I am by no means shocked that Microsoft’s Minecraft is not that interested in NFTs and blockchain technologies regarding Minecraft. At least in the current state of affairs of things. I also would not be shocked if they released their own blockchain of sorts in the future or one day changes their mind.
Recently Microsoft’s Minecraft put out a statement giving an advanced warning that they plan on updating their terms and conditions. Where they don’t intend to support or allow things like NFTs in their game.
While a lot of people are dogpiling on Microsoft’s Minecraft for being “gatekeepers,” “anti-crypto,” and god forbid “boomers.” It became quite clear after reading through the announcement that Minecraft is not happy with the NFT crowd in general for taking the fun out of gaming and turning it into a giant greed feast. That is how many non-blockchain gamers view NFTs in general and since that is mostly the base of Minecraft players it’s not shocking they are going the direction they are.
That is right a lot of gamers outside of crypto generally view NFTs in gaming like they view Diablo Immortal. A cash grab of stupidity where people run around acting like they are better than everyone else because they can afford to drop $50k+ on in-game items.
The crypto gaming community, in general, is to be blamed for this. They created the very culture of FOMO and massive speculation fueled by scarcity. Where everyone gets wrecked 10 mins after launch and it’s a race of not being the last one to hold the inflated bag of air. They turned the fun of gaming into the endless quest to try and make 10 cents an hour from gaming by spending insane amounts of money.
I’m sure that last statement by me many will find rather funny. As I am someone who plays non-blockchain gaming, real cash economy games, and yes blockchain games. You might also notice my blog has been rather void of talking about blockchain games for a while. While I’m sure that will change at some point. I have as well grown tired of the blockchain gaming insanity out there myself.
Microsoft’s Minecraft in their statement brings up many concerns of gamers getting rugged pulled just not in those exact words. Minecraft and crypto do not have a greatest long history with each other. So I’m not shocked they have their massive concerns.
I recall back in the day pre $1,200 BTC days there were a few Minecraft BTC casinos servers. Some of those servers had rigged slot machines that you could “play.” They were all about trying to lure people in with free offers, getting them to deposit crypto in exchange for an in-game coin balance. That player would then go off to lose on slot machines or strange games set up.
I use to go around claiming all the free offers. Hitting up the BTC faucet and then cashing out and running. Many people back then thought they were “clever” by going around and only playing at the casinos that allowed you to withdraw the “free” offer. Well of course they were going to let you get $3 when they had hopes you would deposit $300+ and lose it all moments later.
Playing Minecraft also had other involvements with BTC long before NFTs. I forget the name of the Minecraft server I played on but they paid out weekly based on how many “unique” blocks you removed or placed on their server with BTC. I was making more BTC back then digging up blocks in the Minecraft Nether then my ASIC block erupts were getting for mining in a pool.
Everyone on that server was also a target for scammers. To be able to get paid weekly you had to sign up on the forums by starting your character’s name and wallet address. Naturally, people would go through the wallet addresses and target those that had BTC. Usually right after payout for the week
I also recall quite some funny posts on the blockchain forums about how Minecraft servers were “corrupting” the minds of children back in the day. Some people had lost their minds that teens were gambling online or were receiving payment for playing on a Minecraft server.
I notice Microsoft’s Minecraft in their announcement stayed away from talking about gambling or the mention of their target demographic age for the game. They instead choose to use words like “safe and inclusive experience.”
We have to remember that Microsoft’s Minecraft is not the same game many used to play back in the day. Back then when people like me had a YouTube channel that would sometimes make horrible videos about Minecraft. What glory days those were.
Instead, Microsoft’s Minecraft has put a lot of resources into turning its game into a learning tool for children. It is quite clear that is of huge importance for them moving forward. This makes a lot of sense why they don’t like how NFTs are viewed by normal people or the risk it brings to the large population of children that play their game.
I do however believe the article struggles with a little bit of their understanding of NFTs. They view any digital file as something that anyone can copy or delete whenever they want. That is missing the point of where blockchain and proving ownership come into play. However, that is not what the post's main focus is on anyways.
When you get down to it. Kids face wealth inequality in the real world all the time. Growing up you were either the kid with that latest trendy clothing, $100+ shoes, and the latest technology or the kid that had to wear hand-me-downs and garage sales clothing.
Before NFTs and P2W ran rampant in gaming. Gaming was a way for people from all walks of life around the world to be on an equal as footing you could get at the start. As long as they could play the game and had enough free time to keep up with everyone else. Gaming was also about having fun.
In a world where one kid could have parents who can afford to buy them a $5k NFT skin that unlocks special access to areas. That other kids have no other way of getting into those areas. I frankly don’t see Microsoft’s Minecraft getting behind that anytime soon.
There is also the whole thing of how “open” the cryptocurrency community is about public wallet addresses. If a kid had a $5k NFT and anyone could find that wallet and then associate that wallet with a kid playing a video game that they can contact. I don’t even want to know the kind of attention that would be sent to that child.
Perhaps a way of resolving this is if there are age-restricted 18+ servers out there. I have not played in forever so for all I know that could already be a thing. Granted I feel that is kind of odd to have since they make the game for young children and not adults.
I also feel like does it matter? Cryptocurrency tried to go mainstream on Minecraft and they were just not having it. Cryptocurrency never needed Minecraft’s blessing back in the day when we had Minecraft servers running casinos and other things. This is already breaking the terms of use for the game anyways yet they still go on.
Minecraft is also quite an old game by now that has been cloned 1000 times over. If anything, now would be the opportunity for any company that made a Minecraft clone to greet the cryptocurrency community with open arms.
I also wish Minecraft good luck in their attempt to stop the modding community fully. Maybe they take out the biggest targets but they will never get them all. I doubt there is a single rule that is not currently being broken 10k ways to Sunday in their terms. That is not going slow down anytime soon just because they announce some up-and-coming changes.
A lot of people like me have also moved far beyond Minecraft many years ago. I never even got my Minecraft account merged over when Microsoft bought it how many years ago? People should stop expecting the world to conform to cryptocurrency. Instead, they should just continue building and let the world come to them if it wants.
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Content was written by @Enjar.
I've played my part of NFT games, but I'm gonna side with Microsoft's decision this time. Their community have a lot of kids, and kids and very easily influenced. Show them a shiny thing and tell something about it, and they will want it no matter what. There are cases where kids would go spend $3k on FIFA points on their parent's credit card.
I'm not against NFT's, for me, they're just a technology with the purpose of solving a problem, but this doesn't make them special, there are another solution out there as well.
This might be more of a personal opinion, but I rather play something for the experience that the game developer intended to share, than just grinding for a few cents per hour.
Indeed, if you remove the ability in so many of the games out there to earn a few cents there is not much left to a lot of those kinds of games.
There was this one blockchain game I played where this guy spent everything he had on land. He would go on and on about how it was going to be life-changing money. So I asked how many years would it take to break even and he told me it use to be 1 year, then 5 years, and then he was hoping within 10 years. If I’m not mistaken the game he was playing is now dead and that is that.
Ouch. I just recall some kind of reviving a goldfish in some game where you had to feed fish. Racking up insane charges after failing to keep the fish alive. Just mind-blowing the amount of greed some games have.
For me, I just see them as means to end in allowing a player to cash out of a game once they are done playing. People have been doing that long before NFTs and they will keep doing so with or without them.
Such a boomer move on their part. Solely focused on potential risks and no focus on the potential rewards/growth.
Not like they going to stop the modding community in the end if the modders want to go full steam ahead.
Could they have come up with a better solution at the end? Perhaps but I don’t think people in crypto really understand how much non-blockchain gamers HATE NFTS and everything that comes with them.
True, but now they can go in full lawsuit mode towards anyone that tries to purposefully abuse the system.
I think partnering up with an established nft brand would have been a better route. I don't think non-blockchain gamers hate nft's. It's just new and still very beta. But most of them are currently paying for in-game skins and in-game tokens already. So, they're practically halfway there.
I just think they just don't want the headache that comes along with it. The constant moderation and governance. The constant fluctuation of value of the in-game tokens or NFTs. And millions of people will hold them responsible if they think they were going to make a quick buck and greed makes the value plummet.
There are people in this world that will spend $1k on a skin in a game while calling NFTS scams saying they won't go near cryptocurrency. They are filled with hate for NFT games.
Heck one of the games I play is a real cash eco game. Anytime someone brings up crypto on the forums a wave of anti-crypto comments bombard those threads.
You would think when a game has a fixed 1:10 in and out of the game that they are already “halfway” there to accepting things like stable coins, nfts, and crypto. But NO there are many people that hate crypto to the bone and do not want it in any games they play.
Yeah.. I spoke to some gamers and they confirmed the hatred towards nfts and crypto.
I guess we have to wait until it's more mainstream
There are some major hurdles to overcome.
Outside of blockchain games paying hundreds or thousands to advance in a game is pay to win. Inside blockchain gaming that is seen as normal how a blockchain game is.
Quite many are willing to spend 100 hours camping or doing an epic quest chain for a ring and can get a sense of accomplishment from doing so. Once you can buy that ring for $1 as NFT off the marketplace the amount of time spent grinding for it just seems like a waste of time.
Quite a lot of blockchain games release as a bare minimum product. Gamers over the years have gotten tired of that they want full release and deep games now.
Many blockchain games crowd fund via tokens and other offerings where you have to wait years if ever for the game to be fully out. A lot of gamers are tired of the presale, alpha/beta release, and other things. They just want to pay $9.99-59.99 and get a full game today.
There is also the scarcity issue. Gamers are fine knowing that an item might only have a .000001% drop chance. However, if it was known there are only 10 of some crazy items and all 10 were already where found before the game was even fully released. That will not sit right for many knowing they never had a chance and now have to pay insane prices.
Some of these things can be overcome as blockchain gaming matures further. Others are going to have a stigma for quite a few years to come. It’s not helping any when people run around with not so great looking pixie art claiming It has a floor of 50 ETH and they are not selling till it's worth 500 ETH.
Damn... just reading your explanation, it makes total sense.
It's the whole upcoming entrepreneur / seasoned entrepreneur debate:
I guess it is somewhere in between. Like you said, it needs to mature more.
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