If you have not heard of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), you should really go out from your house and start talking to your friends. It is one of the most ‘in’ things today. Thanks to advancements and creative use in technology, the art scene has been in a completely different high in the modern world. When we say art, we are not completely referring to the traditional art market. NFTs refer to specialized digital art that is uniquely made with their own identifier thanks to blockchain technology.
While NFTs is the hottest trend in the digitally ‘woke’ world today, it is a highly disputed technology. Plenty questions its validity and hype comparing it to the rise and fall of cryptocurrencies. There are also plenty of discussions on whether NFTs should have a place in gaming industry too. The concept of blockchain based gaming is not a new one, as well as NFT assets in games. Games like Axie Infinity is a good example of NFT based gaming that works around the assets itself. There are also games in development that built itself around NFT ownership and trade as well currently.
Not everyone agrees with the presence of NFTs in games though. One of them is Mojang studios, the people behind one of the most successful game franchises we know today, Minecraft. According to a very recent post on Mojang’s Minecraft blog, they have stated that they are not allowing NFTs to be part of the game to protect its users. They also see NFT as a rather exclusive asset that might not align to their policy to ensure that the game is inclusive to all kinds of players.
The idea of NFTs in Minecraft, while seems rather interesting, was not concocted by Mojang themselves. It is an implementation by other NFT based companies to show that they can generate unique collectibles, world files, and skin packs in the Minecraft world. The implementation also allows users to earn NFTs through activities inside and outside of the game itself.
While having unique assets is a noble idea in Minecraft, they say that they do not want to create an environment where scarcity and exclusion becomes a culture within Minecraft. Minecraft also has its own marketplace that allows players to sell their own creations for others to use. Minecraft also allows players to charge for access to their servers. All players have the same level of access to functionalities and available contents throughout the game. NFTs goes completely against that concept, according to Mojang. Therefore, NFTs should not have its place in the Minecraft game at this time.
Mojang is not completely against the idea of blockchain in Minecraft though. Mojang says that they will be paying close attention to how blockchain technology progresses. The idea is to implement blockchain within the game that complies to their concept of inclusivity and other practical use cases in gaming. They also re-iterated that they are not planning to implement blockchain within Minecraft currently.
