No NFTs in Minecraft, Mojang Says (pcgamer.com) 23
Mojang has drawn a line in the sand against NFTs in Minecraft, saying in an update posted today that NFT integration with the game is "generally not something we will support or allow." From a report: The update begins with a quick rundown of what NFTs are, including a note about their extreme volatility, before laying out the current policies on Minecraft servers. The overall goal of those policies, Mojang said, is "to ensure that Minecraft remains a community where everyone has access to the same content." NFTs, on the other hand, are specifically designed to "create models of scarcity and exclusion," which obviously conflicts with that principle. And so, they're out.
"To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilized by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset," Mojang wrote. The update was apparently prompted by the fact that numerous Minecraft-associated NFTs and play-to-earn servers are already available, taking advantage of the gap in official policy and dividing the community into "the haves and the have-nots," Mojang said.
"To ensure that Minecraft players have a safe and inclusive experience, blockchain technologies are not permitted to be integrated inside our client and server applications, nor may Minecraft in-game content such as worlds, skins, persona items, or other mods, be utilized by blockchain technology to create a scarce digital asset," Mojang wrote. The update was apparently prompted by the fact that numerous Minecraft-associated NFTs and play-to-earn servers are already available, taking advantage of the gap in official policy and dividing the community into "the haves and the have-nots," Mojang said.
Sanity (Score:2)
Glad to see a developer showing some sanity regarding the current NFT type. They're a terrible fit for videogames anyhow, unless you're employing your own get-rich-quick schemes at the expense of other suckers.
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To be fair, NFTs have had a really shitty 2022. Even that silly yacht club cafe has stopped accepting crypto.
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It's not the year that's to blame. It's just the hype bubble bursting, as was inevitable when the market got crowded and the novelty wore off.
Ban Hammer (Score:2)
No need (Score:2)
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I run a Paper Minecraft server for myself and a few friends.
Re: No need (Score:1)
The whole idea is dumb (Score:4, Insightful)
The pitch is, you get an item, like a skin, in a game and it's an NFT so you can... do NFT stuff with it? Sell it? Take it to another game? NFTs don't guarantee ANY of that functionality, as each game studio would have to build that in, and why would they allow any of it? Skins from other games? Yeah, copyright says: not going to happen unless it is the same studio, and even then, it's immersion breaking for most games. Buying and selling skins and items? Only if they get a cut and that means a central broker and no reason for it being an NFT.
Gaming with microtransactions is an addiction type business model. 90% of your revenue comes from 10% of your customers, the addicts. These are the only folks who would even begin to care about this stuff, 90% of gamers don't really care and won't spend hundreds of dollars on in-game purchases. The whole NFT thing is just a pyramid scheme , with some money laundering as a side business. And the hype has broken, so now it's just bag-holders trying to convince everyone else that their tulips are still worth millions.
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Every person proposing/cheerleading NFTs in games as "You can use them across games" is clueless about how game design and development works.
I'm not even going to bother about "being nice" about it anymore. Unless you have the NFTs in the same company, it's never going to work that way, and in that case, why have NFTs to begin with.
It's just such an utterly bizarre train of thought, that it's mind boggling some people actually take it seriously.
A solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.
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A problem exists, which is that only a handful of large games can be run as a service with huge microtransaction income. Lots of small games can make good money getting whales too, but there's only room for a couple GTA Onlines and FIFAs. They think NFTs are the solution to make every AAA game like that, because they are just that stupid.
The problem exists, the solution does not, but they are incapable to acknowledge it for the moment. They just need to fail all over again.
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Those who take it seriously have almost no idea how any of it actually works.
Re:The whole idea is dumb (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone claiming that is clueless to begin with.
Because if you know how things work on the Internet, if you could buy NFTs and use them across games, you know what would happen? Penis NFTs everywhere. Sure, EA and the like won't make it, but some indie studio will definitely make the "Penis NFT Game" where you become a "member" and your "gun" squirts you know what.
It will happen within 5 seconds of someone allowing custom skins to be used across games.
And the only way to fix it would be to block it - so only EA games will let you do it between EA games, in which case the whole "use between games" becomes silly - if you can only use it with EA games, then NFTs using a blockchain are pointless - just have the EA server say "you can use this skin" and track the "ownership" that way, just like how games on Steam or Origin or other things are tracked right now.
I think there was rumblings of Unity adding it, to which I told a game developer Penis Game will be the most popular paid game 5 seconds after that happens.
There was no satisfactory solution - you could have users opt-in to custom skins, but you can bet that will probably be disabled shortly after getting invaded by penises on an online match.
However, government regulation will be sure to follow about 10 seconds afterwards - the length of time before a parent accidentally walks in and discovers their daughter playing online against a bunch of well, you know.
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In general, I don't see how gamers would want NFTs in this fashion anyway. The mention of mining something in one MMO, taking it to another, all the while people throwing money in for P2W just would turn the entire gaming ecosystem (be it console or PC) into the (IMHO) festering cesspit mobile gaming has become, where one has to spend cash and lots of it in order to get anywhere in a game.
NFTs used in this manner will kill the gaming industry completely. Why bother taking the time and effort prepping to r
Its a verblen good (Score:2)
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Ownership is a bundle of many separate rights, not a single thing. And the rights included in the bundle are dependent on what type of property you are talking about. This is intellectual property. You will never own it. Meaning, you might own an NFT, but that is NOT the same thing. You own a link to something, and you hope that link doesn't go dead. You do not have the right to resell the actual IP. You have the right to sell the link. You can not reproduce it, either. You can not use it in your own game t
Nice narrative (Score:3)
play to earn? (Score:2)
How does that work anyway? Do you have to load a mining mod in your mining game?
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How does that work anyway? Do you have to load a mining mod in your mining game?
Yo dawg, I heard you like mining, so I put a miner in your mining game so you can mine while you mine.
So no Bored Apes in Minecraft? (Score:2)
I invested all my life savings in a picture of a Bored Ape picking his nose.
I could have made some money off it in Minecraft if my Ape wasn't stolen already.
What a missed opportunity (Score:2)
They could have brought new flower content and said "But since you're so into tulips, we have some in MC now too".