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- Ubisoft think people "don't get" benefits of NFTs - Rock Paper Shotgun
- 15 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Pokémon Legends: Arceus - GameSpot
- Testing iOS 15.4's New Face ID With a Mask Feature - MacRumors
| Ubisoft think people "don't get" benefits of NFTs - Rock Paper Shotgun Posted: 28 Jan 2022 11:58 AM PST Ubisoft were the first huge games company to excitedly launch a line of NFTs then be told by almost everyone no, don't do that, it sucks. Well done, almost everyone! In a new interview, Ubisoft's blockchain boys have said people "don't get it". In December 2021, Ubisoft launched a blockchain platform called Quartz, which they would use for NFT virtual items named Digits. They started out with a line of numbered hats and guns in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. The trailer announcing that soon sat with 96% thumbs-down on YouTube, and I don't know anyone who found the prospect exciting in any way. On Thursday, Finder published an interview with Nicolas Pouard, VP at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations Lab, and Ubisoft blockchain technical director Didier Genevois. Amidst platitudes like "players are always right. Because they are our players, and we love them. And so, they're always right", they explained why they think their players are wrong. "I think gamers don't get what a digital secondary market can bring to them," Pouard said. "For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it's first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation. But what we [at Ubisoft] are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they're finished with them or they're finished playing the game itself. So, it's really, for them. It's really beneficial. But they don't get it for now. "Also, this is part of a paradigm shift in gaming. Moving from one economic system to another is not easy to handle. There are a lot of habits you need to go against and a lot of your ingrained mindset you have to shift. It takes time. We know that." Genevois mentioned that only 2500 of Breakpoint's free NFTs were claimed in the first fortnight. Pouard also repeated Ubisoft's interest in the "play-to-earn" model, where games can be in some way profitable for players through blockchain NFT... something. It'll require special types of game design. As Pouard noted, they won't be able to just wedge a pay-to-earn economy into an existing game, "It truly needs to be built from scratch." Aside from the fact that I don't want my fun to become a part-time job, I remain skeptical that you'd be likely to earn anything actually worth anything.  It sounds like Ubisoft plan to go ahead with their NFT-o-rama, and they think public groaning is only because we don't understand. I do think that perceptions of in-game item NFTs (where you get something) are harmed by sharing a term with the daft NFT art market (where you get nothing). But I think that even those aren't the thrilling new opportunity Ubisoft apparently believe, and that a lot of the backlash is from people who can imagine a future of games built on that economic system all too well. As ex-Valve economist (and former Greek finance minister) Yanis Varoufakis recently observed, a lot of the gaming non-fungible blockchain metaverse is basically what Valve have been doing for years with their games and the Steam Community Market. Yes, I know about selling hats I don't want. I know about volatile speculative markets built upon artifical scarcity, and illegal gambling too. I get it. It's exhausting when we're intimately familiar with all this yet companies act like their NFTs are a revolutionary new opportunity because this time they're using the hot tech du jour—a technology which is filling headlines with hype, scams, ludicriously inflated prices, and the ugliest damn Twitter avatars you ever did see.  Gaming NFTs and blockchain metajunk seems to be more of interest to market speculators than people who, like, actually want to play games. This can drive prices up to ridiculous levels, especially in games where NFT objects aren't just cosmetic. The next game from Peter Molyneux's 22Cans studio sold £40 million of virtual land NFTs for players to make money off other players, while anyone who knows the work of 22Cans would think even £4 is too high. I can see why game companies find this exciting but I am filled with dread by the prospect of becoming a rent-paying tenant in video games too. After years of loot box garbage, it's hard to feel hope in publishers moving to monetisation technologies that are most popular amongst scammers, investors, and rich people flexing. I think that's why so many people are so vocally against NFTs, why even small stupid things like free numbered hats in Ghost Recon are shouted down—because they don't want to allow NFTs the slightest opportunity to take root in games and potentially grow into worse things. It is very funny that Valorant developers Riot Games this week fell over themselves to stress that a fictional character was not into NFTs. Fingers crossed more big developers start to feel embarrassment over being associated with them. |
| 15 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Pokémon Legends: Arceus - GameSpot Posted: 28 Jan 2022 05:30 PM PST |
| Testing iOS 15.4's New Face ID With a Mask Feature - MacRumors Posted: 28 Jan 2022 12:16 PM PST  Apple yesterday released the iOS 15.4 beta and introduced a useful new feature that lets you unlock your iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask. Face ID with a Mask does not require hardware like an Apple Watch for authentication, and though it makes Face ID a bit less secure, it is much more convenient in a world where many of us are still wearing masks on a regular basis. After updating to iOS 15.4 on a compatible iPhone, Face ID with a Mask comes up as a setup option. You can enable it right away with a new Face ID scan, and from there, unlocking your iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask is as easy as it is without a mask. Just swipe up on the Lock Screen of your iPhone with your mask on and it will unlock as expected with Face ID. Face ID with a mask is almost identical to Face ID without a mask, but it's not going to unlock from unusual angles because direct eye contact is required. You need to be looking right at your iPhone for Face ID with a Mask to work, which isn't always the case with standard Face ID. If you didn't enable the new Face ID feature at setup after installing iOS 15.4, you can do so later under Settings > Face ID & Passcode. You'll also want to visit this section if you plan to wear glasses while also wearing a mask. Glasses wearers will need to put on glasses, put on a mask, and use the "Add Glasses" feature to create a new Face ID scan that will let Face ID work with both facial accessories. Face ID with a Mask cannot be used with sunglasses because the feature needs to see your eyes. Apple says that Face ID with a mask can "recognize the unique features around the eye" for authentication purposes. It is not as secure or as accurate as full-face recognition, but it is much more convenient, especially for iPhone users who do not own an Apple Watch for unlocking. Unlike the Apple Watch Face ID feature, Face ID with a Mask is fully identical to standard Face ID in terms of what can be authenticated. You can use Face ID with a Mask for Apple Pay purchases and in lieu of a passcode in third-party apps. Face ID with a Mask is available on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models. If you have an iPhone 11 or older, the feature will not be available to you. It's not clear if this is a temporary restriction, and it's possible Apple could be planning to expand the feature to other devices in future betas. Have you tried Face ID with a Mask? Let us know what you think in the comments below. |
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