Players in developing countries could work as NPCs in wealthier players’ worlds on NFTs gaming, according to one game consultant.
“With the cheap labor of a developing country, you could use people in the Philippines as NPCs (non-playable characters), real-life NPCs in your game,” said Mikhai Kossar, who is a chartered accountant and member of WolvesDAO.
Kossar told Rest of World that players in developing countries could “just populate the world.”
“maybe do a random job or just walk back and forth, fishing, telling stories, a shopkeeper, anything is really possible.”
According to WolvesDAO’s membership application form, its mission is to “equip the blockchain gaming sector. They intend to do this with key insights, education, and tools to build the games of tomorrow.”
That future community, apparently, could be a dystopian one
Some find the idea of making real-life people across the globe roleplay as automaton-like NPCs dehumanizing.
“People are coming up with fresh ideas for how citizens of the Third World can be put to productive use. Especially by wealthy users.” According to long-time video game journalist Andy Chalk.
“It’s an odious idea, perfectly in-character for the NFT field, and literally the dictionary definition of exploitation.”
It also raises questions surrounding the ethics of Web3 gaming more generally. Furthermore, where “scholars” in developing countries already play with NFTs they can’t afford to own in play-to-earn blockchain-games. Especially while NFT owners reap a percentage of the profits.
Importance Of NFTs NPCs
The potential for sentience, and the ethics of exploiting NPCs as disposable beings, has been a staple of science fiction. Furthermore, it was recently explored in HBO’s “Westworld.”
We also cannot neglect its depiction in last year’s Ryan Reynolds-led Hollywood action comedy “Free Guy.”
However, roleplaying as an NPC isn’t necessarily dystopian in every context. Gamers in roleplay (RP) servers for “Grand Theft Auto V” like NoPixel. The company already volunteer to act as characters who work in various positions in the virtual world.
Whether it’s as a mechanic, a stripper, or a bartender, they’re effectively roleplaying as NPCs for free. Some RP servers are highly curated, with waitlists of hopefuls wanting to get in.
When it comes to paid metaverse employment, there’s also a whole world of virtual jobs in games like ‘Roblox,’ which doesn’t use any cryptocurrency. But some argue that ‘Roblox’’s underage creators are being exploited and don’t take home the wages they deserve.
As metaverse worlds come to market, so too may a whole new realm of employment. But some jobs are sure to raise more eyebrows than others.
NFTs And Music
In our latest episode of Behind The Drop, we spoke with rapper, singer, and songwriter Iann Dior about his debut NFT project: the iann dior: 1212 collection. Launched in partnership with green NFT platform OneOf in June 2022. The collection consisted of 1,212 animated NFT avatars depicting the Sick and Tired singer in various interpretations. These were adapted to resemble Tim Burton’s take on claymation.
Speaking on the drop in an interview with nft now, dior stated that the collection was a way for him to “make art and express [his] different emotions.”
But why claymation? Styling himself as a “big fan” of the medium, the collection’s genesis can be traced back to one fateful day. A day when the young artist was idly scrolling through Instagram. Popping up on his feed was a piece of fan art by digital artist depicting him as a claymation character.
Following this discovery, Dior, took a bold step. The artiste who had recently been exploring the creation of an NFT collection to better engage with his fans, flew out to Ondrej. The rest is predictable, work started immediately on what would later become the 1212 collection.