As much as I like the exploration of blockchain technology, not everything needs it. Recently, I took a look at Ubisoft's Quartz platform, based on Tezos. While it might have a rocky start, there's potential there - Ubisoft has a track record of helping to foster blockchain innovation in games. With a variety of multiplayer focused franchises, there could be interesting use cases that come from it.
Unfortunately, it's still early, and no, not in the echochamber-esque mantra that circulates crypto communities. It's still early meaning that useful applications of NFTs are still being figured out and things that don't need to be NFTs are being shoehorned into the ecosystem. The recent meta-human(???) contest related to STALKER 2 is a prime example of this.
If you haven't seen any of the recent coverage of this, the short version is essentially an auction to become an NPC in game. It's worth noting that STALKER 2 is a primarily single-player game (multiplayer is said to launch afterwards) and the translation into an NPC (meta-human, as far as I can tell, is a new buzzword for this) is a one time event. Effectively, 3 winners of an auction would receive an NFT, which would then be tradeable up until the redemption date when the holder would then be modeled in game. This also means there's an effective expiration date on this where the utility is gone.
There's nothing about that which needs blockchain tech or NFTs. "Meta Human" is nothing more than a buzzword-y attempt here to cash in on hype. MetaHuman, on the other hand is a technology used by Unreal Engine to leverage high res scans to generate a rigged model. A spokesperson from GSC Game World confirmed that this effort would not be using that tool - further backing the point of a buzzword phrase here.
So why use NFTs for this? It's free marketing. NFT and crypto related terms are very buzzwordy and tend to draw headlines, regardless if there's any substantive use case. Very similar to the dot com era, there's likely to be a lot of attempts to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of the market. While digital collectibles can be fun, it's hard not see it becoming a bit ridiculous. I'm still waiting for Capcom to move beyond Street Fighter trading cards and fully embrace blockchain tech (cmon, MegaMan Battle Network would be perfect for this!).
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