As the crypto bubble continues to expand, NFTs have ballooned as well. The cryptoart space is worth millions upon millions of dollars, despite having a miniscule population. However, as NFTs start to weasel their way into video games, game developers have come out to crush the impossible dreams of cryptobros.
What do cryptobros think NFTs do?
As the idea of cryptoart and Metaverse technology continues to grow, cryptobros have lofty ideas for the space. One of more widespread fallacies surrounding the technology is the idea that a single NFT can be used anywhere.
For example, cryptobros believe that an NFT can be used across Metaverses. If you own a virtual T-Shirt in one Metaverse, you'll be able to use that in any other Metaverse. If you own an ugly NFT yacht in one world, you can drive it in another.
Of course, this doesn't account for the differences between Metaverses; Horizon Worlds and Sandbox both have completely different model proportions and art styles. Characters in Horizon Worlds don't even have legs, so your NFT pants obviously won't work.
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Game developers school NFT snake oil salesmen
This impossible dream has since expanded to video games, much to the ire of game developers. The fervour was ignited by a tweet from Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda. In the tweet, Shinoda said:
“NFTs don’t have to be jpgs. Imagine taking your favourite skin from Valorant, and using it [in] Fortnite. And not paying extra, because you own it. Then using it in CoD, Minecraft, even Twitter, IG.”
Shinoda’s statement was immediately full of game developers explaining that Shinoda — and other NFT Bros — have no idea how development actually works. Nuclear Throne developer Rami Ismail explained that “interoperability barely works in one game series made by one developer” let alone every game in existence.
The Last of Us and Crysis developer Michael Barclay chimed in. He explained: “Lol, we couldn’t even get the same grass from Crysis into another SKU of Crysis. How you gonnae get Sulfuras into Call of Duty?
Long-time Forza Horizon developer Adrian Cottrell revealed that moving a single asset from one game to another game to months of work. High Moon Studios developer Nina Marotta explained that moving a single weapon from one Call of Duty game to another takes “serious engineering work”.
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Games are tricky, held together by duct tape
The reality is that development is incredibly hard. Introducing an asset on something as simple as a website can break countless things. The complexity of video games — from Tetris to Red Dead Redemption 2 — can result in so many issues. Essentially, most games are held together by duct tape, willpower and developer ingenuity.
Even if every game ran on the same version of the same game engine, moving assets between your favourite games is an impossibly stupid idea. That's without even discussing monetisation issues, IP complications and contracts surrounding developer asset creation.
Just like many other ideas brought up by NFT peddlers, it’s all snake oil. It’s all fake advertising for a future of buying assets that is more expensive, resource intensive and impractical than before. If cryptocurrency is the main scam, NFTs are just the side hustle.
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