TECHNOLOGY
Game Developer Criticizes NFTs at Event Sponsored by Blockchain Companies
A game developer surprised attendees at an event sponsored by blockchain companies by criticizing NFTs.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have become one of the favorite use cases of the blockchain industry. The technology is mainly associated with art projects; with buyers who can prove their ownership thanks to immutable records on blockchains.
The most infamous NFT project is undoubtedly: Bored Ape Yacht Club-which was even recently featured in a music video by Eminem and Snoop Dogg. However, NFTs have begun to expand into other areas that are more useful.
More utilitarian NFTs are taking the form of granting early access to new platforms or even granting access to VIP areas at locations like restaurants. In the long run, there is even the potential for NFTs to modernize things like land deeds.
NFTs are actively investigated by the gaming industry. Gaming titans like Ubisoft, EA, Square Enix, Konami and others have all expressed an interest in the technology.
During this year BIG Festival in Brazil, Mark Venturelli – best known for developing Chroma Squad – gave his opinion.
Speaking in a session titled “Future of Game Design,” Venturelli started talking about new gaming trends. However, he later scribbled the title during the presentation, calling it “Why NFTs are a nightmare.”
The event, it is worth noting, was sponsored by blockchain and NFT firms, including: Ripio and lakea.
“I heard the sponsors got really mad,” Venturelli said to PCGamer. “They tried to break into the conversation while I was talking, but the organization wouldn’t let them.”
Venturelli praised the event organizers for making his speech go ahead despite the potential anger of the sponsors.
“The organization, they never censored me at any point, they stopped me from putting on the slides what I wanted. I gave them access to the slides before the lecture. It was never their intention to silence me or anything like that.”
A full video van Venturelli’s presentation is available on YouTube, but he has two central criticisms of NFTs: the play-to-earn model in gaming and the wider societal implications of lack of trust.
On play-to-earn, Venturelli states that “everything Play to Earn can do… has been in other games (but more efficiently) for over a decade.”
Blockchain, decentralization and the whole idea of web3 is to take power away from big tech companies and authoritarian governments. However, Venturelli believes that blockchain technology can sow feelings of distrust in society rather than build trust.
“If I live in the same house with you and we don’t trust each other, then every time I leave my house I have to hide my valuables. I need to inventory the things I own and maybe put cameras or locks in things. When I get home I have to check everything and see if you messed with my stuff and make sure you don’t come in my room when I’m sleeping and all that shit,” Venturelli says.
“It’s so much energy I have to use just to exist in a room with you because I don’t trust you. That, in my opinion, is a very good metaphor for how computational blockchain works, and what the underlying philosophical idea behind it is, which is, ‘We want a world without any sort of centralized authority because we can never trust them.’ And I think that’s the opposite of what we want as a society.”
Related: Web3 Projects Lost More Than $2 Billion to Hacks in H1 2022
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