The use of NFTs in gaming projects presents “ethical issues”, says the International Game Developers Association. It highlighted that this might represent a socio-political explosion waiting to happen. The association, which is made up of game developers and programmers, believes NFTs and like-elements might introduce some problems into the gaming activity.
Jakin Vela, the interim director of the IGDA, said the organization plans to take action to raise awareness of the problems NFT gaming might bring. He said the association is revising its stance to be stronger as there are a lot of ethical issues that come with non-fungible tokens.
IGDA highlighted the pyramid scheme element that some games present to its users. Some of them require a constantly growing userbase to keep their self-sustained economies afloat, such as some play-to-earn games. Vela pointed out that gamers are affected by the unregulated character of the NFT environment. Gamers can put their whole employment activity in uncertain ecosystems beyond any official protection. With this are some other aspects which might create a socio-political explosion.
Moreover, the industry has seen some heavy backlash from groups inside gaming that have opposed the new trend. The IGDA is very much part of the opposition and had issued a call to action in July 2021. It declared that NFTs should never be used when a simple and far less costly database table can be managed to provide the same benefits and information.
The IGDA recommended proof-of-stake (PoS)-based networks instead of proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains. It attributed this to energy efficiency. But other industry insiders say gamers are rejecting these ideas due to a lack of knowledge.
