Third-party NFTs in games are the latest unethical twist from Web3 | Opinion
Rob Fahey
Contributing Editor
Friday 22nd July 2022
Mojang
Say what you like about NFTs -- and with the market around most of them currently in what might charitably be described as a catastrophic collapse, everyone else is certainly saying what they like -- but the technology has, in its short and sordid time in the limelight, achieved at least one quite remarkable thing.
Never before have I seen a technology inspire game companies to scramble to announce that they will absolutely not be using it; this industry is usually relentlessly neophiliac and willing to give a shot to just about every idea that comes down the technological pike, be it good, bad, or indifferent, which makes the growing roster of companies who have made statements publicly distancing themselves from NFTs into an especially unusual occurrence.
At a glance, the statement from Minecraft creator and Microsoft subsidiary Mojang this week belongs broadly in that category. It is, however, a bit more firmly-worded than many other companies' statements, taking the time to make specific arguments against the use of NFTs in Minecraft rather than just briefly reassuring players that there are no plans to implement them, as other companies have done.
Never before have I seen a technology inspire game companies to scramble to announce that they will absolutely not be using it
Mojang's statement refers repeatedly to NFTs creating "scarcity and exclusion", which clashes with the company's vision for Minecraft, and decries the shift in focus to speculation and investment as something which detracts from the joy of actually playing the game. These aren't new arguments -- they're precisely the criticisms that have been made widely of NFT business models and of the
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