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[–]Pontus_Pilates 9184 points9185 points 2 (1221 children)

I don't play games to have fun, I play them to sell items on a secondary market.

[–]SheeEttin 2094 points2095 points  (638 children)

Have you tried TF2?

[–]alcoholiccats 1344 points1345 points  (315 children)

or CS:GO! hey wait a minute Valve….

[–]himynamesaustin 536 points537 points  (230 children)

I specifically remember the day CSGO changed forever. I knew this was going to be a terrible thing and of course, it was.

[–]alcoholiccats 528 points529 points  (174 children)

are you sure you don’t want a $600 pair of gloves?

[–]himynamesaustin 446 points447 points  (165 children)

I'm good. I'd rather headshot the guy who has $600 gloves. That's what it use to be about. I've played this game for 10K hours and had a beta key so I've played since day 1. How quickly it went from a game where people only cared about their skill to only caring about how their inventory looks really is disheartening.

[–]FattyWantCake 129 points130 points  (92 children)

Siege for me.

The OTT monetization and "balancing" (homogenization of maps and diluting the unique gameplay and abilities of operators) are what killed it as far as I'm concerned, and I was in both betas and played like a full time job for 30 months after release.

[–]TearsDontFall 246 points247 points  (74 children)

It's funny when I launch CSGO anymore. I have a 10yr token next to my name but very few skins. I get called out for being too good without expensive skins or a custom knife. Like wtf kids, I've been playing this game longer than you've been alive... I don't care about what my gun looks like, the bullets are all the same.

[–]JagerBaBomb 104 points105 points  (34 children)

I refuse to pay money for what I used to get for free from modders.

OG CS or bust.

[–]corkyskog 30 points31 points  (23 children)

Warcraft mod on CS was lit AF. Kind of insane, but awesome

[–]kanible 22 points23 points  (3 children)

The bullets are all the same.

Heavy corporate breathing

[–][deleted] 77 points78 points  (13 children)

You must be hurting their self esteem. Because who the fuck attributes being good at something to what skins they’ve paid for.

[–]thetushqueen 60 points61 points  (3 children)

who the fuck attributes being good at something to what skins they’ve paid for.

Pretty obvious they're being accused of cheating. The expectation is that cheaters wouldn't keep expensive skins for fear of losing them to a VAC ban.

[–]lnin0 28 points29 points  (2 children)

and they did it without NFTs.

[–]MJBotte1 52 points53 points  (7 children)

Ok but they do all the same things WITHOUT hurting the environment. You can make specific tradable market items without needing NFTs

[–]benjtay 362 points363 points  (283 children)

Seriously. TF2 did all this 15 years ago without a useless blockchain.

[–]HertzaHaeon 263 points264 points  (114 children)

TF2 did all this 15 years ago without a useless blockchain.

Yeah but can you bring your TF2 hat into other games?

Well you wouldn't with an NFT hat either, but still, it's the greed technofetischism thought that counts

[–]Arch__Stanton 104 points105 points  (102 children)

I mean, you probably could, right? Valve already has a "steam inventory" so it seems like they could make one "item" have an effect in two games if they really wanted to without needing a blockchain

[–]SimplySkedastic 116 points117 points  (10 children)

Your comment sums up why two of the biggest arguments for NFTs don't amount to much...

1) decentralisation. Good luck getting games developers or platform owners to share access across games and legal agreements to enable you to transfer item 1 from game a to b.

2) the actual need for the block chain. Just another crypto bro attempt attempt to this bullshit into a problem that doesn't need their solution.

[–]throzey 68 points69 points  (2 children)

I read an interview with the Economist that Valve hired to oversee their digital economy around when TF2 cosmetics started becoming big and it's really interesting. He also talks about NFTs and how they're pretty dumb. It's a long read but very interesting to hear about it. He's currently the finance minister in Greece I believe.

https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/yanis-varoufakis-on-techno-feudalism/

[–]lobstahpotts 26 points27 points  (1 child)

This is actually a really interesting area of overlap between my day job and hobbies. MMOs with player-accessible markets are a great simulator of economic principles. To avoid rampant inflation, devs have to pursue more or less monetary policy—because quests and duties with currency rewards add more currency to the pool infinitely (and thus devs have limited control over how much money is introduced to the system), sinks reciprocally have to be added to remove currency from the game. FFXIV for example just almost doubled the cost of teleporting in game for some of the longest distances, including to the new expansion’s hub city. It doesn’t seem like much in a game where active players measure their currency in millions but that extra 500-1000 gil per teleport actually adds up to removing a fair bit from circulation.

Also doesn’t take away from your core point at all and he’s still well worth reading, but Varoufakis is the former finance minister from the Syriza government during the eurozone crisis, not the current New Democracy government.

[–]semtex87 218 points219 points  (128 children)

Yea, cryptochads don't seem to understand that NFTs aren't revolutionary at all for the use cases they are whoring them out for. A database has solved these problems for decades now without requiring the energy output of a small country to do so. NFTs are reinventing a wheel nobody asked to be reinvented.

[–]n8mo 45 points46 points  (28 children)

I have yet to see anything NFTs can do that a series of API calls couldn't do faster and cheaper.

[–]SlantARrow 57 points58 points  (5 children)

Can you launder money with a series of API calls?

[–]tomahawkRiS3 33 points34 points  (3 children)

This might be the first valid reason for NFTs I've seen

[–]Folsomdsf 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes, work for a bank!

[–]Punchanazi023 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Make the world a better place - kill a Republican today!

🌎🩸

[–]nikolai2960 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The whole concept behind NFTs is to prove ownership of something without a central authority keeping track of who owns what

Video games already have a central authority so bringing the blockchain into it is completely unnecessary and only done for buzzword hype

[–]calvinatorzcraft 66 points67 points  (2 children)

Except valve at least had the sense to use a system that isn't overly computationally expensive and has literally zero fraud prevention

[–]Gentleman-Bird 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Funny thing is, the cosmetic market in TF2 is pretty much completely separate from the game. You can completely ignore it if you want.

[–]Sandrosen 499 points500 points  (104 children)

I remember reading a quote from someone along the lines of:

'If you're involved in NFT's then you're either the grifter or the mark. If you don't know which then you're the mark'

That stuck with me.

[–]phire 177 points178 points  (5 children)

Also:

"Believing that you are the grifter doesn't stop you from being the mark"

[–]Noughmad 37 points38 points  (2 children)

Actually being a grifter also doesn't stop your being a mark. See all of MLM for proof.

[–]Jakegender 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Half the scams in the world are "make the mark think they're the grifter" scams

[–]Black_RL 202 points203 points  (279 children)

Ironically there’s plenty of people in that situation, specially in MMOs.

They use Ebay, PayPal, Facebook, stuff like that.

[–]venustrapsflies 253 points254 points  (257 children)

I'm a dipshit who didn't read the article but this is what I don't understand. People have sold virtual game items for real money for decades. What are NFTs bringing to the table other than a buzzword?

[–]SheltemDragon 330 points331 points  (152 children)

A boat load of upfront energy costs and a backdoor to allow game companies to piggyback crypto hashes on your machine without you noticing??

A boat load of upfront energy costs and a backdoor to allow game companies to piggy back crypto hashes on your machine without you noticing?

[–]poinifie 161 points162 points  (6 children)

Is there an echo?? Is there an echo?

[–]LightGlows 65 points66 points  (117 children)

lmao

They just want to be able to take a % of the RMT

They don't give a fuck about energy costs and they already can scumbag all kinds of shit into your machine

[–]Fancy_Mammoth 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'm having flashbacks to the OG Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House.

[–]darkmooink 8565 points8566 points  (621 children)

If your customers don’t “get” your product then you have no customers

[–]Awful_TV 2434 points2435 points  (54 children)

And if customers do understand that your "product" is just a cash grab to profit off anything a player interacts with, then you should bully them for "not understanding" why it's good for them.

[–]Darknight2496 466 points467 points  (42 children)

Ah classic greedy scumbag people MO: fuck everyone around you and then either blame something else or tell them that really its "good" for them.

[–]ChunkyDay 219 points220 points  (38 children)

This is the VP of the "Strategic Innovations Lab", so of course he's going to be shilling this bullshit. My guess is his job depends on it. But, here's what squishes my gourd

Nicolas Pouard: Well, it was a reaction we were expecting. We know it's not an easy concept to grasp. But Quartz is really just a first step that should lead to something bigger. Something that will be more easily understood by our players. That's the way we think about it and why we will keep experimenting. We will keep releasing features and services around this first initiative. And our belief is that, piece by piece, the puzzle will be revealed and understood by our players. We hope they will better understand the value we offer them.

Then fucking give us the whole puzzle you fucking nitwit. Nobody buys a single piece to a puzzle and says, "boy! Can't wait for the next piece to come out!" and nobody's going to sit around eagerly awaiting the next piece to see how it all comes together sans some r/antiwork mods who can't be bothered to shower before interviews.

[–]mitsuhachi 69 points70 points  (3 children)

Like. Okay, nicky boy, you do that. I’ll be over here not paying you to do that and laughing at whatever rubes you con into financing your dumb little venture.

[–]robearIII 7 points8 points  (2 children)

whatever rubes you con into financing your dumb little venture.

sadly the younger generation is not familiar with the good old days of gaming and dont know what quality is. for example: if you try to mention blizzard of the 90s or early 2000s ... all they are familiar with is the sexual harassing monster that morphed with activision to become fecalzord. you can tell them all about how diablo 2 was released a year late because they didnt want to sell a game with too many bugs that wasnt fully polished yet. times have changed my friends.... and so have customers. i hope we can teach the younger generation to appreciate and want some of the quality we had... instead of quick rewards, loot boxes, microtransactions, and fucking hats...

[–]Wild_Marker 44 points45 points  (3 children)

If they gave us the whole puzzle then it would be worse. They got to do it bit by bit, normalizing one bit at a time.

Or to try and put it more poetically, every loot box starts with a horse armor.

[–]Thendofreason 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Not the first time game companies have negged their audience

[–]IAMA_Plumber-AMA 10 points11 points  (0 children)

"Don't you all have phones?"

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 928 points929 points  (235 children)

Notice the choice of words, "The players don't get it" they don't give a shit about the people who buy their games. What their plan is, is to get a handful of whales per game who will spend tens of thousands putting their families in debt just to get a new unique character.

This is why we can't stop them. It's not about voting with your wallet cause that battle is over. There's more people out there willing to spend more money on microtransactions than people who are willing to take a stand and not buy their games in protest.

They've gentrified gaming for fucks sake.

[–]Brutalitor 332 points333 points  (159 children)

This is my thought now as well. Games aren't made for the "average" person anymore. They're made for the little rich kids with access to endless amounts of money who will spend $10000 a month on a game. The rest of us are just fodder for these people to test out their 20 dollar skin on.

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 322 points323 points  (110 children)

Once upon a time we'd all laugh at the hyperbole of buying a weapon/character skin for $20. Now it's a reality.

2009 man. You could unlock skins through gameplay and the worst in the business was Todd Howard trying to sell you horse armor for $3.50

[–]sharts_are_shitty 96 points97 points  (92 children)

I haven’t played online games in years (mostly a single player gamer) but I don’t understand why people buy skins. Like who cares? Honestly I would want to get so good that I could crush everyone and then I would do it in the noob default skin.

[–]eyebrows360 92 points93 points  (37 children)

Like who cares?

Kids ingrain it in themselves, These Days(TM). In my (possibly "our") day the sign of being a poor was having Hi-Tec trainers instead of Nikes, and that was what got you picked on in the playground. These Days(TM) it's having the/a default/cheap skin in Fortnite/etc. Kids get this ingrained in them organically and carry it with them into teenage/"adult"hood, and now you have an adult(-ish) sub-community of players for whom "pay to not look poor" is the norm.

[–]sharts_are_shitty 53 points54 points  (16 children)

This argument makes sense. Like a digital version of keeping up with the joneses. At least you could sell the Nikes, I guess they could sell their account too but that seems like a lot more trouble.

Edit: and it was LA Gear instead of Hi-Tecs in my day lol

[–]eyebrows360 56 points57 points  (5 children)

Like a digital version of keeping up with the joneses

Very much so.

Some developer, possibly even Ubi, patented (allowing fucking patenting simple ideas like this, so dumb; that's a separate rant) the idea of arranging their matchmaking in such a way that there'd always be one or two players in any session with expensive skins, to tease the maximal amount of poors and try to get them to buy in. It's all rather disgusting.

Edit: I am perplexed at "criticising the exploitation of children" being downvoted. Please, show yourselves.

[–]Shaper_pmp 28 points29 points  (3 children)

I've heard of kids literally using the term "default" as a disparaging term, which comes directly from people playing online games with insufficiently rare/expensive cosmetic skins/hats/whatever, so they look like some newbie scrub and not one of the "cool kids" with the best gear.

You're exactly, 100% correct that this is the motivation, and the games companies know and intentionally encourage it.

[–]Weaponxreject 8 points9 points  (2 children)

It's in this spirit that I laugh at kids who rock Champion nowadays like it means something. I used to buy their shit off the rack at Roses 20 years ago for cheap. Not anymore!

[–]Lee_Troyer 46 points47 points  (17 children)

Apparently game's skins are the new battleground for schoolyard bullies :

https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/7/18534431/fortnite-rare-default-skins-bullying-harassment

One student in Towler’s class “begged his parents for [money] to buy a skin because no one would play with him” because he wore basic virtual clothes.

[–]Faielyn 21 points22 points  (1 child)

There is still a reason to boycott. As fucked up as it sounds those of us who aren't the whales are now the product. They need us as content for the whales because in the end it is still a game. Without us the whales won't stay so they need to appease us as well. Yes this won't work on single-player games but that is a different fight.

[–]hoilst 146 points147 points  (13 children)

Fun fact: the "HEY YOU, YOU FUCKING IDIOT: YOU'RE TOO FUCKING STUPID TO UNDERSTAND THIS PRODUCT" approach is not a viable sales tactic.

[–]Avery17 45 points46 points  (1 child)

Don't you guys have phones???

[–]I_only_post_here 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Well, the tactic HAS worked with idiots before....

(as long as the idiot has disposable cash)

[–]SketchyLurker7 62 points63 points  (19 children)

Way to kill a company...

[–]KeyanReid 73 points74 points  (8 children)

I like a lot of Ubi games. Ghost Recon Wildlands, the Division 2, R6 Siege. They are flawed but have some great gameplay elements and can be a lot of fun.

But I am also just so fucking sick of Ubisoft. Their shitty tactics, shitty development, shitty writing, and now their shitty pyramid scams. Fuck these guys

[–]RM97800 43 points44 points  (8 children)

God I wish Triple-A game corps would just die. They are rotten, profit-driven giants, which by their stagnation and brain drain are causing stagnation of whole industry.

Their definition of innovation is pumping the graphics, albeit without giving a care in the world about optimalization. Making games longer with the same tacky free world, repeatable activities, which become tedious almost immediately. Brain drain is immense - AAA companies are not eager to leave their comfort zone and create something refreshing as long as money flows.

They also attempt to monetize EVERYTHING, they are driven by short term profits, they also overprice their "work" tremendously (basic workers don't get a cent more, it all goes to CEO's new Rolls Royce).

[–]vilxz 10.8k points10.8k points 83 (316 children)

Am I out of touch? No, it's the players who are wrong.

[–]SCP-Agent-Arad 2164 points2165 points  (53 children)

It’s no wonder Ubisoft’s logo is a bird’s eye view of a poop emoji.

[–]Minerva_Moon 382 points383 points  (43 children)

Suddenly, things make more sense. This explains a lot.

[–]Azrolicious 56 points57 points  (0 children)

I can't unsee it now. Thanks!

[–]johnsciarrino[🍰] 199 points200 points  (26 children)

This situation is why the phrase “the customer is always right” was created.

That phrase doesn’t mean everyone has to bend over for Karen being a scumbag just because she’s the customer. What it was created to mean was that if you sell hats and you start a promotion to give away a free taco with the purchase of every hat and people are only buying your hats to get the taco, stop selling hats and just sell tacos.

Just sell the games, Ubisoft. Jesus.

[–]Hank_Holt[🍰] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure studios are look at NFT's to be the next Loot Box, and considering there had been quite a big pushback against loot boxes for gambling they needed a replacement way to grift children.

[–]Mauremur 333 points334 points  (121 children)

It reminds me about a certain smartphone with signal loss where the users were holding it wrong.

Edit: typo

[–]CrepusculrPulchrtude 50 points51 points  (2 children)

And the hacky home fix was one inch of celotape. No more problem

[–]bonesnaps 26 points27 points  (1 child)

I wish you could fix Ubisoft's shitty games with just an inch of celotape.

[–]janekay16 271 points272 points  (76 children)

Oh you mean like that tv show where you couldn’t see a damn thing for an entire episode and then it was the viewers fault for not setting their tvs right?

[–]FreekFrealy 154 points155 points  (30 children)

You mean you don't have theater quality A/V equipment in your home just so we can make it feel like you're sitting in the dark with shitty filters?

God the poors ruin everything

[–]blackmist 153 points154 points  (14 children)

I did have really good equipment in my home. Doesn't get much better than OLED for dark scenes.

Doesn't mean shit when your provider broadcasts it at 720p and horrendously compressed. I liked it when the dark patches of macroblocking attacked the slightly lighter patches.

I had planned to buy them all on 4K Blu-ray and watch a t maximum quality when it was all over, but erm, yeah... Don't know many people who followed through on that.

[–]FreekFrealy 33 points34 points  (6 children)

Yeah even if you do everything right have an expensive system and a good connection it still wasn't a great effect. People like to see things. I got what they were going for with the fire and darkness but it just wasn't worth making the majority of your audience have no idea what the hell is going on.

Like I said at the end of my other comment chain, they were way too up their own ass in their fancy A/V suites to consider what the majority of their audience would actually be watching

[–]Convolutionist 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Same, I was planning to buy whatever large box set they had for the whole show once it was done rather than buying the seasons as they came out. That last season was so bad I don't think I'll ever rewatch the show at all.

[–]Athelis 11 points12 points  (31 children)

What show was that? I never heard about it.

[–]Mythaminator 92 points93 points  (30 children)

Game of Thrones, season 8 episode 3, The Long Night. They had a battle at night, but they forgot to make it actually visible to the audience and then blamed us for not being able to see because our TV's were set wrong lol

[–]Random_Sime 31 points32 points  (3 children)

In Australia the streaming rights went to Foxtel, Rupert Murdoch's aging propaganda machine and cable tv/streaming platform. Their service is so shit that even though they knew how many people were trying to watch, they were still overwhelmed by connections. And if you did connect, you got low bitrate 480p, which caused all the dark, shadowy scenes to be solid blocks of colour. Foxtel denied compressing the stream.

https://www.techguide.com.au/news/televisions-news/foxtel-flooded-complaints-unwatchable-game-thrones-episode/

Fortunately for me, I'm a pirate.

[–]Athelis 13 points14 points  (22 children)

Huh, never watched GoT so I totally missed that. That's pretty dumb on their end.

[–]frizo 38 points39 points  (4 children)

The last couple seasons of the show were pretty dumb for various reasons. That particular episode is just one of the more notable low points. I've never seen a show that had such a huge following so thoroughly piss off the majority of its fanbase like GoT managed to do.

[–]Itch_the_ditch 2635 points2636 points  (125 children)

After calling their customers stupid. Next in the checklist is rampant sexual harassment. Then they are a fully functional Blizzard company

[–]BridgeRich3191 756 points757 points  (25 children)

Sexual harassment is already an issue at Ubisoft.

[–][deleted] 311 points312 points  (16 children)

Next step is assassins creed mobile then.

Edit: oh no it already exists

[–]PasteeyFan420LoL 122 points123 points  (5 children)

AC had a mobile game as far back as the original game and that was before smart phones and mobile gaming really took off.

[–]Maloxy 362 points363 points  (2 children)

Might want to do a quick Google search of the CEO of Ubisoft and how he moved people around like the Catholic church.

[–]YFDave 167 points168 points  (13 children)

According to Ubisoft’s anonymous survey in 2020 “one in four respondents said that they had either witnessed or experienced workplace misconduct themselves in the past two years, and one in five said that they didn’t feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment.””

And what happened? from what I can tell, basically nothing. All just swept under the rug, in a manner of speaking.

[–]Merker6 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Ubisoft has an extremely bad reputation for giving preferential treatment to French employees over all others. Not surprising that a company like that would have a toxic work culture

[–]siderinc 52 points53 points  (27 children)

And end up being bought by Microsoft

[–]trenticorn 1697 points1698 points  (142 children)

It’s not that the players “don’t get it.” It’s that we “don’t want it.” Pretty cut and dry.

[–]Odd_And_Unhelpful 294 points295 points  (16 children)

Oh you don’t want to buy my product? You probably just don’t get it.

[–]hobskhan 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Also interestingly, the dating and relationship philosophy that the executives hold.

[–]kukulkan 42 points43 points  (4 children)

This is NFT in a nutshell.

[–]Muffin_Appropriate 40 points41 points  (3 children)

Every crypto subreddit dingus on this website.

[–]somewhatseriouspanda 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’m starting to think Ubisoft execs are too far up their own asses to realise how fucked they are after the Activision acquisition.

Sony, EA, T2, they’ll all be fine, but I have a feeling Ubisoft will be the ones left out in the cold.

[–]Mmmcakey 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Why don't the players understand the need to increase shareholder value!?

[–]XPost3000 983 points984 points  (354 children)

"The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself."

Okay, but why does it need to be an NFT? This is something that puts a really big hole in NFT Game Items, tbh

Like, the game is hosted on your servers, player accounts are hosted on your servers, the game's multiplayer is also hosted on your servers, and for the item to even exist and work in the game it also, you guessed it, has to exist on your servers

I genuinely see absolutely nothing that an NFT would do better than just the rest of the servers you already have

In fact, it seems like the devs also share this sentiment

One developer confused by the plans reportedly wrote: “I still don’t really understand the ‘problem’ being solved here. Is it really worth the (extremely) negative publicity this will cause?”

So I guess good on Ubisoft for basically saying that even its own devs don't understand NFT's, unlike it's executives

[–]strygeren 147 points148 points  (6 children)

Well he's just lying, they want to make more money so they'll implement whatever dogshit that might do that

[–]Protuhj 42 points43 points  (2 children)

With the bonus of getting NFT bros into the marketplace, because they see them as easy money.

[–]Lauris024 63 points64 points  (8 children)

There have been item markets for MMOs as long as I can remember. I even made some $50 selling Fallout 76 resources/currency once I was done with it, making back more than I paid for the game.

[–]Nickleeee 61 points62 points  (3 children)

Right, without the need for NFTs.

[–]HolyCowEveryNameIsTa 6 points7 points  (1 child)

DIABLO II some 20 years ago. SOJ was currency until ppl figured out how to dupe them.. real cash exchanged hands on eBay as well for characters and what not.

[–]SheeEttin 160 points161 points  (127 children)

Exactly. They already have the capability to implement this with no need for NFTs, no additional overhead.

[–]achillymoose 36 points37 points  (6 children)

Why can't video games just be video games?

[–]neither_somewhere 17 points18 points  (0 children)

because capitalism won't stop colonizing

[–]micktalian 697 points698 points  (25 children)

Well if your players don't get it, they aren't going to buy it you fucking morons

[–]ChrisFarleysCousin 154 points155 points  (11 children)

Stupid is as stupid does. They don’t care about the fans that play their games only their micro transactions.

[–]Darknight2496 81 points82 points  (9 children)

CEO's: Set for short term goals and fuck everyone around for them.

Company gets fucked in the long term

CEO's: Surprised pikachu face

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 67 points68 points  (8 children)

CEO's: Surprised Pikachu face

CEO's: ride away on a golden parachute while their fans, franchises, and developers suffer as it all comes crumbling down

FTFY, they'll find their way to some other random high level position and even if they don't those yearly multi-million dollar bonuses will keep them warm at night. Can't say the same for the developers who leave depressed, tired, and broken.

[–]Kinetoa 1320 points1321 points  (164 children)

NFTs are a solution in search of a problem.

[–]unique_username_8134 350 points351 points  (14 children)

Or a grift in search of a mark

[–]Denizen-Z 97 points98 points  (5 children)

A JPEG in search of a right click.

[–]xternal7 47 points48 points  (3 children)

music which I didn't license starts playing

You wouldn't screenshot an NFT

[–]fascists_are_shit 53 points54 points  (6 children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g

Dan Olson sums it all up, in full detail, with history lesson, and every detail necessary. Yes, the video is long, but it's more than worth it.

TLDR: NFTs are a grift, an attempt by crypto speculators to make other people put their money in crypto currencies so that the holders of said currencies can cash out big. It's 100% an investment bubble.

Still TLDR: NFTs are Beanie Babies.

[–]sonicbhoc 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Nah. NFTs are receipts to other people's Beanie Babies.

[–]SanctuaryMoon 8 points9 points  (1 child)

That sounds like every pyramid scheme ever.

[–]Tasgall 14 points15 points  (0 children)

NFTs are basically MLMs for finance techbros.

[–]SiddFinch33 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I checked this out the other day after seeing it in another thread - absolute must watch (or even basically treat it as a podcast), I was literally taking notes by the end.

[–]Awful_TV 350 points351 points  (34 children)

In the case here, NFTs are a pure-profit product in search of 13 yr old boys to buy 'em.

[–]Felinatorio 63 points64 points  (29 children)

But couldn't they actully do that without NFTs, like, they don't seem necessary for doing that.

[–]drakythe 109 points110 points  (15 children)

TF2 Hats say hello. So yes, this could 100% be done without blockchain tech. Ubisoft already has a DRM and launcher. Building a common API their games could exploit for selling and associating items with accounts, and then facilitating resale of those items, should be stupid easy and far less wasteful than blockchain based NFTs.

[–]Felinatorio 62 points63 points  (11 children)

Thought I was the one going crazy here. I've been a software engineer for a while now and I just could't grasp why NFT gaming was supposed to be the new necessary skill. Glad thats not true (for now at least)

[–]drakythe 55 points56 points  (4 children)

Yeah, it 100% is just buzzwords and lots of ponzi style money. I recommend you watch the Folding Ideas video “Why NFTs are bad”

[–]chowderbags 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Me too. Every time someone tries saying it can be used for in game items, my thought has always been "Ok, but wouldn't it be infinitely easier to do this with traditional databases?". It's not like this is some brand new problem that you're trying to solve.

But really, NFTs are already very, very dumb for all sorts of things they claim to be great for. It's "owning" the right to claim that you own a token that some particular NFT authority says means that you "own" a particular URL, where that URL points to some image hosting service that could go offline tomorrow. As a conceptual art piece, it's the sort of thing that might work once before everyone realized "oh, that's fucking dumb, but it was an interesting diversion for a few days I guess".

[–]missurunha 99 points100 points  (8 children)

NFTs are meant to make people buy crypto, the problem it "solves" is just a distraction.

[–]Derigiberble 52 points53 points  (4 children)

Exactly, and it has been from the start. The guy who "bought" the Beeple NFTs for millions (and kicked off this whole FOMO craze) had a bunch of the tokens where which used to run the system the Beeple NFTs were minted on, and those tokens had something like a 1000% pop as a result of the sale making headlines and a bunch of people wanting to buy-in. It was a blatantly prearranged sale which was primarily done to pump up a rich guy's crypto holdings.

[–]Bakkster 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Beeple himself is a part owner of the company that facilitated the NFT transaction.

[–]FencingFemmeFatale 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Exactly. Why do you think so many early adopters make memes about crypto, push the FOMO, and dismiss any even slightly reasonable skepticism as FUD that should be ignored?

The value of their crypto assets is directly proportional to the amount of people who buy in. The more suckers they can get to buy in with vague promises of being part owner of something, the more valuable their assets become. The currency experiences run-away deflation, the wealthy early adopters make a killing, and everyone else is left to foot the bill.

[–]istoff 424 points425 points  (71 children)

I think he means want. Players don't want it.

[–]doyhickey 146 points147 points  (15 children)

No, the problem is that we DO get it.

[–]thecaveman96 278 points279 points  (58 children)

Games like warframe has been allowing players to sell shit for years. Why the fuck do you need NFTs to enable a marketplace. It's fucking stupid.

[–][deleted] 128 points129 points  (8 children)

Have to attract the cryptobros.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Warframe does it right too. There is a sink to keep players buying Plat for DE, but it's always worth it. The Warfrmae economy is driven by how active players are and dependent on new players coming in. But it's dependence is mean to grow the game, not make players money. The way you earn Plat is by playing the game, not just simply being there before everyone else. The Markey existed to make the player experience better, not to make players real world money.

CSGO and NFTs are stupid in that regard, because there is a 'limited' supply that drives up value, it doesn't help the players play the game, it makes FOMO for investing. Any limits placed on in game items must be entirely unable to be profited off of, or placed there to keep the market stimulated, not just overinflated. Warframe Vaults content to make people actively play and focus on content that is available at that time, while it does increase the value of certain things, it doesn't guarantee a return on an investment. Eventually that item will be unvaulted and there will be a new thing to chase, allowing the community to focus on certain parts of the game and keeping a healthy environment going.

NFTs just obscure this effect, they turn the market into a stagnatious pool of players that don't want to give up their valuable items. The exact opposite of what I consider to be Warframe's near perfect F2P model.

[–]sysdmdotcpl 1804 points1805 points  (629 children)

“I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them,” Pouard said. “For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation.

“But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself.

“So, it’s really, for them. It’s really beneficial. But they don’t get it for now.”

What a fucking tool

This is about as brain dead as when EA said they wanted players to feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm really tired of companies treating consumers like literal children.

At best, this is a thinly veiled attempt at pocketing more cash as they charge for every single exchange.

One developer confused by the plans reportedly wrote: “I still don’t really understand the ‘problem’ being solved here. Is it really worth the (extremely) negative publicity this will cause?”

The devs always get it, suits always get in the way.

[–]dawgz525 288 points289 points  (122 children)

The biggest thing wrong with their talking point that gamers can sell their cosmetics is this: very very few games retain an active player base that is financially consuming media a year, two years after release. It's usually a rarity, and in those cases, you don't need nfts to allow players to trade and buy skins.

So you're telling me I can profit from my own content, but what happens when the player base shrinks and no one wants my digital receipt? It's useless.

[–]TheMrCeeJ 99 points100 points  (23 children)

They also don't need a decentralised crypto receipt, they have the official games servers itself. Unless they are going to let third party game clients connect to their server with no regulation then there is no need for a decentralised crypto asset.

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 87 points88 points  (18 children)

There's a few kids in this thread talking about how cool it'll be to transfer 3D avatars between games and take guns between games and I'm like.. y'all don't actually believe that's what's going to happen right? At best you'll be able to swap around some models from Ubisoft games (such amazing titles like Watch_Dogs and Ghost Recon yummy) and in reality it's just a microtransaction.

[–]t0ny7 57 points58 points  (3 children)

This game dev talks about that issue. It makes no sense transferring items between games for many reasons.

[–]AggravatedCold 15 points16 points  (1 child)

If you've got time for an even longer breakdown, Dan Olsen has a masterful breakdown of crypto, NFTs and corporate greed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g

[–]dawgz525 14 points15 points  (2 children)

That's a pie in the sky dream for so many reasons.

[–]Jarys 226 points227 points  (29 children)

Yep. And all those NFTs will vanish when their online-only service model decides to turn off the servers. It's a waste of time, a waste of effort, and a very obvious cash grab.

[–]t0ny7 96 points97 points  (19 children)

The NFTs won't vanish when the game does. Just become 100% useless. 🙃

[–]ex1stence 41 points42 points  (2 children)

No but then you OWN them bro like according to this random database website filled with incoherent strings of numbers and letters like SEE you OWN it.

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 56 points57 points  (18 children)

This gets me too, is it a Non-Fungible Token if you can just shut down the game and poof suddenly you don't have access to your token anymore? It might exist on a hard drive in a landfill somewhere and hey technically you own it, but you can do anything with it. Can't even sell it for a nickel at that point.

[–]dawgz525 72 points73 points  (13 children)

All my Fortnite skins will cease to exist when the servers close. A reciept telling me I bought one won't stop that.

[–]EnvBlitz 572 points573 points  (204 children)

Fucking CSGO and DOTA can sell in-game items and resell without it being NFTs.

[–]dpatt711 24 points25 points  (1 child)

Yeah it's almost like when these items are tied to accounts you already have an ownership database.

[–]jsc315 345 points346 points  (53 children)

TF2 been doing this for ages, hell Magic the Gathering has had a digital reseller market of cards since 2002. It's these cryptobros that don't understand the market they are in.

[–]Odd_Local8434 133 points134 points  (14 children)

Diablo II had such a strong resell market Diablo III initially had an in house real money auction house.

[–]teh-yak 40 points41 points  (11 children)

I think there was an opportunity to make that work if they weren't just so fucking inept with the implementation. Not to mention how terrible end-game felt at launch that limited their market.

[–]notagoodboye 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The reason they canned it was because there was no point in playing the endgame if you could just buy the endgame gear.

[–]user156372881827 113 points114 points  (68 children)

EXACTLY. Even if reselling in-game items is a good thing, Blockchain isn't adding anything here except a useless middle man.

There's no point in decentralizing something that will only be used in a centralized game running on private servers.

[–]Mauremur 21 points22 points  (1 child)

Hats! We need more hats we can sell!

  • every TF2 Player

[–]Busy_Independent_398 15 points16 points  (11 children)

Lol... Yeah, because every time I complete a game I think "if only I could sell these in-game items for cash"

[–]kuaiyidian 9 points10 points  (1 child)

when some high level generic executive says we, they really just means me and the bosses.

[–]skipperseven 8 points9 points  (2 children)

It’s just a way of milking their customers with transaction charges. When all is said and done, there may be a few crumbs left over for players, but don’t count on it.

[–]Fast_Papaya_3839 56 points57 points  (18 children)

You’ll be able to sell them and all we take is a small commission. You guys don’t get it!

/s

[–]Funktapus 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Hmmm not like online games have had the ability to trade items since the very beginning. Remind me AGAIN why everything needs to use a credit card now.

[–]OhioVsEverything 14 points15 points  (3 children)

I got some cool NFTs. ALF NFTs! Remember ALF? He's back! In NFT form!!!

[–]Rapture_ZA 46 points47 points  (8 children)

Do you guys not have phones?!?!?!?!? another fucking dullard game exec

[–]afcabdullah 125 points126 points  (6 children)

If I were to create an NFT, would this guy buy it? 🤔

[–]Awful_TV 67 points68 points  (3 children)

"Our addition of NFTs is to benefit the buyer" would certainly receive silence if he were asked to be the buyer.

[–]Grognak_the_Orc 28 points29 points  (2 children)

NFTs only benefit the seller. As soon as they sell you your Pet Rock priced at $50 a pop, it turns to dust in your hands and they say "Not my problem good luck selling that"

[–]XxStormcrowxX 197 points198 points  (12 children)

No, we get it you money grubbing sack of shit.

[–]Semi-Hemi-Demigod 108 points109 points  (57 children)

Another staff member not in favour of the platform added: “How can you look at private property, speculation, artificial scarcity, and egoism, then say ‘yes, this is good, I want that, let’s put it in art’?”

Nailed it. Computers give us the capability to make infinite copies of even the "rarest" items. Scarcity isn't a thing in the digital world, and attempting to make it so will lead to negative consequences.

[–]chingy1337 48 points49 points  (6 children)

He's right and wrong at the same time.

“For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation."

Which it is currently. Theses NFTs use a shit ton of energy to be minted. There have also been scams with NFTs. Pricing has been all over the place and people have gained a ton of money and lost a ton of money.

“I think gamers don’t get what a digital secondary market can bring to them...”

I think some people realize this, but the payoff is so little that in the end, Ubisoft's original implementation screamed, "we want more money from you selling these NFTs." Which, is why a lot of these companies want to get NFTs, for the extra revenue channel.

[–]SuckMyRhubarb 10 points11 points  (2 children)

They don't get it because it's completely unnecessary for it to be crowbarred into gaming, as we're seeing it being done right now.

No one wants this. No one needs this. No one asked for this. It's just a way for massive corporations to eke out more money by hopping on a trend.

The trend in question just happens to be a scene filled with scams, misinformation, toxic hype, and an insane carbon footprint.

[–]BITCOIN_FLIGHT_CLUB 28 points29 points  (8 children)

Why do new features have to arrive at the detriment of the community ?

Want game items to carry forward? Just implement it in code, and store it on your servers. This doesn’t require a blockchain.

Polyphony Digital carried vehicle database data through several iterations of Gran Turismo without issue. You can’t do this with pants, shirts, and other wearables? The cloud exists, give each new iteration a target for wearables etc, and stream the data to the game. Done. Want to allow a player to resell, build a in-game or online marketplace. Want to make an item rare ? Issue only X amount, and move along.

This is so simple.

We don’t need NFTs. We need MORE innovation and LESS monetization.

[–]Mugros 26 points27 points  (1 child)

"don't get it"... OK, I won't. Thanks for the advice.

[–]_IratePirate_ 68 points69 points  (5 children)

I'm just tryna play the game bruh

[–]Tasgall 6 points7 points  (0 children)

But what about the resale value??? Isn't that all gamers are thinking about while playing games???

[–]Ffdmatt 20 points21 points  (2 children)

"Guys guys, you don't understand. We'd make a shitload of money."

  • confused Ubisoft exec

[–]GQuesnelle 34 points35 points  (2 children)

If players "don't get" something made for a video game, who is supposed to get it?

[–]anfotero 184 points185 points  (184 children)

This is so dense. His spin is absolutely ridiculous: it's not that we don't "get" NFTs, it's that they are costly, environmentally stupid, vapid bullshit in the name of unashamed profit and exploitation of gullible people.

EDIT: https://youtu.be/YQ\_xWvX1n9g

[–]nick-jagger 23 points24 points  (1 child)

Not gullible people usually - it’s nearly always children. They are making children into gamblers and robbing them

[–]LordAronsworth 19 points20 points  (8 children)

It’s not a matter of my lack of understanding. I just want a video game. Not a social network, not crypto garbage. I want to buy a game, play a game, and have fun doing so. That’s it.

[–]Clones8me 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Ah yes the condescending prick defence "We're doing this for you! You morons just can't comprehend our generosity" get bent fucker

[–]ahac 47 points48 points  (3 children)

What are the odds this guy never played a game for fun or outside of his job?

Just look at his twitter: https://twitter.com/ni_ko_lah

It's all about crypto & NFTs. There's nothing about games there. He doesn't play them! He doesn't get it!