This past Friday saw yet another link in the blockchain craze that seems hell-bent on subsuming MMOs get forged with an announcement that development studio Core Loop – a games studio that was founded just last year by mobile game veterans Vincenzo Alagna and Dan Chao – has managed to raise $12M to create a sandbox MMORPG using blockchain technology. As VentureBeat notes, the original pitch (and original funding) last year was for an MMO, but the blockchain part came later and has clearly driven this funding.
“Vincenzo kept asking me if we wanted to add blockchain to it, and we decided to do it,” Chao explains. “Blockchain is becoming more and more popular, and once we sat down and started to do the design of how it actually fits into the game, we convinced ourselves this looks pretty exciting. We think it can work and it does feel like adds a lot to the game. It doesn’t take away from the game.”
This untitled and still-developing MMORPG coughs up many of the usual promises from other similar titles, promising “control to the players” and a play-to-earn scheme as players can freely trade in unique NFTs as blacksmiths or barons. The devs also note that the game will be otherwise free-to-play and core MMO gameplay like raiding, dungeon delving, and adventuring can be done without event joining in the blockchain racket.
Reaction to this new game has been what could be considered a collective sigh of exhaustion, particularly from the MMORPG subreddit.
The reveal comes as lawmakers are considering a bill that would require crypto brokers to report transfers and incomes to the IRS. If you’re curious about the problems facing crypto in MMOs, MMO game designer Emily “Domino” Taylor wrote up an excellent thread of first-hand experience that dovetails from a GamesIndustry op-ed, where she poses a number of questions regarding crypto, play-to-earn in MMOs, and the many legal morasses that lie ahead for MMOs that link itemization to the blockchain.
