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Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

After a significant amount of research into the NFT space as it relates to gaming: My personal conclusion is that I very much believe in the owning and selling of digital items but am less of a believer in a need for crypto/blockchain/NFT to play a role in that.

After a significant amount of research into the NFT space as it relates to gaming: My personal conclusion is that I very much believe in the owning and selling of digital items but am less of a believer in a need for crypto/blockchain/NFT to play a role in that.

  • Iksar
    Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
    After a significant amount of research into the NFT space as it relates to gaming: My personal conclusion is that I very much believe in the owning and selling of digital items but am less of a believer in a need for crypto/blockchain/NFT to play a role in that.

    • Iksar
      Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
      Decentralization (to me) is just not a compelling enough reason to take on all the added overhead of dealing with blockchain. Even the most successful NFT games are not fully decentralized.

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
        Environmental impact is a major downside, though it felt like less of one the deeper I dug. On a person to person basis, it doesn’t actually seem to me that buying or selling NFTs makes a larger carbon footprint than any energy consuming hobby you might take up.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
          If you are interested in your personal impact on the environment in terms of carbon footprint, I’d encourage you to do the research. I learned a lot in that quest. The air travel industry is a big yikes 😬.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
            I think there is substantial opportunity in play-to-earn or digital ownership (buy and sell digital items), but not necessarily tied to blockchain. At the core, playing a game and potentially getting something of real value for your time is very compelling.

            • WhatTheDusk
              Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
              @IksarHS Isn't that already an ancient concept at this point, see CS:GO knife skins and other steam tradeable items? It already exists and works without ruining the planet tbh

              • Iksar
                Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                @WhatTheDusk Yeah, this was basically my end conclusion.

            • Iksar
              Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
              I know this is a touchy subject and I’m far from an expert. If anyone has any comments on how wrong anything I wrote is, please feel free to educate me 🥸

    • JonathanAbrams
      Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
      @IksarHS Great points. As a concrete example, if one bought a HS card as an NFT, what would be the point? It would still only be useful within Hearthstone. Why would any other game/company support it?

      • Iksar
        Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
        @JonathanAbrams I think no different than a valuable baseball card, really. You can’t use it, but it holds some value. Some people argue that because it’s not a physical object like a baseball card it can’t hold value, but I disagree.

        • Iksar
          Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
          @JonathanAbrams Value of blockchain in this scenario is even someday if hearthstone goes offline, you still own the blockchain asset. That asset could potentially hold value for you (debatable) where as if there was no blockchain asset you lose all value outright.

          • Iksar
            Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
            @JonathanAbrams So in this case, it’s basically that maybe possibly you might (MIGHT!) retain value if hearthstone goes fully offline XX years from now. Not that compelling to me.

            • Rage_HS
              Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
              @IksarHS @JonathanAbrams Isn’t holding an NFT in a game like having a Black Lotus? Can’t play the card, but people just want to have it because it is rare? People like collecting rare shit. I don’t think the appeal of having an NFT in a game is the value it has now, but the value it would have later.

              • Rage_HS
                Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                @IksarHS @JonathanAbrams The scenario you bring up, is the value of an NFT in a game. I just think you might be brushing it aside as a less significant thing than it is.

                • Iksar
                  Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                  @Rage_HS @JonathanAbrams Maybe, but isn't this only relevant in the world where hearthstone goes offline forever and your stuff is lost? Even then, I find it hard to believe we wouldn't just create an online marketplace and keep it live indefinitely.

                  • Rage_HS
                    Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                    @IksarHS @JonathanAbrams I don’t know why that is a given? Why would I trust a company to pay to run a server to hold my valuable assets, when I can be certain of its perpetuity. Why would that company have incentives to run it? I also don’t know if hearthstone will still be a thing 200 years from now.

                    • Iksar
                      Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                      @Rage_HS @JonathanAbrams Anyone holding your useable assets is absolutely charging some small transaction fee, which I assume is the company incentive to keep a service like this online.

                      • Iksar
                        Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                        @Rage_HS @JonathanAbrams I’m any case, I have a hard time seeing a potential player really caring whether their asset is centralized or not so long as they fee the asset is safe and sellable for a many year future.

                        • Iksar
                          Posted 3 years, 10 months ago (Source)
                          @Rage_HS @JonathanAbrams At least enough players to make a difference. There are successful NFT game businesses, though. I am curious how many there will be a year from now, especially as regulations tighten.
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