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It Takes Two Director Josef Fares Would Rather Get Shot Than Put NFTs in Games

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Fares recently spoke to The Washington Post, where he championed video games as an art form and criticized companies for adjusting mechanics to try to get players to spend real money. He said that his company Hazelight Studios wouldn't make a live service game despite how much money those kinds of games can rake in, and added that he would rather be "shot in the knee" than incorporate NFTs in his future games.
 

kingfey

Banned
Fx Thank You GIF by Mayans M.C.
 

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year

Fares recently spoke to The Washington Post, where he championed video games as an art form and criticized companies for adjusting mechanics to try to get players to spend real money. He said that his company Hazelight Studios wouldn't make a live service game despite how much money those kinds of games can rake in, and added that he would rather be "shot in the knee" than incorporate NFTs in his future games.

If he's honest about it like his alleged disdain for the Oscars... 🤔
 
I like the guy but I just don't understand this irrational hatred towards nfts. If you use them as cosmetics, what is the problem? More money to the devs to use in development.
"More money to the devs" is regular MTX. NFTs are "more money to the gamers" and a completely deregulated and unenforceable market that leads to nothing but bad times.

Also there's still that phrase I like and will continue to use: "the financialization of playing time is a future of misery".
 
I like the guy but I just don't understand this irrational hatred towards nfts. If you use them as cosmetics, what is the problem? More money to the devs to use in development.
Imagine going to a coffee shop but when you go to the counter the staff are constantly trying to sell you special coffee mugs, or coffee related merchandise. And the coffee kind of sucks now because the store has put more effort into trying to sell you those trinkets than the actual coffee because it gets them a better mark up. That's where some developers have headed. If you like video games, wouldn't you want to reward developers for making a good game, not for how craftily they can sneak gambling into there games? Or how well they can sell digital bells and whistles? This extra revenue from loot boxes, microtransactions and in the future NFTs, are not going to focus on making better gaming experiences. They are going to double down and put that new revenue source into making more revenue sources.
 
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kalecsan

Banned
"More money to the devs" is regular MTX. NFTs are "more money to the gamers" and a completely deregulated and unenforceable market that leads to nothing but bad times.

Also there's still that phrase I like and will continue to use: "the financialization of playing time is a future of misery".

With the initial purchase it is, literally; more money to the devs. Then after that, a small % of eveyr trade is still going to the devs. So in essence isn't different to just selling the product directly, it just has more perks to the users.
I don't understand the phrase, perhaps you can clarify the meaning. Because selling NFTs it has nothing to do with playing time, you could make a few skins for a singleplayer game as NFTs and call it a day.

Imagine going to a coffee shop but when you go to the counter the staff are constantly trying to sell you special coffee mugs, or coffee related merchandise. And the coffee kind of sucks now because the store has put more effort into trying to sell you those trinkets than the actual coffee because it gets them a better mark up. That's where some developers have headed. If you like video games, wouldn't you want to reward developers for making a good game, not for how craftily they can sneak gambling into there games? Or how well they can sell digital bells and whistles? This extra revenue from loot boxes, microtransactions and in the future NFTs, are not going to focus on making better gaming experiences. They are going to double down and put that new revenue source into making more revenue sources.

I understand where you come from. But for me that's just a shitty business. How the commercial aspects affects the game itself is completely up to the company, it has nothing to do with the existence of NFTs/Boxes per se.
Bad game design is bad game design.
 
With the initial purchase it is, literally; more money to the devs. Then after that, a small % of eveyr trade is still going to the devs. So in essence isn't different to just selling the product directly, it just has more perks to the users.
I don't understand the phrase, perhaps you can clarify the meaning. Because selling NFTs it has nothing to do with playing time, you could make a few skins for a singleplayer game as NFTs and call it a day.



I understand where you come from. But for me that's just a shitty business. How the commercial aspects affects the game itself is completely up to the company, it has nothing to do with the existence of NFTs/Boxes per se.
Bad game design is bad game design.
We've seen time and time again that this bad game design occurs because of the money made through these secondary methods. And why wouldn't it? If a company sees they make 5 times more money from micro transactions and loot boxes compared to the actual game sales, of course they are going to do whatever they can to prioritize that. Saying it's simply "more money to the devs" is missing the forest for the trees. You're actively rewarding them for taking focus away from the game itself. Or to change the focus of the game entirely. If NFTs become a common thing in a lot of games, those games absolutely will change to accommodate them. And that change will be done to try to get more purchases out of you after you already purchased the game.
 
I don't understand the phrase, perhaps you can clarify the meaning. Because selling NFTs it has nothing to do with playing time, you could make a few skins for a singleplayer game as NFTs and call it a day.
You 'could', but that's not what's going to be done. Much like MTX, these things will be spread far and wide if allowed to.

And even with something so innocuous as "a few skins", what would happen to your thought process when playing if these skins turned out to be a chance to actually earn money? Would you still play the game just for fun, or would the nagging thought of "I could be making myself some easy money if I did this" be stuck in the back of your mind, every time some ingame popup or loot drop reminded you of the skins?

Now multiply that nagging thought by a thousand - that's what would happen if NFTs became the new MTX standard and the gaming companies began finding the proper ways to incentivize players to buy into them.

I am really not looking forward to a future where the gibbering shadows of capitalism and market economics would be looking over my shoulder when I'm just trying to have fun in a game. Future of misery indeed.
 

Ebidramon

Banned
No, he wouldn't.

And just because he said fuck the Oscars, doesn't mean he is your friend.

...

Btw, I find the term "digital plot of land" both ridiculous, as well as funny.
 

UnNamed

Banned
Imagine going to a coffee shop but when you go to the counter the staff are constantly trying to sell you special coffee mugs, or coffee related merchandise. And the coffee kind of sucks now because the store has put more effort into trying to sell you those trinkets than the actual coffee because it gets them a better mark up.
It's easy to image something that already happen from the invention of business.
 

Wildebeest

Member
Well at least all the fame and success isn't going to his head. Isn't Hazelight an "astroturf indie" funded and published by EA who say that NFTs are "the future".
 

mxbison

Member
I like the guy but I just don't understand this irrational hatred towards nfts. If you use them as cosmetics, what is the problem? More money to the devs to use in development.

Because when I buy a game I want those cosmetics too, they are part of the game and shiny armor is important too. Else we might aswell just play wireframes.

And the devs jumping onto these things like hyenas are the ones already making boat loads of money. Don't believe the "oh but games are so expensive to make now"-BS from Ubisoft, Activision, EA etc. They are making crazy ass record profits, but the only goal for every new year is to make even more.
 

Kerotan

Member
This doesn't confirm he wouldn't like NFT's in games. He could have those really weird fettishes where he loves pain and getting shot is on his bucket list.
 

GeorgPrime

Banned

Fares recently spoke to The Washington Post, where he championed video games as an art form and criticized companies for adjusting mechanics to try to get players to spend real money. He said that his company Hazelight Studios wouldn't make a live service game despite how much money those kinds of games can rake in, and added that he would rather be "shot in the knee" than incorporate NFTs in his future games.

Jeah. I hope he says the same about Microtransactions. ;)
 

SLB1904

Banned
it blows my mind that you find gamers defending this stuff... actually I'm not sure if these people are gamers or corporate employees preaching
 
honestly, the way its going i will probably stop gaming. these corporations just wont stop. the greed never stops. i was playing mario 64 on the switch recently and it made me sad what has happened to gaming since than. it was simpy about great fun games back than and nothing else.
 

Portugeezer

Member
A scam is buying an iphone on some shady site and getting a soup bar, people that mix coke with flour, or my last relationship.

That's just a bad purchase.
Sure, but it's exploiting people's stupidity and will infest gaming on that premise.

Saw this video the other day and they talk about what people think NFT is vs what it actually is:

 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Because they’re a scam
medium_2021-12-18-534672732d.jpg

You give an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Horse armor.
You mean you wouldn't pay $2K for the actual digital rifle little that Billy Johnson used to get 50 headshots in a single round of whatever battle royale game is popular right now?
 
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kingfey

Banned
A scam is buying an iphone on some shady site and getting a soup bar, people that mix coke with flour, or my last relationship.

That's just a bad purchase
This is 100% scam. There is no other way to it.

You are losing money. There is no value to it. People will spend their hard earned money on this garbage shit.

At least mtx gives some joy. This thing on other hand, is pretty much a scam.
 
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