Reggie Fils-Aimé really wants us to try this blockchain, NFT and metaverse stuff
Reggie continues to make the rounds promoting his book Disrupts the game, now three months old as his press tour continues. And while he was in his last spin with Reverse he talked a little bit about accessibility and some other important topics, he spent a lot more time asking us all to really, really, think about trying this metaverse thing.
“I think the true metaverse will have a common currency and common development infrastructure. It will be highly social in a way that’s digital but also allows you to interact with your real friends and real experiences,” says Reggie. “That’s the way I define metaverse on, and I believe in that vision.”
Now, before you @ him on Twitter link to that one Dan Olson video, Reggie’s vision of the metaverse is no different from, say, Mark Zuckerberg’s. He seeks expansion and connection for game worlds such as Roblox and Fortnite that already function as a kind of hybrid between games and social platforms. In his opinion, people overuse the label “metaverse” itself, comparing it to the time in the 90s when people overused the term “internet” because they didn’t yet understand it. And he believes that companies in the industry must be open to new technologies in order to exploit them.
He extends his cautious idealism not only to the concept of a virtual metaverse, but to the blockchain and NFT technologies that have been so controversial in the last couple of years. “I believe in blockchain technology and what it can potentially unlock in terms of keeping your content tied to you versus tied to the software or the platform,” he says. “As a way to have content that I own that represents some sort of brand value, I think NFTs could be very interesting.” However, he notes that these technologies need to be baked into the game design from the start rather than being thrown on randomly post-hoc. He concludes his discussion of the topic by noting that the poles of the gaming industry are shifting, specifically mentioning China as a place that is innovating in such technologies.
I will refrain from editing much. Reggie is just a guy with his own sensibilities, and this isn’t even the first time he’s gone on the record saying he’s interested in these possibilities for the gaming sphere. But I will note that he doesn’t explicitly outline how he envisions blockchain or NFT integration in a game, or that he has a specific idea of how a platform might evolve into a metaverse he envisions. Not that it’s his job to do so, per se, but his words come across as more vague optimism than a truly considerate plan. And such hazy hope is unlikely to inspire those deadset against blockchains and the like to give it a shot.
