The Use Case: NFT's in Video Games Rebuttal

My good friend Enjar, it seems we are at an impasse here regarding NFT's. :p

Enjars Original Article: https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@enjar/the-use-case-for-nfts-in-video-games

I awaited this second article from you, but in the end, I still think all you are doing is appealing to people who already agree with you, and I don't think you have put out anything of substance with this post.

“Now if the game developer chooses to accept those items back into their game after a wipe is a whole other story.”

You kind of pointed out a big flaw with some of your arguments. Owning that NFT means nothing if the people developing the game just decided to stop acknowledging it. They code the game, they gave out those NFT's. Just because you now own that particular NFT doesn't mean anything, they can deny or alter its use all they want without doing anything to the NFT itself. Just like if rather than being an NFT, it's just another in-game model or ability. And if your NFT doesn't do anything in that particular game anymore, it has no value to that game anymore.

“Which if I was an NFT on a blockchain you could have verified not only the price history, who owned it but the item itself.“

Even concerning your point about proving ownership, in terms of the game itself that can be done by keeping a simple record. Even if they are operating a fair and just in-game marketplace they'll be able to keep an easy record of everything going on. If they are not running a fair in-game market, NFT's aren't going to fix that. What will happen is it will just go off-site, which happens without NFT's anyway (Just see Diablo 2 for that). You've not had any impact on the actual game's market or value of items in the game by making use of NFT's in either of these two regards. You're just making people keep track of a crypto wallet with NFT's now.

“While it might not be important to all gamers who owned an item and how they acquired it. This helps add to the lore of that item itself giving us tangible proof that some insane story had some backing of block-chain data.“

It's not going to be important to the vast majority of gamers. And fundamentally, beyond some kind of odd sentimental value, if the NFT of that sword you used happened to be the same NFT that the first guy who ever beat the game used, it has no actual impact on the gameplay in any way. Even the idea that an Item carries a history with it doesn't require an NFT. Shroud of the Avatar had nothing but items created by players, they had their names and history, and it's easy enough to keep a log of all that without any kind of blockchain technology. Yes, you can say you have that sword, and even if the game goes offline you would still have that NFT, but it has no value concerning the game anymore. It has value for the same reason Beanie Babies may have value, because some people just like collecting things.

“You might be looking for a player to craft an item but you don’t know who to trust or even has the skills to do so. Usually, this is solved by people posting a crafting post on a form and if people are willing they take a screenshot of the trade afterward. With an NFT you have actual blockchain data to back up what took place between two parties. “

You can already do this without NFT's. You know that big list of people involved in the trade? They usually talk or will gladly share who they did or did not get good stuff from, and who has scammed people. Yeah, NFT's are a different way to do it, but it's not necessary. And frankly, just looking at the history without knowing the stories behind who had the item isn't going to give you enough context to know whether or not they are good, you just have raw stats about the history of the item. Making it an NFT doesn't remove the need for talking with the people involved. At best you have just made it slightly easier for someone who has taken the time to learn how to read the blockchain. And, if I'm being honest here, if you not only have to learn how the game works and then turn around and learn how to access and read a block-chain, that is a lot more work than anyone who just wants's to play the game is going to want to put in. You'd be better of just learning how to make the item yourself at that point.

“There is also going to be a lot of metadata that some gamers will be thrilled poring over. Is there a limited supply and how many have been created? Who owns an item you are looking to buy? Is it a legit verified item? When was it created? Who created it? How was it created? “

All of this information could be freely available if the game devs wanted it to be without NFT's. And if they don't want it to be freely available... They just aren't going to use NFT's either. Once again this is not something NFT's contribute to, if the dev's wanted it that way it would be that way.

“This can also help solve the whole “streamer rng” situation where people swear streamers in some games play on special servers with higher drop rates”

Congratulations, you already need to have an understanding of the games actual RNG in order to do this, meaning you will largely already know if they are doing this with or without NFT's. I'll grant you this, NFT's would be a way to go that little extra mile in proving something that is in no way illegal or is going to matter that much (I doubt it will change many more minds), but I guess you do kind of have something here.

“FTs are more than likely the real culprit for a lot of NFT hate”

No, the NFT hate is a mix of no one giving any kind of use an NFT has that can't be achieved without it, mixed with Bored Apes. Most people who hate NFT's don't even know FT's are a thing.

Music and Copyright

I am just going to use this to address your entire section talking about Music.

https://www.nftsstreet.com/can-nfts-be-stolen/

You can create an NFT of someone else's stuff and sell it. Fun fact: that NFT carries none of the history of that image/song before being made an NFT. Let's say you are some kind of monster and have never heard Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay by Ottis Redding. You are looking for a song to open your game, and someone offers you this NFT for that song.

When you are sitting there in court for Copyright Violations, do you think saying 'But I have an NFT for that song' is going to give you any ground here? NFT or not, you are going to have to put in all the same groundwork to verify that was used fairly.

Furthermore, everything about your agreement isn't necessarily going to show up on the block-chain. If I tell you you can use the music in your game, you pay me X amount upfront and then X amount based on sales, that Block-chain transaction is only going to show that X amount upfront. Conversations exist outside of that transaction, and you are going to have to argue and/or prove that regardless. That transaction only shows what is known to have happened.

Nothing you had explained in that post is going to have that much, If any, impact on how the law regarding copyright works. You can't even use that transaction to prove whether or not that person made it, because a hacked account is still going to show up the same as if the original owner of an account approved the transaction.

You will still, in the end, have to do all the same legwork you would have originally even without NFT's being involved.

NFT's Across Multiple Games

And I'll only touch briefly on the use of NFT's being used in multiple games because I brought it up in the context of a Card Game that was created a while back before NFT's were a thing. I don't remember the name, but owning the item and using it in multiple games was usable with blockchain tech without NFT's, though I will say on this point you could well be on to something.

That said, going from game to game the item itself will act differently based on the games code and how it interacts with the item (Not to mention the potential technical nightmare of creating a game that will be able to function with something from antoher game). Functionally it's going to be entirely different, so if it's a game you buy to play anyway, just include an item that already does that in the game. It's not that this doesn't have a use, it's just an extremely niche use that isn't going to have much of an effect on gaming as a whole.

Really, it's only ever going to be useful in projects designed specifically to make use of the same NFT's other games part of the project are using. Another thing that, honestly, if the games are being designed with that in mind they could probably do the same thing without using NFT's.

Secruity

You also comment about security, but honestly, I don't think this is going to be that big of a deal either. All you will see on the block-chain is an item was minted as an NFT and given to a player. The reasons behind why this is done wouldn't be public. And here's the thing, if these game companies were interested in being entirely public about everything going on behind the scenes, we would all see what was going on behind the scenes. If they don't want that, they just aren't going to use NFT's if it's going to give people a look behind the curtain. It's a situation that even if you can make the argument from a security of your items perspective, it's simply never going to be implemented if it makes more stuff public. I'm not even convinced the NFT's would even give you enough to go on to prove in-game shenanigans like you described (Outside of duplicating items, though even that could theoretically be solved without NFT's. It is, after all, coding bugs that make that possible. Automate the Minting process will be necessary if the game is of any substantial size, then it's all about exploiting the right bug).

Real Money Markets

I know I commented about real money markets on your original post, though since you also brought it up here I will state you are not solving a problem that needs NFT's to solve. Every major issue with RM's are going to exist regardless of NFT's. Scams are going to creep up, and they are going to mess with people. Even without NFT's Diablo 2 inevitably got reliable markets when they were still a prominent thing, so I don't see how that's going to help here. And it won't help with the biggest issue, the insane and predatory prices. Those are going to exist as a result of the games RNG for handing out items. You have given me nothing that says NFT's are going to make any difference here.

“While some will argue that games could already do everything mentioned in some form or another that has been talked about in this post before NFTs and blockchain. You are forgetting that most modern-day games are not and have not for some time. “

And right here is where I think you kind of lose the plot. You're right, a lot of people are saying a lot of these things can be done without NFT's. You're also right, a lot of these things are not being done. The fact that they could have been done before NFT's means that NFT's simply existing now isn't going to change that, it's just another method of fixing these problems they aren't going to use.

DRM isn't a problem because NFT's just happened to not exist before, they are a problem because of dubious licensing practices. And if I”m being honest, that's not even the issue with the core of your post.

There are a couple of minor things you brought up like preventing Item duplication and holding on to things for sentimental value (Though just like you may accidentally delete a screenshot, you could well lose the keys to your wallet, so even that I kind of hesitate to say is that big of a deal. If it means that much to you, save backups multiple places like an email and external, in addition to PC), but they are all so minor most people just aren't going to care.

Final Thoughts

In the end, I read through all of that, and I still do not have an idea of how an NFT is going to make a game better. Nothing you have brought up is going to add to the experience of actually sitting down and playing the game, and on the legal side, I honestly think your assessment is nonsense. Anything else is things that could have been done without NFT's, the fact that NFT's exist now isn't going to suddenly make people reconsider DRM. The only people who are going to read this post and agree with you are people who already agreed with you beforehand. You have offered nothing of substance to change anyone's mind here. I mentioned this to you before, but I'm not against the idea of NFT's, but so long as this is the best you have to put forward to argue in their defense, you are never going to get over the hurdle of stupid that is the 'Bored Ape' shit that is currently defining what an NFT is.