Shuji Utsumi, Segaâs co-CEO, comments in a new statement that there is no point in implementing blockchain technology if it doesnât make games âfunâ.
I have never been able to figure out the answer to this, so maybe someone here knows: exactly how does one implement blockchain technology into a game, and whatâs the purpose of doing so? Like in terms of actual gameplay, whatâs it supposed to achieve? Is there a valid reason youâd want to include it?
Itâs all just buzzword bingo.
We can use the blockchain to track ownership of in game items!
Thatâs just called a database. Databases on a central account server are several magnitudes more efficient. Using blockchains for this is stupid.
You can transfer game items from one game to another game!
This would be a ton of efforts on part of the devs, and even then it wouldnât really work in most cases because it turns out different games are different games. And even when it does the player experience of being handed end game items when starting a game is also questionable. Even if blockchains for games catch on, this idea never will.
The entire point of the blockchain is to create a decentralised zero trust database, but even if there are legitimate use cases for such a thing (which Iâm not convinced of myself), games arenât one of them.
The reason the blockchain pops up in games (and everything else) is that cryptocurrencies have an extreme illiquidity problem and the crypto âmillionaires/billionairesâ need new fools to buy cryptocoins so they can turn their illiquid cryptocoin âfortunesâ into actual fortunes. This is why NFTs exist, this is why Axie Infinity (which is just NFTs with a terrible game built around them) exists, and sometimes they also dupe established companies into motioning something in the direction of âthe futureâ (every crypto game project by an actual game studio).
Itâs only purpose is to monetize your gameplay time with some kind of real world âvalueâ.
Everything else is just the lies they tell you to get away with enshitifying the game.
Youâre not wrong, but MMOs have been enshittifying the gaming experience by selling in game items in a shop for decades. Many even have player trading systems which inevitably create a real money black market for the game. While most donât legitimise this in the way blockchain games do, thereâs no technological reason they couldnât, only legislative ones.
The only thing the âblockchainâ part actually does is allow you to add another buzzword to your project and company, as well as make all of this cost a lot more electricity.
