In-Game NFTs: Peril or Power?

An exploration of some recent high-profile reactions

The infinitely popular infinite game, Minecraft, which is owned by Microsoft, recently announced its prohibition of NFTs in the Minecraft universe. Its justifications are two-fold and closely related:

1. that NFTs “create a scenario of the haves and the have-nots” in a system of “digital ownership based on scarcity and exclusion, which does not align with Minecraft values of creative inclusion and playing together”; and
2. NFTs “take the focus away from playing the game and encourage profiteering, which we think is inconsistent with the long-term joy and success of our players.”

In sum, NFTs would turn the motivation of Minecraft from fun to making money.

Really? As if this isn’t already the case!

There is already plenty to pay for in Minecraft, which by definition establishes the supposedly repellent “scenario of have and have-nots” — those who are paying for stuff, and those who are not — not to mention those who are paying a little and those who are paying a lot. Players are already making money on the game. What’s unique about NFTs is player ownership. NFTs guarantee ownership and tradeability to the players. The owners of the game just don’t want to admit that their real problem is not having a cut.

Similar complaints are flying like spell-bound bats around another highly lucrative gaming economy known as Dungeons & Dragons. Somehow, after so much money being made in so many different ways in the world of D&D for decades, NFTs are treated like the original source of money-motivated gaming. Again, it really boils down to protecting the people who are already making money. A new way of incentivising players, who are already incentivised in as many ways as there are mythical beasts in this game, is suddenly not “fun” somehow.

Actually, it is fun.

And the integration of financial motivation into games like Minecraft and D&D already proved it before anyone knew what an NFT was. All manner of game-related paraphernalia is already traded in every kind of digital and physical market. Those skins, persona items, worlds, mods, etc., were never created purely for fun! And at the same time, they of course add plenty of fun. NFTs are simply a new part of an already huge economically driven system that happens to be fun. Even the peer-to-peer trading function is not new. People individually buy and sell things they’ve earned or bought in games all the time. NFTs are merely an extension of that.

In the end, games evolve with the wants or needs of the players. When a new function or facet is introduced, it lives, dies, or evolves in proportion to user interest and popularity. NFTs will be no different. Nobody can be forced to buy an NFT any more than any other feature-for-sale. One big difference though, is that once an NFT is sold, no one has the power to arbitrarily modify it or take it back without the owner’s consent.

This difference is the real source of reluctance on the part of game studios and their developers, who are normally quick to embrace innovations. Decentralization implies loss of control. Instead the studios should do what they always do: develop and test this new technology for its full potential, thereby reducing the risk of being left behind. Encentive offers the best of all opportunities to add NFTs and blockchain to the agenda by providing the basic scalable infrastructure for NFT creation and tokenization while requiring minimal or no knowledge of the associated coding. It also allows existing marketplaces for every kind of in-game asset to seamlessly accept crypto transactions, converting to fiat for the platform without the need for the platform to handle actual crypto.

The crypto economy is still in the trillions of dollars, even during the current bear market. It’s a market too big not to participate in, especially when crypto holders are so strongly identified with the online gaming demographic. It’s not just trillions of dollars, it’s millions of players. And recent failures of celebrity-driven NFT projects and multiplayer games suggest the deeper meaning that both hold in common. Although play-to-earn scenarios can add value, it’s not automatic. The key is in the fun of the project and the level playing field. Blockchains and NFTs bring no intrinsic curse to a project any more than water brings to swimmers who risk drowning. It’s a trillion dollar market that has rocketed to where it is now in a mere decade. It’s more than worth a try. Avoiding it is the real peril.

As former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg recently said: “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.”