Non-fungible token

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A non-fungible token (NFT) is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. NFTs can be created by anybody, and require few or no coding skills to create. NFTs were mostly tied and represented by a randomly generated image, although they also feature various "unique" pieces of digital data as well, such as videos, sounds, or even social media posts. NFTs were involved in a highly speculative market of blockchain, because they were made to be artificially scarce with their "uniqueness" and transactioned between parties at high prices, hence the name "non-fungible".

However, like cryptocurrencies, NFTs have received scrutiny from the general public due to several shady and harmful effects, including environmental impact, art theft, and scams.

Why They're No Friendly Technology

  1. To get the cat out of the bag, NFTs (despite their being eco-friendly NFTs) mostly used Ethereum, which is initially proof-of-work before September 2022 (see below). This is unhealthy for the environment as according to many sources blockchain systems are known for using up lots of electricity, which increases greenhouse gas emissions all around the globe, or worse, damage the ozone layer (about via computers/mining rigs) as they emit ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). To put that into perspective: a lot of NFTS consume more electricity than many countries as a whole consume on average, ranging from small like the Netherlands to countries as large as Argentina. The worst thing is that some companies and people know about this yet they do nothing to stop it since it does not affect their wallets, however, since September 2022, Ethereum has moved to proof-of-stake, making it 99.95% energy efficient and much more environmentally friendly, but few other cryptocurrencies have yet to transition to PoS, such as Bitcoin.
  2. Most, if not all, NFTs schemes advertised in gaming heavily emphasize "play-and-earn" aspects of NFTs in an attempt to incentivize gamers to invest in NFTs in a very similar manner to a Ponzi scheme.
  3. They are completely useless and they don't do very much. NFTs somehow cost money to get, but you can simply just screenshot the NFTs rather than buy them and that's about it.
  4. The features NFTs promise to bring to gaming (like buying in-game assets and transferring them to other games) are either redundant or impossible. Some of them are obviously nothing but scams or even malware. This article explains it all.
  5. After loot boxes, microtransactions, and even ads, it is yet another example of how greedy the video game industry has become.
    • In January 2022, for the brand's 50th anniversary, Atari combined the worst of both worlds with NFT loot boxes.
    • Unsurprisingly, EA of all companies supported NFTs and even claimed them to be the future of gaming. Fortunately (and surprisingly enough), they backed out of them.
  6. While some of the art or skins are good, many of them are ugly, terrible, AI-generated poorly, and are even on par with amateur digital art (i.e. Microsoft Paint, as most people think) despite having such talented artists that they hire frequently to make them. Even the good ones are not worth the prices typically asked for them.
    • Speaking of which, some NFTs are AI-generated themselves, ironically they both used Ethereum which as stated before harms the environment.
  7. In fact, even good companies such as Capcom and Square Enix support this type of practice despite the former's downfall from 2011 to 2018. This proves that the practice is very insufferable.
  8. Hell, even mobile game companies who abuse MTX, ads, or any money-making facility to death are not immune to NFTs as Gameloft made NFT tokens based on Asphalt 9, which in turn already contains microtransactions and loot boxes. Another example is when AbstractArt, a Russian company behind the popular mobile game Music Racer, released Music Racer 2000 on Steam (similar to the original mobile game) but the cars are NFTs. Some devs even incorporate NFTs through money scam apps.
  9. Even worse now, this feature is being incorporated into consoles! A company named Polium announced a "Web3 gaming console" where in addition to games, you can buy/sell NFTs, and also has a "multi-chain wallet" feature. The console's announcement was heavily mocked and panned by many gamers for its concept and aim, as well as the (previous) logo itself (for being too similar to the GameCube logo with modifications), which may be foreshadowing the console's failure.
  10. Most of the art is just the same thing with minor changes people have seen which shows that they couldn't even bother trying to create any original ones.
  11. Many of these reasons above alongside cryptocurrency, blockchain, and scams have given NFTs a bad reputation and led to declining sales (since May 2022) of not only NFTs but also most of the cryptocurrency and blockchain as a result (such as GameStop NFTs), while at the same time, even reducing carbon emissions in some areas.
    • Some of these things are also applied to pretty much anything relating to the characters in general.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. Some companies have gone for NFTs that are more eco-friendly. An example would be when Ubisoft used Tezos for their NFTs instead of Ethereum (but even using NFTs, in general, is considered bad by many due to the reasons above, mostly scams, the poor security, and formerly, Ethereum was dominating most of the NFT market when it's was PoW, resulting in environmental impact which lasted until Sep 2022).
  2. As previously mentioned (and regardless of being harmful), some of the art can be nice, even though they are typically overpriced and virtually identical to artwork seen in other media.

Company positions on NFTs

In support of NFTs

  • Atari
  • Behaviour Interactive
  • Cartoon Network
  • Capcom
  • Eden Games
  • Epic Games (despite claiming to be against NFTs, they welcomed NFT games to be released on the Epic Games Store which makes them incredibly biased)
  • Gameloft
  • GameStop
  • Konami
  • Krafton (the creators of PUBG)
  • No Gravity Games
  • Nintendo
  • Voodoo
  • Piko Interactive
  • Sega
  • SNK
  • Sony Interactive Entertainment
  • Square Enix
  • Take-Two Interactive
  • Warner Bros.
  • Warner Bros. Discovery
  • Z&K Games (under their official Scary Teacher Twitter/X account)
  • Zynga

Against NFTs

  • Aggro Crab
  • Blizzard Entertainment (following a fan survey that asked about NFTs, president Mike Ybarra assured that the company was not making an NFT game)
  • Ghost Town Games
  • Hazelight Studios
  • Itch.io
  • Mediatonic (Fall Guys developer) (mocking the Twitter/X NFTs profile picture feature, as well as NFTs flaws over right-clicking)
  • PlatinumGames
  • Microsoft
    • Xbox Game Studios (Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox Gaming, is skeptical of NFT's)
    • Mojang Studios (Prohibited Minecraft NFT creations via updated Usage Guidelines.)
  • Playtonic Games
  • Rockstar Games (mocking NFTs through The Contract DLC of GTA Online where Lamar Davis called them "non-fuckable tokens", despite Take-Two Interactive supporting NFTs although.)
  • Rovio Entertainment (They trolled their fans as well as cryptocurrency & NFT supporters by making this tweet that redirects to Rick Roll)
    • However, it was acquired by Sega Sammy, a company supporting NFTs.
  • Running With Scissors (made a "Going Postal" rampage entitled "Crypto Hater" as part of Update 1.0.8 for Postal 4: No Regerts)
  • Valve (banned NFTs/blockchain games/apps from being published on Steam)

Companies that backed out of NFTs

References

  1. ↑ "How to Create an NFT – Simply Explained". Eduwab. May 19, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  2. ↑ The climate controversy swirling around NFTs - The Verge
  3. ↑ Are NFTs Hurting the Environment? - Morning Star
  4. ↑ Ethereum switches to proof-of-stake consensus after completing The Merge. TechCrunch
  5. ↑ Polium's console announcement. Twitter/X.
  6. ↑ (Yong Yea) GameStop Launches NFT Store After Mass Layoffs, And It's Failing Epically. YouTube
  7. ↑ Cryptocurrency bubble (2021-2022 crash) - Wikipedia
  8. ↑ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-01-27-atari-releasing-giftable-nfts-to-celebrate-50th-anniversary
  9. ↑ https://streetfighter.cards/
  10. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-04-12-eden-games-acquired-by-blockchain-company
  11. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/15/22729050/epic-game-store-open-to-blockchain-cryptocurrency-nft-games
  12. ↑ https://nft.gamestop.com/
  13. ↑ https://www.konami.com/games/memorial-nft/en/
  14. ↑ Kennedy, Victoria (Feb 9, 2022) PUBG creator Krafton is getting into NFTs. Eurogamer.
  15. ↑ KRAFTON, INC. PARTNERS WITH NAVER Z TO BUILD AN NFT METAVERSE PLATFORM
  16. ↑ https://nogravitygames.com/no-gravity-games-nft/
  17. ↑ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-nfts/
  18. ↑ https://x.com/Pikointeractive/status/1471465237924753416
  19. ↑ https://www.vg247.com/sega-says-nfts-are-a-natural-extension-of-the-future-of-gaming-is-wrong
  20. ↑ https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2022/jun/21/king-fighters-nft-crypto/
  21. ↑ Special PlayStation Quest at Evo asking players for NFTs/Digital Collectibles
  22. ↑ https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/2022/html/a_new_years_letter_from_the_president_2.html
  23. ↑ https://gamerant.com/take-two-interactive-nft-integration-comments/
  24. ↑ https://quartz.ubisoft.com/welcome/
  25. ↑ https://x.com/TeacherScary/status/1545471191292563462?cxt=HHwWjMC--Yb3zvIqAAAA
  26. ↑ https://decrypt.co/92681/farmville-zynga-making-nft-games-this-year-why
  27. ↑ @AggroCrabGames: We at Aggro Crab condemn Team17's decision to produce and engage with NFTs. Twitter/X
  28. ↑ Blizzard president Mike Ybarra says it is not making an NFT game. PC Gamer.
  29. ↑ Ghost Town Games (@Overcookedgame): (Link to the Twitter/X post) We don't support NFTs. We think they carry too great an environmental and social cost.
  30. ↑ https://gamerant.com/it-takes-two-josef-fares-nfts/
  31. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/8/22923265/nfts-scam-indie-game-store-itchio-tweet-gumroad
  32. ↑ whatever you do, please don't right click this, "save-as", and set it as your pfp, don't, i own this. @FallGuysGame. Twitter/X.
  33. ↑ Wales, Matt (Feb 17, 2022) PlatinumGames says NFTs have "no positive impact on creators or users in any sense". Eurogamer.
  34. ↑ Although Microsoft supports or invests in NFTs and blockchain as seen on their Azure marketplace (see here as well), they mostly don't when it comes to gaming (with its Xbox CEO as well as their divisions/subsidiaries like Mojang refusing to support them).
  35. ↑ Xbox’s Phil Spencer Is Skeptical Of NFTs In Games. Forbes
  36. ↑ Minecraft and NFTs. Minecraft.net
  37. ↑ Minecraft rejects NFTs and blockchain to ensure "a safe and inclusive experience" GamesIndustry.biz
  38. ↑ https://x.com/PlaytonicGames/status/1488529331223728133
  39. ↑ Franklin & Lamar talk about NFT’s… GTA Online The Contract DLC. YouTube.
  40. ↑ https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/707030/view/3395168821465664667
  41. ↑ Valve bans blockchain games and NFTs on Steam, Epic will try to make it work. The Verge.
  42. ↑ Gabe Newell explains why Steam banned NFTs - Eurogamer
  43. ↑ https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/electronic-arts-is-having-second-thoughts-about-nfts/
  44. ↑ https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/16/22840488/stalker-2-nft-metahuman-gsc-web3-canceled
  45. ↑ https://x.com/Team17/status/1488618187109408780?
  46. ↑ https://x.com/mobgamesstudios/status/152162718122235494

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