5840 captured graphics cards and trapped players

On March 12, Weibo "Customs Release" posted a blog saying that when Meilin Customs and Huanggang Customs conducted a joint inspection of a company's goods declared for import from Huanggang Port, they found that three of the graphics card labels had traces of being covered by other labels.

"After identification, a total of 5840 graphics cards do not match the actual specifications and models of the declaration, and the value of the goods exceeds 20 million yuan." The report said.

Soon, people identified the manufacturers of the graphics cards seized for attempting to evade taxes from the pictures sent by the customs - it is clear that these graphics cards belong to Xunjing; and the sharp-eyed netizens even saw the model of the graphics card: "They labeled the 6900xt with the 6600." ”

Although the whole event looks a bit strange, the customs did not directly state that this batch of graphics cards belongs to the official of Xunjing, AMD's graphics card mining cost performance is said to be not too high, but in the graphics card price is high, rigid demanders complain at the moment, such news naturally makes it become the "real hammer" of the official renovation of the mining card of Xunjing; coincidentally, after the incident, the official flagship store of Tmall of Xunjing removed all the goods, and the official website also shows that "it is being upgraded and maintained" (the official website has returned to normal). It seems to confirm people's ideas even more.

Yesterday afternoon, Xunjing's official Weibo issued a statement, saying that "individual online media and self-media" spreading Xunjing graphics cards "mine card return" is "false news". In the comments section of the statement, voices of belief and disbelief have different opinions: some people believe that these new types of cards are obviously not mining cards, "even if there is indeed an official mining card that breaks out in the future, it has nothing to do with this customs tax evasion incident"; some people do not follow the rules, saying that "there is no legal effect without the official seal" and asking Xunjing to further explain the incident.

At this point, I think the official level of explanation is probably over. After the incident, many Up owners of devices and hardware analyzed it; some of them also began to predict the price trend of graphics cards in the future through this news. An Up owner named "Fat House Happy 200 Pounds" has released hundreds of videos in the past year or so, a large part of which is the news that "a mining accident in a certain place, a certain graphics card is about to be reduced". These "waist chop" and "backstab" words, coupled with their green and black background covers, really create a diving atmosphere.

But in fact, from the perspective of the general environment, the phenomenon of serious premiums since the 30 series graphics cards were sold has always existed; if you are greedy for cheap, it is easy to "win the lottery" and buy "slag" - in Baidu graphics cards, many consumers have "unboxed live" for the graphics cards that have just started, including a large number of "overturning" people.

The reason why the Up owner who shouted that the graphics card is about to be reduced can get a lot of attention is precisely because the current abnormal graphics card price exceeds the psychological expectations of the crowd represented by gamers - "resolutely do not touch the 30 series graphics card, die and wait for the 40 series" has become the consensus of many people. Of course, as the hardware requirements of new games rise, the "Wait Party" game experience also declines - two days ago I mentioned the player who passed the "Eldon's Ring of Law" with a low frame rate in the article "5 Frames play and live-action restoration, the old man ring player's variety of beings". Without discussing whether the "you slow me slow" boss is less difficult, just watching his 5-frame video of the dragon suit tree guard has already caused me serious physical discomfort, and it is simply unimaginable to complete the exploration of the big world and the box court in an environment of no more than 10 frames.

Then again, if hardware that meets the minimum standards for new games can be bought at the right price (which wasn't difficult before the mine boom comes), who wants to play the old ring with such a bad gaming experience?

In fact, the rapidly growing cryptocurrency market has had an all-encompassing impact on video games over the past few years, and this impact is not only reflected in "mining with graphics card power to lead to graphics card premiums", but also in other aspects.

On the game itself, several major European and American manufacturers announced the embedding of NFT gameplay in their games. For example, Ubisoft released a batch of tradable decorations with special encryption in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint – and they also announced that they would build an NFT trading platform to coordinate cryptocurrency trading in the video game field. In addition, many star producers, including Magic Cow, have also begun to focus on the development of NFT games, and a large number of uneven NFT games have appeared on the market – according to the description of developers, these games have even provided jobs for tens of thousands of people in underdeveloped countries and regions.

The convergence of cryptocurrencies and video games is favored by investors, but players don't seem to buy it. Obviously, whether it is advocating "new concepts" or providing "new opportunities", NFTs have not improved the player's gaming experience. In fact, having a special gun skin doesn't give you a better experience in the game; and almost all NFT-based games aren't fun at all gameplay—it seems that even Magic Cow's Legacy can't get out of that normalcy.

However, although Ubisoft's NFT plan has gained a lot of "stepping" on YouTube and being forced to delete videos, it is clear that embracing the cryptocurrency trend has become part of the consensus in the gaming industry. On the other hand, Nintendo criticized this trend in a statement some time ago, once again considered to be the "conscience of the industry.".

In addition to the game itself, third-party platforms originally built for games have also become a battleground for cryptocurrencies. The well-known voice software Discord has now become a "compulsory course" for coin speculators - its strong guidance, semi-open communication model has become the best tool for communication in the coin circle; and Microsoft has recently made a quotation for Discord that far exceeds its market value, and it is precisely because it is likely to become the so-called "infrastructure of the metaverse".

In today's metaverse concept, for games and game-related industries, the penetration of cryptocurrencies represented by NFTs is hardly a forward-looking progress, or an undisguised "invasion" (from the recent international situation, in the context of the current era, NFT does not mean freedom, and invasion can also be defined casually).

Obviously, in this era of virtual assets, players are wrapped up in profit-seeking capital in all aspects - when "pure games" become difficult and the economic threshold of hardware rises, it is no wonder that there are more players in "5 frames of play" and mobile games are welcomed by more people.

Looking back, the source of the seized Xunjing graphics cards entering from the Huanggang port and where they were originally going may only be clear to the parties concerned. The news craze will soon pass, but the cryptocurrency boom is likely to last a long time. At the time of writing this, my group of friends in Australia has just posted the mine he invested in: on the beautiful white mining machine, the brand-new graphics card is tirelessly producing a vague "value".

At that moment I realized that my next hardware update was still far away.