The internet is a maelstrom of talk – even brief exposure can make you wish everyone would just shut up – but does it really matter? Make the chorus of social media critics indeed do anything? This is the internet’s biggest insecurity. Self-aware social media users diagnose each other with poster disease (opens in a new tab) and sarcastically cheer “we did it, Reddit” to express that, no, posting on the internet didn’t save the day.
Are publishers pulling back from NFTs because they don’t see the value in them, or because they’re mercilessly mocked online every time they talk about them?
Internet bullying has certainly caused some things for better or for worse. Anger around loot boxes was at least somewhat responsible for bringing it to the attention of politicians, leading to the ongoing decline of the practice today. We had them change the ugly movie Sonic to the boring movie Sonic. I also wonder where the absence of an internet mob was felt: had CS:GO keys and the Steam Community Market been met with the kind of resistance Valve saw when it tried to add paid mods to Steam, how would things be different today?
That brings me to the question I want to ask here: Are game publishers shying away from NFTs because they don’t see the value in them, or because they’re mercilessly mocked and harangued online every time they talk about them?
As an example, in late 2021, Discord CEO Jason Citron teased NFT integration for the chat app, and thousands of people responded to say “no thanks” in a variety of less polite tones; the most shared responses suggested canceling Discord Nitro subscriptions. Two days and thousands of comments later, Citron said the screenshot was just an “internal concept” that the company had no plans to implement, and that he would share more soon. He has yet to share more, though he may just be biding his time.
Stalker studio GSC Game World, Worms developer Team17 and voice actor Troy Baker also returned to NFT projects after being booed online. After hinting that NFTs are “the future” of gaming in 2021, EA CEO Andrew Wilson later clarified (after much internet chatter) that he was only talking about fundraising in general. Back in April, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra said that “nobody does NFTs” at the studio in response to an Activision Blizzard survey designed to gauge public interest in them — I guess the company got the answer.
Ubisoft is one of the few major companies that actually came to fruition. Not deterred by comments such as (opens in a new tab) “this is still the stupidest and most pointless thing in the damn world,” the publisher gave non-fungible goodies a brief try in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Today, these NFTs are worthless, Breakpoint is no longer updated, and Ubisoft now says it was all just a research project, not to be taken too seriously.
Every NFT guy looks at video games and thinks “what if you could own Mario’s hat” and everyone else says “are you fucking stupid and tall?”2 January 2022
Perhaps the internet’s anti-NFT rhetoric is just pushing mainstream gaming companies towards the perspective on NFTs they would have taken anyway: Curious but cautious, especially after all the fraud and theft seen in the last couple of years, the volatility of cryptocurrency markets, and the lack of mainstream interest to actually buy them. Ubisoft might be telling the truth when it says it was just kidding: If it had really been all-in on profiting from NFTs, would it have started with gun skins for one of the least popular games?
There are many pro-NFT commentators online as well, and not all traditional game publishers have been dissuaded. Among the most bullish has been Square Enix, which in November somewhat quietly announced (opens in a new tab) Symbiogenesis, a “digital collectible art project” made not for Square Enix fans, but for “Web3 fans.” It smacks of Ubisoft’s half-heartedness.
SQUARE ENIX DOING NFT SHIT FUCK pic.twitter.com/Mmfxes4MNm28 April 2021
How come I only hear about their virtues from meme-brained financial gurus and uncool celebrities like Tom Brady?
Beneath the usual complaints that they are environmentally costly and more or less stupid, I think NFTs inspire so much pushback on social media because they seem to corrupt something that people actually do wishes. Uniformity is everywhere in this era of mass production, and what started on assembly lines was almost perfected by computers, which can duplicate data almost instantly. From that perspective, the scarcity and uniqueness of NFTs can be seen as subversive: They push against the flow of history. It feels like something could be cool with it, sort of. But not in this way. While individual NFTs are unique, the obvious goal for companies is to do what they always do and mass produce the unique. The majority of NFTs are just another type of mass-produced plastic tchotchke, or commemorative gold coins like the ones sold on TV at 2am. They contain nothing that is good about handmade, unique items; all they do is irradiate the concept with high-end art collector snobbery and Beanie Baby-style financial speculation. What is a “Web3 fan” other than a fan of buying and owning things? Isn’t this about art?
Most of the time I think it’s just a fad, but every now and then I come across the preaching of a passionate Web3 believer and start to wonder if I’m losing it. Do I Want to make money playing video games? The thought makes me want to turn off my screen forever, but I guess I also said iPads were a stupid idea, and then Apple sold 300,000 of them the first day. But then, iPads are real things, and none of this feels real. Remember that NFT guy who claimed he burned a Frida Kahlo drawing? Or when Seth Green’s monkey was stolen and then he begged for its return as if it were a kidnapped child? Why hasn’t anyone said “just kidding?” If NFTs are indeed a transformative technology, why do I only hear about their virtues from meme-brained financial gurus and uncool celebrities like Tom Brady?
I think the internet’s NFT bullying has had an effect on mainstream game publishers: if we’d all just shrugged it off, they’d be trying far more NFT weapon skins by now. Even if it hasn’t, maybe making fun of things online is something we do for each other, to remind us all of what’s real and confirm the overwhelming feeling that it’s all very stupid. And I think that’s beautiful.
To make this clear: I want nothing to do with any crypto project, even if your blockchain “game” has a pettable dog. Buy your planet-burning scam somewhere else.12 August 2022
