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Indie store itch.io comes out swinging against NFTs

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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:

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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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STiAT Feb 7, 2022
That is calling the child by its name. With so many big publishers pushing for NFTs I hope that they will fail completely and go shipwreck with that.

Give us good games with actual value, not another way to spend even more money on somethinh with no real value.
Mezron Feb 7, 2022
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itch.io has been my go to place now this just makes it all the better.


Last edited by Mezron on 9 February 2022 at 2:02 pm UTC
PublicNuisance Feb 7, 2022
Quoting: const
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.

I seem to be doing a good job of ignoring them, I still have no idea what they even are. Pictures ? Loot ? I have no idea and even a wesb search didn't answer my question. Seems to me the only people being "hurt" by them is consumers partaking in this nonsense. If that is true then seems to me the logical response is to not to use them, buy them, etc.
ObsidianBlk Feb 7, 2022
Quoting: Pendragon
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.

I ask this in all seriousness... what use do NFTs have that would (at minimum) offset the negatives inherent in their creation and add tangible value to those purchasing them? A piggyback question would be, for whatever answer there exists to the first question, how has that not been utilized in over a year?
mphuZ Feb 7, 2022
Quoting: jrtValve does not make money by trading items outside of the steam market.

Revaluation of cost and speculation you do not take into account, of course?

Ask yourself a simple question: can an item cost $ 100 on the Steam trading platform when it is resold for $ 1000 on another platform? And then you will understand how Valve makes money on this.
ertuqueque Feb 7, 2022
Quoting: ObsidianBlk
Quoting: Pendragon
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.

I ask this in all seriousness... what use do NFTs have that would (at minimum) offset the negatives inherent in their creation and add tangible value to those purchasing them? A piggyback question would be, for whatever answer there exists to the first question, how has that not been utilized in over a year?

Let me start with a couple of basics…

First of all, the simplest analogy I could come up to explain NFTs to a friend is: Imagine Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, but with a "skin" to make it "unique" or different from the other ones".

Now, following that same over-simplified concept, an NFT is a "coin" stored in a blockchain… So the usefulness of an NFT depends more or less on 3 things:

1.- What cryptocurrency is being used to "mint" that NFT. The more reliable and decentralized the cryptocurrency, the more reliable that NFT could (I stress the word COULD) be.
2.- Who is creating, promoting and delivering that NFT. Again, the more "serious" and reliable the entity, the more reliable the NFT.
3.- What's the purpose of that said NFT… An NFT could be as useless as a monkey avatar, or as useful as a certificate of ownership for a house!

So let's assume all 3 points are good:
1.- The NFT is based on something like the Ethereum blockchain (Bitcoin still doesn't support the creation of NFTs, not yet).
2.- The entity creating those NFTs is a well known real estate company that is fully compliant with all legal duties in the jurisdictions it operates.
3.- Those NFTs are digital certificates that are legally bonded to a real life property (let's say a house in Beverly Hills!).

As you can imagine, for NFTs to be really useful in real life, there needs to be a legal framework supporting them, which is something that as far as I know, doesn't exists anywhere yet… but I'm sure we'll get there; with NFTs, another iteration of the concept or something different, but still based in an open, decentralized, borderless and censorship resistant blockchain.

Today's iteration of NFTs are just attempts of using a really cool technology… in the most idiotic and incompetent way.

The technology just need to mature and evolve for another 5 to 10 years, hopefully people will come around and accept that is the future.
jrt Feb 7, 2022
Quoting: mphuZ
Quoting: jrtValve does not make money by trading items outside of the steam market.

Revaluation of cost and speculation you do not take into account, of course?

Ask yourself a simple question: can an item cost $ 100 on the Steam trading platform when it is resold for $ 1000 on another platform? And then you will understand how Valve makes money on this.

That's a stupid argument, imho. This would imply that the one blockchain trading site is responsible for the market price. There are multiple, large, and way older item trading sites that don't use a blockchain. So you could spin this argument in the other direction as well. This is a normal market effect with multiple large and small players, at what point ends this “support” for a platform? Do you support crime because you use a currency that is also used by crime? You keep the currency at a specific value because you (and a lot of other people participating) exchange it for a good with a value (like food) and trust in the ability to do so in the future.

QuoteWe need to go all the way: not only to ban NFT on our site, but also to stop supporting others who sell NFT items.
If they are like you say, supporting them by taking a cut on their unrelated platform due to market effects and that needs to stop, what is your proposed solution?
The obvious solution is to disable trades between users and restrict it to the steam market. That would also result in a lot of unwanted side effects (e.g. players can't exchange items they have twice with someone who has something else twice)
Are the Steam Trading Cards a form of NFTs?
Kimyrielle Feb 7, 2022
Good news. NFTs and cryptocurrencies can't die fast enough, as far as I am concerned. What a waste of resources for something that doesn't serve any real purpose, except fuelling people's greed.
STiAT Feb 7, 2022
I must say I watched the whole Video now, and still have no clue why they think NFTs are the "next big thing".

What it did was to strenghten my view that it's either a scam or a tool for exploitation of others to get rich if you have the money to invest in the first place.
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