Blockchain is becoming a pain in the ass. Games don't need Blockchain. It serves no purpose other than making some people rich and having the games filled with farmers that will eventually ruin everything.
There seems to be a lot of confusion what this means. There are two main uses for blockchain tech in games at the moment. One is as cryptocurrency for in game transactions, the other is for NFTs.<p>The issues with cryptocurrency are volatility and that the decentralised structure means nobody is liable if things go wrong. With VBucks for example, the VBuck literally stops with Epic. Crypto is too often seen as a way to monetise without assuming liability.<p>NFTs are another can of worms. All an NFT does is associate an account with an asset ID on the blockchain. For internet traded artwork this means a string associated with a URL of an artwork belongs to this person and can be traded to someone else. In a game that ID might be associated with a magic sword in an online game. For that to matter, other games would have to recognise that association and honour it so if that customer gets an account with their game, that NFT corresponds with a sword in their game too. It's all still base on trust though. There's no guarantee that a particular NFT would be recognised by any other game, or even a new version of the same game, or be recognised as representing a similar asset.<p>Basically Steam doesn't want to touch this stuff, because they don't want to be on the hook, either financially or reputation-ally, for any actual or implied guarantees in this area made by games on their platform. Guarantees that nobody, not even the games publishers themselves are in a position to make, due to the inherently decentralised nature of this sort of blockchain tech.
It's purely a PR. Epic needs to take users and mindshare from Steam. If Steam banned eating babies, Epic would announce opening a baby restaurant.
The article misquotes Steam’s rules. Here is what Steam says:<p>> Applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs.<p>And the article:<p>> Games that use blockchain technology or let users exchange NFTs or cryptocurrencies won’t be allowed on Steam …<p>The problem isn’t the blockchain, it’s blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and NFTs.<p>Granted, I don’t know why you’d use a blockchain in a video game other than cryptocurrency or NFT reasons.<p>But it’s unfortunate that “blockchain” is apparently synonymous with proof of work cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
This may be silly question: How are blockchains any different from micro-transaction or drip-dlc? As far as I see all are just way to get my money. (I'm getting old and no longer in the loop.)