<
https://www.pcgamer.com/developer-turns-future-of-gaming-talk-into-a-surprise-attack-on-conventions-nft-and-blockchain-sponsors/>
'Game developer Mark Venturelli received a spirited ovation at Brazil's
International Games Festival on Friday after he surprised the audience for his
"Future of Game Design" talk with a new title: "Why NFTs are a nightmare." It
was a loud statement against blockchain's push into gaming, one of the most
divisive trends this year. The festival's list of 2022 sponsors include several
NFT and blockchain companies, including Lakea and Ripio, and the festival's
programming included panels from those sponsors, such as "Web3 and the New
Generation of Games."
Venturelli, who is best known for the game
Chroma Squad, didn't just push
back against those talks by calling NFTs a nightmare: He argued in detail that
they're bad for gaming and run directly counter to his vision for the future of
game design.
In a follow-up interview with
PC Gamer, Venturelli said the event's
blockchain sponsors needed "to buy their relevance, because they're not
relevant."
"These people are outsiders here, they're not important," says Venturelli.
"They're just trying to buy their relevance, because they have no actual
influence over the future of our industry. If you just give them this space
uncontested, you're just giving them exactly what they want, and buying their
narrative that they're relevant."
Before a recording was even available, Venturelli's talk went viral thanks to a
tweet describing the moment he announced its real name and the applause that
followed his talk. "It was a bit of a gimmick," Venturelli admits. "I start,
'Hey, this talk is about the future of gaming'. And then I start talking about
it, and I say, 'Well, actually, fooled you!' This talk is not about the future
of game design, because I start talking about all the trends that I've seen in
my 15 years in the industry, and now we have new trends, let's talk about them.
That's when I scratch the name of the talk and say, 'Why NFTs are a
nightmare.'"
Venturelli has now shared a recording of his presentation on YouTube (opens in
new tab), and while the talk is in Portuguese, you can read an English version
of the slides accompanying it (opens in new tab).'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
