Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s co-CEO, comments in a new statement that there is no point in implementing blockchain technology if it doesn’t make games ‘fun’.
It’s a start, but hopefully they drop the idea altogether It’s bad enough as it is, we don’t need more.
I can’t conceive of a single fun use-case for blockchain in games. With any luck, neither can they.
What use outside of microtransactions would there be anyway?
Actually owning games, skins, guns, etc and being able to use them across games
Also resale
You can actually own games by buying DRM-free. A DRM-free installer can be backed up and used forever, even offline, which is better than relying on blockchain verification.
Games are also better by having no microtransactions than by being able to resell some fictional sword from a lootbox. If I want to have the best weapons in Skyrim I can just cheat it instead of paying anyone for it. There is no point or benefit in attaching monetary value to individual instances of fictional digital game objects, because in the system of the game that’s just some bits flipped, there aren’t any production costs.
Oh, so you have no idea how games work
Hopefully block chain technology will die off and become irrelevant in a couple of years. So far any attempt at using it seems to make a dumpster fire.
That’s cause the way its been presented to the public stinks and caters to bag holders.
It just in general is pretty bad, for most use cases a traditional relational database is just … better
Beyond technological throughput constraints, I just genuinely don’t want the real life commodificaiton of in-game resources.
I don’t want a market existing around selling my virtual jacket in game, I don’t want loan-terms from fake in-game banks backed by a real-life commodity determining the investment in my guild, I don’t want to think about the macroeconomic impact of an expansion releasing and how that affects the value of my character.
If a crypto-game actually delivered on the above I bet it would have a playerbase (people who think Eve is too casual), but they’re overwhelmingly crowd-funding/vc-funding cash grabs whose cypto-technological utility is usually less functional than that of the steam marketplace.
I recognize I’m someone who will never want to play a game that couples its virtual economy to the real-economy (and I think the overwhelming majority of players feel the same way).
Yeah I play games to enjoy the game, not to speculate on real money investments.
If you want confetti every time you make a trade, just play Robinhood.
Why the scare quote around fun? He’s right. There is no point in adding something to a game that doesn’t make it more fun.
