Square Enix Promises A Sickening NFT Future (The Jimquisition)
Added 2022-01-03 14:19:43 +0000 UTCSquare Enix has ripped off the mask to show just how cynical, just how exploitative, just how greedy the game industry is. As it embraces the Metaverse, the Blockchain, and NFTs, it promises a truly horrible future for gaming.
This is the culmination of everything the "AAA" industry has been working towards. The turning of digital goods into a mass market where the customer gets literally nothing in return for everything. Where gaming itself becomes a job, where the virtual world is just as corporatized and monetized as the real one.
Thank you, Square Enix, for nakedly admitting just how disgusting you are.
Comments
I watched those recently... and thought about Steph saying something along the lines - in a previous video of theirs - of 'the industry is rotten to the core and needs to be burnt down'. Yes, yes it is. I try to keep the outrage to a minimum because idle outrage only makes one more desensitised but do they it make it difficult.
Fermin Ayucar
2022-01-04 15:37:03 +0000 UTCI recently watched those Roblox videos and came here to say the same thing. While watching this Jimquisition, I turned to my husband and said, "It sounds like Roblox for adults."
Jewelsmith
2022-01-04 06:55:10 +0000 UTCWhile listening to the letter and the contextualization I had to think about People Make Games' Video(s) about Roblox (I recommend the one that says that Roblox pressured them into deleting their first one, so they dug deeper) and how much of that is already realized in that to kids marketed game that is deeply exploitative (and puts any responsibilities away by outsourcing the gatherings to Discord, where also child labor, child (s*xual) assault, grooming and other stuff happens). It feels really similar to what SE describes, but added with some buzzwords. Not sure if James Stephanie has spoken about it (recently).
Crowmy
2022-01-04 00:57:08 +0000 UTC"We want you to have rewards for making things for our games!" Really? Because the guys who made things like League of Legends sure got everyone to shut down the ability to be rewarded by claiming everything done with any toolset as not the creator's but the tool license holder's.
Trevor Bond
2022-01-03 21:29:33 +0000 UTCAs someone who's spent a decent chunk of their adult life defending the BBC from conflicting accusations of political bias (more often than not people with whom I'm politically aligned) and telling people that it's a long way from perfect but it's still a major asset to a media space that would otherwise be nothing but people screaming at each other, I'm utterly fucking ashamed. Given the stated campaign strategy of our... I'm forced by the confines of language to call them a 'government,' I imagine the BBC higher-ups have been lent on by that shower but it's no excuse. There are lines in the sand and some of what they've given air to recently is beyond belief. Great episode, too, by the way.
Kav
2022-01-03 20:27:53 +0000 UTCRemember when Facebook lied so strongly about how well their video content was doing it drove basically the entire internet to "pivot to video" and then dozens and dozens of sites died because of it? Yeah Meta is going to be a rip roaring success that we all need to pivot to ASAP
Tyler Kurth
2022-01-03 19:34:27 +0000 UTCHow about instead of giving a single game company 60 bucks, I invest the 60 bucks into a stock market index fund. Then the Game Company gives me a game when I show them a copy of my investment receipt. I call it: "Decentralized Game Purchasing". I'm sure some companies who "want to make money directly" will voice some small opposition, but I'm sure there is a large and growing sector of game companies that are just enthusiastic about the industry and would love for people to just invest into it.
Don McKay
2022-01-03 19:20:08 +0000 UTCHoly fuck. Wow.
Luna
2022-01-03 17:29:25 +0000 UTCI'll be honest, I thought the bitterness and vitriol at the start was too much, but as you read the letter... I can't say your interpretation isn't 100% accurate and completely justified.
Oren Barzilai
2022-01-03 17:20:51 +0000 UTClove Wicked Melody in there
James Craft
2022-01-03 15:52:54 +0000 UTCHonestly it just sounds like this guy is stringing buzzwords together to put one over on his investors. Its as if he thinks: "maybe they'll think I'm ahead of the curve if I mention as much jargon as possible." Most of the letter doesn't make sense, even given his stated goals. If a publisher wanted to use cryptographic tokens to build a cottage-economy around its games... why use blockchains at all? Why not just use tokens managed on a centralized database? You'd spend far less energy and provide a more reliable user experience. Besides, cryptocurrencies are publicly traded commodities. Is this guy really saying that he thinks his company can create unregistered commodity trading through its games and not invite trouble from the SEC?
Iochannon
2022-01-03 15:43:20 +0000 UTCI'm stunned. And for all the bloody talk of "earning", they sure as hell aren't going to pay those people who create stuff in their... environments. All they're gonna get is fake currency for the fake economy in the fake game - fake currency that has been bought from Square Enix with real currency.
Leif
2022-01-03 15:40:52 +0000 UTCThank you for being here. Much love to you Steph.
Nigel De Maeght
2022-01-03 15:02:35 +0000 UTCAlso bitcoin used as much energy as Argentina in 2021... it's just horrible. from here: https://twitter.com/DigiEconomist/status/1477420461122375683
Tyler Schuster
2022-01-03 14:54:35 +0000 UTC
