\People often think that no other mass audience is better invested to the **NFT (Non fungible token)**market than the 3 billion gamers of the world. Besides the frenzied small investor community of the cryptocurrency, the ownership certificates, registration on secure blockchain and linked to digital file can seem daunting for the intangibility and complexity. However, the various conceptual hurdles in comprehending NFTs being similar to games make gamers familiar with virtual currencies as well as the concept of digital assets having actual financial value.
It comes without any surprise when some of the top guns from gaming industry announced their plans of incorporating NFTs to their ecosystems so that they can have sole ownership of any unique virtual land or equipment, to name a few. Ubisoft was the foremost major developer to launch NFT items for the Ghost Racon Breakpoint game. EA, Zynga, Konami and Square Enix developers have also expressed positively about the blockchain gaming. Peter Molyneux and Will Wright, two famous game designers have invested in NFT games. Peter’s project even NFTs worth millions even before launching.
Developers believe that NFTs can create shortage of digital assets while increasing the value in real world and the NFTs remain functional in games unlike in digital artwork. Gamers can also earn from NFT trading as is common in games like Axie Infinity where players can play to earn. The huge investment in the gaming NFTs show that developers instead of only taking cut of the transactions on digital items, see these as items to create massive revenues.
The question arises that if the gaming and NFT world seem so much in accord, why the gaming community is in uproar? The statement of Square Enix was mocked, the NFTs of Ubisoft were sold poorly and the GSC Game World developer was forced to back off from their plan of incorporating NFTs in the new version of Stalker 2 as there was backlash from fans. That is not all –Valve developer banned the NFT games from its Steam store and many gamers criticized the plans.
Some critics point out the environmental impact from using blockchains of Bitcoin and Ethereum and that the environment-friendly alternatives are not adopted by major players even though they exist. Gamers also mocked Final Fantasy VII, the biggest game of Square Enix that is based on how a despicable corporation profits from destruction of the environment.
Scamming in NFT world is another reason behind the backlash –this is due to the recent craze of speculations leading to NFT price hike and then loss of value once the speculations die down. The gamers would not wish to indulge in these scams where they are left with worthless digital assets once crypto bubble bursts.
Gamers also have doubt regarding whether they will get real value from the NFTs because there are already various in-game markets and they are doubtful about real value of the digital scarcity besides prestige. Developers are touting this appeal of interoperability where NFT items achieved in a game can be used in other games but over various technical, legal and aesthetic barriers implemented on these.
Trust issue is there behind the reluctance of gamers in embracing NFTs as they get sensitive over the behavior of the games of implementing new revenue models like loot boxes, microtransactions or “pay to win” scenarios that come at the cost of enjoyment. Gamers invest time, passion and also money to their gaming hobbies and they would not want to pay for new updates, rewards, powerups, designs etc after already paying for the base games. In response to the developers luring them with earning money by playing games, gamers respond that they would play for fun, not money.
Summing up, it can be said that as the NFT is there to stay in games, developers have to come up with unique ideas to make the games more fun instead of emphasizing on revenue-making so that gamers embrace them.
