NFTs (thread now extremely NSFW)

Well done!

DEAR STALKERS,

WE WANT TO GIVE A DETAILED COMMENT ON YESTERDAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF NFT-BONUSES FOR S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

GSC GAME WORLD IS AN INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPMENT STUDIO. WE HAVE NO PUBLISHER, BUT WE DO HAVE WONDERFUL PARTNERS, AN INCREDIBLE TEAM, AND A DREAM OF A GAME THAT YOU WILL SINCERELY LOVE. JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER DEVS, WE NEED TWO MAIN RESOURCES: TIME AND MONEY.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHERNOBYL IS TRULY THE BIGGEST AND THE MOST COMPLEX GAME WE HAVE EVER CREATED. ALL THE FUNDS THAT WE EARN DURING THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (INCLUDING THE POTENTIAL INCOME FROM NFT) WILL BE SPENT ON IMPROVING THE LONG-AWAITED GAME TO MAKE IT EVEN BETTER.

WHY DID WE CHOOSE NFT? IT’S A NEW TECHNOLOGY, AND WE ARE EAGER TO «DO NFT RIGHT»: GIVE CERTAIN FANS AN OPPORTUNITY «TO GET INTO» THE GAME WITHOUT INTERFERING WITH OTHER PLAYERS’ EXPERIENCE. THAT’S WHY THE TOKENS ARE ENTIRELY OPTIONAL AND HAVE NO IMPACT ON GAMEPLAY OR STORY (NO WEAPONS, QUESTS, LOCATIONS, ETC.) AND CAN BE ACTIVATED ONLY BEFORE THE GAME RELEASE.

YESTERDAY WE ANNOUNCED THE FIRST TOKENS — THE FACES OF SEVERAL NPCS. THEY AREN’T EVEN INVOLVED IN THE STORY. BUT SOME OF YOU THOUGHT WE WOULD GO A BIT TOO FAR FROM HERE. THAT’S WHY WE WANT TO TRANSPARENTLY DISCLOSE OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE NFTS. WE ARE GOING TO IMPLEMENT (NICKNAMES OF THE OWNERS ON SOME IN-GAME DESKS/WALLS/ETC (PLEASE REMEMBER IT’S A LARGE OPEN WORLD WE’RE TALKING ABOUT), GLOVES/TATTOOS, SKINS/BADGES FOR THE MULTIPLAYER MODE (RELEASING AS A FREE UPDATE AFTER THE STORY CAMPAIGN) AND COLLECTIBLE CARDS (DMARKET PLATFORM ONLY, NO INTEGRATION IN S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2).

DMARKET WAS CHOSEN AS A PARTNER AS A VIDEOGAME-ONLY BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM. THEY LOVE GAMES, AND THEY WERE EAGER TO WORK WITH US ON THIS KIND OF SOFT NET REALIZATION. DMARKET WORKS ON A PRIVATE BLOCKCHAIN SYSTEM WITH BRIDGES INTO OTHER NETWORKS (SUCH AS POLYGON AND SOLANA WITH PRIORITY TO PROVIDE LOW ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND MINIMIZE CO2-EMISSIONS AND OTHER NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS.

IN THIS STATEMENT, WE ARE AS HONEST WITH YOU AS WE CAN. WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR SUPPORT, BUT AT LEAST WE HOPE YOU CAN HEAR US AND UNDERSTAND OUR REASONS.

THE TEXT TURNED OUT TO BE VERY BIG: THANK YOU FOR READING IT TILL THE END. PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES FOR YESTERDAY’S MISCOMMUNICATION AND ALL THE FEELINGS IT CAUSED. WE KNOW THAT YOU WISH ONLY THE BEST FOR OUR GAME, AND WE APPRECIATE IT.

WITH LOVE,

GSC GAME WORLD TEAM.

AN HOUR LATER THAT, THOUGH, THEY TWEETED THIS

pic.twitter.com/mffnmpiQiw

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) December 16, 2021

Periodically, people suggest that Adbusters should create NFTs, or get involved in an NFT project. So periodically we have to set the record straight.

If you know what an NFT is, you know about their enormous environmental impact. NFTs are generally "minted" on a proof-of-work blockchain that uses complex computations to prove the validity of transactions. These computations use an extraordinary amount of energy and are becoming increasingly energy intensive over time.

But NFTs are worse than a simple bitcoin transaction, because every step of the way requires a new transaction to be verified, from minting to bidding to resales— and all that energy use is multiplied when multiple editions of a single piece are minted.

So they're an environmentally destructive juggernaut... but it gets worse.

NFTs are an investment pyramid scheme. Like Amway, as soon as someone buys into NFTs, they'll be evangelizing about them to all their friends— so that they're not left holding all the useless assets they bought.

NFT evangelists will constantly crow about the artistic community they've found, but in truth there is no such thing as an NFT community. That "community" consists of a group of people pumping up the prices of their useless assets in order to sell them to suckers who want to belong.

Real community is not predicated on exchange, but on gift. On connection. On love.

NFTs are also a method of creating artificial scarcity. And the world we wish to live in is post-scarcity.

Our praxis is the prefigurement of the world we wish to live in.

So we will never have anything to do with NFTs.

whoever wrote that for Adbusters, thank you

longing for those naive months between finding out what NFTs were and realizing they're never going away

if you ever find me in the metaverse you have permission to metamurder me

Brian Eno on NFTshttps://t.co/reT8MjYYqB pic.twitter.com/RtYVVKIcKH

— Michael DeForge (@michael_deforge) December 20, 2021

He HAS tbf just lent his name to a turntable that synaesthetically changes colour to match the music, so

heh, yeah,

but thank god he's not completely fucking wrong on this like so many other artists are. i was dreading clicking that link, just because of the fear that brian eno would be completely wrong on NFTs, and that it would be another "well, that's 2021!" kind of extremely bad, horrible moment. so, phew. at least something is still right.

i haven't yet read this October magazine piece from earlier this year, linked at the top of that interview, but the title alone is worth thinking about

NFTs, or The Readymade Reversed

ha yea i was dreading scrolling down as soon as i saw his name

at least the turntable would be cool to look at on drugs or whatever

honestly had no clue where Eno was gonna come down on this

if crypto people actually gave a fuck about the effect of their actions on the environment and other people -- that is, if they weren't all selfish libertarians -- they would be trying to move to Proof of Stake. honestly, if they did that, for real, they would win over a lot of people, and they would shut a lot of people up (like me). if they stopped ruining the fucking planet I live on, in other words, maybe i would stop complaining about how the people advocating it are selfish bastards.

i think a lot of people are in that zone. kind of sounds like eno is, but who knows.

Q: There are, however, some people on the left who say that some of these technologies could help make the current digital economy fairer. Do you agree?

Eno: Can NFTs be a contemporary form of Robin Hood-ism? Is it possible that artists can use these tools to divert some of the global trillions off into some more productive and humane directions? This is what I would like to understand, though it presents the interesting moral question as to whether clean things can be done with murky money.

All the foregoing doesn’t mention the biggest issue: that in a warming world a new technology that uses vast amounts of energy as ‘proof of work’ - that’s to say, simply to establish a certain badge of exclusivity - really is quite insane. All that energy is making nothing that we need. I know there’s ‘proof of stake’ but I don’t know if that can actually work unless everybody changes over to it. And even if it did, it doesn’t address the other issues that bother me.

like, this just sums it up

"I know there’s ‘proof of stake’ but I don’t know if that can actually work unless everybody changes over to it."

exactly. the entire current system that is making shitteens rich is based on the fucking server farms! why would all of crypto's biggest advocates - the pricks using their rich family money to buy server farms in whatever location of the world has the cheapest electricity - support moving away from that system? the system that has large upfront capital costs which they have already paid and are now benefitting from?

and everytime a crypto fuck tries to talk reasonably about proof of stake, they end up just pointing to white papers from other cryptofucks from 2 years ago promising that they were going to do it someday and are working so hard on it. looooooooooool god DAMN how many people were born yesterday (about 385,000, according to the UN - I'm sure at least 2/3 of them will be fucking HORRIBLE people)

"And even if it did, it doesn’t address the other issues that bother me."

good news is, we'll never find out. they won't stop exploiting the current system until they've wrung every single drop of money out of it. that'll probably take a minute

last time i checked in on proof of stake, etherium was claiming that they would use it, but they still require you to mine eth in order to get access to the supposedly POS eth2.

peercoin has been using it for a decade but no one uses it because it isn't a pyramid scheme.

proof of state is defffffinitely coming soon. the crypto community is just begging for it, to save the environment

crypto people notoriously put the wellbeing of others above themselves

Thoughts on the value of NFT’s aside, Eno deriding artists turning into “little capitalist assholes” is something else coming from a person that has greatly benefited from global capitalism, to the tune of an estimated $60 million net worth.

he earned every penny of it

I'll bet some of that $60 million in net worth came from capital gains on his investment portfolio.

Eh idk, it seems clear from context that he's objecting to NFT artists pouring so much effort and energy (personal and carbon-based) into the NFT form/phenomenon/scheme/scam rather than primarily making art, which I think is fair coming from him even if he has a bunch of stocks or whatever?

Just an anecdote but: I read something about NFTs written by an art student the other day and it was 8 pgs of justification for blockchain, crypto, and NFTs with half a page about the art they had made

like getting into NFTs seems to turn you into a salesperson first and foremost

to the tune of an estimated $60 million net worth.

Are we really citing "celebritynetworth" and shit like that around here?

lol I was going to question that, but decided it doesn't matter. I'm sure the guy who produced U2 etc. is rich

after seeing how much the CEO of Spotify pulls in I cannot complain what any actual musician makes

also I'm pretty sure Eno could've pulled in a lot more over the course of his career if he wanted to, his path was kind of the opposite of a sell out

like the dude was in Roxy Music right as they were getting big, and then a fairly successful experimental solo artist in his own right, but instead of cashing in for radio play he instead decided to make a bunch of records with guys like Hans-Jochim Roedelius and pioneer one of the least commercial styles of music on the planet. like how do you sell something like "Music for Airports" to a label

Are we really citing "celebritynetworth" and shit like that around here?

i feel like if ANYTHING should be an NFT, this should be an NFT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Ak5VgyEoc

Would be cool if there was a way for artists to make money that didn’t rely on an environmentally destructive pyramid scheme

I doubt Eno is a Leninist but he refers specifically to financialization there, not merely "making money." Criticizing NFTs debasing the art in favor of taking part in crypto Ponzi schemes is not exactly "making money bad, ignore my bank account plz"

criticizng NFTs for debasing

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/036/647/Screen_Shot_2021-03-01_at_2.28.39_PM.png

NFT's enable more money for more artists

vs

the societal and financial virtues of crypto as new currency is proved by their recent 'success' in the world economy

nah, the bros are correct, why not both.

Brian Eno worked and campaigned for the Clegg era LibDem party as a "youth adviser". Sort of equally laughable, despicable and utterly fucking clueless!

his music is cool

take that shit to ilm

hahaha

its really weird that NFTs are being treated like some revolution in gaming. the first major drama in my friend group came in 2002 when one guy installed a keylogger on another guy's PC in order to steal like, 50 bucks worth of Diablo II items.

There’s a graphic designer I follow on Instagram who has disappointingly gone into NFTs. Quite telling that on his new posts nobody is commenting on the art but all the comments are suggestions to promote the NFT on other pages and all of them are indistinguishable from bots

It’s a community of people who only care about money! Awesome!

https://comicbooked.com/comic-book/

The adoption of NFTs by more and more people is giving me real Rhinoceros vibes.

Though if you want to get in on the ground floor of my Bored Rhinoceros NFTs they’re set to go through the roof.

60 million, 50 million, 1 million, number doesn’t matter. Point is he has greatly profited off of the economic system he’s criticizing, in a way that the vast majority of artists will never have the opportunity to. I don’t begrudge him for making money, I don’t care how much anyone makes; we should all have lots of money! Money is great. If NFT’s enable that for more artists, more power to them.
― Jeff, Monday, December 20, 2021 2:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This is such a bullshit, sophomoric argument. NFTs suck, crypto is bullshit. Period.

Sorry, wish I could do better!

I don’t think I’ve really tried to defend the existence of crypto/NFT’s here. I’m largely indifferent to the benefits of decentralization and other benefits that crypto libertarian bros espouse. I do find type of zealotry off putting! But I am interested in many other aspects (supporting technologies, the network effects, creation of markets/economics systems, how people determine value, financialization of everything, etc.) Perhaps my greatest sin is enjoying making some money from it and being ok with other people doing it as well. Not going to argue that at all, if people find that unsavory, not much is going to change minds.

i forget if i got this from this thread or elsewhere or whatever but it's great and it's what i send to people who i think are willing to try to understand why crypto is so fucking stupid:

https://antsstyle.medium.com/why-nfts-are-bad-the-long-version-2c16dae145e2

written patiently and thoroughly by a computer scientist who patiently and thoroughly demolishes all crypto moron arguments. obviously you can't send it to any like zealot types as their brains are far too riddled and gone for actual reflection.

Just so everyone knows. There are HELLBOY NFT's out there that are unauthorized and were made without our's or @DarkHorseComics consent so buyer beware.

— Mike Mignola (@artofmmignola) December 20, 2021

The exciting technology of right-clicking and saving a JPG and then selling it to a stupid person for hundreds of dollars.

think Frank Zappa would be into NFTs? "We're Only In It For the Monkey"

Point is he has greatly profited off of the economic system he’s criticizing

erbody has something to hide especially frank and his goddamn monkey

xp like i think the whole point of creating alt currencies is so far outside of the scope of... whatever these currently are, man i don't know.

i mean, these crypto bros seem _strongly_ motivated to help everyone (who are like, these bros afaict) "escape" the economic oppression enforced by sociopolitical overlords. because said overlords control monetary systems. but money, like information, should be free. free to fly into their pockets. as they rocket off into space.