EA: NFT's the Future of Gaming...Can someone explain?

[Video Beagle]

Can someone explain to me how NFT's are/would be used in gaming? Like EA has said they want to do..like Ubisoft has talked about..like Steam has banned and epic is wanting?

Like, are they using the technology...the blockchain stuff.. for the games? Or am I overthinking this, and they're just looking at it as a way to have essentially online baseball card trading games?

[whm1974]

Wikipedia:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token#Criticism

 

Quote

Criticism Storage off-chain  NFTs involving digital art generally do not store the file on the blockchain due to its size. The token functions in a way more similar to a certificate of ownership, with a web address pointing to the piece of art in question, making the art still subject to link rot.[82] Environmental concerns  NFT purchases and sales are enmeshed in a controversy regarding the high-energy use, and consequent greenhouse gas emissions, associated with blockchain transactions.[131] A major aspect of this is the proof-of-work protocol required to regulate and verify blockchain transactions on networks such as Ethereum, which consumes a large amount of electricity;[132][133] Estimating the carbon footprint of a given NFT transaction involves a variety of assumptions about the manner in which that transaction is set up on the blockchain, the economic behavior of blockchain miners (and the energy demands of their mining equipment),[134] as well as the amount of renewable energy being used on these networks.[135] There are also conceptual questions, such as whether the carbon footprint estimate for an NFT purchase should incorporate some portion of the ongoing energy demand of the underlying network, or just the marginal impact of that particular purchase.[136] An analogy that's been described for this is the footprint associated with an additional passenger on a given airline flight.[131]  Some more recent NFT technologies use alternative validation protocols, such as proof of stake, that have much less energy usage for a given validation cycle. Other approaches to reducing electricity include the use of off-chain transactions as part of minting an NFT.[131] A number of NFT art sites are also looking to address these concerns, and some are moving to using technologies and protocols with lower associated footprints.[137] Others now allow the option of buying carbon offsets when making NFT purchases, although the environmental benefits of this have been questioned.[138] In some instances, NFT artists have decided against selling some of their own work to limit carbon emission contributions.[139] Plagiarism and fraud  There have been examples of "artists having their work copied without permission" and sold as an NFT.[140] After the artist Qing Han died in 2020, her identity was assumed by a fraudster and a number of her works became available for purchase as NFTs.[141] Similarly, a seller posing as Banksy succeeded in selling an NFT supposedly made by the artist for $336,000 in 2021; with the seller in this case refunding the money after the case drew media attention.[142]  A process known as "sleepminting" can also allow a fraudster to mint an NFT in an artist's wallet and transfer it back to their own account without the artist becoming aware.[143] This allowed a white hat hacker to mint a fraudulent NFT that had seemingly originated from the wallet of the artist Beeple.[143]

 

So why are those Game Companies you mention want to get into this? Valve is wise not too.

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by LogicalDrm
Fixed formatting

[tikker]

1 hour ago, Video Beagle said:

Like, are they using the technology...the blockchain stuff.. for the games?

Yep. NFTs live on the blockchain as they are just tokens on e.g. Ethereum.

1 hour ago, Video Beagle said:

Or am I overthinking this, and they're just looking at it as a way to have essentially online baseball card trading games?

Not sure if overthinking, but you can see it as trading cards or something. It's a Non-Fungible Token, which means it is unique and not interchangeable with copies. A counter example would be $1 bills. Those are fungible, or replaceable / not unique: your $1 bill is no different from mine. It being stored on the blockchain also means it's permanent (after a few confirmations) and for anyone to see, so nobody can dispute that you sold it, bought it or own it. An NFT represents e.g. an in-game item and acts as proof of ownership/authenticity.

 

The concept is neat, but it's subject to some flaws. Maybe you have seen the recent criticism of artists on them, for example. There the problem is that in the digital world the concept of an original disappears. A copy of a PNG you made is that same PNG, so in that regard they can be exploited for scams with people selling other people's artwork. For game items this might perhaps be a little harder to do, but still.

[Avocado Diaboli]

Unless what EA is referring to is that each digital copy of a game is an NFT that I as an owner can resell however I please (highly unlikely because that would bite their own bottom line), it's just a buzzword that symbolizes the next method the games industry attempts to fleece its customers with after on disc and horse armor DLC, pre-order bonuses, microtransactions, season passes and lootbox gambling. 

[ADarkBard]

Call me old fashioned but I like the things I collect to be touchable.

[Video Beagle]

I know what they are...how can they be applied to games?

 

Would they be for multiplayer online things?

I'm playing Cyberpunk...how would it be applied to it?

[Master Disaster]

15 minutes ago, Video Beagle said:

I know what they are...how can they be applied to games?

 

Would they be for multiplayer online things?

I'm playing Cyberpunk...how would it be applied to it?

You just need to think like Android Wilson.

 

What made me the most successful developer at EA? Microtransactions.

What took me from developer to CEO? Microtransactions.

What made my company filthy rich? Microtransactions.

What are governments around the globe starting to clamp down on? Microtransactions (specifically lootboxes)

What is currently almost totally unregulated? The world of crypto

 

So how can I carry on milking my customers using shady business techniques in a way that won't see me end up in front of a judge? Lootboxes + NFTs

 

Instead of buying lootboxes using real world cash and them giving you things that can be sold for real world cash, you can buy them with shitcoins and they'll give you NFTs that can be sold through the blockchain.

 

Think shady offshore casinos but in video game form and with NFTs for prizes instead of actual money.

 

Edit - Should also mention that apparently the FBI have started showing interest in NFTs due to their ability to easily launder dirty money. You start taking tax money away from a government and they'll very quickly step in.

[tikker]

1 hour ago, Video Beagle said:

I know what they are...how can they be applied to games?

 

Would they be for multiplayer online things?

I'm playing Cyberpunk...how would it be applied to it?

Ownership of items basically, maybe records or something. I'm thinking it has most use in MMOs and the like with (elaborate) crafting and limited edition items.

[Quackers101]

Depends on how they implement it? Not fully sure how adjustable or good NFT's are.

But each publisher and launcher they have, they would likely want to go in on the same market steam had for years (CS:GO, Team Fortress 2) while wanting the transaction fee in "endless income". Steam market with steam items, some that again was going to gambling or whatever else that happens to their market.

 

Then to rarity, and collecting or "owning", while with what kind of stability in the market? maybe or maybe not, from the price of the game itself or how stable it is (bugs, exploits, etc). How this is also to be handled by other currency and know what price is right though? but you can only buy it with ubisoft or EA coin.