NFT Expert Says Poor People Will Serve As ‘Real-Life NPCs In Games And The Metaverse

Mikhai Kossar of blockchain gaming consultant Wolves DAO recently presented the idea that poor people and ‘cheap labor’ could be used to tighten the wage gap, by porting them as non-playable characters (NPCs) into video games and maybe even the metaverse, to somehow allow these people to actually generate some kind of modest income.

All of this is predicated on the usage of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). PC Gamer explains that NFTs – which have been dropping in overall value and mystique since this last year – have not fared well in video games because of two main reasons, they say: ‘They don’t add anything of value, and; There’s a nonzero chance that the digital stuff you own will be stolen from you, aka a ‘rugpull.”

But this has not stopped crypto enthusiasts from dreaming up new ideas for the future of NFTs.

To condense PC Gamer’s article – an example of where this logic stems from, comes from an NFT-based scheme called Critterz, that operated in the popular world-building game Minecraft, where people were being hired and paid real money for grinding out certain aspects of the game to achieve a more cohesive kingdom-building and market economy experience. The head of this group was paying some of his entourage members $10,000 to perform specific tasks in the game. Many of these “employees” were children from the Philippines looking for cash on the side, working 8-hour “shifts.”

I have a lot of kids that play for me, and they play because they want to make extra money in a country that’s really just locking them down.

“Big Chief,” the head of this NFT group, explained.

People Can’t Afford Homes Now So The Media Says To Buy One In The Metaverse

‘People in the Philippines were willing to play the game this way, he added, because “they were able to earn just enough where it was worth their while,”‘ PC Gamer further added. He did not want to explicitly acknowledge that he was exploiting people.

Long story short, these kids were selling their $BLOCK tokens used in-game “because they need money to live,” Big Chief said, and ultimately lost most of their value congruent with the decline in crypto and NFT worth in 2022. But then Minecraft’s developer, Mojang, said that NFT integration into Minecraft is “not something we will support or allow.” Therefore, Critterz future is all but finished at this point in time.

But, even though NFTs are not working very well in games right now, people like Mikhai Kossar of blockchain gaming consultant Wolves DAO are already thinking of ways to innovate.

PC Gamer wrote:

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Mikhai Kossar of blockchain gaming consultant Wolves DAO, for instance, suggested that they could be added to the background of videogames for the amusement of other, presumably wealthier players.

“With the cheap labor of a developing country, you could use people in the Philippines as NPCs, real-life NPCs in your game,” Kossar said, apparently seriously. They would “just populate the world, maybe do a random job or just walk back and forth, fishing, telling stories, a shopkeeper, anything is really possible.”

It’s an odious idea, perfectly in-character for the NFT field, and literally the dictionary definition of exploitation: “Selfish utilization … especially for profit.” As much as I hate to admit it, it’s also not at all outside the realm of possibility. Paying people to do the heavy lifting in your videogame of choice is nothing new—most of us are at least passingly familiar with the practice of gold farming in MMOs—but the introduction of real money into these systems only encourages bad behavior. It’s dystopian, but also foundational: As long as real money is involved, there will always be people willing to pursue it, and there will always be others eager to take advantage of them.

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This vision is not too far-fetched, in terms of it actually transpiring. The WinePress reported earlier this year that a man actually sold his soul as NFT, to which someone actually bought that NFT.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.

Proverbs 22:16

I will continue to say that these cryptos and NFTs are total Ponzi and pump & dump schemes. And I am not just saying that because my YouTube channel was recently hacked – leading to it’s ultimate termination by Google – and spammed with crypto scams; but because so many people in it are scummy, and the markets are insanely volatile. And all this blockchain security is also a ruse. Months ago one of the most popular NFT-metaverse schemes called “Bored Apes” got hacked, and people had millions of dollars worth of NFTs stolen:

But that being said, it’s the concepts that are important. The metaverse worlds and lifestyle are coming whether you like it or not (though I will not be participating in it at all). Right now it is open season, but the framework is still being designed and mapped out for the future. The idea of porting people as NFTs into games and the metaverse does not seem like a far-out concept in terms of execution, and I think this probably will happen to some extent, but that is just my opinion based on this current evidence.

Many open-world and role-playing games – such as one that I used to play a ton years ago called “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic,” where you the player would encounter tons of NPCs that did not drive the main or subplots in any fashion, but were written-out just solely to talk to, to further flesh-out and immerse the player into certain environments. So what Kossar is saying is, is he envisions real people’s life stories and ambitions, and models, being ported and paid for as a NFT for video games and the metaverse. As crazy as that sounds, I think that is plausible to happen: and I think a lot of people would do it, especially for these proto-metaverses in making.

[9] And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. [10] And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

Revelation 11:9-10

This passage, to me, just screams of the metaverse, and the artificial digital economic and societal realms, because of the whole world simultaneously watching the deaths of the two witnesses Moses and Elijah.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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