Good day everybody,

Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. Today we are going to look at an very interesting and at the same time very scary concept when I read about on PC Gamer. One way of another we are all most likely familar with NFTs, Blockchain, and Blockchain Gaming. Some of us may have participated in trading NFTs or playing the pay2earn games, and the recent crypto crash and more than likely had an impact on these utilities for you. Below I will look at one outlandish thought and proposal for the use of NFTs, real people, and Blockchain gaming.

The Failure of NFTs in Videogames....So Far

So far the videogame industry, whether it be Blockchain gaming or the big  console companies, such as Microsoft and Sony, have failed when it comes to implementing NFT's into videogames. Sure there have been some success stories, some big brand games on the Blockchain which took off, such as Splinterlands, Axie Infinity, Upland, and Alien Worlds, but with the drop in value of crypto across the board users are seeing a smaller return for their efforts.

More so than all of this, two of the biggest reasons why NFT's in gaming have failed to take off can be attributed to:

They don't add anything of value.

The digital assets you own can be stolen from you, aka a rug pull.

All this is the biggest issue before one even considers the effects on the environment of the NFT's, although considering how the world pollutes on a daily basis, I for one don't consider it any worse than holiday makers packing out airplanes. However, as shown in the  Rest of World, NFT evangelists and promoters are constantly coming up with new ways and use cases for them, with some entering dystopian levels unimaginable before.

Critterz

Maybe some of you have encounter this already, maybe not, but Critterz is a game which claimed to be the first fully on-chain NFT game on the Ethereum Blockchain which enabled users to earn a token known as Block by integrating with Minecraft. User could stake Critterz to earn Block and own plots of lands in the metaverse. Sounds simple right? Like everything, there is always someone looking to exploit others. The game Critterz enjoyed immense success in it early days, and this led to some people hiring others to help maximise their in game profits for a share of the revenue. Many of these people hired were in fact kids, the biggest users of Minecraft, and many from poor countries such as the Philippines. 

One such user who benefited from this process talked to "Rest of World" about his experience, and went by the name Big Chief. He had his team, mainly full of children in the Philippines, working for him. They would collect the building materials required for him to create a casino, which Big Chief paid "professional Minecraft builders" $10,000 to actually create. Below are a few statements he made during the interview, which I found quite interesting and eye opening on how he viewed the process.

"I have a lot of kids that play for me, and they play because they want to make extra money in a country that’s really just locking them down, meaning they were able to earn just enough where it was worth their while."

The team members of Big Chiefs guild were required to participate for at least 8 hours a day, meaning they were basically doing a full time job in this role. This was so Big Chief could recover the costs of initial NFT purchases and plots of land within the metaverse, while also aiming to maximise revenue as quickly as possible. Basically a modern day of exploitation and taking advantage, although Big Chief himself denies such claims.

"I couldn’t tell you what the hourly rate comes to, but I could tell you that people make very little money and the cost of living is very low in the Philippines."

Critterz, as with so many other Blockchain games, grew in popularity and as more players were selling their Block token, it dropped in value. These people were selling instead of holding for many reasons, including to get money as they required that money to live. The combined number of players and token glut drove prices down, and similar to most Cryptocurrencies in 2022, the price fell from a high of 85 cents in January to just 3 cents in May. This was not the end of the fall however, with Mojang declaring that it would no longer support NFT integration in Minecraft, essentially ending the craze. The price of Block fell even further, cutting in half with earnings dropping, players disappearing from the game, and the future of Critterz left uncertain.

Big Chief, one of the early adapters and investors, was clearly distraught at his loss, but it was his loss of "bring able to help other" which seemed to strike him the most. This would clearly indicate he had already made his money back and then some from his initial investment, but at least he had the good sense to demonstrate a want to help others, even if it is just for his own benefit.

"I treated a lot of these kids like they’re my kids, so it’s kind of sad now that I can’t really offer them much. Before, I was really helping a lot of these kids, giving them an opportunity to make some extra cash for their families and it just kind of sucks that I can’t really do that right now."

Future Idea of "Poor People" as NFT Characters

With Critterz being the latest NFT and Blockchain venture to fail, people are still coming up with new and interesting, while also horrific, ideas for how to best make use of NFTs. One of these ideas is another way of how citizens of the Third World can be put to productive use by wealthy Westerners.

The Gaming Consultant WolvesDAO issued a suggesting via their employee Mikhai Kossar that there is the potential for the poor citizens to be added to the background of videogames for the amusement of other, presumably wealthier players.

"With the cheap labor of a developing country, you could use people in the Philippines as NPCs, real-life NPCs in your game. They would populate the world, maybe do a random job or just walk back and forth, fishing, telling stories, a shopkeeper, anything is really possible."

Personally I find this to be one of the craziest and sickest things I have heard yet from the world of NFTs. If ever there was a literal definition of exploitation it is this. The saddest thing is that it is very much a realistic possibility, as shown by how Big Chief could get kids from a Third World country working for him, there is no reason why others will not look at this and see it as a means of making profit. It dystopian, but also what so many video games have been built on in the past - paying people to do the heavy lifting in your videogame of choice, such as the practice of Gold Farming in MMOs. The introduction of real money make it an even more advantageous exploitation for people, and there will always be those willing to pursue it, along with those willing to be taken advantage of.

I hope you found this post as interesting as I found this idea scary. Will we eventually hit a scenario where people are used as NFT characters to add more depth and life to games? I for one hope not, but with how the so-called elite like to treat others who they deem as lesser, nothing would surprise me.

Have a great day.

Peace. CryptoGod-1.

Referral links:

Publish0x - https://www.publish0x.com/?a=olejZqrzej

Splinterlands - https://splinterlands.com?ref=rnabc1

Upland - r.upland.me/NQAH

Binance - https://accounts.binance.com/en/register?ref=143611368

NFT Market Sales

Opensea - https://opensea.io/RNabc

Follow Me :)

Twitter - @RNabc123