For game developer Fred, the past two years have been a good time to look for a job. The "home economy" under the epidemic has made video games more popular than ever, but at the same time, by-products such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs have also entered the mainstream. Almost everyone talks about it, but Fred is not only indifferent to NFTs, but also adamantly opposed.
"The world is so cruel that there are always people trying to over-commoditize something as pure as games that is essential to the human experience."
Fred had previously been interviewed at a new studio founded by a veteran game developer, but he had an awkward moment in the interview: the interviewer told him that the development team would most likely consider incorporating blockchain technology into the game. Fred said the studio didn't mention any information on its website, and if it did, he wouldn't have applied. In the last year alone, he had experienced such things twice.
"They didn't say it explicitly at the beginning, but waited until about halfway through the phone interview before mentioning 'something controversial for some people,' which is the use of blockchain in the game."
Another time, a company emailed Fred after an interview with links to several articles, such as "Will Karl Marx Support the Existence of Blockchain?" 》。 Fred politely declined the job and said he would not consider joining any cryptocurrency-related projects. In response, the other CEO sent him an article advocating why blockchain technology has a bright future, and asked him why he rejected cryptocurrencies and instead supported the use of dollars.
Recently, EA, Zynga, Behaviour Interactive, and Ubisoft have all considered whether to use cryptocurrencies in their games. Developers at these companies revealed in interviews that management's decisions have sparked a huge controversy within the company. Many developers point out that cryptocurrencies not only fail to bring more added value to games, but can pose a threat to their motivations and ways of making games.
"Play and earn"
While Fred is explicitly against cryptocurrencies, there are still game companies willing to hire him. But Fred said that in addition to factors such as programs, benefits and benefits, he also considers their corporate culture and ethics when applying for a job, and cryptocurrencies are a red flag. Today, Fred works for another company founded by veteran developers and is not involved in any NFT-related projects.
Cryptocurrencies have been around for more than a decade, but it's only in the last year or two that many executives in the gaming industry seem to be taking a keener interest in it. Ubisoft launched its own NFT platform, and several other companies announced that they would support NFTs, but cancelled their original plans after strong opposition from players. Nearly all players have banded together against NFTs, and in the eyes of many, the concept of "Play-to-earn" has the potential to fundamentally change players' intentions to play games.
Game companies such as Ubisoft have shown a lot of interest in advancing NFTs
In a sense, the auction house in Diablo 3 was an early "play-and-earn" system that allowed players to buy and sell weapons and items with cash, but Blizzard's experiment was unsuccessful. Jay Wilson, former Diablo 3 game director, said in 2017, "We were worried about these consequences before, but world of Warcraft auction houses seem to validate the concept." Obviously, we made some mistakes. ”
Much of this interest among manufacturers was motivated by economic motivation, but it was also very cautious in moving forward, and there was something similar to what Fred had experienced, namely that the company would not talk about it in public, but in private it was another matter.
Some companies tend to be straightforward about their plans in the cryptocurrency space, such as Square Enix, which has promised to make a big push for blockchain games in the future, and EA is one of them.
In early November, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said on the company's earnings call that NFTs are "part of the future of the gaming industry," and EA also mentioned "NFTs" and "blockchain" in a large number of job ads. On December 9 last year, in EA's internal chat group, an employee asked the question: "EA seems to have opened up recruitment related to NTF, is this in line with EA's core commitment to environmental protection?" ”
Wilson responded: "While NFT-driven games are on the rise, most deals are speculative at this stage – items have no utility and little connection to the player community, except that both parties believe their value will grow over time." "Wilson said that's not what EA wants." In exploring NFTs, our aim is to provide players with items that are useful and symbolic of their status and connection to the community through the gaming experience. Compared to most other companies in the digital collectibles space, we want to offer more value to our players. ”
As for environmental protection, Wilson said: "We're already seeing a lot of technological evolution that is reducing the environmental impact of blockchain. "Like many gaming companies, EA is committed to protecting the environment by reducing carbon emissions, and most cryptocurrency projects currently cause huge amounts of carbon emissions that are harmful to the environment. The vast majority of cryptocurrencies use "Proof of Work" blockchains, which require a lot of energy to process transactions. To quell public criticism, companies such as Ubisoft have opted to use a more energy-efficient Proof of Stake blockchain.
In Response from Wilson, the employees responded with various emojis, including 28 Christmas trees, 56 thumbs up, 160 thumbs down, 96 confused faces, 115 stop signs... The EA only allows employees to comment using emojis.
Over time, though, Wilson's interest in NFTs seems to have waned. In February, he said on the company's earnings call that EA would gradually evaluate NFTs, and that it remains "to be seen" whether it can link blockchain to favorite in-game items.
Wilson's response to the NFT question was amused by the employee's expression
"It seems to be more disgusting than I thought"
EA wants to hire more employees familiar with cryptocurrencies, while mobile game giant Zynga announced last November that it would hire Matt Wolff as "vice president of blockchain." Zynga President Benard King said the company decided to enter the space and hire Wolff to follow the trend of the game industry.
"As far as I know, there are people inside Zynga who are deeply skeptical about cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and there are people who like them." A Zynga employee, who did not want to be named, revealed, "But the game will eventually be taken down, suspended, and the NFT players have on hand will become worthless." In addition, considering the structure of cryptocurrencies, mining cryptocurrencies can consume a lot of energy. ”
In the chat group inside Zynga, there is a channel dedicated to discussing cryptocurrencies. Last December, during a departmental-level staff meeting, Andrew Ins, Zynga's senior vice president of product, game design, and data analytics, noted that the company had received "a lot of feedback about NFTs, many people were happy, but some of the feedback was quite negative."
"NFT games, or games based on blockchain technology, are evolving at a rapid pace." Ince said, "Some companies are entering the NFT space out of speculation, which is likely not sustainable." For games, though, it may have the same transformative impact as in-app purchases. Therefore, it is necessary for us to invest resources in research and development. ”
There has been speculation that Zynga will immediately add NFTs to games like FarmVille, but according to Ince, Zynga prefers to develop new games around NFTs and blockchain technology, and then find ways to make such games more popular. Ince also acknowledged that the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin does exist, but he quickly switched the conversation, saying that technology is rapidly evolving and that people don't have to worry too much about it.
"Listening to his tone, I realized that there seemed to be more colleagues who resented NFTs than I thought." A source said.
Zynga spokesman Kenny Johnston said the company was unable to disclose and share details of the internal meeting, so it would not comment on Ince's remarks. "We're putting together a team to explore how to lay out this space in a way that prioritizes the player community. Overall, the mindset of our employees is positive, and our growth in the NFT space has not led to employee turnover. ”
On January 10 of this year, publisher Take-Two announced that it would buy Zynga for $12.7 billion. At the Zynga all-hands meeting shortly afterwards, neither the company's top management nor employees talked about the NFT project. Interestingly, however, the attitudes of the two parties to the transaction towards NFTs tend to be consistent. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnik has said he is a big believer in NFTs and has called on players to be patient with NFTs.
At least for now, Zynga hasn't added blockchain gameplay to its signature farmVille game
"Everybody hates it"
Kill By Daylight is one of the most popular multiplayer games of the past few years, and Canadian developer Behaviour Interactive often adds horror characters to the game that are linked to other brands. In September last year, Behaviour announced that the character nailheads in the "Ghost Hunt" series of movies were about to join the game, but in October, another collaboration announced by the studio caused widespread criticism from players, namely Boss Protocol, a company that claims to "empower brands with blockchain to unleash their full potential".
According to Behaviour, by working together, they plan to transform the character model within Dead by Daylight into an NFT that can be used to unlock the game's content. Kill by Daylight players feared that this meant NFT in the game and publicly objected. Due to the strong resistance from players, Behaviour quickly announced: "There is no blockchain technology in Kill by Daylight, and there will never be." ”
But Behaviour's collaboration with Boss Protocol continues. This frustrated both players and many developers within the studio.
"Everybody hates it." One former Behaviour developer said, "We were completely unaware of it beforehand. ”
To quell the unrest, during a full-staff meeting in December last year, behaviour executives expressed their opposition to the NFT. Just hours after that meeting ended, Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World also announced the cancellation of the NFT program, citing strong opposition from players.
Behaviour is reluctant to take a public stand, and companies such as Ubisoft have announced that they not only support blockchain projects, but are also actively developing their own technology. In January 2022, a Behaviour employee asked the company's top management to share more details at a meeting.
"First of all, to be clear, we did not make NFTs and we will not." Maria Claude-Benard, Behaviour's director of marketing and communications, replied, "We don't even express any position in the media or social media, although all of our competitors, such as Ubisoft and many other companies, have done so. That's what I'm trying to say, our game won't have any NFTs now and in the future. ”
"She reiterated our position in her own words." Stephen Ross, behaviour's head of public relations, said, "Last fall, Behaviour publicly shared this position with several media outlets, and we fully understand the player community's concerns about NFTs, and there is absolutely no blockchain technology in Strike by Daylight, and it will never be." We don't sell NFTs. ”
Ross noted that "the studio's position remains the same today", however, Behaviour did not quit the NFT program for Ghost in the Shell.
Kill by Daylight seems to want to try to add blockchain elements with new characters, but players don't buy it
"Verbal abuse and personal attacks are not permitted"
Game developers rarely talk to the media, but more and more developers are starting to speak out on the topic of cryptocurrencies. For example, when British publisher Team17 announced the NFT project of Worms, many employees publicly objected, and also disclosed other issues within the company in terms of salary, working conditions and so on. According to earlier Bloomberg reports, employees made hundreds of negative comments about the company's NFT program on Ubisoft's internal social platform.
With the rise of the cryptocurrency boom, many game projects that adopt cryptocurrencies have attracted huge investments. Some companies even buy games that are in the development phase directly and then add cryptocurrency to the game.
Not long ago, Gala Games unveiled its new game GRIT, describing it as a new tactical competitive game in the context of the us western frontier. The trailer released by Gala is almost exactly the same as the trailer for GRIT when it first came to light in April 2021, the only difference being the words "Gala Games coming soon" appears in the opening credits.
According to the original plan, GRIT will be launched in the Steam store at the end of January this year, but the development team suddenly announced that the release date will be postponed. After working with Gala, the development team issued a statement on GRIT's Discord server saying that "verbal abuse and physical attacks are not allowed" and discouraging players from making NFT or cryptocurrency-related remarks when talking about the game — which of course makes people curious about related topics.
"At this stage, it's too early to pay too much attention to whether we'll add NFTs to the game." The GRIT development team said, "We haven't released any information on that topic yet, and if people throw up all kinds of speculations based on some of the practices of other games, it's obviously unconstructive." Please don't try to guess what we think, we're implementing plans and will post messages here in due course. ”
GRIT is a western-themed "chicken eating" game, what will be the connection with the NFT?
"Business people like NFTs because they don't think it's a lot of work to add NFTs to their games, and then they can make a lot of money. That's exactly the way they want to live. One developer who works for a major game publisher said, "But I can tell you that almost all developers don't want to do it, and we're particularly disgusted... Those who pursue the NFT program seem to see only one-sidedly the benefits of the NFT, forgetting that everyone hates it. ”
"You work hard to earn the trust of gamers, and that's one of the hardest things in the world. You can't ruin a player's sense of trust in you just to sell a bunch of pictures, it's not worth it. In life, many things are more important than the rise and fall of money. Some experiences are priceless, and this doesn't require money to prove value. ”
"I'll find out in the future"
Previously, Ubisoft's executive in charge of the NFT program had said: "Players don't understand what a digital secondary market can bring them, which is really beneficial, but they don't understand it yet." In other words, Ubisoft thinks it's cool for players not to understand NFTs, but will do.
"In their opinion, if we disagree with them, it's because we're too stupid." Mark Rusher, senior game designer at Ubisoft and representative of the Ubisoft Paris union, said, "As far as I know, Ubisoft will continue to use this technology ××." ”
Zynga blockchain vice president Matt Wolfe said the company wants to hire a "token economy designer," but the company will allow employees to exit the NFT program in the future. Wolfe acknowledges that those interested in cryptocurrency products may be more revenue-oriented than gameplay. "We don't want to give players something they don't want, so we don't take it for granted that they want a super-deep play experience."
It's Zynga's honest assessment of its ambitions in this space, acknowledging the tension between its financial goals and developers and players that is likely to continue for some time to come. Gamers may not like encryption, but game executives are curious about it, and curiosity hasn't faded.
"These remarks are so infuriating that they want to change the nature of the game." One developer said, "We play games to kill time and have fun, but some people think that the purpose of people playing games is no longer to have fun, but to make money... If you want to monetize your play time, you'll find that the actual monetary value of playing the game is almost worthless. ”
This article is compiled from: vice.com
原文标题：《The Crypto Revolution Is an Existential Crisis for Video Games》
Originally written by Patrick Klepek