Don’t believe the hype: The NFT revolution in gaming is a downgrade

techradar.com:

Since making major headlines near the start of 2021, NFTs have evolved from the fad everyone expected would die off to become the latest unstoppable arm of the crypto-driven machine.

NFTs are creeping into everything, with all forms of art and entertainment at risk of becoming yet another commodity. The latest casualty in what is becoming NFT big business is the video game industry: every week, yet another big-name studio, publisher, or games storefront is incorporating NFTs into its 2022 business plan.

But what can NFTs offer video game players? Companies promise these digital assets will enhance players’ experiences, but the truth is that video game NFTs aren’t an upgrade to our current system at all — and here’s why.

Talk of NFTs is widespread these days so most of you probably know what they are. Still, for those of you who aren’t up on this latest tech trend, NFTs, also known as Non-Fungible Tokens, are unique digital objects or assets.

If we have an MP3 file and you want that same MP3, all we have to do is hit copy and paste to create a replica to send over to you. This means that the MP3 is fungible, because two copies of the MP3 file are fundamentally the same — you won’t be able to distinguish the original from the copy. You can have one; everyone can have one. 

Now imagine you want something different, more unique, like the Mona Lisa. As any art enthusiast will tell you, we can’t just take a photo or paint our own version and claim the copy is identical to the original; the replica is not the same as the original painting, so the Mona Lisa is classed as non-fungible.

NFTs are digital assets that have been minted on the blockchain — the tech behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These digital assets