YouTube streamer Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm is certainly no stranger to controversy, as the indefinite Twitch ban of the first-person shooter expert shows, but he usually lives in harmonious coexistence with his followers. However, when it comes to NFT gaming, even the popular streamer cannot excite the entire fan base.
“The concept of digital collectibles in an online game is so exciting to me,” he wrote on Twitter. “Especially an extraction type of game. People who say scam and ‘ugh’ are just brain dead headline followers. Same people who spend tons on skins for an annual release game. Same skins everyone has too.”
Imagine trying to “unwrap” an item you discovered worth $100,000 on the chain.
Think entertainment value as viewer let alone player.
A new pvp experience is upon us…
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) March 5, 2023
“Imagine trying to ‘unpack’ an item you discovered worth $100,000 on the chain,” Beahm said. “Think of entertainment value as a viewer let alone a player. A new pvp experience is upon us…”
Dr Disrespect is currently working on his extraction shooter, DEADROP, which he seems to envision incorporating NFTs to provide the exciting type of gameplay he has in mind. He has previously issued NFTs in connection with the project.
Beahm’s vision is not shared among all his followers, but one of them responded: “Ugh, NFT/blockchain games? I thought you were better than that. Was looking forward to your game, should have known better when you dropped exclusive NFT tokens for it lol.”
The streamer reacted rather undiplomatically to this feedback, simply replying: “What an idiot”.
It seems Dr Disrespect buys into the vision of the same NFTs being available and fully functional across many different games, a view shared by many proponents of this technology in video games. When challenged on why developers would even bother implementing content from other games into their titles without getting paid for it, he didn’t post an answer.
This commonly held viewpoint among NFT supporters has often been called out by developers, who have explained why this is quite unfeasible as such a level of interoperability simply does not exist in game development. Indie developer Rami Ismail, to cite one notable example, says that even very basic objects in a game can be difficult to implement across different titles and engines.
Let’s imagine making dice in a game.
— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) 10 January 2022
Beahm seems willing to try to find a way, and only time will tell if he can do it – he would be among the first when it comes to the controversial NFT gaming sector.
Written by Oliver Brandt and Marco Wutz on behalf of the GLHF.
