I have a complicated question...

What is an NFT? Nowhere in this thread is it written out in words... :dunce:
Click to expand...

Non-Fungible Token

In its simplest terms, imagine someone bought a piece of art to own. Buying an NFT is basically the digital equivalent involving blockchain; you invest in a digital item with a virtual watermark which proves what you bought is the original version. The end goal is to create more scarcity towards items in the digital marketplace. ;)
 
FT-1
Non-Fungible Token

In its simplest terms, imagine someone bought a piece of art to own. Buying an NFT is basically the digital equivalent involving blockchain; you invest in a digital item with a virtual watermark which proves what you bought is the original version. The end goal is to create more scarcity towards items in the digital marketplace. ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks NFT-1 👍
 

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