Think about it, you could implement items in a game using NFT tech OR a database: would the players notice anything functionally different in the game? If not: why the big deal about NFTs in gaming?
FWIW I can definitely see an asset store like model if that’s what you mean. Where games that share an engine can share developed assets. But you need to look at how that works out in practice in terms of how much integration cost there is, gamers tolerance for asset reuse and actually how broadly applicable it is between different games. And even then extant asset stores already work perfectly well so it’s not clear what putting it on the blockchain and presumably some decentralised storage actually provides.
"Trust us, your items are safe with us!"
> the only difference (which doesn't really add any utility to games) is the idea of this database being public.
On the contrary, this does add utility. By the database being public I: A) Have reasonable guarantees of ownership of my items B) Can use my high value items across multiple experiences
And from a developer perspective, if game engines were written in a way which made the holders of a certain token impossible to exclude from the game or possess items whose properties couldn't be adjusted for gameplay balance or aesthetics, that would be a bug, not a feature.
Possibly the big fan-base ready to play a game where there can log in easily and use some of their hard earned collector items.
True, with social networks it played out differently, but social networks is a rare category where the almost only thing you care is having/finding all people you know, all other features are kind of irrelevant. Joining another social networks adds close to nothing (as long as you can chat with those people) and only add friction. A bit like money… the more uses it, the better, it doesn’t need to do many things, the very only thing you care, is all people you know using the same.
Many other things work similarly, but no way in that extent. Mostly you care a lot more about additional features. For example Airbnb works better the more people use it, but you also care about important features, and you would switch to another similar service if it was a lot better and has a reasonable amount of choice/venues, as you don’t need everyone around you using it (which is the case for money and for the main social network you use… at least for the masses who want the fastest solution on most days)
If you're writing a game and trusting data from another game...you have a trusted authority and you can just use traditional apis, no?
What’s the incentive for the developer to do this? And more importantly how does my M4 rifle work in an epic fantasy role playing game?
The problem with your first suggestion is that you do an awful lot of work to map another games NFTs to your own items but presumably get none of the money from them. You also have an immediate balancing problem. And the better way is to just make a game that those players want to play, which is how game populations move around now anyway. The only way I can see supporting external NFTs as worthwhile for a game developer is if they’re already table stakes for taking part.
Or say you support BAYC, all that work to address 10k potential users?
None of the things you mention are happening or likely to happen.
Technically, most games aren't interchangeable with assets. There's a wide array of asset formats and bespoke optimizations. It's very hard to take something from one game to another unless they share an engine.
The alternative is the second developer would need to make a corresponding asset for every other one. Though they won't get financially rewarded for it and there's no guarantee that the users will buy the future assets from them instead of elsewhere.
I see this suggestion come up a lot in crypto circles and it's almost certainly always from people who have no experience with game or other real time development, trivializing the cost of asset creation.
The metaverse version of this is NFTs that drag around their own code, art and so on. That can run in a sandboxed way and there are protocols for game entity communication and so on. But this level of interoperability is a pipe dream outside of games like Second Life.