Square Enix and Crypto

[Thalesnm]

Another thing to keep in mind is that, in FFXIV's case, I feel like the mogstation items are already at a level which is barely acceptable. I don't know any FFXIV players that know about the mogstation itens and don't see something wrong there. Most players don't care, but they know what the problems are. So, any attempts at further monetizing the game must be done with the utmost care. At this point, a single mistake would be enough to completely break the consumer's trust.

And, like I said before, this is what the problem boils down to. This isn't actually about NFTs or the metaverse or terms such as "play to contribute". This is about failing to understanding the consumer. This letter shows that the current president of Square Enix doesn't understand or at very least pretends not to understand the consumer. That's why this letter did so much damage, even though there were no actual annoucements in it.

But there's still time to correct course. I hope the reaction here and in other places make them realize this.

[Kakure]

Can you really expect a company to leave profits on the table? To me this just seems like a new form of micro transactions we lost that battle and now blockchain/nft are the new battlefield. I for one am interested in seeing what they do, as everyone knows when it comes to investing you only put in what you are comfortable with losing, I am not sure why people call it a scam common sense is all you need to protect yourself. I for one am interested in seeing what they do with it.

NFTs are a scam because they have no value. Literally none.

Let's say you go out and kill the evil Troll King ten times a day for two years to acquire the vanishingly rare Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4. Once it finally drops, you have the rarest and most powerful sword in the game. Congratulations! So what good does that do you? Well, you can use it to kill more things faster and get more loot. You can wear it around town and show it off. You can sell it to someone else for in-game money/items or maybe for real-world money.

Now let's imagine that your Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4 is an NFT. In what way is it better? Is it more prestigious? Can you do more stuff with it? Can you take it into a different game and use it there? Do you have some kind of legal right that exempts your new sword from all the EULA boilerplate about everything in the game belonging to AwfulGameCorp and you having no legal recourse if they ban you, lose your stuff, or shut down the game?

The fact that your sword is now an NFT is of exactly zero real value. It adds nothing at all. And that's because none of this is driven by a desire to make games better. It is driven by the desire to cash in on the latest tech buzzword-y bandwagon by shoehorning some irrelevant technology into their games.

You say you are interested to see what they might do with NFTs or blockchain. What might that be? I challenge you to come up with a single way that they might improve this game via blockchain or NFTs. Anything at all. What could they conceivably do to make the game better through NFTs or blockchain technology that they could not otherwise do?

I am not going to give my money over to a phone scammer or televangelist, but that doesn't mean I think they should be given free rein to scam others without recourse. That is doubly true if their scams have direct consequences for me and the things I enjoy (I don't know about you, but I'm not super thrilled to hear the president of a game company talk about their efforts to attract the vast untapped pool of potential players who are not incentivized to play games built for "people who 'play to have fun.'")

I am not going to cancel my sub because the president of SE released a letter gushing about the potential of NFT gaming, but I am going to make clear that I think it's disgusting and I hope that the collective blowback from outraged players is enough to get them to rethink this stupidity.

[Bobby66]

NFTs are a scam because they have no value. Literally none.

Let's say you go out and kill the evil Troll King ten times a day for two years to acquire the vanishingly rare Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4. Once it finally drops, you have the rarest and most powerful sword in the game. Congratulations! So what good does that do you? Well, you can use it to kill more things faster and get more loot. You can wear it around town and show it off. You can sell it to someone else for in-game money/items or maybe for real-world money.

Now let's imagine that your Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4 is an NFT. In what way is it better? Is it more prestigious? Can you do more stuff with it? Can you take it into a different game and use it there? Do you have some kind of legal right that exempts your new sword from all the EULA boilerplate about everything in the game belonging to AwfulGameCorp and you having no legal recourse if they ban you, lose your stuff, or shut down the game?

The fact that your sword is now an NFT is of exactly zero real value. It adds nothing at all. And that's because none of this is driven by a desire to make games better. It is driven by the desire to cash in on the latest tech buzzword-y bandwagon by shoehorning some irrelevant technology into their games.

You say you are interested to see what they might do with NFTs or blockchain. What might that be? I challenge you to come up with a single way that they might improve this game via blockchain or NFTs. Anything at all. What could they conceivably do to make the game better through NFTs or blockchain technology that they could not otherwise do?

I am not going to give my money over to a phone scammer or televangelist, but that doesn't mean I think they should be given free rein to scam others without recourse. That is doubly true if their scams have direct consequences for me and the things I enjoy (I don't know about you, but I'm not super thrilled to hear the president of a game company talk about their efforts to attract the vast untapped pool of potential players who are not incentivized to play games built for "people who 'play to have fun.'")

I am not going to cancel my sub because the president of SE released a letter gushing about the potential of NFT gaming, but I am going to make clear that I think it's disgusting and I hope that the collective blowback from outraged players is enough to get them to rethink this stupidity.

Value is based around what people are willing to pay for it. I have made a decent chunk of change selling NFT's people will pay if they feel it has value.

I just do not think it is my place to question what one feels has value or not.

[Morphiana]

I love FFXIV, have been playing since 1.0, and FFXI before that. However, like loot boxes NFTs are a hard line in the sand for me. I cannot get behind business practices like this and should SE opt to utilize NFTs I will quit XIV and not purchase another product from them as a company until the practice is ended, period.

There are some lines I just cannot support and I will vote with my wallet. It's a greedy practice and it must not be allowed to spread like the plague in video games.

Companies are getting bold with this stuff. Even cars creating more services you pay monthly for such as Toyota's remote start service. If we don't vote with our wallet it will not end with NFTs or loot boxes.

Gaming is a relaxing hobby that I acknowledge will have costs that come with it. NFTs would not be justifiable in my eyes though in a game or really, at all.

[ovIm]

Value is based around what people are willing to pay for it. I have made a decent chunk of change selling NFT's people will pay if they feel it has value.

Yes, but as Kakure challenged you to, can you provide any example how NFT technology would actually improve this game? "Making real Money" and turning a game we play to relax into some sort of job with financial incentives is not exactly a good use case that makes the game aspect of this game better.

[Bobby66]

Yes, but as Kakure challenged you to, can you provide any example how NFT technology would actually improve this game? "Making real Money" and turning a game we play to relax into some sort of job with financial incentives is not exactly a good use case that makes the game aspect of this game better.

I never said it would make the game better, I did say it was just another means like micro transactions to get extra money from the consumer. That was the relationship I said the share in the following post after that one. Thus I have no reason to provide an example as to how it would make the game better cause that was never my stance to begin with.

It does not have to make the game better per-se though on a personal level if they allow one to sell those NFT's that would personally increase my own enjoyment. So that is a plus.

[Kakure]

Value is based around what people are willing to pay for it. I have made a decent chunk of change selling NFT's people will pay if they feel it has value.

I just do not think it is my place to question what one feels has value or not.

No one anywhere has ever said "I know there are copies of this little cartoony ape sketch all over the internet and that anyone can freely use them for anything they want, but I value having my alphanumeric identifier atop the digital certificate associated with this one at... oh, about the price of a new house."

Those people bought NFTs from you for the same reason I presume you purchased them: to resell to someone else. It is all speculators buying from speculators buying from speculators hyping their speculation in hopes that their nonsense speculative investment appreciates.

If you chose to roll the dice and buy in to some vapid speculative silliness and you got out with more than you put in, good on you. I am genuinely glad for you. But I don't want that stuff anywhere near my games and "some other person somewhere might value it for reasons that I cannot explain or defend but don't feel I should be questioning" isn't going to move me out of the anti-NFT camp.

[ovIm]

I never said it would make the game better, I did say it was just another means like micro transactions to get extra money from the consumer. That was the relationship I said the share in the following post after that one. Thus I have no reason to provide an example as to how it would make the game better cause that was never my stance to begin with.

It does not have to make the game better per-se though on a personal level if they allow one to sell those NFT's that would personally increase my own enjoyment. So that is a plus.

You did say "I for one am interested in seeing what they do", though, hence the curiosity. However ->

It does not have to make the game better per-se

That is why everyone is against implementing any kind of NFT's into this game. Thank you very much for proving the point.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

NFTs are a scam because they have no value. Literally none.

Let's say you go out and kill the evil Troll King ten times a day for two years to acquire the vanishingly rare Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4. Once it finally drops, you have the rarest and most powerful sword in the game. Congratulations! So what good does that do you? Well, you can use it to kill more things faster and get more loot. You can wear it around town and show it off. You can sell it to someone else for in-game money/items or maybe for real-world money.

Now let's imagine that your Sword of Fiery Awesomeness +4 is an NFT. In what way is it better? Is it more prestigious? Can you do more stuff with it? Can you take it into a different game and use it there? Do you have some kind of legal right that exempts your new sword from all the EULA boilerplate about everything in the game belonging to AwfulGameCorp and you having no legal recourse if they ban you, lose your stuff, or shut down the game?

The fact that your sword is now an NFT is of exactly zero real value. It adds nothing at all. And that's because none of this is driven by a desire to make games better. It is driven by the desire to cash in on the latest tech buzzword-y bandwagon by shoehorning some irrelevant technology into their games.

You say you are interested to see what they might do with NFTs or blockchain. What might that be? I challenge you to come up with a single way that they might improve this game via blockchain or NFTs. Anything at all. What could they conceivably do to make the game better through NFTs or blockchain technology that they could not otherwise do?

I am not going to give my money over to a phone scammer or televangelist, but that doesn't mean I think they should be given free rein to scam others without recourse. That is doubly true if their scams have direct consequences for me and the things I enjoy (I don't know about you, but I'm not super thrilled to hear the president of a game company talk about their efforts to attract the vast untapped pool of potential players who are not incentivized to play games built for "people who 'play to have fun.'")

I am not going to cancel my sub because the president of SE released a letter gushing about the potential of NFT gaming, but I am going to make clear that I think it's disgusting and I hope that the collective blowback from outraged players is enough to get them to rethink this stupidity.

(This is entirely a joke response I am giving so do not try and take it seriously.)

Well if they decide to sell in-game land plots as NFT's, it might convince them to expand the housing plots enough that everyone can finally get a house!

(Again, joke. I'm 100% against this NFT nonsense. Just trying to lighten the mood.)

[dapperfaffer]

Yes, but as Kakure challenged you to, can you provide any example how NFT technology would actually improve this game? "Making real Money" and turning a game we play to relax into some sort of job with financial incentives is not exactly a good use case that makes the game aspect of this game better.

Bobby66 has no interest in if it makes the game or service better, its about whether or not they can make "real money" playing FFXIV with NFTs since that would increase their own personal enjoyment of the game.