The NFT/Metaverse Grift Is In Full Swing
The most practical use of blockchain so far? Parting fools from their money
The Metaverse and NFT buzz is reaching a fever pitch. This is becoming particularly evident to me in my current role in the gaming space as several brands have come to me looking for consultancy on these topics over the last few weeks…
It is difficult to know what to say at times like these because the Metaverse as a concept is nebulous depending on who you’re asking, and yet the key benefits pledged by its vocal acolytes have already been delivered many times over. Something is different this time though. The promise of a metaverse is now being blended together with a pinch of blockchain, a dash of “true ownership” and a sprinkling of NFTs. The resulting smoothie of techno-babble being gulped down by blockchain enthusiasts and early adopters is going down smooth today, but I fear many buyers, if not most, will wake up feeling sick in the morning.
I stumbled across one of the many NFT based Metaverse projects, Meta Legends, this morning when a former Twitch colleague (@Zemnmez) highlighted that they somehow managed to misspell NFT in their own promotional banner...
The Meta Legends website is glossy with a cyber/futuristic look and a convincing level of production.
The key here, and with countless other NFT Metaverse projects, is that you pay them upfront for an NFT avatar image that purports to come with benefits and perks when the “real” Metaverse launches at some later date.
If you’re interested, Meta Legends has a variety of packages for would-be metaverse citizens starting at 0.3 ETH (a cool $1,381) for a basic NFT avatar and going up to 2.5 ETH which will buy you “NFT + Land + Free residence/house + 1 Vehicle + 1 Pet + 1 Armor in the Metaverse”. For those counting on their fingers and scratching their heads, that’s $11,500 USD!
Their Metaverse itself is going to be called Meta Life. Here are a few excerpts from the “Lite paper”…
The main idea of Meta Life is to be able to connect to an open world where players can create, own and monetize their gaming experience…
Our vision is to offer a deeply immersive metaverse in which players will find themselves in personalized worlds and collaborative, decentralized virtual games.
The Blockchain technology will allow Meta Life players to use the Play to Earn system, which means that they can earn money by playing the game: We will see what the mechanisms of Meta Life will be at this level.
Building an expansive massively multiplayer open-world isn’t the kind of thing you knock up in a lunch break. World of Warcraft for example is operated by a team of over 4,000 full-time employees. Beyond the scale of the actual world design and operation itself, something most crypto-game projects haven’t come to terms with yet is that a Play-To-Earn game means you have to juggle two very different roles: Game developer AND central bank. Axie Infinity for example is having a nightmare keeping its economy viable and the value of its tokens at sustainable levels.
I note that the Meta Legends Lite Paper reveals that this entire project is being run by four people, none of which have a lick of game design experience listed to their name: Their credentials are listed as a designer and digital artist, an entrepreneur, a mathematical and statistical modelling engineer and a crypto investor. This team is profoundly qualified to sell you NFTs, I’ll give them that.
I’m not saying that this Metaverse project isn’t being run in good faith. It’s possible that they intend to invest their NFT earnings into hiring a huge development team, I’m just not prepared to hold my breath. Others however aren’t just holding their breath, they’re opening their wallets…
This brings us to the million-dollar question… Why are people not just willing, but eager, to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the promise of a blockchain-powered virtual world? It’s the same reason people are promising to make them in the first place: Greed.
We have loads of high quality massively multiplayer online virtual worlds already in operation and run expertly by huge and talented reputable studios. If the people buying these NFTs and tickets to Willy Wonka’s Metaverse simply wanted to run around a virtual world casting fireballs and shooting their friends they are already spoiled for choice. No, the reason these futurists can’t get over NFTs and “true ownership” is that they want to own assets that they believe will appreciate in value. That is the goal. The quality of the game or virtual world is secondary (or not even a concern at all) to the fact that this game lets you buy a plot of virtual land or own a virtual car that can be (hopefully) resold with mark up.
The harsh reality is that the concept of true ownership and decentralised tokens for in-game items clashes with almost every aspect of game design. I’ll likely write a separate post on this topic but here’s an example: Imagine buying an NFT of an in-game gun for real money. This is now your property. Now imagine the game designers realise the gun is too powerful and it’s making the game less fun for the wider player base. If the developer goes in and reduces the strength of the gun, your property just went down in value!
So far, the experience of the virtual worlds is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is getting in first, hyping the project up and getting out thanks to our time tested friend, the greater fool theory.
Metaverse and NFT apostles are speculating on a gold rush, except in this case nobody actually knows if there’s any gold in the mine or even how to excavate it. As with every gold rush, the only people getting rich are the folks selling the picks and shovels.
Like this post? Hit the subscribe button and get my posts directly in your inbox.
Not an investor yet but interested to try investing in stocks? Check out my beginner’s guide. I recommend using the FreeTrade app which is free, lets you get started with just a couple of pounds and is perfect for newcomers with an easy to use interface. Use this Loot Box Investing referral link and we both get a free random stock when you sign up.
Agree or disagree with any of the above? Love or hate this? Let me know on Twitter - @LootBoxInvest.