Yesterday, our genre’s core subreddit floated a poll to subbers about whether or not crypto and NFT game threads should be characterized as scammy spam and booted to the far ends of the earth. As I type this on Thursday afternoon, there are over 1000 votes, with around a 70-30 split in favor of banning “advertising of MMORPGs that feature NFTs, cryptocurrency, or blockchain technology” and “posting of websites such as news and forums with the intent to advertise MMORPGs of this nature.” [Edit: As of this morning, it’s 2300 votes with an identical ratio.]
If I can be honest, it actually makes me very proud of the MMORPG subreddit, which isn’t always a haven of warm fuzzy feelings. This is the right thing to be a stick-in-the-mud about, though, and it’s a discussion we’ve had many times on MOP too. We’ve thus far opted to ignore most of the games to avoid inadvertently promoting them and minimize our coverage to those few that have some sort of stake or importance in the genre – like Legends of Aria (which was a Kickstarter MMO with obligations to backers) and Richard Garriott’s new pitch (which comes at the expense of a Kickstarter MMO with obligations to backers). We can’t pretend this stuff doesn’t exist because that leaves an information gap; we’d prefer to fill that gap with context and accountability and a historical record.
But of course, we have a different role than the MMORPG sub, and the sub mods did clarify that mere discussion of P2E flim-flam won’t be off-limits, just obvious shilling for specific games. But that’s hard too, as we’ve seen in our comments plenty of people who pretend to be casually chatting in the generic and “just asking questions,” only to find out they represent one of these games and are testing our audience to see where the possible marks could be. This has apparently happened on the sub, too; as one mod put it, “I haven’t seen a single discussion be anything short of a sly attempt at advertising for the concept as a whole.” Yep.
Are you sick of crypto and NFT crap in MMOs? How do you think MMO communities should be handling the current deluge?
Perfect Ten: MMOs that have fallen to the dark side of cryptocurrency
Lawful Neutral: How is an NFT MMO even supposed to work?
Vague Patch Notes: NFTs in gaming are a bad, dumb idea
Vague Patch Notes: Why play-to-earn is a garbage idea
Vague Patch Notes: The metaverse doesn’t exist and isn’t a good idea either
GDC 2022: Control, revenue, scarcity, ethics, and the human challenges of the gaming ‘metaverse’
Vague Patch Notes: No, Little Orbit has not solved the MMO blockchain problem
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
