It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
On 07/04/2022 04:43, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
There's obviously a problem of the more interesting people are the ones
you get to hear about but I've seen a few blockchain 'promoters' who in >another life could have been a religious preacher, also of the more >interesting type. They are complete confident that they're correct and
any disagreement is because people just don't understand or are stupid.
It really does come across more as a faith based ideology position than >anything else.
As for NFT's in games, it does seem companies have gone away for a
rethink but personally my expectation is they still want to go ahead
(for whatever reasons) but are now trying to work out how to repackage
the idea in a more palatable form. Look you just don't understand, they >aren't NFT's they're digital collectibles. How can that not be good for
games - are you stupid or something?
On Thu, 7 Apr 2022 09:08:35 +0100, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:
On 07/04/2022 04:43, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
There's obviously a problem of the more interesting people are the ones
you get to hear about but I've seen a few blockchain 'promoters' who in
another life could have been a religious preacher, also of the more
interesting type. They are complete confident that they're correct and
any disagreement is because people just don't understand or are stupid.
It really does come across more as a faith based ideology position than
anything else.
There definitely are a lot of people who give off a true-believer
vibe, people who have fully bought into the Libetarian ideals they
think crypto-coin promotes and how it - and its more pointless
offshoot, NFTs - will transform the world for the better. But even
their beliefs tend to be couched in terms of personal gain, and
failure to do so is foolish. The negative effects to society are
always ignored or belittled. The sleaziness of the method - rugpulls
and market manipulation - are not only accepted, but expected. It's
all about making the value of the crypto-token increase, by whatever
means are necessary, because that's ultimately all that matters.
Criticism of crypto is - too often - met with confused looks; after
all why would anyone be against it if it could make them money? Why
should you care if the creation of crypto destroys the environment or
pushes more wealth into even fewer hands if you have a few million
dollars of your own?
Where do the hypothetical cadre of Ubisoft C-levels pushing "Digit"
fall in the crypto-bro hierarchy? That's hard to say. Its possibly
they think that an NFT economy would (somehow) be a net-benefit to the
world, but I think it more likely they are aware of how vacuously
speculative the things are, and are just hoping to ride the tidal wave
to mega-riches before the bubble bursts. The true believers - the ones
who have drunk most deeply from the Kool Aid - tend to be younger and
without much business experience. Ubisoft's initiative feels more
calculated.
As for NFT's in games, it does seem companies have gone away for a
rethink but personally my expectation is they still want to go ahead
(for whatever reasons) but are now trying to work out how to repackage
the idea in a more palatable form. Look you just don't understand, they
aren't NFT's they're digital collectibles. How can that not be good for
games - are you stupid or something?
Heh. But again, that displays the primary motivation of crypto-fans;
the only value that matters is monetary. A digital collectible can be
sold and make you richer! If it turns the game into a grind-fest and
consumes 10,000 times more energy to do it than a simple DLC
transaction, who cares? Your token is marginally more valuable - and resellable - than it was yesterday.
On 07/04/2022 17:25, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
On Thu, 7 Apr 2022 09:08:35 +0100, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:
On 07/04/2022 04:43, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
There's obviously a problem of the more interesting people are the ones
you get to hear about but I've seen a few blockchain 'promoters' who in
another life could have been a religious preacher, also of the more
interesting type. They are complete confident that they're correct and
any disagreement is because people just don't understand or are stupid.
It really does come across more as a faith based ideology position than
anything else.
There definitely are a lot of people who give off a true-believer
vibe, people who have fully bought into the Libetarian ideals they
think crypto-coin promotes and how it - and its more pointless
offshoot, NFTs - will transform the world for the better. But even
their beliefs tend to be couched in terms of personal gain, and
failure to do so is foolish. The negative effects to society are
always ignored or belittled. The sleaziness of the method - rugpulls
and market manipulation - are not only accepted, but expected. It's
all about making the value of the crypto-token increase, by whatever
means are necessary, because that's ultimately all that matters.
Criticism of crypto is - too often - met with confused looks; after
all why would anyone be against it if it could make them money? Why
should you care if the creation of crypto destroys the environment or
pushes more wealth into even fewer hands if you have a few million
dollars of your own?
The big red flag to me is that, as you say, all the possible negatives
are just brushed aside. If NFT's are such a good idea then surely they
should be able to explain that, yes there our some negatives but this is
why the positive outweigh them.
Where do the hypothetical cadre of Ubisoft C-levels pushing "Digit"
fall in the crypto-bro hierarchy? That's hard to say. Its possibly
they think that an NFT economy would (somehow) be a net-benefit to the
world, but I think it more likely they are aware of how vacuously
speculative the things are, and are just hoping to ride the tidal wave
to mega-riches before the bubble bursts. The true believers - the ones
who have drunk most deeply from the Kool Aid - tend to be younger and
without much business experience. Ubisoft's initiative feels more
calculated.
One of the things it does remind me of was after the crash of 2008 a
senior member of one of our UK banks (it ended up being taken over by
the government) was interviewed about why they got involved in the
subprime business. Their answer was basically they realised that one day
it would all coming crashing down but they still felt they had to get involved as everyone else was.
On 07/04/2022 17:25, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
On Thu, 7 Apr 2022 09:08:35 +0100, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:
Chaosium, the makers of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, announced a few months
ago that it was pulling out of NFT's altogether. The impression I got is
that they didn't really understand what they had got themselves into and
in particular that speculators would move in and you'll end up with a
lot of pissed of loyal customers who feel they've basically been
scammed. This is not the same market as selling digital props for scenarios.
I hadn't heard about the Chaosium deal (neither its entry nor exit).
But it doesn't surprise me; there are a lot of people who enter into
the market - or who are supportive of it - without completely
understanding it. After all, while it's not something I'm into,
there's nothing really wrong with selling art assets digitally -
nominally with the idea of it becoming a collectible - and at first
glance, that's exactly what NFTs seem to be.
On Wed, 06 Apr 2022 23:43:54 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
Meanwhile...
Sega: NFT's are a 'natural extension' for future games
Creative Assembly: 'aware of concerns' but will have add them to Total
War series if Sega insists
CCP: While 'intrigued' by the technology, there are 'no plans to add blockchain technology' to EVE Online
Team 17 cancels its NFT plans
ESPN: getting into NFTs with help of Tom Brady
Aminoca Brands shuts down "F1 Delta Time" racer and all its NFTs
suddenly worthless
Activision leak suggests NFTs may be added to Call of Duty
The damn things won't go away...
Are you tired of talking about NFTs? I bet you're tired of talking
about NFTs. I know I am tired of talking about NFTs. So let's talk
about NFTs!
Specifically, Ubisoft's take on the stupid things, it's "Digits" that
were first embedded in "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint". Nobody - except the
head honchos at Ubisoft who obviously had drunk deeply from the
crypto-Kool Aid - wanted the damn things, but they put them in anyway. Customers complained. Ubisoft execs accused people of 'not getting
it'. Virtually nobody engaged with the damn things beyond those who
claimed them because they were free. The third-party resales of the
"Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" Digits numbered in the double-digits, with
most of them selling in the double-digit dollar values (or less). Marketplaces stopped selling the things. As NFTs they were a flop. As in-game DLC cosmetics, they were a flop. As a marketing move, it was a
flop. A savvy company would have admitted their error, and moved on.
But if Ubisoft was that sort of company, I wouldn't be writing this.
Despite the subject line, its unclear as to whether the company is
actually still 'gung ho' about NFTs, but they haven't given up on them either. Even as they were announcing the end of development of "Ghost
Recon: Breakpoint", they were still insisting* that more NFTs ('future drops', in Ubisoft lingo) would appear in other games.**
Given the failure of Ubisoft's Digits to catch on, combined with the increasing awareness amongst average folk about how pointlessly,
wastefully stupid NFTs are (not to mention how the law is, inevitably, starting to catch up with the technology and cracking down on the
scammers and speculators), its hard to imagine why Ubisoft remains so confident about the technology. I honestly believe this is because
there are several C-levels who are, to borrow the phrase,
'crypto-bros' who have personally invested in the blockchain.** *
It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
In any event, this is just another example of a large gaming company
acting illogically, a topic which always brings me equal part joy and disgust****. Sadly, I don't think the NFT bubble is going to pop soon,
at least not in the sense of the darn things reverting to their actual value. NFTs will continue to accrue ridiculously high sale prices for
a while, I think.
What will change - and arguably already /is/ changing- is that
population growth of NFT-fanatics will slow or reverse, leaving an ever-smaller pool of true believers desperately trying to prop up the
value of their digital goods. So, sadly, this probably won't be the
last you read from me about the damn things. And believe it or not,
I'm not any happier about that than you are. But in the mean time, at
least we can get a good laugh at Ubisoft's expense.
-----------------
* https://quartz.ubisoft.com/Game:7c788439-f696-4362-8848-d719eeb3e9d2
"As the last Digit for Ghost Recon® Breakpoint was released on
3/17/2022, stay tuned for more updates with features to the platform
and future drops coming with other games!"
** No indication was made if existing 'drops' would survive the
inevitable shut-down of the current game's servers, of course. It's possible, but Ubisoft would have to pay for the artists and modelers
to convert the "GR:Breakpoint" assets into a format that could be used
in other games, and ensure the server capability to verify those
'drops' were legitimate... all that effort for cosmetic items that
wouldn't be earning them any new revenue.
*** Probably not in Ubisoft's "Digits" themselves - doubtlessly they recognize it as worthless as anyone else - but any NFT sale bolsters
the value of cryptocoin and further legitimizes them all. But, of
course, NFTs and cryptocoins only earn you money if you can find
somebody else - usually somebody new and clueless - to buy the things
off you for more money than you paid... so its advantageous to them to
get as many people engaged with the blockchain as possible.
**** Not to mention an urge to post on Usenet. So if you're tired of
these long diatribes, feel free to blame them on NFTs too ;-)
On Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 8:44:01 PM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
Are you tired of talking about NFTs? I bet you're tired of talking
about NFTs. I know I am tired of talking about NFTs. So let's talk
about NFTs!
Specifically, Ubisoft's take on the stupid things, it's "Digits" that
were first embedded in "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint". Nobody - except the
head honchos at Ubisoft who obviously had drunk deeply from the
crypto-Kool Aid - wanted the damn things, but they put them in anyway.
Customers complained. Ubisoft execs accused people of 'not getting
it'. Virtually nobody engaged with the damn things beyond those who
claimed them because they were free. The third-party resales of the
"Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" Digits numbered in the double-digits, with
most of them selling in the double-digit dollar values (or less).
Marketplaces stopped selling the things. As NFTs they were a flop. As
in-game DLC cosmetics, they were a flop. As a marketing move, it was a
flop. A savvy company would have admitted their error, and moved on.
But if Ubisoft was that sort of company, I wouldn't be writing this.
Despite the subject line, its unclear as to whether the company is
actually still 'gung ho' about NFTs, but they haven't given up on them
either. Even as they were announcing the end of development of "Ghost
Recon: Breakpoint", they were still insisting* that more NFTs ('future
drops', in Ubisoft lingo) would appear in other games.**
Given the failure of Ubisoft's Digits to catch on, combined with the
increasing awareness amongst average folk about how pointlessly,
wastefully stupid NFTs are (not to mention how the law is, inevitably,
starting to catch up with the technology and cracking down on the
scammers and speculators), its hard to imagine why Ubisoft remains so
confident about the technology. I honestly believe this is because
there are several C-levels who are, to borrow the phrase,
'crypto-bros' who have personally invested in the blockchain.** *
It's the hope of personal profit, and not an earnest belief that NFTs
will - somehow? - make games better. But given how poorly Ubisoft's
Digits were received, that's the only reason I can see for the
companies adamant stance regarding them: it's a personal crusade and
not one motivated in hope of improving the company's bottom line or
changing gaming for the better.
In any event, this is just another example of a large gaming company
acting illogically, a topic which always brings me equal part joy and
disgust****. Sadly, I don't think the NFT bubble is going to pop soon,
at least not in the sense of the darn things reverting to their actual
value. NFTs will continue to accrue ridiculously high sale prices for
a while, I think.
What will change - and arguably already /is/ changing- is that
population growth of NFT-fanatics will slow or reverse, leaving an
ever-smaller pool of true believers desperately trying to prop up the
value of their digital goods. So, sadly, this probably won't be the
last you read from me about the damn things. And believe it or not,
I'm not any happier about that than you are. But in the mean time, at
least we can get a good laugh at Ubisoft's expense.
-----------------
* https://quartz.ubisoft.com/Game:7c788439-f696-4362-8848-d719eeb3e9d2
"As the last Digit for Ghost Recon® Breakpoint was released on
3/17/2022, stay tuned for more updates with features to the platform
and future drops coming with other games!"
** No indication was made if existing 'drops' would survive the
inevitable shut-down of the current game's servers, of course. It's
possible, but Ubisoft would have to pay for the artists and modelers
to convert the "GR:Breakpoint" assets into a format that could be used
in other games, and ensure the server capability to verify those
'drops' were legitimate... all that effort for cosmetic items that
wouldn't be earning them any new revenue.
*** Probably not in Ubisoft's "Digits" themselves - doubtlessly they
recognize it as worthless as anyone else - but any NFT sale bolsters
the value of cryptocoin and further legitimizes them all. But, of
course, NFTs and cryptocoins only earn you money if you can find
somebody else - usually somebody new and clueless - to buy the things
off you for more money than you paid... so its advantageous to them to
get as many people engaged with the blockchain as possible.
**** Not to mention an urge to post on Usenet. So if you're tired of
these long diatribes, feel free to blame them on NFTs too ;-)
I thought the rest of you might enjoy this:
https://theconversation.com/impulsive-psychopaths-like-crypto-research-shows-how-dark-personality-traits-affect-bitcoin-enthusiasm-180782
Also seen stories on how there's a disproportionately large number of psychopaths in CEO positions, goes hand in hand.
- Justisaur
On Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 8:44:01 PM UTC-7, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
Are you tired of talking about NFTs? I bet you're tired of talking
about NFTs. I know I am tired of talking about NFTs. So let's talk
about NFTs!
I thought the rest of you might enjoy this: >https://theconversation.com/impulsive-psychopaths-like-crypto-research-shows-how-dark-personality-traits-affect-bitcoin-enthusiasm-180782
Also seen stories on how there's a disproportionately large number of >psychopaths in CEO positions, goes hand in hand.
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