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Penny Arcade - Comic - Thumbs Down

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited November 2021 in The Penny Arcade Hub
imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Thumbs Down

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here

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Posts

  • BropocalypseBropocalypse Registered User regular
    edited November 2021
    Keep at least a 500 foot distance from anyone who bases their life around reddit buzzwords

    Bropocalypse on
  • Monkey Ball WarriorMonkey Ball Warrior A collection of mediocre hats Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    Bettas are pretty, but they are also really violent. For a fish anyway. You can't keep two of them in the same tank or they will kill each other.

    "I resent the entire notion of a body as an ante and then raise you a generalized dissatisfaction with physicality itself" -- Tycho
  • Radiated RoninRadiated Ronin Registered User regular
    I got a strong Ralph Wiggum "I wanna twirl" vibe out of the last panel. That's a good thing.

  • MercadeMercade Registered User regular
    Only happening on mobile, but this might just be the best accident of two preview comic images side-by-side:

    IMG-0417.jpg

    Switch: SW-1909-0466-9585
  • EnlongEnlong Registered User regular
    betta than you

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    Mercade wrote: »
    Only happening on mobile, but this might just be the best accident of two preview comic images side-by-side:

    IMG-0417.jpg
    j2qpc99xjvr9.png

  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    Mercade wrote: »
    Only happening on mobile, but this might just be the best accident of two preview comic images side-by-side:

    IMG-0417.jpg
    j2qpc99xjvr9.png

    |Ko-Fi Me! ☕😎|NH844lc.png | PSN | chi-logo-only-favicon.png(C.H.I) Ltd. |🏳️⚧️♥️
  • OctoberRavenOctoberRaven Plays fighting games for the story Skyeline Hotel Apartment 4ARegistered User regular
    me, I plan on never playing any game that uses NFTs.

    Currently Most Hype For: VTMB2, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Alan Wake 2 (Wake Harder)Currently Playin: Guilty Gear XX AC+R, Gat Out Of Hell
  • TACAMOTACAMO Registered User regular
    "I miss when companies used to make games" or something.

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    TACAMO wrote: »
    "I miss when companies used to make games" or something.

    "There's more companies making games now than ever before in history" or whatnot.

  • doompookydoompooky Wild (Let's Draw A) Horses Couldn't Drag Me AwayRegistered User regular
    me, I plan on never playing any game that uses NFTs.

    NFT?

    No
    Fuckin'
    Thanks

    we7ek91hy97o.png
  • LtPowersLtPowers Registered User regular
    Can anyone explain what makes the Mario Kart analogy inaccurate? Is it just that Mario is a proprietary character used across everyone's instance of Mario Kart rather than a personal character owned by the player?

    If that's it, what is the actual proposed use of NFTs here? You build up a character, then sell it using an NFT to someone for lots of real-world money? Isn't that what people do already?

  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited November 2021
    LtPowers wrote: »
    Can anyone explain what makes the Mario Kart analogy inaccurate? Is it just that Mario is a proprietary character used across everyone's instance of Mario Kart rather than a personal character owned by the player?

    If that's it, what is the actual proposed use of NFTs here? You build up a character, then sell it using an NFT to someone for lots of real-world money? Isn't that what people do already?

    Two reasons, the first being pretty obvious: pay-to-win is the death's kiss for a game. It's like selling aimbots to people. You'd be left with a piece of garbage, in the end. Or the person you managed to hoodwink into buying it would be.

    The second reason is just how shaky the concept of ownership-by-NFT is. The NFT isn't actually necessary to transfer the ownership of the character. You just give them the credentials to the account. If you wanted to transfer the character but not give them your whole account, you'd need the cooperation of the game developer. And if you have that, you don't need environmentally unfriendly NFTs. They just set an owner id from one value to another and now you own it.

    To add to the MarioKart analogy, the NFT is a piece of paper. You had to cut down an entire tree just to make that piece of paper. On it is the words "I own Mario." The paper is not a legal contract, and giving someone the paper doesn't actually give them Mario. It just gives them the piece of paper that says they have Mario. You have to arrange some other way to actually give them your Mario that you've built up.

    Basically, you summed it up in your post: "Isn't that what people do already?" The answer is, of course, yes (for some games like WoW). NFT adds nothing to that existing process other than environmental damage and the ability to get scammed.

    As the very article that Jerry linked to already says,
    The story evangelises the people quitting their jobs and risking it all on video games that use NFTs, and speaks glowingly about the potential of NFTs and crypto, while almost entirely failing to mention stuff like how environmentally destructive the blockchain is, or how the entire thing is a huge fucking scam (aside from the single, dismissive line: “in the crypto world, it’s also seen as a rite of passage to be scammed at one point or another”).

    Edit: Corrected "pay for play" to "pay-to-win."

    dennis on
  • TACAMOTACAMO Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    TACAMO wrote: »
    "I miss when companies used to make games" or something.

    "There's more companies making games now than ever before in history" or whatnot.

    My bad, it was a little obscure and not a direct quote

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/08/17

  • YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    LtPowers wrote: »
    Can anyone explain what makes the Mario Kart analogy inaccurate? Is it just that Mario is a proprietary character used across everyone's instance of Mario Kart rather than a personal character owned by the player?

    If that's it, what is the actual proposed use of NFTs here? You build up a character, then sell it using an NFT to someone for lots of real-world money? Isn't that what people do already?

    Two reasons, the first being pretty obvious: pay for play is the death's kiss for a game. It's like selling aimbots to people. You'd be left with a piece of garbage, in the end. Or the person you managed to hoodwink into buying it would be.

    The second reason is just how shaky the concept of ownership-by-NFT is. The NFT isn't actually necessary to transfer the ownership of the character. You just give them the credentials to the account. If you wanted to transfer the character but not give them your whole account, you'd need the cooperation of the game developer. And if you have that, you don't need environmentally unfriendly NFTs. They just set an owner id from one value to another and now you own it.

    To add to the MarioKart analogy, the NFT is a piece of paper. You had to cut down an entire tree just to make that piece of paper. On it is the words "I own Mario." The paper is not a legal contract, and giving someone the paper doesn't actually give them Mario. It just gives them the piece of paper that says they have Mario. You have to arrange some other way to actually give them your Mario that you've built up.

    Basically, you summed it up in your post: "Isn't that what people do already?" The answer is, of course, yes (for some games like WoW). NFT adds nothing to that existing process other than environmental damage and the ability to get scammed.

    As the very article that Jerry linked to already says,
    The story evangelises the people quitting their jobs and risking it all on video games that use NFTs, and speaks glowingly about the potential of NFTs and crypto, while almost entirely failing to mention stuff like how environmentally destructive the blockchain is, or how the entire thing is a huge fucking scam (aside from the single, dismissive line: “in the crypto world, it’s also seen as a rite of passage to be scammed at one point or another”).

    For a good explanation on why NFTs are a scam, this Twitter thread is solid:


  • OctoberRavenOctoberRaven Plays fighting games for the story Skyeline Hotel Apartment 4ARegistered User regular
    edited November 2021
    It's really kind of sad because it's such an obvious scam (as is crtypto itself to a degree, but NFTs are far more balatant and exploitative about it) that NFTbros can't even defend it without accidentally telling the truth.



    "Yes, it's worthless, but you get the proof that you OWN something worthless" like you almost got it dude.

    OctoberRaven on
    Currently Most Hype For: VTMB2, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Alan Wake 2 (Wake Harder)Currently Playin: Guilty Gear XX AC+R, Gat Out Of Hell
  • StericaSterica Yes Registered User, Moderator mod
    I think the point of the post was that the Mario Kart analogy is awful because that’s a blatant power-for-cash move that few people would be interested in, however it’s only a matter of time before NFTs are used for cosmetics because executives see people shelling out their savings for one jpeg of an ugly lion man and wanting a piece of that.

    YL9WnCY.png
  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    edited November 2021
    LtPowers wrote: »
    Can anyone explain what makes the Mario Kart analogy inaccurate? Is it just that Mario is a proprietary character used across everyone's instance of Mario Kart rather than a personal character owned by the player?

    If that's it, what is the actual proposed use of NFTs here? You build up a character, then sell it using an NFT to someone for lots of real-world money? Isn't that what people do already?

    It's inaccurate because you're not going to have Mario. You're going to have Yellow Toad. Yellow Toad has terrible stats and never wins races except every now and then when the game matches you against kids or maybe bots, out of pity. You spent two hundred and fifty dollars on the kart equivalent of blind bags and the best thing you got was Yellow Toad, and at the rate you're winning you can maybe hope for one more bag every two weeks.

    Maybe if you were a real payer and dropped five thousand dollars on the game there'd be a chance you'd have Mario. But as it is now you have spent two hundred and fifty dollars on a game you do not now and may never actually enjoy.

    Glazius on
  • shadowysea07shadowysea07 Registered User regular
    I had one of those. They are really pretty.

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