Not only has Valve banned NFT games from Steam but another store has come out clearly against them, with the official itch.io Twitter account releasing a very clear statement.
In their short thread on Twitter, the itch team said:
A few have asked about our stance on NFTs: NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet the we ask that please reevaluate your life choices. Peace
Also f̸̗̎ú̴̩c̷̖͌ḳ̵̀ any company that says they support creators and also endorses NFTs in any way. They only care about their own profit and the opportunity for wealth above anyone else. Especially given the now easily available discourse concerning the problems of NFTs.
Interestingly enough, the itch store does have a bunch of "games" tagged with NFT, although they largely seem to be jokes and parodies. The store isn't exactly known for its quality control, so hopefully they're keeping a closer eye on this given their clear stance against the tech.
What are NFTs? Short for "non-fungible token", they can be pretty much anything digital - supposedly as a form of ownership but you don't really end up actually owning anything. It's pretty ridiculous when you look into it more. Unfortunately, they've been used in a lot of scams, with original artists being ripped off constantly and there's a huge amount of evidence everywhere on how problematic NFTs have become. Want to know more? Here's a good video on it:
Direct Link
I see NFTs as kitchen knifes, they can be pretty useful and a necessity in the kitchen, but they can be used as weapons and murder tools… Today's use of the NFT concept is being used only for bad and scammy things, but just like with cryptocurrencies, there are legitimate and useful things NTFs can serve for. I see it mainly as a "certificate of ownership", but this NFT must be in a reliable and secure blockchain (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin...). Creating videogame characters as NFTs is next to useless and is just a cash grab and scammy tactic under today's NFTs incarnation.
Just like when Bitcoin came out, a few years later, hundreds of scammy cryptocurrencies came out and very few were honest attempts to improve upon Bitcoin, over time, most of those scams died and the ecosystem evolved to weed out the bad apples… Of course, every few years a new trend becomes popular and a new wave of scams take advantage of it and we have to wait for those scams to die and led the ecosystem evolve (and the mainstream media and people get more familiar with how these things really work)… In 5 or 10 years, we'll have real and useful cases for NFTs just like today we have real and useful cases for cryptocurrencies (despite the misguided opinion of some people who get carried away by the compelling but wrong idea that cryptocurrencies are "scorching the planet".
In this new world of "truth is subjective, science is subjective, world is subjective" stuff nobody
it is so easy to completely disconnect with reality and live your fantasies and become
a good food source for crooks who understand what people are driven by, so from manipulative schemes
which are limited by payment systems so became pushed to the limits they added NFTs and cryptocurrency
in games to create much better criminal schemes and have zero control over them because "you got what you paid for".
And people are more than happy to accept new money losing tech as previous schemes made them comfortable.
When I was warning people about crooks over one of ads for NFT mobile game lots of people were angry
and aggressive that I badmouth a good game and you don't have to donate or buy NFT stuff. So people want that
and so they get that. So I'm just looking forward what will happen in the future.
Quoting: ertuquequeAt the risk of being boring or even worse, making people angry, I'll try to give my take on NFTs, what they are and how they have been exploited for bad things today…
I see NFTs as kitchen knifes, they can be pretty useful and a necessity in the kitchen, but they can be used as weapons and murder tools… Today's use of the NFT concept is being used only for bad and scammy things, but just like with cryptocurrencies, there are legitimate and useful things NTFs can serve for. I see it mainly as a "certificate of ownership", but this NFT must be in a reliable and secure blockchain (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin...). Creating videogame characters as NFTs is next to useless and is just a cash grab and scammy tactic under today's NFTs incarnation.
Just like when Bitcoin came out, a few years later, hundreds of scammy cryptocurrencies came out and very few were honest attempts to improve upon Bitcoin, over time, most of those scams died and the ecosystem evolved to weed out the bad apples… Of course, every few years a new trend becomes popular and a new wave of scams take advantage of it and we have to wait for those scams to die and led the ecosystem evolve (and the mainstream media and people get more familiar with how these things really work)… In 5 or 10 years, we'll have real and useful cases for NFTs just like today we have real and useful cases for cryptocurrencies (despite the misguided opinion of some people who get carried away by the compelling but wrong idea that cryptocurrencies are "scorching the planet".
NFTs are either just useless stuff which does not have any useful purpose or it is just a buzzword to attract victims to other criminal scheme. The problem is there is no reliable way to proof NFTs or no guarantees over their value. The only thing they do is register a record somewhere in the world in some blockchain which in itself is not useful in any way.
Unless there will be actual real purpose in NFTs, I'd avoid that completely for foreseable future.
Monkeys are involved at some level, that's clear. Going by the name, non-fungi, mushrooms are however not. Very confusing.
I guess I could watch the video, but then again, maybe that's exactly how they spread?
Quoting: PublicNuisanceI still have no idea what NFT's really are but if they're causing stupid people and their money to be parted then they're ok in my book.If it was just about stupid, they could be ignored, but they are highly unethical for various reasons. Enabling fraud on top of ponzi - hurting people believing in it, destroying the environment while abusing and possibly hurting artists that aren't even actively participating. They can also make stupid people rich, depending on luck and timing, if that helps with your decision.
Last edited by const on 7 February 2022 at 4:44 pm UTC
Quoting: ertuquequeAt the risk of being boring or even worse, making people angry, I'll try to give my take on NFTs, what they are and how they have been exploited for bad things today…
^^This... using tokens on a cryptographic block chain has a use.. .just not a scammy money-making scheme that it seems to be used as these days.
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