Square Enix and Crypto

[Akashimo]

I've seen, the fall the rise the stagnation the fall, the rise, the soar of 14. But, through it all. Seeing SE's CEO make such a public statement. I cannot anymore. No matter how passionate, or strong emotional ties to the game, I cannot stand by and support a game and company that has to go in such a direction with NFTs and trying to cash in on the meta false hype.

This is my response. My wallet will be closed to SE and sadly, 14 as a result.

[Caurcas]

NFTs are dumb, but alot of this thread is overreaction.

[Coulvre]

I have nothing particularly insightful to add but I seriously hope that they reconsider this idea and that it never comes anywhere near to FFXIV, or indeed FF in general. Even playing along with this strange idea of rewarding "people who contribute", I do not think crypto or NFTs are an appropriate way to go about this. There are many, many other more appealing and less harmful ways to reward fans.

[Bobby66]

Because its not a new micro transaction. You wouldn't actually purchase anything with NFTs that would be owned by a company like SE, you would be purchasing a license that would grant you access to whatever the NFT is tied to for that value, which would determine the price of the thing you actually want to buy.
An example would be buying something from the mog shop for 15$. That is a hard value item allotment that can only change at the discretion of the mog shop.
What an NFT would do is determine the price of the item based on the value of the NFT. If the NFT isn't worth anything that 15$ item could range from 15$ up to lets say 30$, because the value of the NFT is low. So in order for the price of the NFT to increase you have to invest more by buying more NFTs in order for the price to come down, but that devalues that cost of the NFT so the mog station would then buy back the value of the NFT at a lower cost to increase scarcity and drive the value of the NFT back up, which is what you would do by having to spend the NFT that you bought at a higher price. So you end up paying more to support the NFTs value, while the value of the NFT is controlled by SE, who buy it back for less than what you spent/invested.
So when it comes to video games you have to remember you don't own any of the digital product sitting on your hard drive, and even if you buy hard copies all you did was spend money on whatever packaging it came in. The digital rights management of video games, in this instance FFXIV, is an applied access license that you have to purchase a license to use.

There are already games in the "Metaverse" that use NFTs and a majority of them have a negative return of higher than the initial value invested, and for some its up to 250%. NFTs are just another way for companies to artificially gate the "content" they produce with another paywall and license structure so that you have to give them more money.

By micro transactions I simply mean another way for a company to get more money from a consumer. That is all NFT's are just a means for a company to get more money from players, it is a personal choice one has to make if they wish to engage in such a practice. NFT's it is just another means produce profits for a company so where exactly is the problem with that? If it nets profits why fault a company for following a trend that produces money for next to nothing? In the end the value is based around what someone is willing to pay for it. SE is smart to leverage their IP into the NFT market space, many people will buy into not understanding what they are doing and that is not the fault of SE, but the person that is doing something they know nothing about.

Google "The Great Beanie Baby Bubble" for insight on why many people are accurately calling this a scam. NFTs are literally just a repeat of that whole nonsense - except this time you only own a link to an image. At least with Beanie Babies you owned a physical object. Likewise it's pretty clearly just a new generation of money laundering for the rich, to say nothing of it's environmental impact. The second serious regulation is put in place (like the IRS ruling at any Crypto transaction over 10k needs to be reported) the bubble is going to burst and it's not people like SE's CEO who are going to be left holding the bag but the rest of us.

Sure it used for money laundering, but NFT's has been profitable for many as has crypto. That is the case with any bubble if you do not cash out at the right time you are left with your d##k out. Sure for many it is fueled by a general FOMO by many on lookers, but crypto and NFT's are not meant to ones sole investment, nor should one get into NFT's for the sake of collecting, you should treat it more like day trading those holding are the suckers and will be left hanging in the wind and that is on them.

In short calling it a scam or getting upset with SE to play on the ignorance of their fan base is laughable. They are not our friends, we are just $ to them that is all.

[Kolsykol]

Gotta love the '' this year was named the Metaverse year ''.
What?
By who lol???

Pretty sure that to most people this was the Covid year.
The Metaverse isn't even on the list of the things people so much as gave a single thought to this year.
It's just big companies trying to artificially make you believe it's bigger than it actually is.

[Thoosa]

Yeah because I want to own a certificate for something I can’t interact with or change.

Imagine “turn in 100 nfts to unlock x content”, no thanks.

I think it would be crazy to introduce this into 14, but if they did, hopefully people would vote with their wallet.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I wasn't aware the CEO of Square Enix was actually Lolorito.

Lolorito is a dick, but he's savvy enough to recognize that a short-term burst of profit is no match for long-term sustained profit.

This is more Teledji Adeledji. Hopefully the whole NFT craze goes the same way.

[Larirawiel]

Asmongold is also not very amused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgg768z2GRA


Cheers

[Silvarer]

yeah nuclear powered war ships built by the petrodollar system which has destroyed millions of lives since it's inception is totally cool tho, right?

Someone saying “This thing is wrong and harmful” does not automatically mean that they think some other thing isn’t also wrong and harmful. Your argument is nothing but a stupid attempt at whataboutism to derail from the subject.

[Bobby66]

Not going to lie the environment talk is funny. Our planet is already doomed, may as well enjoy it while we can.