Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s co-CEO, comments in a new statement that there is no point in implementing blockchain technology if it doesn’t make games ‘fun’. Sega...

Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s co-CEO, comments in a new statement that there is no point in implementing blockchain technology if it doesn’t make games ‘fun’.

  • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Yeah I see how sociey goes and that’s all the more reason I have no interest in financial speculation within games. In what way does the market of CS:GO skin trading makes the experience of playing it better?

    MMORPGs also show that whenever item acquisition is not carefully controlled, it ruins the whole designed experience. Many MMOs were ruined by game economies getting out of control. If anything that is an argument for, whenever trading needs to be part of a game, it needs to be controlled. Therefore, remaining centralized is better for the game.

    the whole level, skill, item grinding turns man-hours of work into bits in an authoritative server somewhere

    You are not incorrect but that sentence gave me a gross shiver. LIke I was saying, I’m against games being treated as a job. This isn’t “amazing”, it’s exploitation worming its way into our entertainment (even more than it already is on the creators’ side).

    • arvere@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m also all against the exchange of game items with real money (specially when it affects gameplay). in my view, you could only ever put 2 “real currencies” into a game: time or money. though everyone is roughly at the same playing field for time (I understand there’s a contrast between a well off kid vs a hard worker adult) people are born with absurd differences in wealth, so much that the game itself becomes meaningless when that factor is introduced (the so called p2w).

      when I say “amazing” I am talking about non-p2w mmorpgs - otherwise is just plain old capitalism hehe. the concept of grinding can be very interesting in the sense that it adds risk to the gameplay, in this case the risk of wasting time. basically all non-p2w games implement this risk in different ways: if you die in Mario it’s the time to the start of the level/checkpoint (seconds), in WoW is time attributed to a few gold coins/respawn walk (minutes), in games like Tibia you lose 10% of all your progress (sometimes amounting to months/years). I’ve been a lifelong mmorpg player and one thing I realised is that the more you have to lose, the more thrilling the game becomes and the more immersive it gets (at a big cost, sometimes your own sanity).

      I do agree with the things you and the Sega guys are bringing up. NFT and decentralisation of authority over game items allows that and doesn’t add anything nice. imo, the only viable and fair monetisation for any game is retail and subscription models

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        In my view if it is important to the game that the players dedicate time, then there shouldn’t be paid shortcuts. And if they want to give options to people who have less time, there’s still no reason to tie it to money, it doesn’t really help them. Any game that accepts real life money as a replacement for playtime is compromising its design for profit.