Notes

After Minecraft Says No to NFTs, NFT Worlds Pledges to Create its own Game

Mojang made waves yesterday by stating, in no uncertain phrases that NFTs are not welcome in Minecraft (opens in a new tab). This is good news for gamers perhaps but not so much for those who have already made a commitment to incorporate blockchain technology in the game-like, for instance, NFT Worlds.



"NFT Worlds" is a decentralized, fully customizable, community driven, play to earn gaming platform that lets world owners create their own metaverses of unlimited games or experiences for players or exclusive communities within their worlds," its website (opens in a new tab) states.



"Currently using Minecraft and its sprawling open-source ecosystem, NFT Worlds builds on the backbone of a decades worth of open source development within the Minecraft community. Minecraft servers It radically extends it to allow completely new kinds of 3D voxel-based, decentralized gaming metaverses backed by the Ethereum blockchain."



What this means, in essence, is that it supports custom Minecraft servers where players can purchase virtual land parcels and earn (and spend) cryptocurrency, a hybrid system that Mojang's blockchain policy appears specifically aimed at removing. It certainly had an impact: The price of $WRLD (opens in a new tab) plunged immediately after Mojang's announcement.



In response to Mojang's latest policy, NFT Worlds has issued a statement (opens in new tab) condemning Mojang and Minecraft as having "no regard for builders, creators and players," and vowing to develop its own game to replace it.



"We're creating a new game and platform that is based on many of the core mechanics of Minecraft but with the advancement of technology and ongoing development Minecraft has been absent for years," NFT Worlds said. "This is not a rewrite of an open source Minecraft clone, which likely would violate the EULA or could still be subject to legal action, this is a complete rewrite made from scratch. The players will also be able to observe a brand image change that is more welcoming to players as part of the transition.



The Future Of NFT Worlds Read our statement below through the attached Twitter thread, or here: https://t.co/w0nf1f2xxnA thread pic.twitter.com/Oy2T7oXQVgJuly 22, 2022



The game will feature a "playstyle, look, and feel" similar to Minecraft, NFT Worlds said, but will feature performance optimizations, graphical improvements and new gameplay mechanics that will deliver "a more affordable, accessible and enjoyable gaming experience." It will be free to all players, and "completely free of the policy enforcement Microsoft and Mojang have over Minecraft." In addition it will be compatible with older Minecraft server plugins, which means that when the time comes to switch platforms, content creators will be able to make the move with minimal fuss and muss.



Making an even better Minecraft than Minecraft (while keeping compatibility with Minecraft) is a huge undertaking, and one that will be a subject to immediate and severe investigation from Microsoft but NFT Worlds doesn't have many alternatives. Mojang has effectively shut the door on its business model, but a wholesale change to a different game would put existing users and everything they've built so far, in the cold. The only way to keep the wheels spinning is to come up with something that functions like Minecraft without actually being Minecraft. This is a difficult task.



NFT Worlds stated that it will be making changes to its launcher and play pages to draw new players who aren't interested to the cryptocurrency angle. It also laid out some dramatic, high stakes for the future of NFT Worlds as a battle for the philosophical and technological soul of the internet.



"Microsoft has stated that they will always act in the best interests of their shareholders and balance sheet at the expense of innovation, user experience and creators," NFT Worlds said. "We believe that an open, free, evolved version of Minecraft that Minecraft brought to the world can be a better future for creators, developers and ultimately gamers.



"We're fighting for a future with a player owned and controlled economy, where all participants benefit from their contributions to the ecosystem. We realize this is a massive task."



I've reached out to Microsoft to get their opinion on the NFT Worlds plan and will update when I get a reply.


Here's my website: https://minecraft-server-list.co/