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Comment by luka-birsa | Hacker News Reader

What if we're a bit more creative and look at any of the number of trading card games (TCGs, such as Magic the Gathering).

One of the key issues of the TCGs is that in their digital form, trading of items is up to the whims of the game author. Providing a standardized NFT allows the players to trade in game items, just as you can trade physical cards today.

Just because you don't see the implications today (I agree, buying GIFs for 7M USDs is crazy) that doesn't meant that NFTs aren't a very interesting development.

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Why would a developer implement this? What incentives do they have, other than being able to say they did? Digital cards being locked to an account was the greatest achievement for TCGs in the past decade. Non-tradability is a feature.

This applies to every single form of game-based NFT. What incentive does a Game Developer have in implementing their items on the blockchain? So I can trade my WoW Health Potions for FFXIV Health Potions? In a kind world, when I'm tired of WoW I could safely transfer my wealth from WoW to FFXIV, but does Blizzard want that? Better to ensure lock-in. Further there will never be the case where a game like WoW would recognize an item from FFXIV as canonical and equal value. I wouldn't be able to buy a FFXIV health potion and use it in WoW.

The only games that will implement NFT items will do it as a gimmick. TCG, or normal game, or anything.

I have yet to see an actual compelling use case that solves a problem that game developers have. Remember, solving a problem a player has doesn't mean the incentives for game developers are aligned.

Simple, there exists an open marketplace and game theory suggests that some game developer will figure out that aligning the player's interests with their own will result in a profitable niche for themselves.

You may not necessarily be able to use FFXIV health potion in WoW, but could you imagine that an up and coming 3rd party dev gave you a discount because you had a FFXIV NFT? Could you conceive of a group of indie publishers banning together to create a collaborative ecosystem of NFTs that all their games share and recognize? Could you imagine achievements in certain games unlocking secret levels in others?

Their incentive is from getting a cut of transactions. And in theory, putting their items on blockchain would be more appealing to people spending money because blockchain makes them more permanent. The percentage of people that actually cares is really small so it’s unknown whether it’s worth it or not to implement it.

There’s also an interesting use case where game history is attached to the item. For example if you know some counter strike skin was used by pro player to win big tournament and that history is all locked into the blockchain. If I were going to be spending a ton of money on said skin, I would feel more comfortable doing so vs. if all that data is in the developers private database. Would other people feel the same way? Who knows

Why do this on a blockchain instead of with a central authority? If they have the copyright, they don’t need a blockchain they can just use a database. If they don’t have or don’t want to enforce copyright, why would the players want scarcity?

Sure, you can go and build your own API and setup your own trading infrastructure or simply use a public infrastructure that already exists. This also means that players can use existing NFT markets to trade these or even regular markets can be adapted to simply allow trading these.

Having the ability to take your digital cards and store them wherever you want and trade them with whomever you want is really nice, if you're trying to replicate standard offline trading card games.

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