Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
How Gamers Beat NFTs (Bloomberg)
TheDalaiBomba
Member EpicPosts: 1,493
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-17/how-gamers-beat-nfts
Interesting read detailing an evolution of the microtransaction scourge that finally became too much for gamers.
Hidden in this article is actually the reason gamers should never have allowed microtransactions to become the norm in the first place: "These models have been a boon for game makers. Consider the case of Activision Blizzard Inc. Over the course of 2016, the company averaged 491 million monthly users and raked in $6.6 billion in revenue, resulting in an average revenue per user of $13.45. In 2021 its average monthly users fell to 401 million, but its revenue rose to $8.8 billion, for an ARPU of $21.95. Why urge players to buy a new game when you can get them to spend more on cosmetics inside an existing one?"
To recap: Microtransaction focus resulted in less users, but more than made up for that by fleecing that smaller group harder. Going a step further: this introduced a vicious cycle that only ends with devs shifting their design paradigm not in favor of making their games *more popular*, but by creating games with unpalatable microtransactions that leverage and prey on a smaller, more invested (or downright addicted) base. Microtransactions are not "popular," they're merely tolerated and more psychologically effective than prior monetization techniques. The entire framework perverts the incentives for developers and creates a situation that results in poorer games that end up costing gamers more on a per-user basis, not less. Socioeconomic stratification in video game development and marketing is here to stay now, even if it isn't via NFTs. Congratulations everybody!
Too bad this backlash wasn't there when console and PC devs started the microtransaction evolution. I'd say hindsight is 20/20, but that would be unfair to those of us who made this exact argument while it was happening.
Regardless, it's good to see gamers finally waking up to the fact that studios or publishers don't necessarily have their best interests at heart, even when they try to frame it as a boon to gamers.
Interesting read detailing an evolution of the microtransaction scourge that finally became too much for gamers.
Hidden in this article is actually the reason gamers should never have allowed microtransactions to become the norm in the first place: "These models have been a boon for game makers. Consider the case of Activision Blizzard Inc. Over the course of 2016, the company averaged 491 million monthly users and raked in $6.6 billion in revenue, resulting in an average revenue per user of $13.45. In 2021 its average monthly users fell to 401 million, but its revenue rose to $8.8 billion, for an ARPU of $21.95. Why urge players to buy a new game when you can get them to spend more on cosmetics inside an existing one?"
To recap: Microtransaction focus resulted in less users, but more than made up for that by fleecing that smaller group harder. Going a step further: this introduced a vicious cycle that only ends with devs shifting their design paradigm not in favor of making their games *more popular*, but by creating games with unpalatable microtransactions that leverage and prey on a smaller, more invested (or downright addicted) base. Microtransactions are not "popular," they're merely tolerated and more psychologically effective than prior monetization techniques. The entire framework perverts the incentives for developers and creates a situation that results in poorer games that end up costing gamers more on a per-user basis, not less. Socioeconomic stratification in video game development and marketing is here to stay now, even if it isn't via NFTs. Congratulations everybody!
Too bad this backlash wasn't there when console and PC devs started the microtransaction evolution. I'd say hindsight is 20/20, but that would be unfair to those of us who made this exact argument while it was happening.
Regardless, it's good to see gamers finally waking up to the fact that studios or publishers don't necessarily have their best interests at heart, even when they try to frame it as a boon to gamers.
Comments
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
It also alludes to a larger discussion about the current "metaverse" push, highlighting the fact that gamers in this genre have been enjoying metaverses for decades now. It compared this to the recent "revolutions" offered by folks like Zuckerberg about "new" metaverse ideas, noting they are merely marketing tactics designed to get people sucked into an older, rather common idea presented in a new, more predatory monetization framework. It seems, at least for the moment, this is a step too far for consumers. Hopefully that lasts.
This is like saying that the bicycle or wagon was a prelude to a car, and consumers are against the car because it's more expensive and is built on old ideas that have never been proven to be useful when extrapolated on.
I didn't read the article, probably won't. But there's only one reason that people see so many of the predatory blunders of NFTs as being ...blunders, and it's built on an inorganic growth pattern held up by a notion of cashing in on a craze that few "investors" ever understood.
The technology has very good use cases. And there are 'metaverses' and Blockchain games in creation that could eventually be a big deal.
But the focus over the past several years has been to put out cheap imitations of popular games while they tack on monetization schemes that rarely make sense in practice, because they require market fluctuations to work, and that inevitably was their downfall.
The biggest problem was making the monetization of the technology the only selling point aside from other games. For some, that was enough. But not mainstream gamers, and I've had this very conversation with "developers" of Blockchain games before.
A lot just don't get it.
But make no mistake, if the market was still good, the more predatory games would be rolling in money and the articles would look very different. The crash was necessary if they want the technology to evolve into something people aren't going to completely hate.
That's the reason Minecraft banned it: Microsoft has no need to shovel in NFTs when they already make their money via a traditional cash shop. What incentive would they ever have to open that up to web3? The answer is none.
Solution in search of a problem, my dude. Gamers didn't even want microtransactions, they merely accepted them. Taking that further isn't some revolution waiting for gamers to catch up. It's heading further in a direction gamers never asked for.
https://archive.ph/df2Aq
You could do these things without blockchain. But you could do them with blockchain too.
Most gamers don't ask for distributed databases. It's a weird way to go about the inclusion of blockchain in games. The REASON so many companies started flashing "BLOCKCHAIN CRYPTO NFT" is because people were buying pictures of monkeys for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It didn't matter if there was no utility for a monkey picture.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
People make a fuss about updating MMOs already. Just think the complications and bloat from having to launch a new protocol just to patch some issue. Gotta lean on that "launch it and drop it" like a game cartridge at that point (which even those had recalls). Immutability when talking about game development is a pretty big risk factor as much as some may think it a benefit.
You probably should've have read the article before you posted, they crushed your arguments.
I mean there are several good use cases for nuclear weapons, but all in all I wouldn't mind if mankind walked away from them entirely.
Same for crypto/NFTs in gaming, the idea can basically
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
Bring back the Bully!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
The fact that you're still talking about Blockchain in the context of monetization is pretty much all I need to know.
Maybe some gamers who are also underlying tech nerds think that the blockchain tech under the NFTs hood is wonderful, revolutionary, and full of potential... good for you but most of us don't give a shit about that at all.
We just want to play better games and we just ain't seeing anything in NFTs that is new and improved like we didn't with New Coke.
IDK anything about soft drink syrup chemistry and who knows, maybe New Coke used revolutionary new mixes and techniques that were full of potential too. We didn't care about that either. We just knew it tasted like ass compared to old Coke.
What we see is the gaming industry going too far in treating us like chumps who will fall for any new monetization scheme they dream up. They actually did us a huge favor by overemphasizing the marketing buzzwords without a great proof of concept, or hands-on, game to see it in action.
That helped tremendously in exposing the empty promises and forced a moment of reflection where we collectively asked: "Just what's in to for me as a gamer?" When the answer was the inevitable "not a damn thing" it was impossible to not see what the gaming corporations were up to: just trying to sell us on how edgy, new and buzzword-filled this trash is with no discernible benefit for us whatsoever.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Always seems to be a new or better way to fleece customers of their money just over the next rise, and gamers almost always fall for it, hard.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
You bought that cosmetic because it made you look better, that loot box because it temporarily satisfied your gambling need, and those boosts to help with the crafting/leveling or whatever. We are halfway there already.
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.
Adopting blockchain isn't free. They're not going to to include speculative financial assets in their games unless they think it will increase revenue. Otherwise, there's no real benefit to them to include it.
Your talk about what's possible is getting in the way of your seeing what's real.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
You can create any proprietary chain for free. You can even create test net chains for free.
But most of the time, when you're attempting to create something built on a Blockchain, you want to do so on a popular chain that currently has an infrastructure. Like Ethereum or Solana, or matic. Even in those cases the actual cost to build, could be literally less than a dollar for an infinite number of tokens.
Of course it kind of kills the purpose of Blockchain to create a proprietary chain with a central authority... But... Some actually do.
*Edit*
And as for what's real, I wouldn't suspect anyone to know what's "real" or "fake" ... Check out projects like 6 dragons. There are a lot of proof of concept Blockchain games that are pushing some very interesting boundaries. Xaya is another good platform to look into.