A cynical part of me wonders if the hope with NFTs from game developers was actually that it could run around this problem and provide a more direct way to allow monetary payouts without running into issues with regulations on gambling.
It's not necessarily so they can get around gambling laws, but that could be one other side effect. Hell, for an NFT game like this you don't even need lootboxes to financnce the game. Just your 90's MMO style grinding and maybe some community functions.
But are there any games where you can plausibly put real money in and generate excess gains in virtual assets in a short time? You can double your money in a casino in seconds, but the only way I know to extract money from video games (even play-to-win video games that milk whales for a lot) is arduous and slow gold-farming.
I agree with your take on NFTs. They would have been used that way if the NFT games hadn't basically all been Ponzi schemes. Like the pachinko gambling loophole.
CS:GO
I don't know what to call it, but there were examples like Anshe Chung; those might re-emerge with the upcoming vr-scape/metaverse/whatever-itll-be-called.
As a gamedev actively relatively socially involved with other gamedevs, those with any hopes from NFTs were a pretty small minority, and most of the shillers were non-gamedev members of the greater NFT grifting community.
> Square Enix Sells Off Tomb Raider and Three Studios to Fund NFT Games
Not everyone jumped onto the train but enough did and more would have followed if it was more successful or didn't receive as much pushback.