Blockchain game advocates aim for the mainstream

venturebeat.com:

Blockchain games are on the defensive lately, and resistance from hardcore gamers and game developers could reverse the progress that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) made in 2021. Only better communication will reverse this, according to a panel of blockchain game advocates.

They spoke at our GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse 2 online event and mustered their best arguments for why NFT games will go mainstream. During the past year, NFTs have generated a lot of hype and wealth in markets such as art, celebrity collectibles, fashion, and comics. In games, titles such as Axie Infinity from Sky Mavis have generated excitement around play-to-earn, or the ability to make money in games by selling NFTs earned in games. NFTs used the security and transparency of the digital ledger of blockchain to uniquely identify digital items.

Advocates say that NFTs have utility for game collectibles and other items, and then enable users to earn money by investing their time in games, rather than playing only for fun. But critics have pointed out that players motivated by profits rather than fun will abandon a game more willingly. They’ve also pointed to criticisms like the environmental wastefulness of blockchain, the pump-and-dump scams associated with Ponzi-like models, and the lack of utility.

Chris Akhavan, the chief business officer of Forte, moderated the panel. Forte makes infrastructure around blockchain games to offload game publishers and developers. It raised $725 million recently to enable game devs and publishers to make the transition to NFTs. Also on the panel were Jerome Collin, CEO at SuperTeam; Kuleen Nimkar, business development officer at Solana; and online personality BoredElonMusk.

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