Josh Hayes did an awesome job explaining NFTs. Worth a watch:
Since some will not watch, let me bastardize his video:
1) NFTs are a picture/song/video REPESENTATION of a unique database location... verified by blockchain... to be a unique location. Like a primary key in MS Access or SQL databases (but over the whole internet).
2) Blockchain DOES NOT verify the picture/media is unique... just the server database location is... so duplicate pictures could be out there... again, the media is just a visual representation of a unique row on a server.
3) you own ZERO rights to the NFT displayed, instead you own the server location (row
#123456 on server X). Oh, and the database administrator can change in the future what image is displayed by your location.
4) Many NFTs are computer generated, because they need millions of images to sell. Example: The monkey NFTs are computer generated by mixing portions of an image together into unique combinations (e.g. top of head, eye region, mouth region). Another example is straight up theft of images online by computer algorithms.
5) only about 300k people own NFTs, and a small percentage own 80% of all NFTs.
6) Insider trading to increased the perceived value of a database location (NFT) is rampant (I can keep selling to myself... but people won't know it's me... in order to give the impression a specific NFT is really in demand and worth a lot of $... then I sell it for real to a bagholder.)
7) Game item NFTs are not transferable to other games, don't buy into that. You cannot use those items in other games.
8) Yes, complete scam. It is a pyramid scam, it requires a massive amount of new bagholders to keep growing. You own a server location only, there are unlimited amount of locations that can be created (unlike Bitcoin).
9) "NFT Bros" is the terminology used for the apologists and people pushing/defending this scam in posts.
--- Now my opinion, using NFTs to have unique server locations can be useful for transactions or database security (e.g. prevent duping of items in a MMORPG). However, to buy a NFT for collecting value... ponzi scam. Now, if an NFT came with a copyright of the original media... that would be different.
Comments
It's just like everything else, you have someone against something, and people who want to believe one over the other choose to.
It just shows how entrenched people will be in their beliefs. Understand the technology and you'll understand what can and can't be done.
For example, NFTs of COURSE can be brought from one game to the next. It actually has nothing to do with what the NFT is to begin with, or its representation from one game to the next.
Super funny that people think it's some sort of trick that this is possible, it just goes to show you how little they actually know. The image connected to the token doesn't have to be the representation of the item in game, it only needs to read the hash to translate to an in game asset.
Are any of the points raised by the streamer valid, you didn't seem to address any of them specifically.
You narrowly focused on probably the least useful purpose of NFTs, transferring them between games which I feel is mostly a non starter, for reasons outlined by Raph Koster and others in recent articles.
More research required I think.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I've never been one to lie about what is possible, or push an agenda, especially when it comes to blockchain.
NFTs with zero utility, which is most of them on the market, are completely worthless. Are they ponzi schemes? Some probably are. Perceptual value sinks with no real value. Some have added value attached, like providing access to certain communities, but even then the NFT itself is nothing more than a virtual hashed VIP pass.
But gaming NFTs do have utility. Never believe anyone, even me, on face value. Do your research.
Raph Koster is building a blockchain game right now. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with...
But what will people do when more blockchain games are doing collaborations? Right now people say you can't bring an NFT from one thing to the next, but collaborations are already in the works, even if they aren't mainstream. But what happens when they are?
Maybe each NFT isn't going to be unique within a game. Then again, maybe it will. Maybe collaborations will be deemed "not worth it" by the majority of blockchain game companies. But it doesn't stop the technology from being able to actually DO it. That's what people need to realize. Even Raph Koster understands that.
NFT's are nothing more than a glorified stamp collection, except that when a switch, letters or numbers are pressed, your stamps can instantly and magically disappear.
You could always start your stamps on fire and make them disappear too I guess.
But there is a definite difference.
I don't know about NFT's but some stamps are worth a lot of money. Hope you don't have to wait like stamps for NFT's to be worth anything.
Unless you can find somebody to buy them for big bucks I guess.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
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You don't NEED blockchain to do anything. There is very rarely a singular case where only one thing will ever work in a situation. There are many different ways to do similar things, but when it comes to gaming blockchain is of particular interest because it (in the best possible sense) encompasses a lot of different aspects without having to build it from scratch.
I mean blockchain isn't the first distributed database. It didn't reinvent the wheel. It just became a tool that a lot of developers see the value in.
It's not all bad. I couldn't care less about the speculative investing. I think it's a big part of why the tech has taken such a turn. It never had the chance to develop organically. Once scammers found out they could exploit it, suddenly that's all people think it is.
"Look, you don't have to trust me, we use Blockchain"
We still shouldn't trust them.
NFT's are for their benefit, not ours.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
While I've been here telling what, why, and what to look for this is what I've done. The thing is for the price of the top fractured presale pack anyone here could have begun to do the same.
Instead of just throwing money at these same games with the same pitch book getting the same on paper pre-sale pack you could have invested in a game, a community, property and yourself.
I know some of you here claim to be rich and well off, not in need of anything. Good for you. To others on this very forum who are not was well-to-do, today, 350-400 invested in a good game can bring meaningful change.
The same due diligence you do when looking for a new game on a limited budget, do it in the nft gaming space.
In this day and age there is no reason to be donating money to a game developer that may or may not deliver and getting 0 in return.
NFT's in games do benefit the developers. It doesn't necessarily not benefit gamers. In some ways it could benefit gamers who like play to earn games.
In my opinion if NFTs were used right, most people wouldn't think twice about their use. The problem is it's being sold by a lot of people who you shouldn't trust.
That's why I don't care about the crash. I feel like the faster we get speculative investors out of the way the better of it will be for the few cases where we could see some okay uses.
While players waited they traded over 1.2k ETH in Champions alone, all the while talking to the devs every night.
A1 experience
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Instead of like 98% of the projects out there going straight for the most technically complicated thing on earth plus blockchain, and asking gamers to hold the bag until then. They went with what can be made fun and done now, while organically growing the base and IP.
Will the mmo ever come? Idk, I hope so these dudes aint not joke. While we wait we will be having a great time and earning ETH all the while.
look up collaborations with games like little rocks or just do research on metaverse collaborations, or read Raph Kosters blog, even he states that it's possible only as long as you have the rights to do so (which is why it's important that it's a collaboration, and not that you simply "own something" and decide to use the property). You think the various metaverses in development right now are any different than other games?
If you can sell a jpg image of an nft and it shows up in the metaverse in the future, it's no different than creating a game asset tied to a token, and moving that token to a different game, that reads it as a different asset. To simplify it, you could do this even without a token at all...
The NFT itself doesn't make this possible... the NFT only prohibits the access of the asset on a platform that houses the collaboration.
The big question is whether games will do that. Blockchain games where NFTs are the point of the game and gameplay really isn't probably will to some degree. Apart from that, I expect that it will be limited to effectively cosmetic cross-promotional deals.
Not sure if your referring to John Hayes or me... I've been here since 2008... 14 years this May. Seniority check.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee